S10E3 - Tao-ing Our Best: The Legend of the White Snake Pt 2

The stories featured in Greaking Out are usually original adaptations of classic Greek myths.

This week's story features the dangers of pregnancy, an epic magic battle, tricky bowls, and a standardized test.

Welcome back to Greaking Out.

Today we're finishing up the epic Legend of the White Snake tale that we started last week.

The one that ended on a rude cliffhanger.

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't a cliffhanger per se.

It just wasn't the end of the story.

Anyway, if you haven't listened to that first episode, hit pause on this one and go back and check it out.

Seriously, this is a complicated story, so you're going to want to start at the beginning.

But for those of you who who have listened to the first episode, things are about to get even more intense.

Now, as you'll recall, our main character, Bai Su Zhen, was a magical white snake who had the powers to heal and transform.

She managed to change into a beautiful human, and it was in that form that she met the love of her life, Shu Xian.

Shu Xian and Bai Su Zhen were married, they opened a medicine shop together, and they were living the good life.

But one day, a monk named Fahai informed Shu Xian that his wife was secretly a snake.

He told him that if he wanted to turn his wife into her true form, he needed to make her drink a special glass of wine on the day of the dragon boat festival.

Shu Xian followed this advice and when he saw that his wife was, in fact, a large white snake, he died of shock.

Bai Su Zhen was determined to save her husband even from death.

So after traveling beyond where mortals could go, she returned with a sacred herb that was said to grant immortality.

Bai Sujen fed it to her husband and watched in awe as he began to come back to life.

But when Shizhian opened his eyes, he was afraid of the woman standing in front of him.

Don't hurt me.

Don't hurt me, he begged.

Hurt you?

It's me, Bai Suzhen, your wife.

I would never hurt you.

Bai Sujen tried to explain.

I owe you an explanation.

Please, listen.

And Bai Suzhen went on to tell her husband the truth.

She was a magical white snake spirit who had taken a human form.

But Bai Suzhen loved Shuxian and wanted to be with him forever.

Shixian was confused.

Why had his wife lied to him this whole time?

Because I thought you wouldn't accept me, she replied.

Shixian was torn.

He loved his wife.

He knew in his heart that she loved him too, but she was also a magical being, something he couldn't really understand.

Would he ever be able to trust her again?

He decided to do his best to forgive and forget.

But it wasn't easy.

He loved Bai Sujen, but Shixian was still very hurt by her betrayal.

Still,

the days passed and the couple continued on with their normal lives.

They operated their medicine shop and Xixian tried to forget about the fact that his wife was really a giant magical white snake.

Things were moving in the right direction when Xi Xian received an invitation to the opening of the Jinshan Temple.

The Jinshan Temple is a famous Buddhist temple in China that is still around today.

It was a nice invitation, but something didn't feel right to Bai Su Zhen.

She was still trying her best to repair things with her husband.

She didn't want him to be gone for a a long time and something about this temple opening just seemed suspicious.

But Shishian wanted to go.

He needed time and space to think things through and the opening ceremony sounded nice.

So Bai Sujian swallowed her fears and wished her husband farewell.

I will see you soon, she said.

Travel safe.

But unfortunately, Bai Su Zhen should have listened to her instincts.

Upon arriving at the temple, Shixian found himself face to face with the monk, Fahai.

I thought you would have come to your senses after realizing the truth about your wife, Fahai said.

But apparently you have not.

You have chosen to live with that demon, and now you must remain here to pray to the gods and cleanse your soul.

This is the exact anti-snake propaganda I have been talking about for the last last nine seasons.

What is this guy's problem?

I'm not exactly sure, but he was adamant about breaking up the relationship with Shu Xian and Bai Su Zhen.

He was so adamant, in fact, that he locked Shuxian up in the temple and refused to let him leave.

This is very poor behavior for a monk.

You said it, Oracle.

This guy is not a very good monk.

And as time passed by, Bai Su Zhen began to worry about her husband.

Where was he?

Why had he not returned?

How long was the ceremony?

She was worried that he had left her over the whole snake business, but Bai Suzhen refused to believe that that was true.

Shishian was an honorable man, not the kind of dude who would just, you know, ghost somebody.

A ghost.

is commonly referred to as the spirit or soul of a deceased person.

But I believe that in this case you are referring to ghosting or the practice of abruptly ceasing all forms of communication without explanation.

Exactly.

That's what the kids say these days, Oracle.

Unfortunately, a new survey conducted by Thriving Center of Psychology reveals that 86%

of people between the ages of 18 and 42

have been ghosted.

So rude, man.

What is up with people?

Anyway, Bai Su Zhen knew that Shu Xian would never do that to her.

He had manners.

Something must have happened.

So she decided to meet with her friend and fellow snake, Shaoqing, to see what she thought of the situation.

I just have this terrible feeling that something is not right.

Then you should go, Shaoqing replied.

You should trust that feeling.

This is an example of intuition or the ability to understand

something without conscious reasoning.

Bai had another reason for wanting to see Xi Xian.

She was pregnant.

She couldn't wait to share the news with her husband and she knew that he would be overjoyed to be a father.

Bai Su Zhen had to find him immediately.

She decided that she would go to the temple to see if Xi Xian had made it there at all.

When Bai Su Zhen finally finished the journey, she was shocked to see Fahai at the temple.

It didn't take long before she put two and two together.

Where is my husband?

Baisu Zhen asked.

We are keeping him safe from you, demon.

You will never see him again, Fahai declared.

Bring him to me now, or you will pay the price, Baisu Zhen demanded.

But Fahai did not budge and refused to bring out Shu Xian.

Then you will regret this decision for the rest of your days, she hissed.

We will see about that.

Suddenly and without warning, Fahai raised his hands to the skies.

When he brought them down, fire erupted, creating a barrier of flames between Bai Sujian and the temple that trapped her husband.

There are many different versions of this battle.

Some people believe that both Fa Hai and Bai Su Chen were able to summon help from some of the ancient gods.

Bai Su Zhen couldn't believe her eyes.

This was more than an old man with an anti-snake agenda.

This was someone with power.

Bai Su Zhen knew she would have to fight fire with fire.

Or in this case, fight fire with water.

And she did exactly that.

Bai Su Zhen closed her eyes, lifted her hands, and when she did, massive waves of water began to flood the temple.

Fahai was in disbelief as his flame began to disappear.

So with the flick of his wrist, he sent out an army of warriors ready to defend this castle from whatever magic Bai Sujen had to offer.

But Bai Sujen wasn't fazed.

She called upon the great warriors of the sea and summoned an army of shrimp soldiers and crab generals to defend her case.

I'm not exactly sure how a snake human has command over a seafood army, but like I said, there are a lot of different versions of this story, so we're just gonna roll with it.

Shrimp soldiers and grab generals is a saying written with just four characters in Mandarin.

It means a bunch of ineffective underlings, and it appears in many stories.

Ah, okay, all right, I get it.

So this is a phrase that would have been familiar to our listeners from China.

Kind of like how I might recognize all the king's king's horses and all the king's men when someone uses it in a story.

Exactly.

Well, all these shrimp and crab warriors were doing well, but Bai Sujen could tell that she was losing steam.

Remember, she was pregnant and, you know, growing a whole person inside of her body, which needed her energy more than she needed it to fight a battle.

So, in the end, Bai Sujen couldn't keep fighting and risk taking the energy that her future baby needed to grow.

She fell to her knees and the waves of water retreated back into the sea.

Fahai cackled as his walls of fire suddenly continued to burn brightly around the temple once again.

Don't worry, Bai Sujen.

I'll make sure your husband stays safe, he said with a laugh and he walked inside.

Bai Sujen went home, defeated.

But wait, what's that I see up ahead?

It's...

It's...

Oh, actually, it's just a break.

We're going to do a little commercial break, but we'll be back with more Greaking Out right after.

Okay.

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Well, that was short and sweet.

We're back with more greaking out.

We will wait until you have the baby, Shaoqing said, and then we will go to the temple and get back your husband.

We just have to wait until you are stronger.

Bai Su Zhen nodded sadly.

She hated the idea of being separated from her husband.

She felt like she had failed him when it mattered most.

After all, what good is having a snake for a wife if she can't even protect you during sticky situations, right?

I am assuming this is one of your rhetorical questions.

More like a joke, yeah, but no, no response is required.

Shu Xian, for his part, had watched the battle with both fear and pride.

His wife had never impressed him more.

And when he heard that he was going to be a father,

his heart swelled.

He knew it more than he had ever known anything.

He loved Baisu Jian, and he wanted to return home to her and his child.

So Shu Xian hatched a plan.

He didn't have magical powers, but he he did have brains, and he also had a heart.

So he told one of the young monks at the temple his whole story.

It's really a love story about two people,

two souls, who love each other and against all odds have found a way to be together.

I need your help for the happy ending of the story.

And because nothing can stop a person in love, one of the monks eventually caved and let Shu Xian out of the temple without Fahai's knowledge.

When he finally made it back to his house, Bai Su Zhen was beside herself with joy.

She couldn't believe her husband was free.

She told him all about the baby and how sorry she was that she didn't tell him about being a secret snake.

It's okay, Shu Xian told her.

We are meant to be together and start our family.

Let's not dwell on the past.

We have our whole lives ahead of us.

And for a while, things seemed to be pretty good.

Bai Sujen had her baby, and the young family was happy together.

They continued to operate their medicine shop and were able to help a great number of people.

They had a simple life, but that was fine with them.

They didn't need anything else but each other.

Unfortunately, their peace did not last.

Fahai was outraged when he learned of Shuxian's escape.

He vowed to find a way to break up the couple.

Seriously, what is with this guy?

I do not know, Oracle.

I guess he was really, really, really anti-snake.

Anyway, one day, while Shuxian was outside working in the garden gathering herbs, Fahai approached him.

What are you doing here?

You are not welcome here, Shuxian exclaimed.

I wanted to apologize for what happened between us, Fahai said.

You mean when you locked me up and kept me from my family?

Yes, I see I have made an error in judgment.

I have brought you this alms bowl as a way to make amends.

An alms bowl is a round, oval vessel that is used to collect offerings.

It is associated with monasteries and is a symbol of Buddhist monks.

Shujian was confused as to why Fahai would offer him the alms bowl.

He looked at the monk suspiciously.

Shu Xian, is someone here?

He heard Bai Sujen call from inside the shop.

Fine, I'll take it.

Shu whispered to the monk.

Just get out of here before she sees you.

She will never forgive you for what you did.

Shu Xian knew his wife would fight the abbot.

He didn't want anything to cause her pain, so he grabbed the bowl from the monk and headed back inside.

But the second he saw Bai Sujen, the bowl flew from his hand and scooped Bai Sujen into the bowl.

She was trapped.

This is not a typical characteristic of an alms bowl.

Fahai must have put a spell on the bowl that would capture Bai Su Zhen.

This guy is unreal.

But it got worse.

Fahai burst into the shop and grabbed the bowl that contained Bai Su Zhen.

Before Shu Shen could stop him, he ran away with the bowl and buried it under the Leifeng Pagoda.

A pagoda is a tiered tower.

They are usually associated with Buddhism and are commonly found all over Asia.

Shuxian tried everything he could think of to find a way to free his wife.

He argued with the monk, offered to move back into the monastery, prayed to all the gods, but nothing worked.

Bai Su Zhen was stuck underneath the pagoda with no way out.

Now,

I'm sad to say that this is where a lot of sources end their story.

Bai Su Zhen is stuck out of the pagoda.

Shuxian is so devastated that he joins a monastery, hopefully not the one Fahai is in, and their son is raised by family members.

The end.

But this, as we like to say, is kind of a bummer.

I would have been so angry with you if we had ended the episode there.

Yes, I know, it's not the happiest of endings, and luckily, we found a few sources that offer different versions of this tale.

And since this is our podcast and we can do what we want, we're going to tell that version instead.

Here, here.

So yes, things were looking rather dark for our friends.

Bai Suzhen was imprisoned under the pagoda, and Shishien was completely devastated.

There is no way that I can live a normal life without Bai Suzhen, he said to himself.

And so, he decided to go to a monastery to live out his days.

Now,

This might be an okay thing to do if you're a person with no children or other responsibilities, but Shishen had a son.

It is too painful to be around him, Xu Xian thought to himself.

He reminds me so much of my Su Xian.

So Xu Xian left his son in the hands of relatives and committed himself to life at the monastery.

Yeah,

not exactly the best parenting move.

Luckily, their son, yes, the baby was a boy, and his name was Shimeng Zhao, grew up to be a rather successful person in his own right.

Having no real memory of either one of his parents, Shimeng Zhao Zhao spent all of his time focused on his studies.

He became one of the top scholars in China.

And when the time came to take his imperial examinations, Xi Meng Zhao received one of the top scores.

The Imperial Examination was a civil service examination that was used in Imperial China as a way to recruit the brightest minds to serve as high-ranking officials in the empire.

The system lasted for almost a thousand years,

but was discarded in the early 1900s.

Interesting.

I did not know that.

Anyway, the test represented the culmination of a lot of hard work for Xi Meng Zhao.

He had spent his whole life hoping to ace this exam, but when he did,

he felt kind of empty.

Why am I not more excited?

Shimeng Zhao thought to himself.

Finally, he realized realized the problem.

He had received good news, but he had no one to share it with.

He decided he would go to the Leifeng Pagoda.

He knew that his mother was trapped underneath of it, imprisoned forever beneath the structure, so he decided to go and pay his respects to his mother and share his news.

It was a long journey, but Shimeng Jiao didn't mind.

After years of nothing but studying, he found himself happy to be doing something else for a change.

When he arrived at the pagoda, Shimeng Jiao found a quiet spot at the side of the structure and fell to his knees.

Hi, mom, he began.

I don't know if you can hear me.

I'm not sure if you're really even there or if I just look like a crazy person talking to a building, but I wanted to let you know that I got my scores back and I did pretty well.

Very well, actually.

He stopped.

Suddenly, Xiu Meng Jiao felt kind of foolish.

What was he expecting talking to a pagoda of all things?

Anyway, I just wanted to say that and say that I miss you and I wish you were here.

What Shimeng Zhao didn't realize was that the gods had been listening too.

They had been watching his entire journey unfold and they were deeply touched by his devotion to the mother he had never known.

To grow up an orphan and manage to become a top scholar with a tender heart for your mother, this is no small thing.

we should repay him the gods said to each other

and so by no small miracle the ground began to shake and out from underneath the rubble slithered a long white beautiful snake the snake headed straight for Shimeng Zhao who stood transfixed His mouth fell open when the snake suddenly transformed into a woman.

And not just any woman, it was was his mother, Bai Su Zhen.

I'm so proud of you, Bai Su Zhen said.

Her first words in over a decade.

Shimeng Zhao embraced his mother and fell to his knees in gratitude.

How are you here?

He managed to ask.

The gods freed me because of you, she said.

Because of the kind and generous, hard-working man you have become.

Now, tell me, where is your father?

Bai Su Zhen and Shimeng Zhao made their way to the monastery to find Shishian and tell him the news.

I hope they told him that he should have stuck around with his son.

Well, that's not clear in the story, but I hope so too.

Finally, this family was reunited, and against all odds, they lived out the rest of their days in peace.

This was a much better ending.

Well, I'm glad you approve, Oracle.

And a pretty good story for snakes, all things considered.

Yeah, I'd say so.

Not a good look for monks, though.

True, that's true.

Not so much in this case, but you're right about that.

Greaking out.

That's it for the legend of the white snake.

Join us next week for something new.

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National Geographic Kids Greaking Out is written by Jillian Hughes and Kenny Curtis and hosted by Kenny Curtis with Tori Kerr as the oracle of Wi-Fi, audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam, and our theme song was composed by Perry Gripp.

Dr.

Meredith Safron is our subject matter expert.

Emily Burquette and Laurie Broda are our producers, and Emily Everhart is our senior producer.