Traditional Chinese legend, retold in simple Mandarin
The Butterfly Lovers
梁山伯与祝英台
The Butterfly Lovers (梁山伯与祝英台, Liáng Shānbó yǔ Zhù Yīngtái) is a Chinese legend, retold in simple Mandarin as an 8-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 3 (Intermediate).
Retold from one of China's Four Great Folk Legends: a girl disguises herself as a boy to go to school and falls in love with the classmate who never guesses. China's most famous love story, in eight chapters.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — Tells the old story of Liang and Zhu, the way it has been told for a thousand years.
- Zhu Yingtai · 祝英台 — A bright, stubborn girl who wants to study so much that she becomes someone else to do it.
- Liang Shanbo · 梁山伯 — A kind, earnest scholar. Clever with books — much less clever with hints.
- Master Zhu · 祝老爷 — Yingtai's father. He loves his daughter, and he loves a good match even more.
- The Teacher's Wife · 师母 — The schoolmaster's kind, sharp-eyed wife, who sees at a glance what Shanbo misses for three years.
- The Matchmaker · 媒婆 — The Ma family's chatty matchmaker, who cares a great deal about lucky days and very little about broken hearts.
8 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: The Scholar in Disguise
女扮男装
Girls aren't allowed at school, so Zhu Yingtai dresses as a boy. On the road to Hangzhou, she meets a young scholar who wants to be her brother.
Free to read
Chapter 2: Three Years at School
学堂三年
Lessons side by side, a bowl of water between two beds, and a secret Yingtai must keep from the brother she sees every day.
Free to read
Chapter 3: The Teacher's Wife
师母
The teacher's wife has noticed what Shanbo never has. Now Yingtai must decide whether to trust her with her secret, and with a small jade butterfly.
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Chapter 4: A Letter from Home
一封家信
A letter orders Yingtai home at once. Before she goes, she means to tell Shanbo the truth, if only the words will come out.
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Chapter 5: The Eighteen-Li Farewell
十八相送
Eighteen li on the road home, and Yingtai drops hint after hint. Will her dear, earnest brother ever catch one?
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Chapter 6: The Ma Family's Proposal
马家提亲
Yingtai hurries home afraid her father is ill. Instead she finds the hall piled high with red chests, and news that changes everything.
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Chapter 7: Too Late
来晚了
The teacher's wife gives Shanbo a jade butterfly and the truth at last. He runs to the Zhu house with his whole heart, and meets her father first.
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Chapter 8: Two Butterflies
化蝶
A wedding day under a black sky, a grave that will not stay closed, and the reason people in China still smile at two butterflies in spring.
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Key words in The Butterfly Lovers
Behind the story
The Butterfly Lovers (梁山伯与祝英台, usually shortened to 梁祝) is one of China's Four Great Folk Legends, with The White Snake, Lady Meng Jiang and The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. It is often called the Chinese Romeo and Juliet.
It is set about 1,600 years ago, when girls could not go to school. Zhu Yingtai's disguise, her hints on the long walk home, and the two lovers turning into butterflies are scenes every Chinese reader knows.
Did you know?
- 十八相送, “the eighteen-li farewell,” is the famous walk where Yingtai drops hint after hint and Shanbo misses every one.
- The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto (1959) by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang is one of the best-known pieces of Chinese classical music.
- Butterflies in pairs still stand for lasting love in China, thanks to this story.