A long time ago there lived in China a girl nicknamed Zhu Ying-tai. She was pretty and smart - not only was she excellent at drawing dragons and embroidering phoenixes, she also knew hieroglyphs and could read ancient books.
Ying-tai decided to go to the city of Hangzhou to the famous teacher and learn wisdom from him. But how will you go if the customs of your ancestors forbid a girl to go alone to distant lands? And Ying-tai decided to dress up as a man. She put on a man's dress and walked along the road that led to Hangzhou.
She came to the teacher, first bowed to the image of Confucius, then to the teacher himself, and finally greeted the students.
Among the students there was a young man nicknamed Liang Shan-bo. Ying-tai immediately liked him: he was good-looking, had a good disposition, and most importantly, he was unusually diligent in his studies. He and Ying-tai became close friends. They were never separated from each other for a moment, the young man could not even think that Ying-tai was a girl. She didn’t give away her secret in any way. It was all the more easy to deceive the young man because he plunged headlong into science. The other students had no idea either.
That’s how everything would have gone if it weren’t for the teacher’s wife. She once says to her husband:
“How come you haven’t noticed until now that Ying-tai is a girl?”
- Where did you get the idea? - the teacher was amazed.
— When men bow before the image of Confucius, they first kneel on their left knee, then on their right, and women do the opposite. Do you remember, Ying-tai, when she came to school and bowed to Confucius, she first stood on her right knee! Didn't you notice?
- Well, that doesn’t mean anything! - answered the teacher. - Now, if he had betrayed himself in some other way, then it would be a different matter.
No matter what the wife said, no matter how she proved it, the teacher never believed her.
The wife did not calm down: how is it that her husband does not believe her?
And then one day the wife of the teacher Zhu Ying-tai invited her to visit, served wine, and when the girl, having drunk just a little, became tipsy out of habit, she found out the whole truth from her.
Ying-tai woke up in the morning and remembered that she had told her secret to the teacher’s wife. Now she couldn’t stay at school. She told Liang Shan-bo that she needed to return home immediately, the young man became sad and began to persuade his friend to stay. I persuaded him a thousand times, begged him a hundred times, all in vain.
Ying-tai got ready to go on the road. Liang Shan-bo decided to see his friend off and went with her. They walked for a long time, they could not part, it was time to say goodbye, and they moved on. I don’t even know how far from the city we went.
Ying-tai wanted to reveal the truth to the young man - maybe he would love her, and they could link their destinies? But she was embarrassed to say everything directly, and began to speak in hints and ask riddles.
Ying-tai saw two swans in the sky and said:
- Look, brother Shan-bo, at these swans flying high above the lake. You see, the winch is flying in front, the swan is behind, laughing merrily. It's good for the two of them!
Shan-bo did not understand the hint.
We walked a little further. Ying-tai says:
- Do you see, brother Shan-bo, the woodcutter coming down from the mountains? It is he who carries brushwood for his wife and children so that they will be warm.
Again Shan-bo did not understand anything.
They walked a little more, Ying-tai said again:
- Look, brother Shan-bo, two wild geese are circling above us. One flew east, the other flew west. Geese, geese, why are you breaking up? Better fly forward together.
And this time Shan-bo did not understand anything and said offendedly:
- Brother Ying-tai, my heart is already heavy when I think that we will soon part, and you talk about birds and woodcutters. No need!
- Okay, if you don’t want to, I won’t say anything more, and perhaps it’s time to say goodbye, that’s where you’ve come!
- I can’t, Ying-tai, part with you. Let me take you for a little while longer!
- Thank you, brother Shan-bo, for your friendship! And now I want to tell you about one important matter. You don't seem to have a fiancee yet? So, I have a sister, she is very similar to me, and she is extremely smart, she will be a good wife for you. I’m going back home, I’ll talk to my father, let him marry her to you. Agree? Just come quickly! And I’ll try to sort everything out!
- I’ll definitely come! - Shan-bo answered passionately.
They went further, suddenly a small river blocked their path. Ying-tai looked at the water, listened to how it murmured, and said:
“Look, Shan-bo, how deep this river is, but quickly go to the village behind a bamboo pole, we’ll find a ford, and we’ll cross to the other bank.”
While Shan-bo went to the village, Ying-tai moved to the other side.
Shan-bo came running with a pole, already out of breath, and Ying-tai was already on the other side.
“Why didn’t you wait for me, brother Ying-tai?”
- Sorry, brother Shan-bo, but it’s time for us to part. Don't follow me any further, go back. Just don’t forget your promise, come quickly.
Ying-tai returned home. Time flows - water in the river. And then one morning Liang Shan-bo remembered what his friend told him about his sister, and his promise. I quickly got ready and hit the road.
The young man approached Ying-tai's house, knocked on the gate, and said who he was and why he had come.
They seated Shan-bo in the large hall. He waits, waits, but for some reason his friend still doesn’t come. It turns out that the mother and father have already managed to woo Ying-tai against her will. It’s hard for her to see her friend - so she doesn’t go.
And Shan-bo hoped so much, dreamed so much about the meeting. It's all in vain. The young man lost patience, got angry, forgot about everything, even about the fact that “three times seven is twenty-one”: he had no time for decency, he made a noise, broke all the dishes that were in the hall.
Ying-tai had to go out to him.
Only now did Shan-bo realize that his friend was not a young man, but a girl, as beautiful as a heavenly fairy, and that she had no younger sister. The young man looked at her sadly and asked:
- Do you remember our agreement when we said goodbye?
- Ay-ya! Didn’t I tell you to come quickly then? You came too late. We must forget each other. My mother and father gave me to the Ma family. We will never see you again!
Shan-bo didn’t say anything, he just exclaimed: “Ai-ya,” and, almost crying with grief, he set off on his way back.
The young man returned home and fell ill with a disease that happens from unhappy love, called syansyrbin. No doctor can cure this disease. And when the hour of death came, Shan-bo asked his mother to go to Zhu Ying-tai and ask if she knew what the right remedy was.
The girl listened to the old woman and sadly answered:
“Only with the horns of the old dragon can one be cured of this disease.”
The mother conveyed to her son word for word everything that Ying-tai had told her, and the young man realized that he could not be saved from death.
He humbled himself and said to his mother:
“Bury me by the road that leads from Zhu’s house to Ma’s house.”
He said this and said goodbye to the world of people.
The day of Zhu Ying-tai's wedding has arrived. The groom, smug and important, came out to the gate to greet the wedding palanquin. But he waited in vain for his bride. When the bearers were carrying the palanquin past the grave of Shan-bo, the girl suddenly ordered:
- Stop!
At that same moment she jumped out of the palanquin and bowed several times to the grave.
There was a slight noise, the grave suddenly opened, and the girl jumped into it. The bearers rushed after her, but they were too late - the grave was closed, and in their hands only a piece of Ying-tai's skirt remained. They threw the piece of paper on the ground - it turned into a butterfly. The wind picked up the butterfly and carried it high into the sky.
So the porters brought an empty palanquin to the groom. The groom got angry, began to beat all the servants indiscriminately, went to the grave with them, and ordered them to dig them up. They dug up the grave and looked - there was no one in the coffin. Only two Yuanyang lovebirds flew out of the grave and landed on a tree near Ma’s house. One bird sang cheerfully:
Ma, rich sir!
Why are you sitting alone?
You took a bride yesterday
It's time to take her to the temple.
Another chimed in:
It's a shame, it's a shame, Ma-groom,
Why is your house so quiet?
There are no guests in it, no wine,
Where is your wife now?
Ma heard the birds mocking him, could not bear the shame, and threw himself into the river.
To this day, there is a fish in that river that is called “yellow scales”. They say that Ma's fiance turned into that fish.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru