Tianxian pei (Married to a heaven immortal) is a Chinese Huangmeixi (Huangmei opera) play from Anhui Province that became a national sensation in the 1950s thanks to a film adaptation based on a stage revision of pre-1949 versions. The old performance texts—based on a well-known legend—tell the story of Dong Yong selling his body for three years of servitude in order to borrow money to bury his father, an exemplary act of filial piety that the Jade Emperor in heaven rewards by sending his seventh daughter down to be his wife for one hundred days. The two meet on Dong's way to labor, get married with the help of the Star of the Great White, and proceed to his owner's house where Seventh Sister, with the help of her elder sisters, performs the miracle of weaving ten bolts of colorful brocade overnight, thus gaining the reduction of their labor to...

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