Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai （The Butterfly Lovers)
                                  梁山伯与祝英台
This legend is one of the most classical love stories in China.

Once there was a landlord whose surname was Zhu, so he was called Landlord Zhu. He had a beautiful and very clever daughter named Zhu Yingtai. Zhu Yingtai wanted to go to school to study, but in the ancient times, girls were forbidden to study in school, so everyday she leaned on the window looking at the boys with book containers on the back, she was so jealous of them. She always wondered whether girls were destined to stay at home to learn how to embroider; or why she could not go to school.

One day, when she was thinking the same questions, an idea suddenly came to her mind. She rushed to her parents, and took much courage to beg; “mom and dad, I want to go to Hangzhou to study. I can disguise as a boy, I believe no one can detect it. Please, please allow me to go.” At first her parents did not allow, but they could not stand her begging, at last they allowed.

The next early morning, when it was still almost dark, Zhu Yingtai and her handmaid dressing as boys left her parents took the book container and set off for Hangzhou excitedly.

The first day in the school she met a boy named Liang Shanbo. He was of great learning, and had good personality. So Zhu Yingtai thought if she could stay with him, she would be able to learn much and would be very happy as well. Liang Shanbo also found they had much in common and she was like an old friend of his. So the following days, they usually stayed together to talk about poems or literatures, they took care of each other. Later they became sworn brothers, so they spent more time together.

As time flying, three years passed in a flash, they had finished their study, so they had to go back home. After three year’s studying together, Zhu Yingtai had fallen in love with Liang Shanbo, although Liang Shanbo did not know Zhu Yingtai was a girl, he also liked her very much. After they were apart, they both missed each other very much. Months later, Liang Shanbo went to visit Zhu Yingtai, to his big surprise, he found Zhuying was not that comely boy any more, but had become a beautiful girl. It was this reunion that making both of them realizes how much they loved each other.

Later Liang Shanbo sent someone to ask Landlord Zhu to allow Zhu Yingtai to marry him, but Landlord Zhu rejected him because he was poor, Landlord Zhu had betrothed his daughter to a rich person whose surname was Ma. From then on, Liang Shanbo abandoned himself to despair; soon he got sick and died.

Hearing Liang Shanbo’s death, Zhu Yingtai, who had kept opposing this arranged marriage, suddenly became much tamed. She put on the red wedding clothes and got into the sedan. The people who escorted the bride to the bridegroom’s home were very happy, some was striking gong and some was playing the drum. When this group were passing Liang Shanbo’s tomb, the sand began to fly about and the stones began to hurtle through the air, they had to stop. Then Zhu Yingtai walked out of the sedan, took off her wedding clothes, thus a suit of white clothes showing up. She walked to the tomb, fell on her knees and began to cry. Suddenly rain pouring down, wind blowing, and lightening running across the sky with thunderclap, the tomb split open in the sound of “boom”. At that moment Zhu Yingtai felt she saw the kindly face of Liang Shanbo’s again, so she jumped into the tomb without hesitation. As soon as she jumped into it, the tomb closed again, and the sky cleared up. In the field, there were various wild flowers wavering in the air, a couple of butterflies flew out of the tomb and danced in the air.