Folder of 1983 Chinese Classical Folk Tale series Stamps- Lady White Snake . Formosa(Taiwan), Rep of China.
Sc#2363-2366.
The photo is only for your reference. The cover of folder is in oxidization condition (gilding printing margin of the image ), not on the stamps .
Mint & never hinged(mnh).
Chinese legend Fairy Tale Stamps -The love story of a man & Lady White Snake.
The story is set in the Southern Song Dynasty. Two female snake spirits were transformed into human form after a thousand years of meditation, taking the names Bai Suzhen (White) and Qingqing (Green). One day at the West Lake in Hangzhou they came across Xu Xian, a poor herbal medicine shopkeeper and Bai and Xu fell in love at first sight.
Bai used magic to create a mansion, and she asked Qingqing to propose marriage with Xu for her. After the wedding, Bai helped Xu open an herbal medicine shop and made him the in-house doctor. They lived a happy life together.
One day, when Xu was on his way home, he met a Taoist priest who claimed that there were evil spirits lingering in his house and gave him three sheets of holy paper. Xu went home and confronted Bai with the holy paper but her powers were stronger than those of the Taoist priest and lifted the "blessings" from the holy paper. Xu was remorseful but Bai did not hold it against him, instead she drove the priest away.
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, Bai and Qingqing had to refrain from eating or else they would revert to their original snake forms. As the day went by, Bai became increasingly weak and Xu insisted she drink some wine. She took a sip of it but fell seriously ill afterwards. She rushed to her bed and slowly transformed back into a snake as the alcohol weakened her control over her form. When Xu brought her some medicine he was horrified to see the huge snake in his bed and literally died of shock.
When Bai recovered her human form she was grief-stricken to see Xu lying dead on the floor. Qingqing reminded her that the magicical lingzhi herb might save him. She set out to get these herbs but during her journey to the Kunlun Mountains she was stopped by a group of fairies. Bai risked her life to fight the fairies and was saved by the god of Nanji. He gave Bai the lingzhi and let her go and Bai managed to bring her husband back to life.
Sometime later, a powerful monk named Fahai from Jinshan Temple came to visit Xu and asked him to become a disciple of his and revealed that Bai and Qingqing were not humans but snake spirits. With much bitterness at being parted from the woman he loved, Xu moved to the temple.
Bai and Qingqing rushed to Jinshan Temple to plead for Xu´s release, but Fahai refused. Bai and Qingqing had no choice but to use their power to flood Jinshan Temple, but Fahai and his disciples tried their best to resist. During this struggle, Bai went into labor and lost control of her magic. Now the flood flowed over nearby villages, killing countless people. Qingqing, whose power was not as strong as Bai´s, could do nothing to stop the flood and could only help Bai retreat to the forest. Meanwhile, the God of Nanji released Xu and brought him to the forest.
After this Bai knew she could no longer conceal her identity from Xu. She told her husband what she really was and asked for his understanding and mercy. Xu was deeply moved and vowed that he would never again be apart from her for the rest of his life.
Bai soon gave birth to a boy. Fahai and his disciples arrived soon after and stated that Bai must be imprisoned in his alms bowl. After giving birth Bai could not recover her magic powers and had no choice but to submit and be sucked into Fahai´s alms bowl, later kept in the Leifeng Pagoda.
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