Legend of the White Snake

Legend of the White Snake is a Chinese traditional legend and also is one of the Four Chinese Folklores. It is listed as the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage.

The folklore tells a love legend between a white snake and a human being. The legend goes that once upon a time, a white snake, named Bai Suzhen (the heroine of the legend) who had magical power, practiced thousands of years and finally transformed to be a beautiful lady. In order to repay a life-saving debt, she married a scholar named Xu Xian who saved her life thousands of years ago. But Fa Hai, a Buddhist monk with magic power, insisted that humans and demons could not marry and believed that every demon should be eliminated. He imprisoned Bai under the Leifeng Pagoda. Many years later, Bai’s son saved his mother from Leifeng Pagoda and the family was reunited at last.

Legend of the White Snake originated from the Tang Dynasty (618~907). It has various versions and details as it was transmitted by word of mouth at the very beginning. The legend also has a variety of literal forms including ballad, fiction, historical novel, drama, movie, TV play, cartoon, etc.