There once lived, in the same neighbor hood in a village south of the Yang tze River, a Meng fam -ily and a Jiang fam ily. Both were el derly cou ples with out chil dren. Be ing good neigh bors, they helped each other when in need. As their ages ad vanced, their de sire for chil dren grew stronger and stron ger. They knew that even tu ally they would be too old to take care of them selves, let alone one an other.

One spring a mi rac u lous plant took root in a plot between their houses. The el derly cou ples took good care of the tender sprout, as if it had been a child. In a few days the magic plant grew into a vine. The two fam i lies tended it with more care. In late sum mer the plant blos somed, and when the flower with ered, it gave birth to a bot tle gourd. The gourd grew larger and larger, un til it was as big as a gi -gan tic pump kin. Be cause the huge bottle gourd weighed too much on the vine, the elderly cou ples con structed a trellis to sup port the vine and hung a plaited mat to hold up the gourd so that it would not fall pre ma turely.

When the bot tle gourd was ripe, the Meng and the Jiang fam i lies de cided to share the fruit of their la bor. They care fully halved the gourd, and opening it, they could hardly believe their eyes: in the cen ter of the gourd there slept a baby girl! Her smil ing face with two dim ples seemed to say that she was hav ing a sweet dream. When she opened her spar kling eyes, the lit tle girl looked as if she al -ready knew who the el derly cou ples were. Turn ing to the Meng couple, she called, “Mommy,” and turning to the Jiang cou ple, she ut tered, “Daddy.” The two el derly cou ples were thrilled, though as -tonished by the ex traor di nary birth of the lit tle girl and her star tling pre coc ity. The el derly cou ples decided to raise the girl to gether. They gave her the name Meng Jiang, a com bi na tion of the two fam i -lies’ last names. The four elderly par ents did all they could to make sure that Meng Jiang had an ap -pro priate up bring ing. Under their lov ing care, Meng Jiang grew up to be a civil and dil i gent young woman. Every one in the vil lage liked her.

One late af ter noon, Meng Jiang was weed ing her Jiang par ents’ garden when a young man leapt over the fence. The sud den appearance of a wretched young man took Meng Jiang aback. The young

man panted ve he mently. After a long while, he man aged to wheeze out an apol ogy for his tres pass -ing. The com mo tion alerted Meng Jiang’s par ents. When they came out to see what was hap pen ing, the young man apol o gized pro fusely again and, hav ing regained his breath, began to tell his story.

He was Wan Xiliang, a young scholar of a well-to-do family from a prefec ture a few hun dred miles away. He had lived a peace ful life un til The First Em peror of Qin launched his am bi tious pro -ject to connect all the walls con structed by the states he had con quered and build them into a sin gle de fense sys tem (known to day as the Great Wall). He was drafting mil lions of male la bor ers, one from each fam ily of three adult males and two from each fam ily of five. As the only adult son of his family, Wan Xiliang was a can di date for the draft. Peo ple knew what the la bor ers’ fate would be: Nine out of ten would never come back alive.

“I am dodg ing the draft, not be cause I don’t want to serve our coun try,” Wan Xiliang said at the end of his story, trying to jus tify his ac tion, “but I just don’t see the point of build ing those walls at the cost of so much money and so many lives.”

“We un der stand what you are say ing, son,” the Jiang fa ther put in, “We are just lucky that we have only a daughter. Thank heaven the em peror is not draft ing women yet.”

The Meng and Jiang par ents’ sym pathy seemed to have calmed Wan Xiliang. Sud denly he had a fit of dizziness and col lapsed. When he came to, he found him self lying on the kang, at tended by Meng Jiang and her parents.

“I am so sorry,” Wan Xiliang said to them. “I was just tired and hun gry. I ha ven’t had any thing for two days. Now I feel much better. I’ll leave right away. I just don’t know how I can thank you enough for sav ing my life.” So say ing, he sat up and was ready to get off the kang when Meng Jiang and her par ents stopped him.

“At least you need to rest for a few more days,” they said, “You are still too weak to move around. Besides, the recruit ers must be look ing for you.”

“But, it is . . . it is in con ve nient . . . ,” stammered Wan Xiliang, and blushed as his eyes met Meng Jiang’s.

“Don’t worry. You may stay here with us,” said the Jiang fa ther, “and Meng Jiang will live with her Meng par ents. So there won’t be any in con ve nience at all.” Ap par ently he had read Wan Xiliang’s mind.

Wan Xiliang stayed. Hid ing from pub lic view, he pur sued his stud ies while wait ing for things to blow over. The Jiang par ents treated him as if he were their son. Months passed, and nothing hap -pened. In the meantime, Meng Jiang went back and forth be tween her Meng and Jiang par ents. In due course the two young sters felt in love. The sub tle changes in their feel ings to ward each other did not es cape the ob servant par ents. They had them mar ried, in vit ing only a small cir cle of close friends to the wed ding because they did not want too many people to know about Xiliang.

As an old Chi nese saying goes, “There is no wall that is en tirely proof against a draft of wind.” A vil lain, who had been cov et ing the beauty of Meng Jiang for some time, even tu ally found out about the marriage of Meng Jiang with Wan Xiliang. Out of jeal ousy, he man aged to discover Xiliang’s iden tity and re ported him to the au thor i ties. Soon the em peror’s men knocked at the new ly weds’ door. They seized Wan Xiliang and sent him to the Great Wall’s con struc tion site a thou sand miles away, in the far north.

Meng Jiang wished that her hus band could sur vive the ordeal, and she told her self ev ery day that she would be able to see him soon. How ever, months passed with out hear ing any thing from him. Sum mer gave way to fall, and now win ter was setting in. Still not a word came from her hus band. Meng Jiang’s wor ries grew as the days went by, and so did her par ents’. The fall ing tem per a tures re

minded her that when Xiliang left, he did not have win ter clothes with him. She of ten dreamed of Xiliang shiv er ing in bit ter cold. She set her mind on vis it ing him at the con struc tion site. She wanted to bring him the warm clothes that she had made for him.

As she re luc tantly parted with her lov ing el derly par ents, Meng Jiang assured them that she would be back as soon as she found Xiliang. De spite all the imag in able and un imag in able dif fi cul ties ly ing ahead, she embarked on the quest for her hus band. She had no other means of trans por tation than her own feet. She walked and walked to ward the north, climb ing over many hills and cross ing nu mer ous rivers. As she trudged along, the tem per a ture be came in creas ingly colder.

One snowy day she fell sick. Be fore she could reach a small vil lage ly ing ahead of her, she sank into the snow and fainted. When she came to, she found her self ly ing on a cat tail bed. An old woman was at her side. Ev idently the woman was the owner of the cozy lit tle cot tage. She had found Meng Jiang in the snow and nursed her back to life. As soon as she felt better, Meng Jiang thanked the kind old woman and pre pared to resume her journey. She insisted de spite the old woman’s warn ing that she was still fee ble and that the weather could be come worse at the con struc tion site.

Af ter un told suf fer ings, Meng Jiang reached the Great Wall’s con struc tion site at long last. There she saw thou sands upon thou sands of la bor ers toil ing against the bit ter wind and in the icy snow, car ry ing bricks and hauling stones while be ing bru tal ized con stantly by the guards and fore -men. None of the la bor ers seemed suf ficiently fed and clad. She saw many of the la bor ers fall, never able to rise again. The hor ri ble scene made Meng Jiang worry about her hus band Wan Xiliang all the more. She wished that she could see him im me di ately.

For get ting her fatigue and hun ger, she promptly started the im pos si ble task of find ing Xiliang among the count less la bor ers. She started her search from the west end of the Great Wall and moved to ward the east. Fi nally, as she ap proached the end of the Wall on the east coast, she came across a group of la bor ers from her home town. One of them was from her village. When Meng Jiang asked him about Xiliang, he did not know what to say. Their si lence told Meng Jiang what she feared to know.

“Tell me the truth, please. Live or dead, I need to see him.” Meng Jiang re quested.

The la bor ers fi nally told her what had hap pened. “Wan Xiliang died of the un bear able work ing con di tions only a month af ter his arrival,” they said. Be cause too many peo ple died each day, the guards forced the la bor ers to bury the dead in side the walls as they built them. There fore, the only place where Meng Jiang could find her dead hus band would be the Great Wall it self.

Although it was n’t unex pected, this tragic news was still a shock to Meng Jiang, and she fainted. When she re gained con scious ness, she had to face the harsh re al ity that not only had she lost her be loved hus band, but she also was un able to see his body. Her grief was in con sol able. Drop ping to her knees in front of the Great Wall, she burst into tears. For three days and nights, Meng Jiang wept and wailed. To ward the end of the third day, she was still crying when, all of a sud den, there came a loud crashing sound, fol lowed by a se ries of deaf en ing rum bles. As thick clouds of dust dissi -pated, it be came clear that an 800-mile seg ment of the Great Wall had col lapsed, ex pos ing count less white bones in the de bris. Stunned, Meng Jiang was at a loss what to do; how could she pos si bly tell which skel e ton belonged to her poor hus band Wan Xiliang?

A man sug gested that she drip some blood from her finger onto a bone to see if the blood soaked into it. “If it does,” he said, “the bone must be Xiliang’s.” Whether this was sci ence or su per sti tion, Meng Jiang did not care. She wanted to find Xiliang. She bit her fin ger and be gan the pain ful task of iden ti fy ing the bones. No one was sure whether it was a stroke of luck or an in stance of di vine in ter -ven tion, but be fore long Meng Jiang found Xiliang’s skel e ton, a hair pin still clutched in his skel e tal

fin gers. The hair pin fur ther con firmed the iden tity of the bones, for Meng Jiang had given it to Wan Xiliang as a re mem brance when he was taken away.

The news that a lit tle woman had caused a large sec tion of the Great Wall to col lapse en raged the First Em peror of Qin, who hap pened to be on a tour on the east coast of China to look for elixir of eter nity. He ordered that Meng Jiang be arrested and brought to him. He would watch her be ex e -cuted. But when he saw the beauty of the young woman, he im me di ately changed his mind. He spared her life and wanted her to be his con cu bine. Know ing that she would have no chance to es -cape, Meng Jiang com plied.

“Becom ing a con cu bine of the First Emperor has been the dream of many young women. I feel ex tremely hon ored to have this oppor tu nity,” Meng Jiang said sar cas ti cally, but the dense em peror took her words as a com pli ment.

When the em peror’s maids of honor tried to take her away from the ex e cution ground, Meng Jiang stopped them. “Wait a min ute,” she said, then turn ing to the em peror, “I have three re quests. If you don’t sat isfy them, I’d rather die.”

“Tell me,” re sponded the em peror, cu ri ous about what she wanted to ask of him.

“First, give my husband a de cent burial,” started Meng Jiang. “That is easy,” the em peror re sponded.

“Then you must lead the fu neral pro ces sion,” Meng Jiang con tin ued.

“Well . . . .” The emperor hes i tated, know ing that only the first son of a de ceased par ent should lead his or her fu neral pro ces sion. It was an in sult to an em peror. However, the temp ta tion of hav ing Meng Jiang as his con cubine far out weighed his ego.

“Fine, I’ll do it. What is your last re quest? I hope it will be an easy one.”

“Sure, it should be a piece of cake for you. Because I’m an inlander, I have never been to the sea. I want to have a boat tour on the high sea, and I want you to be my com pany.”

If he re sented the first two hu mil i at ing re quests, the emperor ac tually liked the idea of tak ing Meng Jiang to the sea. He thought he was seeing the ro mantic side of Meng Jiang. With out hes i ta -tion, he readily consented to her de mand.

Af ter Wan Xiliang’s fu neral, the First Em peror of Qin took Meng Jiang to the sea. The ship set sail in the midst of fan fare and cheers. Sev eral leagues off shore, the em peror or dered that the wed -ding cer e mony be gin. Be fore the maids of honor could get hold of Meng Jiang, she had ma neu vered herself to the edge of the star board.

Glar ing at the em peror, she pro nounced, “I would rather die than live by the side of a butcher like you!” Then, she threw her self over board and van ished in the roar ing wa ters. Mys te ri ously, her plunge stirred up sur pris ingly large tidal waves, which nearly wrecked the ship.

Af ter Meng Jiang’s death, peo ple said that the Dragon King of the East Sea was be hind the tidal waves. Sym pa thetic to Meng Jiang, the Dragon King took her as his hon or able guest and cre ated the waves in an at tempt to de stroy the ty rant