Serendipity City

Chinese Butteryfly Lovers

11 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment

by serendipitycity in beauty, butterflies, collective unconcious, love, ocean, passion, romance, serendipity, subconscious, symbols, synchronicity Tags: butterflies, collective unconscious, symbols

Today  I discovered the  following treasures from China. I chose them because  they entwine with my own butterfly symbolism:

The butterflies come at the end of the following. Why does this show MY NAME the whole time? Especially since it’s Chinese??? Serendipity!!!

The ancient Chinese legend (retold by me):

Zhu wanted to study. She was born at a time in China when girls didn’t study.They stayed home and learned to do housework from the other female gendered people in the family. But was that her fault that she was born a girl? Why should she just watch her brothers and boy cousins go off to school? She wanted to go too! And LEARN! Why not?
Her family was wealthy. She normally got anything she asked for. Her father had told her how much he loved her and how she could have anything he was capable of giving. But WHY, when it came to going to school, did he said “No”? Didn’t her own father teach her that KNOWLEDGE was worth more than any of the material gifts that existed in the world?  The only answer he would give when she asked was “It goes against tradition.”  One day when Zhu was feeling particularly frustrated and bold Zhu responded “Pardon father, but why is TRADITION more important to you than the happiness of your own DAUGHTER?” Zhu expected to be reprimanded for challenging the wisdom of her own father, but instead he replied. “Listen Zhu, if you are feeling so bold, why don’t you go on your own and try to get admitted to a school! If you get accepted I won’t stop you. But you’ll see that no school will admit a girl. The fact that you cannot enter a school does not rest on me, it is TRADITION. You will not be able to go to school even if you TRY.”

So Zhu did try! And with tradition in mind, she dressed herself as a boy and was persistent and eventually managed to get admission into a school in the city of Hangzhou, where her aunt lived. Her father was astonished, but he kept to his word and allowed her to move to her aunt’s house and begin her studies.

Zhu knew that she got admitted because the school assumed that she was a boy. And she knew that to remain a student they would have to keep believing she was. On the first days of school her heart would beat fast from the time she dressed in boys clothes in her bedroom until the moment she walked back in the door of her aunt’s house and could resume her real identity. The fear of being discovered distracted her from focusing on any of her studies, and she didn’t know how to behave! Eventually though, her fears diminished. Nobody ever seemed to doubt her, and she began to enjoy the friendship and comradery of the other boys in the school. She herself almost forgot that she wasn’t a boy!

One morning Zhu was on her way to the school when she saw an unusually big and beautiful butterfly. It was bright yellow with black stripes that seemed to glimmer in the sunlight. Zhu felt the sudden urge to catch it and keep it as her own. And as she was the type to go after anything she desired she began to chase it.  It would stop on flower and flower and just when she thought it had stopped and she could grab it, she would reach for it and it would flutter off again. But at one point it actually stopped on the head of  one of her classmates walking ahead. “Hey! Catch that butterfly on your head!” She called to him. He just turned around to look at her with a puzzled look on his face.  The butterfly flew off as he turned but  Zhu stopped watching it. The boy’s black, soft curls on his head shimmered like the butterfly had left them there, And like the his matching eyes where big and bright like the butterfly.  Zhu laughed to herself at the thought of cathing him instead. He reached a hand to his head. “Its gone now!” said Zhu laughing. “Are you chasing butterflies or coming to class?” Laughed the boy. “Both!” said Zhu and she ran up to him to join him in the rest of the walk to school. His name was Liang, he was her classmate and during that walk they became instant best friends.

As they days fluttered by, and their friendship grew, so did  Zhu’s happiness. She would hang out with him as much as she could, go to bed dreaming about him, and wake up with the excitement of seeing him again. In her dreams, Liang often took the form of the beautiful yellow butterfly and she would dance with him and chase him joyfully in the sunlight.

As the school years passed, their intense friendship never faded, but Zhu began to recognize that her desire for him was more than it should be. She fantasized of  being close to him and touching and embracing him, and sleeping in his arms at night. She would hear tales of people in love and knew that that was the same feeling she had for Liang. When she heard or sang love songs, they were all for Liang.

She decided that Liang was who she would have to marry and stay with the rest of her life. And she began to think about how she could make this possible. She was determined to succeed. she was used to getting what she wanted and this she wanted with a desire she had never felt in her life.

She thought of a plan. One day, when Zhu was hanging out with Liang she brought up the topic of how sad it would be if after they finished school and got jobs and started families, that they wouldn’t be able to hang-out anymore the way they did now. Liang seemed to be just as worried about this as she was, so Zhu brought up the suggestion that she had secretly already thought-up:  what if, after Liang began working, he came to ask her father for her sister’s hand in marriage? Liang loved the idea. They would be family! They would be able to spend lots of time together.

At the end of the school year, their studies were over. And it was now time to look for work. At least it was for Liang; Zhu returned to her father’s house and stopped dressing as a boy. She hoped Liang wouldn’t forget their plan. That he wouldn’t for get her. That he wouldn’t meet another woman and chose to marry her. A year later, (an eternity for Zhu) Zhu saw someone in the distance walking toward her house. Zhu watched earnestly as she always did when someone came, but expected to be disappointed as usual! But as the person came closer he began to look more and more like like Liang.  When it was 100% clear that it was him, Zhu’s heart lept, pounding inside her. She couldn’t  believe the moment had actually arrived. She  was overjoyed. Unable to restrain herself she ran outside  shouting, “ I’m your friend! Look!  I’m a really girl and I can’t live without you!”

Liang froze. A dazed look came across his face. Lang felt her stomach begin to tighten with fear, and froze as well. Maybe she had made a grave mistake. But suddenly Liang’s face broke into a smile of  joy and he ran to her and embraced her. “Of course you are!” He said and he didn’t let go. His embrace was so warm and loving. “You KNEW???” Asked Zhu. “No.” He replied. “But I loved you too much. I couldn’t have dreamed of a moment more perfect than this. Now I can marry YOU.”

Zhu took LiNG excitedly to her father, without dismising herself , Zhu  stepped back to allow Liang to speak.    Liang, dizzy with joy, expressed his feelings of love and admiration for Zhu unabashedly, and passionately. And her father listened attentively. Zhu felt like she was flying as she listened. She felt light and free as a butterfly. Finally Liang asked for her hand.

Her father without  a word, just shook his head no.

In their dismay. No one spoke. Not even Zhu. Finaly Zhu’s father spoke. He told Liang,  that he had already promised Zhu to another man, who was wealthy and a successful Merchant.  The tightening came back to Zhu’s stomach. No words could come to her lips. She was frozen in fear of the doom that was to come. Liang, however, could not be silent. He began to beg and  argue his point and Zhu new he was making things worse. He looked so desparite, and he seemed to loose any sense of manners and respect. It would be hard to convince her father to break any promise he made, but with Liang’s behavior, there was no chance.  Liang left without saying goodbye to either of them. Tears running down his face like a spoiled child. Zhu had never seen him behave disrespectfully. She was in total shock of the whole situation. Her dreams shattered. Frozen with fear and pain. She didn’t even follow him.

The next day Zhu learned that Liang’s dead body had been found on the side of the rode to her house. No cause for his death could be found. Zhu believed it was profound heartbreak. The same unbearable melancholy that she was feeling. She awaited her own heart to stop as well, expected it would, HOPED it would.  But day by day passed and it continued to pound in her chest like a butterfly trapped in a cage.

The marriage plans for her and the rich merchant continued to take form. Zhu didn’t believe she would stay alive much longer  so she just pretended to agree to the marriage. And as the days got closer to the wedding and she found herself still quite alive, but the pain continued and her guilt about Liang’s death had grown. She began to play over and over the discussion Liang had with her father. How she had only been thinking about her own doom. How she didn’t even try speaking out. How she was feeling embarrassment for Liang’s behavior, rather than empathy for the pain that was probably behind it. Now Liang was dead and she was to marry a stranger who could never take his place, and who didn’t deserve to. She had do something to show everyone how important Liang was to her!

She decided to tell  her father that she would go through with the marriage on condition that the wedding procession passed by Liang’s grave. Her father must have felt much guilt, because this time he agreed without even a question.

As the wedding procession neared the cemetery the wind began to howl and the sky grew dark.  It was as if the universe new how she was feeling and wanted to cry with her. When Zhu saw Liang’s grave she lost her poise jand began to cry, SOB, for the first time since the pain had started that first day.  Zhu jumped down from her palanquin. She ran to Liang’s grave and threw herself on it, sobbing uncontrollably.

A peal of thunder exploded in the sky and a bolt of lightning hit the grave, breaking it open. Without a thought Zhu lept into it. Her heart only wanting to be with Liang.

The storm subsided as quickly as it had started. Zhu’s relatives ran to  the grave, but all they saw at first was an empty coffin. Then out flew two butterflies, fluttering and dancing with joy. As if they could not believe they were together.
And as the people standing around the grave watched in fascination and bewilderment the two dancing butterflies, wings glimmering in the sun, flew out of sight.

This story is retold by me. But it is based on one I found at http://dimdima.com/khazana/stories/show_globalstories.asp?q_id=292&q_title=Butterfly+Lovers&q_country=China