Hello, I’m Pang Ying. Welcome to Episode 16 of Think Like a Debater.

A debate once asked:Should Fahai separate Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen?。

Pause. What do you think?

Begin with Renmin University’s opposition case.

They argued that Fahai separates the lovers because he has not truly understood Buddhism. A Buddha has three limitations: unable to erase fixed karma, save those without affinity, or exhaust the realm of sentient beings.

First, inability to erase fixed karma means that even boundless wisdom cannot interfere with predetermined cause and effect. In a previous life Xu Xian saved Bai when she was a small snake; a bodhisattva sent her to repay him. Their bond was karmically destined.

Second, inability to save those without affinity means Buddhism cannot save people who do not seek its guidance. Xu and Bai’s romantic bond remains unresolved, and neither ever asked Fahai for help.

Third, even limitless power cannot save every being or govern all worldly affairs. Fahai fails here by obsessing over capturing demons without asking whether that brings disaster or benefit.

Separating them violates all three Buddhist limitations, so he should not do it.

Did judging Fahai by Buddhist standards surprise you? It feels unexpected yet perfectly fitting—quite clever.

But the affirmative was cleverer still.

The University of Hong Kong began: a painter chooses how to paint according to artistic value—color, composition, and emotional expression. An athlete’s training plan follows science and the goal of realizing potential. The Legend of the White Snake is literature, so character and plot should be judged by the work’s literary value.

The separation creates that value. After centuries constrained by feudal ethics, people amid new ideas courageously pursued love beyond convention: poor scholars with wealthy daughters, ordinary humans with seductive fox spirits. The tale’s historical meaning lies in collision between two value systems and in White Snake’s love enduring conservative obstruction.

Yet the story goes further. Each time Bai’s wrongdoing is exposed, she suffers consequences; after flooding Jinshan Temple, she ends imprisoned beneath Leifeng Pagoda. The tale does not wholly favor one value, but uses Fahai’s intervention to prompt dialectical reflection on love and propriety.

Is judging by what gives a novel artistic and historical value even more unexpected?