ON July 17, 2004, the State Postal Bureau issued a set of four stamps whose theme is Liu Yi Delivers a Letter. The stamps picture the Dragon Princess Asking Liu Yi to Deliver a Letter, Liu Yi Delivering a letter to Dongting Lake, Family Reunion, and Mutual Love.

Story behind the stamps: Tang Dynasty (618-907) scholar Liu Yi went to take the imperial examinations but failed. On his way home he met a beautiful girl tending a herd of goats. When he asked her why she seemed so sad, she told Liu that her father was the Dragon King of Dongting Lake, and had married her off to the Dragon King of Jinghe Lake’s son. Her husband was abusive to her, but her father- and mother-in-law were indifferent. She asked Liu Yi to help her by delivering a letter to her father. While Liu Yi was at the Dragon King of Dongting Lake’s palace, news of the Princess plight came to her uncle. He slew the Dragon King of Jinghe Lake and rescued the princess.

The dragon princess wanted to marry Liu Yi, but he was unwilling to accede to pressure from her family. When Liu’s wife died, the dragon princess transformed herself into another woman and married him, and upon the birth of their child, revealed to him the truth of her identity. Liu was moved at the lengths she had gone to to be with him, and the two lived happy ever after.

A classic romance of the Tang Dynasty, this legend is well known in China. Its setting, the valley at the source of the Jing River in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is one of National Tourism Administration’s “16 Recommended Itineraries.”

Celebrating as it does the last set of the four famous Chinese romantic legends (the other three being Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, the Story of Dong Yong and the Seventh Immortal Maiden, Xu Xian and the White Snake), this set is a collector’s item.