The legend of the White Snake, a household name among Chinese people, currently has sufficient evidence to show that it may be a Chinese version of the world-famous snake girl story. Ding Naitong, a folk writer, has done detailed research on this in his article "The Monk and the Snake Girl - A Comparative Study of the "Legend of the White Snake"-type Stories from the East and the West". Ding Naitong conducted an in-depth investigation of the similarities between the story of the White Snake and the story of Eurasia (lamia), refuted the "independent origin theory" with reasonable evidence, and concluded with rigorous and solid analysis that the two stories of the East and the West "came from the same place". "One source" perspective. Ding Naitong believes that they come from the same prototype story, which originated in northern India or Central Asia a few centuries before the first year of the Christian era. Later, this prototype story was adapted into a preaching story by religious believers. This religious preaching story later spread to the West and East, becoming the Lamia story in Europe and the White Snake story in China.
Ding Naitong compiled "Index of Types of Chinese Folktales"
If the story of the Legend of the White Snake really comes from outside the country, then the following questions will be interesting - when was this story introduced to China? How to become Chinese step by step? What stages has it gone through in its process of sinicization, and what Chinese characteristics have it formed? This series of questions cannot be answered comprehensively due to space limitations in this article. Now we will only explore one local feature formed by the possible Sinicization of the snake girl story, that is, why the White Snake is "white".
vs. There are many Lamia stories in Europe and Asia. Among the Chinese characteristics of the White Snake story, the most obvious one is the "whiteness" of the White Snake.
We all know that the reason why the White Lady is the "White" Lady is because she was transformed by the White Snake. But why is the White Snake transformed by the White Snake? Among the many snake girl stories in Europe and Asia, only Keats's long poem "lamia" said it was a colorful snake (vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue). But after arriving in China, why was the body not originally emphasized? The colored snake girl turned into a white snake?
Pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse's "lamia" after Keats' lamia (1820), 1916, now in the collection of the Auckland Art Gallery. On their wedding night, a young knight discovers that his bride is half man, half snake. Lamia took off her snake skin and knelt before him.
To answer this question, we first need to sort out the origin and evolution history of the story of the White Snake in China, that is, when did the White Snake become the "White" Snake. After many scholars' research, today we can completely describe the origin and evolution history of the White Snake story in China.
The earliest snake girl stories that can be found today are all concentrated in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and most of them are included in "Yi Jian Zhi" and "Taiping Guang Ji". Many scholars believe that the classical Chinese novel "Li Huang" in "Bo Yi Zhi" in the late Tang Dynasty is the earliest snake girl story. Similar to "Li Huang", there are also stories about snake girls in "Yi Jian Zhi" of the Southern Song Dynasty, such as "The Beauty of Liyang", "The County Wife of Sun Zhi", "Two Monsters of Yang Jian", "Scholar Qian Yan", "The Wife of Sihu in Hengzhou" and "Jinan". "Wang Sheng", "Jiang Wulang's Two Women", "Jingju Rock Jiao", "Tongzhou White Snake", as well as "Old Jiao" and "Wang's True Wife" included in "Taiping Guangji" of the Northern Song Dynasty. Among the twelve snake girl stories, four of them are white snakes, namely "Li Huang", "Sun Zhixian's Wife", "Yang Jian's Two Monsters" and "Tongzhou White Snake". If we add the Song and Yuan script "The Three Pagodas of the West Lake", among the snake girl stories before the White Snake story that can be found today, there are at least the above five "White Snake Girl" stories.
In other words, including "The Story of the Three Pagodas of West Lake", among the thirteen snake girl stories we know, there are five "white snake girl" stories that specify the color of the snake's body. This accounts for a considerable proportion, and to a large extent it shows that the snake girl stories have begun to undergo localized variation in the early stages, especially the first snake girl story "Li Huang" which is also the story of the "White Snake Girl". So why did the snake girl turn white? What new inventions does White make in the identity construction and story connotation of the Snake?
Many scholars believe that the "white" of the white snake or white lady means purity, loyalty, kindness, auspiciousness and sacredness, etc., which expresses the aspirations of ordinary people. Indeed, in the story of the White Snake that has been circulated since the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the image of the White Snake in it gives people a quite positive impression.But looking at the entire evolution history of the snake girl story, before the first final version of the White Snake story - Feng Menglong's "The White Snake Forever Towns Leifeng Pagoda", among the five "White Snake Girl" stories we listed above, No "White Snake Girl" can be called loyal and pure, or has a good character. In fact, among the thirteen known snake girl stories, most snake girls have one thing in common, that is, they are "promiscuous"-actively seeking intercourse with human men. Although this may have good intentions, it has nothing to do with the traditional values of purity, loyalty, auspiciousness and holiness.
In view of this, when answering the question of why the White Snake is a "white" lady, Xie Xingyao gave the answer on the grounds that "White Snakes are promiscuous". Ding Naitong believes that "the white snake is considered to have the most magical power in folk literature, and according to Chinese folk superstition, this deformed monster will have unusual supernatural powers." The white snake (probably among the snakes) has the greatest magic power or extraordinary divine power, so it is easier for it to transform into a human being, and thus it is easier for it to have romantic entanglements with human men. Ding Naitong did not further explain why the white snake is considered to be the most powerful or has unusual divine power.
The author believes that a large part of the reason why the "white" or white snake of the white snake is considered to have the most magical power may be due to the dragon-snake narrative in Buddhist literature. Combing through the stories about dragons and snakes in the Buddhist classic Tripitaka, we will find that the number of white dragons or white snakes that mention the colors of dragons and snakes is obviously greater. The story of Buddha "bowing down on a poisonous dragon", which is well known to Buddhists, was painted as an image of "bowing down on a white snake" in the Buddhist murals in the grottoes in the Western Regions. In "Taiping Guangji", which was deeply influenced by Buddhism, the story with the highest proportion of stories mentioning the colors of dragons and snakes is the story of white dragon or white snake. According to research, there are 36 dragon stories in "Taiping Guangji" that specify the color of the dragon's body, involving the five colors of green, white, red, black and yellow, but there are 12 stories about white dragons, accounting for the highest proportion. Among the four snake stories, the white snake It also appears the most frequently, up to 10 times. In addition, in the snake stories in Song Dynasty notebook novels, white snakes appear the most often compared to snakes of other colors.
Lei Feng Pagoda in the early 20th century
Ding is a clue to the folk literature. The belief logic behind it may be traced back to the worship of white animals and the belief that "things become fine with age" and "things turn white with age" in early Chinese beliefs.
Many ancient classics since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties recorded the auspicious signs of the appearance of a large number of white animals. According to statistics, ancient books since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, such as "Shangshu", "Chu Ci", "Historical Records", "Hanshu", etc., record white auspicious animals in at least three categories, birds such as white doves, white sparrows, white crows, white falcons, White swallows, white cranes, and white geese; animals such as white rabbits, white foxes, white wolves, white lins, white deer, and white deer; and aquatic amphibians such as white fish, white dragons, white turtles, white turtles, and white chilies. The appearance of these animals was regarded by the writers as auspicious omens, reflecting the worship concept of white animals as elves. Since white animals are mostly regarded as elves, they should naturally be more spiritual than their non-white counterparts. Reflected in later generations of fantasy novels, they may have gradually become "the most powerful" or "have unusual divine power" .
Regarding the idea of "things becoming fine as they age" and "things turning white as they grow old", Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote in "Lunheng": "When an object is old, its essence is like a human being; there are also things that are not old and their performance changes, resembling a human form. "Wang Chong's theory originated from folk beliefs since the Qin and Han Dynasties. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, metaphysics and the study of ghosts were popular, and Ge Hong inherited Wang Chong's theory. Ge Hong's "Baopuzi" said: "The old man of all things, his wisdom can assume the human form, dazzle people's eyes, and often test people." There are also a lot of descriptions of the belief that "things turn white when they grow old" in "Baopuzi" , such as "the thousand-year-old crane... is pure white in color and has an elixir in its brain." "Tiger, deer and rabbit all live to be a thousand years old. Those who live to be five hundred years old have white fur... rats live to be three hundred years old, and they are all white when they are over one hundred years old." "The thousand-year-old bat is as white as snow...and the thousand-year-old swallow has its nest facing north, its color is mostly white and its tail is dug."This description of "things turning white as they age" is also in line with the imagination that most of the fairyland animals in legends since the pre-Qin Dynasty are white. For example, "Liezi Tangwen" records, "To the east of the Bohai Sea... there are five mountains... on it "All animals are pure white", "Historical Records: Book of Fengchan" describes Penglai Fairy Mountain, saying "all the animals and birds are white", "Internal Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty" states that the Queen Mother of the West mostly uses white animals such as white tigers, white lins, white cranes, etc. to drive her chariots. .
The imagination of "things turning white as they age" and the belief that most animals in fairyland are white, coupled with the belief that "things turn white as they age" may have laid the foundation for the emergence of the white snake spirit and provided the possibility for the story of the "White Snake Girl". Qian Bao's "Sou Shen Ji" records: "A thousand-year-old pheasant turns into a mirage when it enters the sea; a hundred-year-old sparrow turns into a clam when it enters the sea; a thousand-year-old turtle and turtle can talk to people; a thousand-year-old fox turns into a beauty; a thousand-year-old snake turns into a beauty when broken. Repeat; a hundred-year-old rat can tell fortunes." Although it is not stated here that snakes can turn into beauties, the logic of "foxes into beauties" under the thinking of "things become better with age" has obviously been inherited in later generations of supernatural novels. If a fox can turn into a beautiful woman, why not a snake? So the appearance of the "snake girl" seems to be reasonable. Although there is currently sufficient evidence to show that the story of the snake girl may be foreign, if foreign stories want to take root in the local area, they also need suitable "soil" and environment, such as "things become fine with age", "things turn white with age" and fairyland. The belief that animals are mostly white may be their "soil" and environment.
In summary , if the snake girl story came from outside the region during the Tang and Song Dynasties (or before), then the reason why the snake girl who originally had no special color transformed into the "white snake girl" and then evolved into the famous White Snake , is probably the result of the combined effect of the above complex belief context. The White Snake or White Snake is a typical Chinese characteristic and a Chinese phenomenon of snake girl stories around the world.
Author: Liang Xinjun
Text: Liang Xinjun Editor: Chen Shaoxu Editor: Li Chunyi
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