Dongyong Legend
01 · Historical Records
In the Shangqing palace on the summit of Mount Mao, more than ten li west of Dong Yong village, stands an inscription: If at home one does not serve one's two parents with filial piety, why go to the holy mountain to worship the World-Honoured One? Liu Xiang, the Han man of letters and author of the earliest Filial Son Picture and Eulogy praising Dong Yong's deeds, and Gan Bao, the Jin scholar and author of In Search of the Supernatural, had both earlier visited Mount Mao or lodged here.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Dong Yong legend is one of the four great legends widely current in China, first recorded in Liu Xiang's Biographies of Filial Sons (with illustrations) of the Western Han. It is told that Dong Yong sold himself to bury his father, and his filial conduct moved heaven, so that the Seventh Fairy descended to the world and married him; in one night the Seventh Fairy wove ten bolts of brocade and reduced Dong Yong's three-year term of labour to a hundred days; the Jade Emperor in heaven discovered that the Seventh Fairy had secretly gone down to the mortal world and ordered her to return to the celestial court at a quarter to noon, and husband and wife parted for ever, the Seventh Fairy sending their son down to the world a year later. For two thousand years, though the original structure of the story of Dong Yong and the Seventh Fairy has not changed, its plot, its characters and even its thought have been continually enriched and renewed. In Zhixi town of Jintan in Jiangsu there is a Dong Yong village (formerly Dongli), and the Guangxu Jintan County Gazetteer records in several places the legend of the filial son Dong Yong, the Seventh Fairy and their son Hesheng. The Dong Yong village of Zhixi town has a Dong Yong temple whose walls are painted with the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars, and the worthies of Jintan in past ages wrote many poems in praise of the filial son Dong Yong and the Seventh Fairy. The Shandong Dong Yong legend circulates mainly in Boxing county, Shandong. The Dong Yong legend is recorded in Liu Xiang's Biographies of Filial Sons (with illustrations) of the Western Han, Cao Zhi's Lingzhi of the Three Kingdoms and Gan Bao's In Search of the Supernatural of the Eastern Jin. Among the stone carvings of the Eastern Han Wu family tombs in Jiaxiang county, Shandong, there is a scene of Dong Yong carrying his father in the deer cart and labouring in the fields, together with the text Dong Yong, a man of Qiansheng (present-day Boxing county, Shandong). In the long course of oral transmission the Dong Yong legend became a literary subject warmly welcomed by the broad masses, producing such far-reaching works as the Lü opera The Hall of Sages and The Filial Son Dong Yong. The culture of filial piety proclaimed by the legend also has an important practical significance for building socialist spiritual civilisation and a harmonious society.
Dong Family Village and Dong Yong's Tomb
The village and tomb in Boxing connected with Dong Yong.
The Dong Yong Scene in the Wu Family Tombs Carvings
The carving of Dong Yong carrying his father in the deer cart and labouring in the fields among the Eastern Han Wu family tomb carvings in Jiaxiang.
The Lü Operas The Hall of Sages and The Filial Son Dong Yong
Lü operas adapted from the Dong Yong legend, of far-reaching influence.
Selling Himself to Bury His Father and Weaving Brocade to Repay the Debt
The core episodes of the Dong Yong legend.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Among the local remains, relics and objects connected with the legend there are more than forty. At the east end of the village the square stone bridge across the river is called the Bridge of Gazing at the Immortal, said to be so named because Dong Yong, with his son Dong Hesheng, gazed there to greet the boy's mother on the seventh night of the seventh month; and Fu family village, about two kilometres south-east of the old locust tree, is said to be where Dong Yong sold himself to repay his debt. Local versions of Dong Yong and the Seventh Fairy number scores, each elaborated and developed to different degrees.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Dongyong Legend · Dongyong Legend · Dongyong Legend · Dongyong Legend · Dongyong Legend · Dongyong Legend.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Dong Yong legend is rich in historical and literary meaning and can provide certain figurative materials for the study of the society, politics, economy and culture of the relevant historical periods.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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