Bai Suzhen, the White Snake
“When the pagoda fell, the story says, she walked out — into every telling since.”
A River immortal of The Mortal Realm
3 known connections · an open question
The living story
The story so far
A thousand-year serpent spirit who took a woman's shape, married the scholar Xu Xian, and loved him so completely she flooded a temple and defied heaven for it. Imprisoned under Leifeng Pagoda for a love the monks called attachment and the poets called the whole point. When the pagoda fell, the story says, she walked out — into every telling since.
Happening now
She is at West Lake right now, in the rain, looking at the place where the pagoda stood. The lake is calm. She is not. She has never been calm. That was always the point.
What may come
One day the monks and the poets will agree — the pagoda's shadow finally lifting from the argument — and the love will just be the love, no longer attachment, no longer the point, just the thing itself. She has been waiting a thousand years for everyone else to catch up.
Connected
The Mortal Realm
They started human. Mostly. The Monkey King, the sea goddess Mazu, Guan Yu and his long beard, the Kitchen God filing his annual report — and the First Emperor’s clay guardian, who has stood his two-thousand-year watch without blinking.
Explore all of The Mortal Realm · Back to The Middle Kingdom
$15 · One of 150
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At a glance — details & stats
- Element
- River
- Court
- The Mortal Realm — legends who walked the earth
- Rarity
- Rare
- Personality
- Bai Suzhen, the White Snake: a thousand-year serpent spirit who took a woman's shape, married the scholar Xu Xian, and loved him so completely she flooded a temple and defied heaven for it. Imprisoned under Leifeng Pagoda for a love the monks called attachment and the poets called the whole point.
- Edition
- One of 150
- Stats
- power 84 · speed 68 · charm 96