Lady White VI

Xiao Qing, the sworn sister of Lady White's, is not harmed by Fahai, the prior of Gold Mountain Temple. She makes good her escape from Hangzhou after Fahai has Lady White trapped under Lei-feng ta (雷峰塔) or Thunder Peak Pagoda. Xiao Qing, who is a green snake ogress herself, goes to a remote mountain where she trains herself to become an immortal. She has learned more than enough magic to confront Fahai. She then returns to Gold Mountain Temple to fight Fahai. She causes great floods to innates the temple and defeats its prior. Lady White is finally set free. Fahai then retreats to the stomach of a crab in the Yangtze River. Taoist faithful believes that's why the internal fat of the crab is saffron-orange, the color of the ritual robe of Fahai”s.

Another modification makes Lady White give birth to a baby boy before she is trapped under the pagoda by Fahai. Xiao Qing is able to go into hiding, carrying the baby with her. She then takes Lady White's baby son to Xu Xian's relative, who raises the boy. He becomes a scholar, who then passes the highest-level civil service examination. After the son who becomes zhuang yuan (狀元) or the top candidate at the test at the imperial court, he goes to the pagoda to pay his respects to his mother trapped under it. Lady White is released from her eternal imprisonment because of her son's filial piety.

Still another modification points out both Lady White and Xu Xian are immortals serving the Jade Emperor in Heaven. There, however, they break the law of Heaven and must redeem themselves by living through human lives. Both are thus reborn in the human world. She becomes a small snake and he is born as a boy. Then they meet again to begin the story of Lady White.

The story has been adopted for operatic performances in Mandarin, Cantonese and Hoklo or Amoy. It became so popular that the Japanese produced Hakuja-den (白蛇傳) of the Legend of the White Serpent in 1956. Toho (東寶) starred Ikebe Ryo (池部良), a matinee idol, and Shirley Yamaguchi (山口淑子), a Mandarin-speaking top actress known also as Ri Koran (李香蘭) during the Second World War days, in the film in collaboration with the Shaw Brothers of Hong Kong. The first colored anime feature film in Japan, The Tale of the White Serpent, was released in 1958. It was titled Panda and the Magic Serpent in its U.S. release. There have been children's picture book adaptations of the legend. Among them are “Legend of the White Serpent” by A. Fularton Prior and “Lady White Snake: A Tale from Chinese Opera” by Aaron Shepard.

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