Legend of Meng Jiangnu

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Legend of Meng Jiangnu

Applicant: Ju county, Shandong Province

Item No.: 8

Project No.: I-8

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: Folk Literature

Region: Shandong Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Ju county, Shandong Province

Protection unit: Juxian Cultural Center

The legend of Meng Jiangnu

Applicant: Ju county, Shandong Province

The origin of the legend of Meng Jiangnu originated from the war launched by the state of Qi against the state of Ju. In the fourth year of qizhuanggong (550 BC), qizhuanggong sent generals Qiliang and Huazhou to attack the state of Ju. As a result, Qiliang was captured and killed by Ju soldiers. At the end of the war, Meng Jiangnu, Qi Liang's newly married wife, was eager for her husband and decided to go to Ju state to find her husband. Meng Jiangnu cried all the way. She came to Jucheng regardless of her fatigue. When she saw her husband's head hanging on the city wall, she couldn't help crying. With a dull thunder, the mountain rocked, and the wall where Qi Liang's head was hanging collapsed. Together with Meng Jiangnu, it was buried. People dug up the collapsed rocks, but they did not see the heads of Meng Jiangnu and Qi Liang. People say that they are still in love with each other in the world, and they are married again in the world. This is the legend of Meng Jiangnu, which is widely spread in Judi and its surrounding areas.

The legend of Meng Jiangnu spread all over the country. Different from the legend of Meng Jiangnu in other places, the main content of the legend of Meng Jiangnu in Judi, the place where the story took place, is not around the great wall of Qin Dynasty and between Qin Shihuang and Meng Jiangnu, but around the entanglement between Qi Great Wall and the battle between Qi and Ju and Meng Jiangnu. In the legend of Judi, the tragic result of the separation of husband and wife caused by the war is a typical feature of the legend of Judi. Up to now, the old women in Juxian area still express their feelings with Meng Jiangnu's traditional tune on specific occasions, which is widely spread in rural areas and forms a kind of crying culture.