The Legend of Lady White Snake

It tells of two snakes, one white and the other green. The snakes after studying magic for thousands of years managed to transform themselves into beautiful women.

One day, they took a stroll as a woman around West Lake. During their stroll, it began to rain and the two huddled under a tree near Broken Bridge（断桥）. Not long after a handsome young scholar XuXian（许仙） walked past. He offered umbrella to White Snake. The couple fell in love and married afterwards. After their marriage, the couple started their own medicine shop. Since Lady White Snake had magic powers, she could diagnose patient’s illnesses.

One day when Lady White Snake was out delivering medicines, a monk named Fahai（法海）stopped by their shop and told XuXian that he was married to a demon who would one day devour him. He asked XuXian to visit him at the Gold Mountain Temple （金山寺）and imprisoned him later. Lady White Snake upon her return found her husband missing. She finally discovered that XuXian had been imprisoned by Fahai. She demanded that Fahai release her husband, and the monk insisted that since she was not truly human she was the evil one and he would destroy her. A huge battle raged between the monk and Lady White Snake.

In the end, the monk managed to trap Lady White Snake in a golden alms bowl, where she was forced to admit defeat. The evil monk imprisoned Lady White Snake in the Leifeng Pagoda (雷峰塔) and declared that not until the lake dried up, or the pagoda falls will she be released.