March 3, 2007

Hello Lauren,

We meet again! I admire you that you have already finished all your applications. And I believe you will succeed. Meanwhile, I will work hard too. Let us keep contact all the time.

All the content I prepared are tanslated by myself during the holidays. I think it is a good chance to practise my English. Today, I will tell you the second legend called the girl named Meng Jiangnv.


It is said that there was a family planting a pumpkin. When harvest time came, they got a very beautiful girl. When she grew up, it was the time when Qin emperor (China's first emperor in history) caught men to build the Great Wall. A man came into the girl's garden in order to evade it while the girl was looking for her fan in the lake. At that time, there was a consuetude that if a girl's skin was seen by a man, she had to marry him. And the girl liked the man as well. So they married. After just three days, the man was caught to build the Great Wall.The girl missed her husband so much that she ignored the hardships and dangers on the journey to seek him.When she arrived at the foot of the Great Wall, she was told that her husband had already died and his ashes was under the Great Wall.

She was so sorrowful that eight hundred kilometers of the Great Wall broke down by her crying. Finally she found her husband's ashes and decided to take him back to their hometown to bury. Hearing that the girl broke down the Great Wall by crying, Qin gave orders to catch her to condemn her. But seeing the girl was very beautiful, Qin forced her to marry him.

The girl made three terms. If Qin could comply, she would marry him. First, he had to make a tomb for her husband; Second, Qin should mourn like a dutiful son before her husband's tomb; Third, Qin must travel with the girl in the sea for three days. And Qin wanted to get hold of the beautiful girl very much, so he complied. Having held a memorial ceremony for her husband, the girl jumped into the sea when travelling.

People made up this story not only to hold a memorial ceremony for people who died when building the Great Wall, but to condemn Qin's barbarity.

Hope you enjoy it!
Best wishes, Ting Ting