Butterfly Lovers

The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend of a tragic love story of a pair of lovers, Liang Shanbo (梁山伯) and Zhu Yingtai (祝英台), whose names form the title of the story. The title is often abbreviated to Liang Zhu (梁祝).

The story is now counted as one of China's Four Great Folktales, the others being the Legend of the White Snake (Baishezhuan), Lady Meng Jiang, and The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid (Niulang Zhinü). Six cities in China have collaborated in 2004 on a formal application for the Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on the legend at UNESCO, submitted in 2006 through the Chinese Ministry of Culture.

Legend

The legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai is set in the Eastern Jin dynasty (265-420 CE).

Zhu Yingtai is the ninth child and only daughter of the wealthy Zhu family of Shangyu, Zhejiang. Although women are traditionally discouraged from taking up scholarly pursuits, Zhu manages to convince her father to allow her to attend classes in disguise as a man. During her journey to Hangzhou, she meets Liang Shanbo, a scholar from Kuaiji (present-day Shaoxing). They chat and feel a strong affinity for each other at their first meeting. Hence, they gather some soil as incense and take an oath of fraternity in the pavilion of a thatched bridge.

Butterfly Lovers (disambiguation)

Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend of a tragic love story of a pair of lovers.

Butterfly Lovers may also refer to:

See also

Butterfly Lovers (2007 TV series)

Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese television series based on the legend of the Butterfly Lovers, starring Peter Ho and Dong Jie as Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai respectively. The series was first broadcast on GZTV in China in 2007.

Cast

Music