Legend of Meng Jiangnu
01 · Historical Records
The Meng Jiangnü legend first showed traces in the Warring States period and flourished greatly from the Ming and Qing onward, becoming a common subject of popular literature such as local opera and songbooks; it chiefly exposes the heavy corvée and exploitation of feudal society and celebrates faithful love. The Hebei Meng Jiangnü legend originates earliest in the story of Qi Liang's wife recorded in the Liji, Tangong II. By the Tang the plot and theme were already close to the later Meng Jiangnü story, except that the time of the events was changed from the Spring and Autumn period to the Qin dynasty, the place from the Qi wall to the Qin wall, and the characters from the Qi general Qi Liang and his wife to the Yan man Qi Liang and his wife of the Meng family. To the Ming was added the episode of Qin Shi Huang forcing marriage, and the story was thereby fully fixed. There are many literary and artistic works—ballads, opera and folk tales—based on the Jiashan Meng Jiangnü legend; more than a hundred poems on Meng Jiangnü by men of letters since the Ming and Qing have so far been collected, and contemporary creations such as the opera Jiashan Meng Jiangnü, the song Meng Jiangnü and the song-and-dance drama The Moon over the Qin Times keep appearing.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Meng Jiangnü story circulated from Songjiang prefecture in the south to Shanhaiguan in the north; on Phoenix hill east of Shanhaiguan stands the Chaste Woman's Shrine, today's Meng Jiangnü Temple.
The Meng Jiangnü Temple at Shanhaiguan (the Chaste Woman's Shrine)
The Meng Jiangnü shrine on Phoenix hill east of Shanhaiguan, an important relic of the legend.
The Jiangnü Tomb
The mound and reef by the sea at Shanhaiguan said to be where Meng Jiangnü was buried.
The Episode of Weeping Down the Great Wall
The core episode in which Meng Jiangnü seeks her husband at the Great Wall and weeps down the wall.
Poems on Meng Jiangnü
Poems by men of letters since the Ming and Qing lamenting Meng Jiangnü, of which more than a hundred survive.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Jiashan Meng Jiangnü legend is a folk love story circulating mainly in the Lishui river basin of north-western Hunan. It has also fused with the local customs of its area, forming a distinctive Meng Jiangnü nuo culture centred on the Lishui basin of north-western Hunan, where such activities as processional nuo, offering nuo and nuo opera have never ceased among the people.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Legend of Meng Jiangnu · Legend of Meng Jiangnu · Legend of Meng Jiangnu · Legend of Meng Jiangnu.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Meng Jiangnü legend has a broad popular base and folk transmission, a clear line of historical evolution and rich thought, its plot moving and strongly infectious, so that it has a certain value for historical research and for literature and art. Unfortunately, influenced by fashionable entertainment culture, young people today are losing their enthusiasm for traditional folk literature; few of them know the story of Meng Jiangnü weeping at the Great Wall, and the folk artists who can tell the whole story and sing the folk ballads are growing old, so that its transmission faces a lack of successors. The related relics and architectural sites surviving among the people are already few, some have been or are being seriously damaged, and large funds are urgently needed for their protection and repair.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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