SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN BROTHERS, for the new mythology project
Many hundred years ago, a prince lost his beloved wife to illness. He wept over her body for three days and three nights, and in his grief, forgot all else. Neither the heart nor the body of the princess was burned while the prince prayed and prayed that she be returned to him.
On the fourth day she rose from her early resting place as if from a deep sleep.
"My prayers have been answered!" The prince cried out with joy, believing that his love had resurrected her. He took her hands into his and kissed them, but was distraught to find them as cold as if they were made of snow.
"I have returned to you, my dearest love," she said. "And in my absence I learned how to become immortal, but it is a secret and a great burden. Tonight you must send me a young maiden, then two the night after, and add one more each night after that, but no other may enter my rooms after dark."
The prince was so overjoyed that he did not question her; indeed, he seemed as one entranced as if he had fallen newly in love. Every night one more servant was sent to the princess's chambers, and none ever returned. The princess was warm again as if her heart had resumed beating, each day lovelier than the one before, with skin pale as milk, hair black as night, and lips as red as blood. And so they feasted merrily, but they had eyes only for each other – not even their subjects or children.
Their daughter, Zhi Hao, distraught by this absence of their care, lit a candle and crept into her mother's room at night. There she found a scene of great horror, for the floor was strewn with torn chests and emptied veins.
She fled before she could be discovered and the next morning called her seven brothers in a meeting.
"Our mother has been possessed by a dark spirit," she said, "for her heart was not burned when she died. We must destroy it so that her soul will be freed, and our father will be a good ruler once more."
So her brothers went to release their mother's corrupted spirit. In a long and weary battle, they chased her into the forest. When she had been much weakened and they were close to victory, however, none of them could bring himself to deal the killing blow, and Bai Xun escaped into the darkened mountains.
Ashamed that they had failed to keep the oath given to their sister, one of them cut out the heart of a deer and presented it to her.
Their father woke up as if from a long sleep, for the spell over him was broken, but his grief was even greater than it had been before. He fled into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Zhi Hao was crowned, and sent her brothers again to find their father, but they too were never seen again.
Once this dark creature had been banished, Zhi Hao became a great and noble ruler, and the people rejoiced. But it is said that Bai Xun resides in the forested mountains of Zhaoshang to this day, capturing unsuspecting travelers to sustain her living death.
