The Story Told by the Great Wall “Meng Jiangnu’s Bitter Weeping”

2 min read

Whenever people heard or talked about the Great Wall，the popular folk story of”Meng Jiangnu’s bitter weeping”would come into their mind.The story happened during the Emperor Qin Shihuang’s reign，during which he collected millions of labors to join the huge project of building the Great Wall.

The legend goes that Wan Xiliang，who got married to Meng Jiangni，was recruited to build the Great Wall on the third day after their marriage.In the later three years，his family heard nothing from him and they were all very anxious.At one night in the severe winter，his wife Meng Jiangni had a dream in which her husband suddenly entered the house and shouted，”Close the door！I’m going to freeze to death！”Meng startled from the dream and，wor-rying about the situation of her husband，was extremely anxious and sad.Then she made up her mind to go to find her husband and give him warm clothes.After several days of full preparation，Meng Jiangni said goodbye to her par-ents and started her long journey of looking for her husband.

All the way Meng Jiangni went through innumerable trials and hardships and finally arrived at the foot the Great Wall. The section of Great Wall finished was indeed grandand majestic, like a gigantic dragon stretching among the high mountains and deep valleys. But the Great Wall was still under construction then. The civilian labors did extremely burdensome work under the strict supervision of the sergeants, but what they ate was worse than what horses got, so all of them were in skin and bones. Meng Jiangni asked every person she met about her husband, but she got no answer, and worried deeply. Later a foreman told her that her husband Wan Xiliang died several months ago andhis remains were already filled into the Great Wall. This bad news, like a lightning bolt, stroke her numb. Then she began to cry, as if she was going to cry her heart out. Whoever heard her wail couldn’t help weeping.

Meng Jiangni kept staying at the foot of the Great Wall and crying for several days. She cried and cried. Suddenly, there came an earth-shaking blare, and the grandGreat Wall was breached into a 20-kilometer-wide gap.

After the dusts cleared off, heaps of bones of the deadlabors which were buried in the Great Wall appeared among the ruins. Then, Meng Jiangni refrained from the deep sorrow and wiping off her tears, she made out the re-mains of her husband. After burying her husband carefully, she threw herself into the sea with the extreme hatred towards the corrupted and fatuous ruler. The later people built a Jiangni Temple out of the Shanhai Pass to pay a tribute to the virtues of this great legendary woman.