Many
beautiful legends and tales have left in China about the construction of the Great Wall.
However, many of them have been based on historical records. Among them, the most popular
would probably be the one about lady Meng Jiangnu.
On the night of
their wedding, Wan Xiliang, Meng Jiangnu's husband, was pressganged to build the Great
Wall by the Qin soldiers. Before Wan Xiliang went away, Lady Meng took her white jade
hairpin and broke it into two halves and gave her husband one half as a token of love.
One day, when lady
Meng stayed at home, she had a bad dream, she dreamed that her husband was constantly
yelling: "Cold, cold!" She recalled that her husband was wearing very thin
clothes. Very soon, she made some padded clothes and left home to look for her husband.
She didn t expect that her husband had already died, so she burst into tears. The Great
Wall was moved and it collasped for more than 20 Km, revealing the dead bodies of her
husband and many others. On seeing this, she wrapped her husband's dead body in arm and
committed suicide by jumping into the sea.
Now, you can find
a temple built at Shanhaiguan Pass near the sea in memory of this loyal lady. |