The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese Legend of a tragic love story of Liang and Zhu. It’s one of China’s Four Great Folktales.

APRIL 21ST, 2021

The story was set in Jin Dynasty (265-420AD).

Liang was a scholar from an ordinary family, while Zhu was the only daughter of a wealthy family.

During that time, women were traditionally discouraged from taking up scholarly pursuits. Zhu managed to convince her father to allow her to attend classes in disguise as a man.

On her way to the school from her hometown, Zhu met Liang, and they became best friends. During the time studying at the same school, no one discovered Zhu’s true identity. Zhu soon found herself falling in love with Liang, but she could not express her feelings to him without revealing her secret.

Three years later, Zhu’s family asked her to go back home for an arranged marriage. With sadness, Zhu tried to hint to Liang that she was a lady and she was interested, but Liang was too dense to discover the truth. During the farewell, Zhu suggested that she could matchmake Liang with “her little sister”, which is really Zhu herself, if he could make the trip to meet her at her hometown soon.

It was not until months later when Liang visited Zhu, that he realised that Zhu was a woman. The two were extremely in love and devoted to one another, and Liang decided to propose. However, Zhu’s parents had already arranged her to marry Ma, a man from another rich family. Filled with heartbreak and regret, Liang became critically ill and died soon after.

The most dramatic part of the story happens on the day of marriage, when the strangely strong winds prevent the wedding procession from passing the bridge where Liang’s grave was. Zhu stopped to pay her respects at his grave. Suddenly, lightning and thunder split open the grave. Unwilling to get married with anyone except for Liang, Zhu jumped into his grave without hesitation. Everyone was stunned as the grave reopened, and a pair of beautiful butterflies came out and flew away together.

Watch a compilation of orchestra’s around the world perform the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto here:

Read more of ABC’s coverage of the Butterfly Lovers Concerto here:

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_Lovers

http://blog.tutorming.com/expats/butterfly-lovers-chinese-romeo-and-juliet-liangzhu