Bai Suzhen was a human manifest of a white snake spirit. She fell in love with a scholar Xu Xian. The two married and soon had a child. However, their happiness was short-lived as a monk, Fahai, had discovered the real identity of Bai Suzhen and decided to separate them but failed. Fahai then captured Xu Xian and imprisoned him in Jinshan Temple. In order to rescue Xu Xian, Bai Suzhen and her sisiter Xiaoqing used her powers to flood the temple. However, Bai was eventually captured and imprisoned in the Lei Feng Pagoda.
Lü Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals, disguises himself as a man selling tangyuan at the Broken Bridge (斷橋) near the West Lake in Hangzhou. A boy called Xu Xian (simplified Chinese: 许仙; traditional Chinese: 許仙; pinyin: Xǔ Xiān; Jyutping: Heoi2 Sin1) buys some tangyuan from Lü Dongbin, not knowing that the tangyuan are actually pills of immortality. He does not feel hungry for the next three days after eating the tangyuan, and is so puzzled that he goes back to talk to the seller. Lü Dongbin laughs and carries Xu Xian to the bridge, where he flips him upside down, causing Xu to vomit out the pills into the lake.
There is a white snake spirit in the lake, who has been practising Taoist magical arts in the hope of becoming an immortal after centuries of training and cultivation. The white snake eats the pills vomited out by Xu Xian, and she gains 500 years' worth of magical powers. The white snake is grateful to Xu Xian and their fates became intertwined. There is another terrapin (or tortoise) spirit also training inside the lake who did not manage to consume any of the pills; he then becomes very jealous of the white snake. One day, the white snake sees a beggar on the bridge, who has caught a green snake and wants to dig out the snake's gall to sell it. The white snake transforms into a woman and buys the green snake from the beggar, saving the green snake's life. The green snake is grateful to the white snake and she regards the white snake as an older sister.
Eighteen years later, during the Qingming Festival, the white and green snakes transform themselves into two young women, called Bai Suzhen (simplified Chinese: 白素贞; traditional Chinese: 白素貞; pinyin: Bái Sùzhēn; Jyutping: Baak6 Sou3-zing1) and Xiaoqing (Chinese: 小青; pinyin: Xiǎoqīng; Jyutping: Siu2-cing1) respectively. They travel to Hangzhou and meet Xu Xian at the Broken Bridge, and Xu lends them his umbrella because it is raining. Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen gradually fall in love with each other and are eventually married. They move to Zhenjiang, where they open a medicine shop.
In the meantime, the terrapin spirit has accumulated enough powers to take human form, and he transforms into a Buddhist monk called Fahai (Chinese: 法海; pinyin: Fáhǎi; Jyutping: Faat3-hoi2). Fahai is still angry with Bai Suzhen and he plots to break up her relationship with Xu Xian. He approaches Xu Xian and tells Xu to let his wife drink realgar wine (雄黃酒) during the Duanwu Festival. Bai Suzhen unsuspectingly reveals her true form as a large white snake after drinking the wine, and Xu Xian dies of shock after seeing that his wife is not human. Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing travel to Mount Emei, where they brave danger to steal a magical herb that restores Xu Xian to life.
After coming back to life, Xu Xian still maintains his love for Bai Suzhen despite knowing her true identity. Fahai tries to separate them again, capturing Xu Xian and imprisoning him in Jinshan Temple (金山寺). Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing fight with Fahai to rescue Xu Xian, with Bai using her powers to flood the temple, drowning many innocent people in the process as well. However, Bai Suzhen's powers are limited because she is already pregnant with Xu Xian's child, and she fails to save her husband. Xu Xian later manages to escape from Jinshan Temple and he reunites with his wife in Hangzhou, where Bai Suzhen gives birth to their son, Xu Mengjiao (simplified Chinese: 许梦蛟; traditional Chinese: 許夢蛟; pinyin: Xǔ Mèngjiāo; Jyutping: Heoi2 Mung6-gaau1). Fahai soon tracks them down and he defeats Bai Suzhen and imprisons her in Leifeng Pagoda.
Twenty years later, Xu Mengjiao takes first place in the imperial examination and returns home in glory to visit his parents. At the same time, Xiaoqing, who escaped when Bai Suzhen was captured by Fahai, goes to Jinshan Temple to confront Fahai and succeeds in defeating him. Bai Suzhen is freed from Leifeng Pagoda and reunites with her husband and son, while Fahai flees and hides inside the stomach of a crab. There is a saying that a crab's internal fat is orange because it resembles the colour of Fahai's kasaya.
Modifications and alternate versions
The white snake was simply known as the "White Lady" or "White Maiden" (Chinese: 白娘子; pinyin: Bái Niángzǐ; Jyutping: Baak6 Noeng4-zi2) in the original tale in Feng Menglong's Jingshi Tongyan (警世通言). The name "Bai Suzhen" was created only later.
The original story was a story of good and evil, with the Buddhist monk Fahai setting out to save Xu Xian's soul from the white snake spirit, who was depicted as an evil demon. Over the centuries, however, the legend has evolved from a horror tale to a romance story, with Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian genuinely being in love with each other but their relationship being forbidden by the laws of nature.
Some adaptations of the legend in theatre, film, television and other media have made extensive modifications to the original story, including the following:
The green snake (Xiaoqing) is portrayed as a treacherous antagonist who betrays the white snake, as opposed to the traditional depiction of her as the white snake's close friend and confidant.
Fahai is portrayed in a more sympathetic light as opposed to the traditional depiction of him as a vindictive and jealous villain. His background story is also different in some adaptations.
Bai Suzhen is freed from Leifeng Pagoda because her son's filial piety moved the gods of Heaven.
A retcon version of the story, which relates that Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian were actually immortals who fell in love with each other and were banished from Heaven because celestial laws forbid their romance. They are reincarnated as a human man and a female white snake spirit respectively and their story begins.
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