The Story of Meng Jiangnu, a Heartbreaking Story of Love and Loss

The Great Wall of China is not only well-known for its sheer length, but also for its legends. This is a tragic tale of two lovers whose love was so great, it brought down the mighty wall.

The story is about a girl named Meng Jingnu (孟姜女) and her beloved Fan Xiliang. Their love story is one of China’s four great folktales called “Meng Jiangnu Weeps” or “Meng Jiangnu bringing down the Great Wall with her tears” (孟姜女哭长城).

The Chinese legend starts with a childless couple with the family name Meng, who lived right next to another childless couple, with the family name Jiang. As the years went by the Meng couple decided to plant a gourd vine.

As the vine grew, it sprouted a gourd on the neighbor’s side of the fence. Both the Jiang and Meng families, having been friends for a long time, decided to share the gourd.

But when they cut the gourd in half, to their amazement, a pretty baby girl was lying inside. Just like the gourd, both families decided to raise her together, that is how she received the name Meng Jiang Nu, which means Meng and Jiang’s daughter (nu stands for female/woman/daughter in Chinese).

Jiangnu grew to be very beautiful and also very kind. She took care of both families, and everybody grew very fond of her. One day while walking in the gardens, she discovered a man hiding in the bushes; she instantly called for her parents.

When the man revealed himself, she found him to be a good looking man named Fan Xiliang. Fan was hiding from officials who were forcing young men to start building the Great Wall. The couple fell in love with each other and were married.

However their happiness was short lived. Just three days after the marriage Xiliang was discovered by officials and taken away to build the wall. For the entire year Meng sat alone with no word of news about the wall or the well-being of her husband.

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