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Meng Jiangnu Weeps
A traditional love story from China, set at the time of the building of
the Great Wall of China.
Printable version of Meng
Jiangnu Weeps (1 page, pdf file)
Over 2,000 years ago, in China, there lived a young man called Fan Ziliang
and his young sweetheart, Meng Jiangnu. They loved each other very much and
looked forward to getting married and living happily ever after. But, on the day
of their wedding, a terrible thing happened. The Emperor of China was building a
Great Wall to keep out his enemies and protect his people. He needed many
thousands of men to build this Great Wall, and often he had to force them to
work for him. Fan Ziliang was one of these man, and on the very day of his
wedding he was dragged away to work on building the Great Wall.
For five long years, Meng Jiangnu waiting at home for her husband to return,
but he never came. One night, while she was sleeping, Meng Jiangnu dreamed that
she saw her husband , wearing very thin clothes and shivering with cold. When
she woke up she immediately started to make some warm, padded clothes for Fan
Ziliang, and as soon as they were made she set out to look for him.
Meng Jiangnu bravely made the very long journey on foot, crossing mountains
and rivers in her search for her husband. When, after many moons, she came to
the Great Wall, she looked everywhere for her husband, but she couldn't find
him. Eventually she found someone who had known her husband, but he sadly told
her that Fan Ziliang had died and was buried somewhere under the Great Wall,
along with many thousands of other men.
Meng Jiangnu was heart-broken. She sat down at the foot of the Great Wall and
she wept. She wept day and night for her beloved husband, knowing that she would
never see him again. She wept so much that her weeping caused a great stretch of
the Great Wall to fall down. In the rubble she found the bones of her husband,
and she gathered them together so that he could be properly buried.
The Emperor was very angry that Meng Jiangnu had made his Great Wall fall
down, and ordered that she should be brought to him, to be punished. But when he
met her and saw how beautiful this sorrowful lady was, he fell in love and
decided to marry her.
Meng Jiangnu had no choice but to agree, but she asked the Emperor for one
favour before she married him: that Fan Ziliang be given a grand funeral. As
soon as the funeral was over, she decided to escape the Emperor and to be with
her husband forever, and she threw herself gladly into the sea, to drown. The
people of China built a temple near the Great Wall in memory of this beautiful,
loyal lady, who loved her husband so much.
More Stories from China
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