A Scene from the Legend of White Snake
The Leifeng Pagoda 雷峰塔 is significant for one reason, that is it is associated with the Legend of the White Snake. It is a story filled with mythical creatures, magic and romance. The White Snake is Bai Suzhen 白素贞 a white snake demon who in her pursuit to be a goddess enters the human world and together with Qing 青 goes around doing good deeds for the humans. The main antagonist of the story is Fahai, who believes all demons are bad and relentlessly tries to eliminate them.
Very Intricate Carvings at the Leifeng Pagoda 雷峰塔
Bai accidentally brings a human, Xu Xian, to the demon world and falls in love with him. To bring him back to the human world, his memories of the demon world were wiped out. With Qing’s help, Bai and Xu Xian meet again and they continued their romance. Her true form was revealed to her lover who still accepted her and she gives birth to a child. In this weakened state, Bai was defeated by Fahai and was imprisoned in the Leifeng Pagoda, the very pagoda I was at.
Life-like Detail of the Legend of the White Snake
Although I didn’t see any white snake demon, I did see a beautiful depiction of the legend in the pagoda. The story seemed to have been carved from stone and it was a very impressive. No doubt that this was a recent addition to the pagoda, but it was still very impressive nonetheless. I didn’t really know about the story of White Snake until I happened to visit this place, no wonder they decided to rebuild the pagoda when it collapsed.
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