Liuruan Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Liu-Ruan legend began in the Eastern Han and was transmitted orally among the people, a widely current myth and love story. The Eastern Jin Gan Bao's In Search of the Supernatural and the Southern Dynasties Liu Yiqing's Record of the Hidden and the Visible both record it. After the Tang there appeared a situation in which oral transmission and the collecting and writing of men of letters advanced each other, and it extended into such forms of expression as folk art, drama, dance and narrative-singing, with wide influence. In the folk of Tiantai county the legend has been transmitted from generation to generation; in villages such as Shangbaoxiang near Taoyuan where the events occurred almost everyone can tell it, and important recorded tellers can be traced back to the end of the Qing. In 2013 Tiantai and Xinchang counties collated fifty-nine legends and nineteen ballads and printed the book The Liu-Ruan Legend. Besides the features of orality and collectivity of folk literature it has the following: first, it relies on the real scenery of Mount Tiantai, the marvellous episodes corresponding one by one to the actual hills, waters and scenery; second, taking the story of man and immortal meeting and forming a bond as its main line, it derives a series of stories; third, it has a long history, circulating among the people from the Eastern Han and appearing for a thousand years in people's mouths and pens and continually worked over and enriched; fourth, it arises from the people and is widely current, so that both common folk and men of letters can perceive in it the feeling of the true, the good and the beautiful.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Liu-Ruan legend is a myth and love story chiefly about Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao gathering herbs, meeting immortals and forming a marriage bond with the fairy maidens; it circulates mainly in the villages of Shangbaoxiang, Xiabaoxiang, Shuimokeng and Baiyan around Taoyuan in Tiantai county, Zhejiang, and in the neighbouring counties and cities of Shengzhou, Xinchang and Ninghai, radiating to Jiangsu, Henan, Shaanxi and Guangxi, its influence reaching Japan, Korea and the Chinese communities of many countries. Unfolding around the main line of Liu and Ruan entering the mountains to gather herbs and meeting immortals, it may be summed up in five aspects: the legend of Liu and Ruan gathering herbs, meeting immortals and forming a marriage bond; the legend of their cultivation and attainment of the Way, their healing of the world and their benefiting the people; the legends of the places where the events occurred, such as Taoyuan and the Twin Maiden Peak of Mount Tiantai; the scenery legends connected with their meeting immortals; and the related proverbs and ballads. The Liu-Ruan legend is an important part of the history and culture of Mount Tiantai; its characters are vivid and sharply drawn, typical images of ancient Chinese literature; it lodges people's beautiful wish to transcend reality and yearn for the immortal realm and has become one of the classics most quoted in Chinese literature; interwoven with folk belief, it is an important vehicle of the local people's cultural identity.
Liu and Ruan Gather Herbs and Meet Immortals
The main-line episode of the Liu-Ruan legend, forming a marriage bond with the fairy maidens.
Legends of Liu and Ruan's Cultivation and Attainment of the Way
Legends of Liu and Ruan cultivating the Way, healing the world and benefiting the people.
Scenery Legends of Taoyuan and the Twin Maiden Peak
Legends of the places where the events occurred, such as Taoyuan and the Twin Maiden Peak of Mount Tiantai.
The Liu-Ruan Legend
The legend and ballad collection collated and printed by Tiantai and Xinchang counties in 2013.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Liu-Ruan legend has the villages of Shangbaoxiang, Xiabaoxiang, Shuimokeng and Baiyan around Taoyuan in Tiantai county, Zhejiang, as its core area of circulation, and also circulates in the neighbouring counties and cities of Shengzhou, Xinchang and Ninghai, its influence reaching Japan, Korea and the Chinese communities of many countries.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In the late 1970s the Tiantai county cultural centre and the Tiantai Mountain Culture Research Society organised people to go to the countryside to gather material, collated the relevant materials and published them, and printed such legend collections as Tales of Meeting Immortals on Mount Tiantai.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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