There was a woman in Shangyu County, Yuezhou, Zhu Yingtai, who liked to read poetry and wanted to go abroad to study. But the woman at that time could not be seen in public, so she disguised herself as a man with Yin Xin, a girl, and went to Yuezhou to study. On the way, they met Liang Shanbo and Nunnery Shijiu, scholars from Yinxian who were also going to study in Yuezhou. Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai hit it off and went to Yuezhou together. During the three years in Yuezhou, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai were inseparable, studying together during the day and sharing the same bed at night. Zhu Yingtai secretly admired Liang Shanbo, but Liang Shanbo’s personality was unswerving, and he never knew that Zhu Yingtai was a woman, let alone her mind. On one occasion, when Tomb-Sweeping Day had a holiday and they went to visit Jinghu Lake, Zhu Yingtai repeatedly hinted to Liang Shanbo about the scenery, but Liang Shanbo couldn’t understand it at all, and even made fun of Zhu Yingtai for comparing himself to a woman. Finally, Zhu Yingtai had to directly tell Liang Shanbo that Liang Shanbo had an epiphany. But it was all learned by Ma Wencai who was watching, and Ma Wencai also knew that Zhu Yingtai turned out to be a woman. Later, his family wrote to urge Zhu Yingtai to go home. Before he left, Zhu Yingtai left a letter telling Liang Shanbo that “28, 37, 46 will be decided”, which meant that Liang Shanbo would go to Zhufu to propose marriage ten days later, but Liang Shanbo thought that it was three days together, so he went to propose marriage a month later. When Liang Shanbo arrived at Zhujia with joy, he realized that Ma Wencai had already proposed marriage first and got the dowry. Liang Shanbo had to leave heartbroken. After Liang Shanbo returned home, Acacia was seriously ill. He wrote to Zhu Yingtai to ask for some prescriptions that he couldn’t find or get, expressing his despair. At the same time, he hoped that Zhu Yingtai could come to visit him. Zhu Yingtai wrote back to tell Liang Shanbo that he had no chance in this life and only hoped that they could be buried in Nanshan together after their death. Later, Liang Shanbo died of illness, and Zhu Yingtai promised Ma’s marriage for a pretence, but asked the wedding procession to pass through Nanshan and let her get off the sedan chair to worship Liang Shanbo. When Zhu Yingtai got off the sedan chair to pay homage to the tomb, suddenly it was stormy and the evil wind was miserable. Liang Shanbo’s grave actually cracked. When Zhu Yingtai saw it, he jumped into it, and the grave closed again. Soon, a pair of butterflies flew out of the grave.
Butterfly lovers’s story is one of the four great folktales in China, and it is called “Romeo and Juliet” in the East. Through the story complex of Zhu Yingtai disguised as a man and actively showed her love to Liang Shanbo, we can further understand the personal feelings of women who boldly pursued true love and longed for beautiful love in ancient society. Liang Zhu’s love tragedy makes people seriously think about the limitations of the arranged marriage system in some aspects, which provides useful help for improving the marriage system.