The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend about the tragic romance between two lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, or Liang Zhu, from whom the name of the legend is known in Chinese (Liáng Shanbó yu Zhù Yingtái, often abbreviated as Liáng-Zhù). The legend is often regarded as the Chinese equivalent to Romeo and Juliet.

The story is set in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. A young woman named Zhu Yingtai from Shangyu, Zhejiang, disguised herself as a man traveling to Hangzhou to study. During her journey, she met and joined Liang Shanbo, a companion schoolmate from Kuaiji (Kuàiji, now known as Suzhou) in the same province. They studied together for three years, during which their relationship strengthened. When the two parted, Zhu offered to arrange for Liang to marry her 59-old fictitious sister. When Liang traveled to Zhu’s home, he discovered her true gender. Although they were devoted and passionate about each other at that point, Zhu was already engaged with Ma Wencai (Ma Wéncái), a man her parents had arranged for her to be married to. Depressed, Liang died in office as a county magistrate. On the day Zhu was to be 

Scene from the ballet “Butterfly Lovers”

married to Ma, whirlwinds prevented the wedding procession from escorting Zhu beyond Liang’s tomb. Zhu left the procession to pay her respects for Liang.

Liang’s tomb split apart, and Zhu dived into it to join him. A pair of butterflies emerged from the tomb and flew away.

The earliest record of the legend can be traced back to late Tang Dynasty. In Records of the Xuan Hall (Xuanshì Zhì), the author Zhang Du (Zhang Dú, flourished ca. 850-880) wrote:

Yingtai, the daughter of the Zhu family in Shangyu, dressed as a man in disguise, studied with Liang Shanbo from Kuaiji. Shanbo’s courtesy name was Churen (Chùrén). Zhu Yingtai returned home first. Two years later, Liang Shanbo visited her, only to find that she was a woman, thus suffered from feelings of loss. [Liang Shanbo] asked [Zhu’s] parents if he could marry her, but her family had already vowed to marry her to the Ma family. Shanbo took the post of magistrate at Yin (Yín, Western part of today’s Ningbo), later died in office, and was buried somewhere west of the city of Mao (Mào, Eastern part of today’s Ningbo). When Zhu Yingtai was escorted to the Ma family by a boat, the boat stopped at a tomb, could not move further due to the winds and waves. After learning that it belonged to Liang Shanbo, Zhu Yingtai landed and cried, the ground opened by itself; Zhu Yingtai was thus buried within. Xie An, then the Chancellor of China, proclaimed the tomb as the “Tomb of the Righteous Woman”.

Scene from the opera
“Butterfly Lovers”

The legend was also recorded in various official records such as The Chronicles of the Yin County (Yín Xiàn Zhì), The Chronicles of Ningbo Prefecture (Níngbo Fuzhì) and The New Chronicles of the Jing Brook in Yixing (Yíxing Jingxi Xinzhì).

The legend had been adapted into traditional Chinese opera in several local varieties, as Liang Zhu in Yue opera (also called Shaoxing opera, not to be confused with Cantonese opera) and In the Shade of the Willow (Liuyìn Jì) in Sichuan opera.

The Shaoxing opera version was made into a color motion picture in the 1950s in the PRC. The filming by the Ministry of Culture and the East China Military and Political Commission took place in Zhu’s legendary hometown of Shangyu.

The story also inspired the production of Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto, or Liang Zhu Violin Concerto as known in Chinese, a work for violin and orchestra. It was composed in 1958 by Chinese composers He Zhanhao and Chen Gang. The piece has been the most musically symbolic retelling of the legend; at almost 30 minutes long, it is one of the classics of modern Chinese music. During the 1970s, Hong Kong’s TVB television station adapted the legend as a musical miniseries, with Roman Tam and Susanna Kwan supplying the vocals for the soundtrack composed by Joseph Koo. At least two motion pictures have used it for their theme music: The Lovers directed by Tsui Hark and featuring Charlie Yeung Choi-Nei and Nicky Wu in Hong Kong; and The Butterfly Lovers, an animated film directed by Tsai Min-chin and featuring talents of Elva Siao, Rene Liu and Jacky Wu Jing in Taiwan.

Animated cartoons from
“Butterfly Lovers”

In 1981 Jann Paxton, working in the theater arts program at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, was introduced to the Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto by a Chinese exchange student. Paxton was so inspired by the concerto and its originating legend that he conceived a full-length ballet based on the original story and set about obtaining the limited performance rights to the score from its owners in China. Choreographed by Randy Strawderman and Jann Paxton (who also designed the sets and costumes), The Butterfly Lovers Ballet made its official United States premier in the spring of 1982 at the Agnes De Mille Theater by The North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC as part of that schools Spring Dance Gala. The principle roles of the two lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, were performed by NCSA students Sean Hayes and Alicia Fowler. Paxton’s story line remained true to the classic Chinese version with the addition of several supporting characters. The ballet was performed in “black box theater” style and utilized various fabric props and costume changes, (similar in style to the interpretation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, called, “Small House of Uncle Thomas”, in the second musical film version of The King and I) (1951) to suggest changes in scenery and time.

Based on the romance, the Shaw Brothers also produced Love Eterne, a film in Huangmeidiao directed by Li Han Hsiang in 1962, starring Ivy Ling Po as Liang and Betty Loh Ti as Zhu.