Romance Legend of Leifeng Pagoda
By admin on 2014-12-26

The story about the “White Snake Lady” (白蛇) had already been very popular in the early 12th century. The legend about White Snake’s struggle for mundane love had already been recorded before the late 16th century and it was collected by Feng Menglong in his work “Stories to Caution the World” (警世通言). In fact, it had already been edited by a writer Chen Liulong by that time, only not fully developed, and there was no record found about it being performed. Within the 100 years after that, “Lei Feng Pagoda” (雷峰塔) had undergone three significant reformations.

In the year of 1738, Huang Tubi, a man born in Song Jiang area, Jiangsu Province reformed it into a play of 32 acts. The reformed script was put into performance as soon as it was finished. The new version features White Snake’s gentle temperament and perseverant pursuit for love on the one hand, and Xu Xian, the husband’s shaky character on the other. Abiding by the orthodox view of that time, the play denied this kind of outlandish relationship and thus ended with White Snake’s being confined to Lei Feng Pagoda and Xu Xian’s conversion into Buddhism. However, in real performances, most actors and audiences didn’t favor the ending revised by Huang Tubi. As a result, many plots were added, such as white snake stealing the fairyland herb on Kunlun Mountain in order to save her husband’s life, her flooding the Jinshan mountain by exerting supernatural power, her giving birth to a son, the son being accepted as a Jinshi (a high degree of scholarship) and his attempt to save his fairy mother etc. The script for performance put much emphasis on White Snake’s perseverant pursuit and devotion to mundane love and her strong will to fight against any obstacles to her pursuit. It is said that the famous performers Chen Jiayan and his daughter reformed the script to include 36 acts. During the process of being put into performances time and time again, the script had undergone many other revisions and gradually reached relative stability. The revised version for performance surely is much more influential that the orginal one edited by Huang Tubi. In 1771, based on the acting script, Fang Chengpei, a playwright from Xin’an, Anhui province revised it again to a play of 34 acts. In this version, the tragic conflicts of the characters’ personalities were enhanced and many other remarkable parts were kept. Guided by a belief in elegancy in play writing, Fang Chengpei not only added or deleted any of the content, but mainly he made considerable changes in the librettos and tunes. Although, in actual performances, it was Chen Jiayan and his daughter’s version that was adopted, Fang Chengpei’s revised form can’t in any sense be ignored for its integrity in structure and conformity to rhyme both in librettos and melody. The romance drama “Lei Feng Pagoda” is an example of successful creation of people based on a folk story that is gradually perfected through continuous revision and performances. The most popular Zhezixi that remained in performance on stage are three acts added by Chen Jiayan and his daughter, namely “Seeking for Magic Herb” (求草), “Fight in the Water” (水斗) and “Broken Bridges” (断桥).