White Snake Legend

This is a love story about a man and a white snake. The first short tale was found during the Tang Dynasty (618 AD). That’s a cautionary, vigilant and tragic story of a man in love with a lady in white. The scenes of West Lake and Thunder Pagoda were added and the central theme was established during the Song Dynasty (960 AD). The entire story was completed during the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD). It was rewritten to beautify characters in some episodes in Ching Dynasty (1644 AD).

Once upon a time, a white snake and a green snake who had magical power in the Mountain Er-Mei and had transformed into two beautiful young ladies, on white, one green. They met a man named Hsu Sheng at the West Lake of Hang-Zhou city. The white snake fell in love with Hsu Sheng at first sight. They got married soon after.
The Lady White helped her husband to open an herbal medicine store by writing the prescriptions. Patients unable to pay were given free treatment and medicine. The store quickly became well known and popular. One day a monk called Fa Hai saw the couples and warned Hsu Sheng that his wife was a white snake.

It was during the Dragon Boat Festival, when Chinese families like to decorate with calamus and Chinese mugwort around the house and drink wine to drive away spirits. This was dangerous to Lady White and Lady Green, since they were spirits after all. Lady White was pregnant at that time and her magical power had weakened a lot. She tried to drink wine to please her husband. Unfortunately, she couldn’t control herself and turned into her snake body in her bedroom. Hsu Sheng saw the white snake and was literally scared to death.

In order to save her husband's life, Lady White went to steal the resurrection plant on the Kunlun Mountain. She failed. But her true love won the resurrection plant and the life of Hsu Sheng was restored.

Hsu Sheng remembered Fa Hai and went to the Golden Mountain Temple to see him. Fa Hai suggested Hsu Sheng become a monk to forget his wife. Fa Hai could take care the spirits. Lady White asked a great army of underwater creatures for help and brought forth a flood over the Golden Mountain Temple to fight with Fa Hai. Fa Hai had the magical power too and asked the heavenly soldiers to save his temple. Since the Lady White was pregnant, she was too weak to fight harder, She gave up the battle and waited for the time after giving birth.
Hsu Sheng went to see his son and carried a magical hat from Fa Hai for his son. The magical hat captured the White Snake. Fa Hai imprisoned the White Snake inside the Thunder Pagoda.
The Green Snake was unable to fight Fa Hai alone, escaped and practiced in her magical power even harder. After the son of Lady White grew up. She took revenge by destroying the Thunder Pagoda and rescued White Snake. White Snake reunited with her husband and her son. The story ended here.

reference : www.chinesefortunecalendar.com

Huang Di - The Emperor who started it all

Huang Di, or the Yellow Emperor, is referred to as the "Originator of the Chinese Culture", and all people of the Chinese race regard themselves as descendants of Yan Di and Huang Di.

With the original surname of Gongsun (later changed to Ji) and another name Youxiong Shi, Huang Di was also known as Xuanyuan Shi as he lived at the Xuanyuan Hill. A clan leader towards the end of China's primitive society, Huang Di was the full brother of Yan Di with whom he shared the country. He formed an alliance with Yan Di in later years against the invasion of Chiyou, the chieftain of the Jiuli Tribe. A decisive battle was fought at Zhuolu in the northwest of the present Hebei Province. Legend goes that at the beginning of the battle, Chiyou sneezed out a thick fog all over the place which lasted three days, and the soldiers of Huang Di could not tell their directions. Fortunately Huang Di led his men out of the fog by the "compass chariot" he had invented and won complete victory.

The alliance of Huang Di and Yan Di split after Chiyou was defeated because, it was said, Yan Di intended to infringe upon the various tribes and seize the leading position of the alliance while the chieftains of the tribes preferred to obey Huang Di. As a result the two leaders fought at Banquan. After three fierce battles, Huang Di won victory and was made the "Son of Heaven" by the tribe chieftains.

Strict and impartial, Huang Di was able to get rid of the evil for the people. It was said that Gu, son of the God of Mount Zhongshan named Zhulong, murdered another god at Mount Kunlun in collaboration with a deity called Qinpi. The Yellow Emperor was indignant at their atrocity and immediately had them killed.

The Yellow Emperor was a highly gifted "Son of Heaven". Legend goes that he was the inventor of many things such as making clothes, manufacturing boats and vehicles, building houses and palaces, etc. He also had his court officials Lun Ling make musical instruments, Da Nao compile the Heavenly Stems and the Earthly Branches*, and Cang Ji invent the Chinese characters. The country was in good order and prosperity and the people lived a happy life.

There were indeed quite a number of wars at the time, which however, broke the narrow limits between the different clans and promote (their merging. The ancient Huaxia nationality was thus gradually formed, being the predecessor of the Han nationality to which the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people belong.

It is said that Yao, Shun and the monarchs of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were all descendants of the Yellow Emperor. He was thus regarded as the first ancestor of the Chinese nation and to him was attributed the creation of all Chinese cultural institutions.

reference : http://journeyeast.tripod.com/huang_di.html