Once upon a time a pretty and in tel li gent young woman named Zhu Yingtai lived in a wealthy fam ily. With each passing day, her de sire to go to school intensified. How ever, in her day schools were open only to male stu dents. Parents would not al low their daugh ters to min gle with the oppo site sex un der any circumstances. Like the daugh ters of other fam ilies of means, Zhu Yingtai could only re ceive homeschooling. “It is not only the knowl edge found in the books that in ter ests me,” she would tell her par ents and friends when they asked why she was bent on go ing to a school since she al ready had a good ed u ca tion at home, “but the out side world also fas ci nates me. I want to see it and feel it.”

 

Re fus ing to give up her dream, she never stopped try ing to per suade her fa ther to send her to school. Fi nally her fa ther had had enough of her pes ter ing pleas. One day, when Yingtai made the same re quest again, he said, “You can’t ex pect me to con sent un less you can turn your self into a man.”

 

“Fine!” Yingtai re plied, biting her lips and hold ing back her tears as she left the room. Her fa -ther was se cretly pleased with the ef fects of his tac tic, think ing that this would be their last con ver sa -tion about her go ing to a school.

 

The next day, Yingtai’s maid ser vant re ported that her mis tress was ill and was con fined to bed in her guifang (woman’s private cham ber). Her father had to send for a physi cian. In about an hour, a phy si cian came. Yingtai’s fa ther found some thing fa mil iar about the young man, whom he had never seen be fore.

 

“Have we met?”

 

“No. I am new to this town,” an swered the physi cian. “Tell me what’s wrong with your daugh -ter.”

 

“She said she is list less and does not feel like eat ing or even get ting up,” the fa ther said, and re -peated what the maid ser vant had told him. He seemed to have cast off his doubts of the young phy si -cian’s com pe tency. He even began to like him, think ing of mak ing him his son-in-law.

 

“From the symptoms you de scribed,” said the phy sician, “I can tell that your daugh ter has con -tracted some strange dis ease that calls for a spe cial pre scrip tion.”

 

“Are you sure?” asked the fa ther in surprise, “You have n’t even seen your pa tient yet.”

 

“I don’t have to be cause I know it,” the physi cian re plied with confi dence. “Let me prescribe her some spe cial med i cine and she’ll be all right.”

 

“Please do,” urged the wor ried and cu ri ous fa ther. Never the less, his eyes almost popped when he saw what was writ ten on the pre scrip tion: dragon’s ant lers, celestial empress’s musk, and the wa -ter of life from the vase of Guanyin, God dess of Mercy!

 

“Where in the world can we get these things?” Yingtai’s fa ther asked, re gretting having thought of mak ing his daugh ter marry this ab surd young man. “You must be kid ding!” See ing his red dened face, the young phy si cian could not re press his laugh ter. Taking off his hat, he asked, “Did n’t I look manly enough to you, Dad?”

 

Now that Yingtai had proved she could pass very well for a young man, her fa ther had noth ing to say; and he con sented to her go ing to the near est boarding school, which was eigh teen miles from home. In or der not to re veal her iden tity, her fa ther gave her enough money so that she could rent a house sep a rate from the dormitory for the male students. He also or dered her maid ser vant to go with Yingtai to help with the daily chores. Both would dress and act like males.

 

Zhu Yingtai, along with her maidser vant, bade fare well to her par ents and set off to the board -ing school. Stop ping at a res tau rant half way through the jour ney, Yingtai met a young man. Yingtai learned that he was go ing to the same school. He in tro duced him self as Liang Shanbo, from a farmer’s family, not far from Yingtai’s home. Af ter lunch they set out for the school to gether. As they walked and talked, Yingtai and Shanbo’s friend ship bloomed. Be fore reaching the school, Shanbo, not knowing Yingtai’s fe male iden tity, asked that they become sworn brothers. Yingtai readily consented. They told each other their birth days. As Shanbo was a year older, he be came the el der brother and Yingtai, the youn ger. Dropping to their knees, they kow towed three times, and fi -nally, they vowed to Heaven that even though they were not born in the same year, they would die on the same day. Yingtai felt lucky that liquor, an im por tant part of the cer e mony, was not avail able at the mo ment. She re ally would not know how to han dle that, as she had never had a taste of liquor in her life.

 

Inseparable at school, the two friends also shared the same views in class dis cus sions. One day the teacher was lec tur ing on the Confu cian per cep tion that women were in fe rior to men. To the sur -prise of the en tire class, Yingtai ob jected that women could be as in tel li gent as men, given equal opportunities. Their “in fe ri or ity” was due not to their na ture, but to the op pres sion of the male-dom i -nated so ci ety. All the stu dents jeered, won der ing why a fel low male stu dent should speak up for the “weaker sex.” Liang Shanbo stood up in de fense of Yingtai’s ar gu ment. He said firmly, “I agree with Yingtai, not because he is my brother, but be cause there is a whole lot of truth in what he said. Take my mother, for ex am ple. She is ev ery bit as smart as my fa ther, but she did not have a chance to re -ceive any for mal ed u ca tion. She was il lit er ate not be cause she did not want to study or was unable to learn. She was so be cause her fa ther would not let her be oth er wise. Then it was my fa ther who pre -vented her from going to school af ter their marriage.”

 

“That ar gu ment is not ad equate. We are talk ing about peo ple we know, that is, peo ple of conse -quence,” one stu dent said, and was ech oed by the oth ers.

 

“How about Mulan?” re torted Shanbo.

 

Zhu Yingtai sud denly felt that Shanbo stood very tall, and the sunlight from the win dow be hind him shrouded his mascu line fig ure with something like a halo. She had never felt so close to a man. She re al ized that she was fall ing in love with him. How ever, she had to sup press her feelings be cause in the eyes of Shanbo and all the other fel low stu dents, she was a “he.”

 

Since Yingtai and her maidser vant lived sep a rately from the male stu dents, they had no dif fi -culty con ceal ing their fe male iden tity. One in cident, how ever, was a close call. One day, Yingtai fell

 

ill and did not show up in class. Be ing a sworn brother, Shanbo in sisted on mov ing into her resi dence so that he could take care of her day and night. Yingtai ve he mently de clined, say ing that she al ready had a ser vant, and her ill ness might be con ta gious.

 

Three years’ school life had so lid i fied Shanbo’s brotherly affection for Yingtai and Yingtai’s love for Shanbo. Soon they grad u ated. By now, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai found it dif fi cult to part from each other. Shanbo wanted to walk Yingtai home. She readily ac cepted his of fer. Con sid er -ing this to be her last chance to ex press her feel ings to her be loved Shanbo, Yingtai sug gested that they have a verse contest to make the eighteen-mile jour ney inter est ing. She then ex plained the rule of the game: One of them would come up with the first line and the other would match it with the sec -ond. They had to cre ate the verses about what ever they saw on their way. Shanbo said he liked the idea, and see ing a woodchopper pass ing by, he began:

 

“There comes a woodchopper in haste, Though tired, he in tends no time to waste.”

 

Yingtai re plied with two ques tions:

 

“For whom is he toil ing? With whom are you trav eling?”

 

Obliv i ous to Yingtai’s af fec tion ate hint, the inno cent Shanbo re plied in a mat ter-of-fact tone:

 

“He is work ing for his wife, I am trav el ing with my friend.”

 

“It could be the other way around,” Yingtai said, in a seem ingly ca sual manner.

 

“You must be crazy!” The naïve Shanbo re minded Yingtai, “You are a man. How can you be my wife?” Then he added, “Well, if you were a woman, I would cer tainly marry you.” At this Yingtai blushed. The un sus pi cious Shanbo started an other verse as they came up to a bridge:

 

“Brother with brother stands above the wa ter; Fish af ter fish swim be neath the bridge.”

 

Feel ing mel an choly, Yingtai re joined:

 

“Fish that swim to gether may quickly be apart; “We that stay to gether may shortly be asun der.”

 

“Come on, Yingtai! What has hap pened to you? How come you are so pes si mis tic? Fish would never sep a rate if they were n’t caught. As for us, we can al ways visit each other. Ha ven’t you heard the prov erb: ‘Only moun tains never meet’?” The dense Shanbo could not fathom the heart of a young woman like Yingtai.

 

Yingtai sud denly cheered up as she caught sight of a pair of man da rin ducks, sym bol of long-last ing love, play ing on the water. “See, over there, a cou ple of yuanyuang!” She de cided to at -tempt a bolder hint, and started:

 

“For life they’re a lov ing cou ple, never part ing from each other. In case I’m the female bird, do you want to be my part ner?”

“Don’t be silly, Brother Yingtai,” said Shanbo, “Even if you were a manda rin duck, you would be a drake.”

 

As they ap proached Zhu Yingtai’s home, Yingtai had to make her pro posal more ob vi ous within the limit of so cial norms that for bade young peo ple to ex press their love ex plic itly.

 

“I have a twin sis ter, who looks, thinks, and acts ex actly like me.” Yingtai told Shanbo, “Come to my home to pro pose to her af ter you get home and have had some time with your par ents.” Prompted by the sense of im mi nent, and per haps per ma nent, sep a ra tion, Yingtai had to re sort to this white lie, which, she thought, would hurt no body. Embarrassed as she was, she could not afford to let go the op por tu nity of mak ing the man that she had loved for three years her life long com panion.

 

She added, “I will in troduce you to my parents when I’m home.” Shanbo thanked his good friend, with out the slight est idea that the sis ter she re ferred to was none other than Yingtai her self. Be fore the two realized it, they were near Yingtai’s vil lage. They had to say good-bye. Shanbo prom -ised to come back to propose to Yingtai’s sis ter.

 

When Shanbo re turned to Yingtai’s home a few months later, he was shocked to find that his sworn brother Zhu Yingtai, who had stud ied with him in school for the past three years, was the beau -ti ful young twin sis ter he had mentioned. He apol o gized for his dense ness in failing to un der stand Yingtai’s hinted proposal.

 

Shanbo asked Yingtai’s parents to give their daugh ter to him in marriage. In stead of giv ing their sanc tion, they asked him a lot of ques tions. They were par ticu larly in ter ested in his fam ily’s so -cial and finan cial back ground, for in their days, the con cept of mendang hudui (mar riage be tween fam i lies of the same sta tus) was deeply en trenched in the Chi nese mind. When Yingtai’s par ents learned that Shanbo was from a family of mod erate means, they re jected his pro posal out right. Shanbo left Yingtai’s home in de spair. The de spon dent Yingtai did not know what to do. Tears were her com pan ion day and night.

 

When a spoiled young man named Ma Wencai sent a match maker to pro pose mar riage to Yingtai, Yingtai’s snob bish par ents readily ac cepted, be cause he was from a wealthy fam ily. Ma

 

Wencai was a class mate of Yingtai and Shanbo. Yingtai knew how self ish and inso lent he was. In fact, no one in the class liked him. In a so ci ety where fil ial pi ety was as im por tant as na tional allegiance, Yingtai’s ob jec tions, no mat ter how vig or ous, proved use less. Her par ents had made up their minds not to let their daugh ter marry a poor scholar like Shanbo.

 

Back home, Shanbo pined away, think ing of Yingtai day and night. With out her, his life seemed empty. Soon he fell fa tally ill. On his death bed, he asked his griev ing par ents to bury him at the side of the road where he had seen his be loved Yingtai home.

 

When news of Shanbo’s death came, Yingtai was sur prisingly com posed. Her tears seemed to have dried up. She un expect edly gave up the fight against the mar riage arranged by her parents. When the wed ding day ar rived, she dressed her self care fully. She first slipped into a white gown, worn for the oc ca sion of mourn ing, and then put on a bride’s red robe. Before the wed ding pro ces -sion set out, Yingtai asked to visit Shanbo’s grave on the way to her bride groom’s home. “Or I would rather die than get mar ried,” she threat ened. Her bride groom’s rel a tives were very re luc tant to sat isfy her de mand, for they deemed it om i nous for a wed ding to be mixed up with a visit to a graveyard. How ever, know ing that Yingtai meant what she said, they had no choice but to com ply.

 

When the wed ding pro ces sion ar rived at Liang Shanbo’s burial ground, Zhu Yingtai asked to halt her se dan chair. When she flipped the curtain open and stepped out, her ap pear ance stunned ev -eryone: she was in a white mourning gown. She had re moved the red robe in the se dan.

 

Zhu Yingtai rushed to Shanbo’s grave, threw her self upon it, and began to lament. She sobbed, “Shanbo, I’m here with you. I’m sorry I’m late, but wait and take me with you.” As if her words were a spell, suddenly a storm sprang up. A loud crack of thun der was fol lowed by a streak of light ning, which split the grave open. Wast ing no time, Yingtai jumped into the cre vasse, which then closed it -self.

 

The sky cleared as fast as the storm had struck. When the star tled rel a tives and par tic i pants in the wed ding pro ces sion pulled them selves to gether, they saw a pair of beau ti ful but ter flies fly ing out of the grave. They were danc ing joy ously in the free air un der the sunny sky. Even to day, the Chi nese be lieve that the but ter flies are the un daunted spirits of the faith ful young lov ers.