Tale of the Transcendent Marriage of Dongting Lake

Liu Yi encounters the Dragon Girl on the bank of the Jing River. Illustration from a 1615 anthology of zaju plays which includes Shang Zhongxian's stage adaptation.

Liu Yi Well, supposedly the site where Liu Yi entered Dongting Lake, a tourist attration on Junshan Island.

"The Tale of the Supernatural Marriage at Dongting" (Chinese: 洞庭靈姻傳), better known as "The Story of Liu Yi" (Chinese: 柳毅傳), is a Chinese chuanqi (fantasy) short story from the Tang dynasty, written by Li Chaowei (李朝威) in the second half of the 8th century. It is about a young man named Liu Yi who, out of sympathy, agrees to deliver a letter from a distressed dragon to her father, the Dragon King of Lake Dongting; following her rescue and the death of her abusive husband, the Dragon Girl transforms into a beautiful woman and marries Liu Yi.

Translations

English translations include:[1]

• "Story of the Daughter of the Dragon-king of Tung-t'ing Lake" (tr. E.D. Edwards) in Chinese Prose Literature of the T'ang Period (A.D. 618–906), Volume 2 (Arthur Probsthain, 1938)
• "The Dragon's Daughter" (tr. Wang Chi-chen) in Traditional Chinese Tales (Columbia University Press, 1944)
• "The Dragon King's Daughter" (tr. Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang) in The Dragon King's Daughter: Ten Tang Dynasty Stories (Foreign Languages Press, 1954)
• "The Legendary Marriage at Tung-t'ing" (tr. Russel E. McLeod) in Traditional Chinese Stories: Themes and Variations (Cheng & Tsui Company, 1986)
• "Liu Yi; or, Tale of the Transcendent Marriage of Tung-t'ing Lake" (tr. Glen Dudbridge) in The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature (Columbia University Press, 1994)
• "The Dragon King's Daughter" (tr. John Minford) in Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations, Volume 1: From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty (Columbia University Press, 2000)
• "The Tale of the Supernatural Marriage at Dongting" (tr. Meghan Cai) in Tang Dynasty Tales: A Guided Reader, Volume 2 (World Scientific, 2016)

Adaptations

In the 13th century, Shang Zhongxian (尚仲賢) adapted the story into a zaju titled Liu Yi Delivers a Letter to Dongting Lake (洞庭湖柳毅傳書, English version: Liu Yi and the Dragon Princess translated by David Hawkes, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2003[2]). In the 17th century, Li Yu created a chuanqi play titled Tower in the Mirage (蜃中樓) by combining Shang's play with that of another play featuring a Dragon Girl, Scholar Zhang Boils the Sea at Shamen Island (沙門島張生煮海).[3]

The Qing dynasty novel Steep Cloud Tower (躋雲樓) is also based on Liu Yi's story.

References

1. Nienhauser, Jr., William H., ed. (2016). "The Tale of the Supernatural Marriage at Dongting". Tang Dynasty Tales: A Guided Reader, Volume 2. World Scientific. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-981-4719-52-0.
2. Liu Yi and the Dragon Princess: A Thirteenth-Century Zaju Play by Shang Zhongxian. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. October 2003. ISBN 978-962-996-064-3. Retrieved 27 November 2023 – via Columbia University Press.
3. Chen, Liana (June 2003). "Homeward Odyssey: Theatrical Reframing of "The Rakshas and the Sea Market"" (PDF). Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore (140): 286–87. Retrieved 27 November 2023.