The Story of the Blue Willow

Once upon a time there lived a very important Chinese Official (Mandarin). His beautiful daughter Koong-see was in love with Chang, the secretary of the Mandarin. The Mandarin wanted his daughter to wed Ta-jin, an important and rich friend of the Mandarin. So he built a long fence around his beautiful house to keep Koong-see away from Chang. When the peach tree blossomed, Ta-jin and Koong-see were supposed to get married. Ta-jin sent Koong-see a box of jewels as a wedding present.Koong-see and Chang decided to elope. They ran over the bridge, carrying the jewels and were chased by the Mandarin. They hid away in the humble house of some of Koong-see’s servants. They were secretly married and were taken away to an island far away. The two lovers built a lovely house on the island. Ta-jin’s spies found the island hide-away and attacked them to get the jewels and Koong-see back. In the fight the house was burn down and the two lovers died on the island. Because they loved each other so much, they both turned into immortal doves so that they could be with each other to eternity.