Dongyong Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Qing Guangxu Danyang County Gazetteer records that south of Yanling in Danyang there was the Bridge of Gazing at the Immortal (after the adjustment of administrative divisions in 1958 the bridge was assigned to Jintan, adjoining Danyang's Yanling) and Dong Yong's tomb.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Dong Yong is said to have been a man of Yanling in Danyang. His family was poor and he served his parents with the utmost filial piety; when his old father died and there was no coffin to bury him, he sold himself into servitude. His filial conduct moved the Jade Emperor's youngest daughter, the Seventh Fairy, who secretly descended to the mortal world and, under the locust tree of shade, became Dong Yong's wife. Man ploughing and woman weaving, they respected and loved each other and together repaid the debt. Unexpectedly the Jade Emperor, learning that the Seventh Fairy had gone down to the world, sent heavenly soldiers and generals to seize her back to the celestial court, and from then on the loving pair, one of heaven and one of earth, were torn apart. Later the Seventh Fairy gave birth in heaven and sent the child down to the mortal world, and Dong Yong raised him. The son longed for his mother and knelt on the Bridge of Gazing at the Immortal for forty-nine days awaiting her, and at last mother and son met, leaving a pair of deep knee-prints on the bridge. The Yuan Zhishun Zhenjiang Gazetteer records that the Han Dong Yong's tomb is at Yanling in Danyang, with a stele recording the matter, the place called Dong Stele and also Dong Grave. The Ming Jiajing songbook The Record of Weaving Brocade by Gu Jueyu says Dong Yong, courtesy name Yannian, was a man of Danyang in Runzhou (present-day Zhenjiang); and the Wanli period Qingyang tune songbook The Record of the Locust Shade says Dong Yong's original home was Danyang county, that the Han Dong Yong hired out his strength to support his parents, and after their death borrowed ten thousand strings of cash from his master to arrange the burial, met a woman on the road who asked to be his wife, went with her to the master's house, and wove three hundred bolts of fine silk to repay the master, finishing in a month; she then took leave of Dong Yong, saying, I am the Weaving Girl, and because of your supreme filial piety the Emperor ordered me to help you repay the price, and with these words she rose into the air and went. Later people named the place Dong Bei and the bridge Gazing at the Immortal. Before the Cultural Revolution Dong Yong's tomb was at Donggezhuang in Yanling within Danyang and the Dong Yong temple at Dongjia in Erling, Danyang, both destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The Huangmei opera A Fairy Match, based on The Record of Weaving Brocade and The Record of the Locust Shade, was sung throughout the land, and the line My home is in Danyang, my surname Dong, my name Yong became known to every household. Local opera, television drama and other art forms performing the legend have given it new vitality.
The Bridge of Gazing at the Immortal
The old Bridge of Gazing at the Immortal at Yanling in Danyang, later assigned to Jintan, where Dong Yong's son is said to have knelt awaiting his mother.
Dong Yong's Tomb (Dong Stele, Dong Grave)
Dong Yong's tomb at Yanling in Danyang recorded in the Yuan Zhishun Zhenjiang Gazeteer.
The Record of Weaving Brocade and The Record of the Locust Shade
Songbooks of the Ming Jiajing and Wanli periods based on the Danyang Dong Yong.
The My Home Is in Danyang Aria of A Fairy Match
The Huangmei opera aria that made the Danyang Dong Yong claim widely known.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Danyang is an important area of the Dong Yong legend; in the Yanling area there were formerly such relics as the Bridge of Gazing at the Immortal, Dong Yong's tomb and the Dong stele and Dong grave. The Yuan Zhishun Zhenjiang Gazeteer, the Ming Jiajing Record of Weaving Brocade, the Wanli Qingyang tune Record of the Locust Shade and the Qing Guangxu Danyang County Gazetteer all record Dong Yong as a man of Danyang, and the line My home is in Danyang, my surname Dong, my name Yong from the Huangmei opera A Fairy Match has made this claim widely known.
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 has a long origin and is one of the most popular legends in contemporary China, widely transmitted also in Danyang, Jiangsu.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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