"Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" is one of the four great legends of ancient China, along with "The Legend of the White Snake", "Meng Jiangnu" and "Cowherd and Weaver Girl". Among them, the Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai legend is the most influential oral art in my country, and it is also the only Chinese folk legend that has a wide impact in the world. The Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai story has been circulated among the people for more than 1,460 years. It is well-known in China and has a long-lasting spread. It is known as the eternal masterpiece of love. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, in Zhujiazhuang, Shangyu County, Zhejiang Province, by the Yushui River, there was a beautiful and intelligent daughter of Zhu Yuanwai, Yingtai. She had learned poetry and prose from her brother since she was a child. She admired the talents of Ban Zhao and Cai Wenji, hated that there was no good teacher at home, and wanted to go to Hangzhou to visit a teacher to study. Zhu Yuanwai rejected his daughter's request. Zhu Yingtai was eager to study, so she pretended to be a fortune teller and said to Zhu Yuanwai: "According to the hexagram, it is better to let your daughter go out." Zhu's father saw that his daughter was dressed as a man, and there was no flaw. In order not to disappoint her, he had to reluctantly agree. Yingtai disguised herself as a man and went to Hangzhou to study. On the way, she met Liang Shanbo, a scholar from Kuaiji (now Shaoxing) who was going to Hangzhou to study. They hit it off at first sight and enjoyed reading together. They used soil as incense on the Caoqiao Pavilion and became sworn brothers. Not long after, they came to Wansong Academy in Hangzhou and became students. From then on, they studied together and were inseparable. Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai studied together for three years and their love was as deep as the sea. There were also jokes from classmates and Ma Wencai's obstruction. But Yingtai loved Shanbo deeply, but Shanbo never knew that she was a woman. He only thought of the brotherly love and had no special feelings. Zhu's father missed his daughter and urged her to return home urgently, so Yingtai had to return home in a hurry. Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai parted reluctantly. On the way to see them off for 18 miles, Yingtai kept using objects to express her love. Shanbo was honest and simple and didn't understand why. Yingtai had no choice but to lie that she had a ninth sister who looked like her and was willing to be a matchmaker for Shanbo. However, Liang Shanbo was poor and failed to come as expected. When Shanbo went to Zhu's house to propose marriage, he didn't know that Zhu's father had betrothed Yingtai to Ma Wencai, the son of the governor who lived in Yancheng (now Yin County). The happy marriage was gone. The two met on the balcony, looked at each other in tears, and said goodbye sadly. Before leaving, they made a vow: If we can't sleep together in life, we must be buried together in death! Later, Liang Shanbo was appointed as the magistrate of Yin County (now Fenghua County) by the court. However, Shanbo became depressed and died soon. He left a will to be buried in Jiulongxu, Yancheng. Yingtai heard the bad news about Shanbo and vowed to die with him. When Yingtai got married, she took a detour to Liang Shanbo's tomb to pay tribute. In response to Yingtai's grief, there was a storm, thunder and lightning, and the tomb burst. Yingtai jumped into the tomb gracefully, and the tomb closed again. The wind stopped, the rain stopped, and a rainbow hung high in the sky. Liang Shanbo and Zhu Shanbo turned into butterflies and danced in the world. [Historical Origin] (1) According to the research of historians of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Shanbo originated from Ma Town, Runan County, Zhumadian City, Henan Province. The hometown site now includes Liang Shanbo's tomb, Liangzhuang, Zhuzhuang, Mazhuang, Hongluoshan Academy, Yuanyang Pond, the Eighteen-mile Farewell Road, Caoqiao (Caoqiao), and the tomb of Zou Tong, the burial place of Liang Shanbo's master. (2) In Mapo Village, west of the ancient Zouyi, adjacent to the north bank of Weishan Lake, there is a tombstone erected during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty. The tombstone was buried for a long time due to siltation and was not excavated until 1995. This is the only tombstone among the nine existing Liang Zhu tombs in the country. The full text has 843 characters, which is completely different from myths, legends and operas. It not only records the place where the two were buried together, but also points out the reason why the local government ordered the two to be buried together. According to the inscription, Zhu Yingtai, as an only child, disguised herself as a man and went to study in Yishan, Zoucheng. She met Liang Shanbo when she passed Wuqiaodong from Jiuqu Village. The two went to Yishan together to teach. They were classmates during the day and slept together at night. They did not take off their clothes for three years. They can be said to be sincere and good students. One day, Yingtai was homesick and went home. Shanbo learned about it and went to visit her. Not long after they parted, she died of illness at home and was buried in Wuqiaodong (according to Zou County Chronicles, this bridge was submerged during the Longqing period of the Ming Dynasty). Yingtai saw that the Ma family was coming to welcome the bride, and she missed Shanbo so much that she died of grief. The local scholars called her a loyal and virtuous man and buried her in Shanbo's tomb. According to the inscription and field investigation, the original place of the legendary Liang Zhu story is Jining City. The reason is that the Mapo Stele is the earliest to record the story of Liang Zhu. Not to mention that the stele was based on the records of the outside world, even if it was erected in the 11th year of the Zhengde reign, it was much earlier than the "Ningbo Prefecture Records" and "Yixing Records" of the late Qing Dynasty; from the perspective of geographical location, it is in line with reality. The Liang Zhu joint tomb is located in the southwest of Mapo Village, about three kilometers away from Jiuqu Village where Zhu Yingtai is located in the north, and about ten kilometers away from Boliang Village where Liang Shanbo is located in the southeast. If Zhu Yingtai went to Yishan to study and passed Wuqiao, it would be reasonable for her to meet Shanbo. (3) Chang Lu Xiaonong, a researcher on Liang Zhu culture in Yixing, Jiangsu, believes that from historical records, the earliest written records of the Liang Zhu story were in Yixing. Many experts in the academic, historical and tourism circles in Jiangsu believe that from the "Piliang Records" of the Song Dynasty Xianchun to the legendary novels of Feng Menglong in the Ming Dynasty, there are a lot of texts and other evidence showing that Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai were from Yixing. (4) Ma Chengzhao, an expert on Liang-Zhu culture and chairman of the Ningbo Yinzhou District Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said that according to his research on the Yinzhou County Chronicles, Liang Shanbo should be from Yinzhou and Zhu Yingtai should be from Shangyu. (5) In fact, there are different versions of the Liang-Zhu story in Ningbo and Runan. Runan legend: In the Jin Dynasty, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai were classmates for three years, but he failed to see that Zhu Yingtai was a girl. Later, Zhu Yingtai was betrothed to the Ma family. Liang Shanbo's proposal failed and he fell ill. Before he died, he asked his family to bury him on the roadside where Zhu Yingtai's wedding sedan passed so that he could see Zhu Yingtai getting married. After Zhu Yingtai learned about it, she got married in mourning clothes. When the sedan passed Liang Shanbo's grave, she got off the sedan to pay homage and died in front of a willow tree. Ningbo legend: Liang Shanbo was the magistrate of Yinzhou County in the Jin Dynasty. He was an honest and good official. Because he offended the powerful, he was tortured to death. The people built a large tomb for him. Zhu Yingtai was a chivalrous woman from Shangyu during the Ming Dynasty. She robbed the rich and helped the poor, but was later killed by the rich. In order to commemorate them, the local people buried the two together in a "ghost marriage". Archaeological evidence for the two legends has been found in two places. In Runan County, the tombs of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai remain today, located on both sides of the ancient official road in Mazhuang Township. The unearthed tomb walls prove that both tombs were from the Jin Dynasty. Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai were not engaged, so it was impossible for them to be buried together. This separate burial was in line with the customs of the time. In Ningbo, the tomb of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai remains today. (6) The Liang-Zhu legend originated in the Jin Dynasty. The earliest existing written material is the "Records of Ten Provinces and Four Barbarians" written by Liang Zaiyan in the early Tang Dynasty. In the late Tang Dynasty, Zhang Du wrote Xuanshi Zhi, which was a literary exaggeration, and its general outline can be seen: "Yingtai, the daughter of Zhu from Shangyu, pretended to be a man to study, and studied with Liang Shanbo from Kuaiji. Shanbo's name was Churen. Zhu returned home first. Two years later, Shanbo visited his friends and learned that he was a girl. He felt sad as if he had lost something. He told her parents to ask for marriage, but Zhu was already the son of Ma. Shanbo later became the magistrate of Yin, died of illness, and was buried in the west of Yincheng. Zhu married Ma. When the boat passed by the tomb, it was too windy and could not go forward. He asked about Shanbo's tomb and learned that Zhu climbed the tomb. Suddenly, the ground cracked and Zhu was buried there. Xie An, the prime minister of Jin, wrote a memorial to name her tomb the Tomb of a Righteous Woman. "(7) The earliest and most complete one is the Record of the Temple of the Righteous and Loyal King written by Li Maocheng, the prefect of Mingzhou (now Ningbo) in the Song Dynasty. It says that Liang Shanbo was born on the first day of the third lunar month in 352 AD and died on the sixteenth day of the eighth lunar month in 373 AD at the age of 21, and never married. Zhu Yingtai got married in the late spring of 374 AD. The Liang Shanbo Temple (also known as the "Temple of the Righteous and Loyal King") was built in 397 AD. If the records are reliable, the "Legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" should have originated in the more than 20 years between 374 and 397 AD, and was fully formed between the Song Dynasty and the end of the Qing Dynasty. Other important documents after that include Feng Menglong's "Li Xiuqing and Huang Zhennu's Marriage" in the Ming Dynasty and Shao Jinbiao's "Biography of Zhu Yingtai" in the Qing Dynasty. The latter ended with her turning into a butterfly. (8) In July 1997, a Jin Dynasty tomb was unearthed in the Liang Shanbo Temple in Ningbo. The location, specifications and burial objects of the tomb are consistent with the identity and burial place of Liang Shanbo, the county magistrate of Yin County, as recorded in the annals, and are considered to be credible physical materials. (9) In the 1950s, when the famous writer Zhang Henshui was writing the novel Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, he researched 10 places of origin based on folk legends: Ningbo, Zhejiang, Yixing, Jiangsu, Qufu, Shandong, Qingshui, Gansu, Shucheng, Anhui, Hejian, Hebei, Jiaxiang, Shandong, Jiangdu, Jiangsu, Puzhou, Shanxi, and Suzhou, Jiangsu. (10) At present, 17 ancient sites related to Liang and Zhu have been discovered, including 6 study places, 10 tombs and 1 temple. Experts generally believe that the Liang and Zhu study place was formed under the influence of the Liang and Zhu legend, and its origin cannot be disproved.