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| Chinese Culture behind "Hidden Dragon and Crouching Tiger" |
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was partially based on a famous wushu or chivalric novel in China, it presents in complete detail all the levels of tao, love and life. In depicting the life story of Yu Chiao-lung (“Jen”),
it gives an account of how to see your real self and how to comprehend intuitively the Tao.
The three main characters (Li Mu-bai, Shu-Lien, and Jen) in the movie respectively represent Taoism, Confucianism, and Zen (Chan) Buddhism. 
Li Mu-bai
Wudang School of swordfighting was well known throughout China for his kungfu. His weapon, Green Destiny, is 400 years old and had special powers. Although his Taoist practice was already at a high level, he had yet to complete his destiny (in his life). He believes that the blockages which he has lately encountered in his Taoist practice are related to his attachment to this sword.
Content Three Persons, Three belief 
Yu Shu-lien
Shu-Lien liked Li Mu-bai, but according to her Confucian training, after her fiancé died, she had to remain unmarried despite her youth. Since she was unable to take the initiative in this matter, she had to wait until Li Mu-bai brought up any discussion of romance between them. Although Li Mu-bai likewise also liked Shu-Lien, he was afraid of hurting his honor and integrity by starting a romance with her. He was a master of a martial arts line, and he was very aware of his face and dignity when doing things, so he was waiting for a suitably opportune time to broach the subject. Since the time had yet to come, the two throughout the movie maintained a certain distance, so although they thought a lot about the other, they never did anything about their feelings. They only expressed their feelings in an unexpected brushing of hands for a moment. Since these two people admired each other so, but because of destiny were unable to follow through on what they felt, they were unable to experience true romantic love. Li Mu-bai and Shu-lien in their character and their habits of managing things and people were traditional and conservative. 
Yu Chiao-lung
Jen is very different from them. Representing a breath of fresh air and new life, she is the key person in this movie. She was the spark that made everyone's emotions and love move, and let Li and Shu-lien's feelings for each other to re-open. Because of these things, Jen knew something was missing in her life: she wanted to understand the true mind of people and also know her own original mind. While she was helping people (her boyfriend), she was overcoming herself (overcoming her ego). He who helps other people can help himself. This is like the tao.
When Li Mu-bai visits Shu-lien at the beginning of the movie, he tells her that he has recently been on a retreat to find out what it is that has been missing in his life. He describes to her a light he had seen while in a meditative state during a retreat; a light which his teacher had never mentioned. Shu-Lien tells him that he had attained the tao (he had reached enlightenment), but he says, "I don't think I got the tao because I don't have the feeling of happiness. I just feel very quiet and peaceful yet also very sad.” Li Mu-bai tells her that he left before the retreat was over because he realizes that if he can let go of his mind (and not worry about not worry about whether his use of his sword, Green Destiny, would help people or kill them), he can have his freedom. This sword is the weapon which made Li Mu-bai famous, so this sword means his life, his mind and his heart, too. “Green Destiny” means that destiny is not predictable because we cannot grasp it securely (like we can the hilt of a sword). Now that he wants to retire from sword fighting, he must pass on the sword to someone. If he is able to do this, he will get the tao. This is why he left his retreat early to give the sword to Shu-Lien to give to Sir Te in Beijing. Jen's life was a traditional one which did not suit her personality; she wanted to lead her own life on her own terms. Jade Fox had ‘opened the door' for her by providing her the sort of changes and opportunities that made her want to experience what real life is, life which could be experienced if she entered a gung fu society far from her home. The real world of gung fu is not like the traditional routine-filled world we know. This gung fu world has different levels and different sorts of hopes to help us fulfill our own yearning to know what life is. To enter this world Jen would have to pay a very high price through hard work with her body, mind and spirit. This is like a person who chooses a very untraditional job and then must work very hard to succeed because of it. Traditional jobs are much less demanding. When Jade Fox taught her that her life was incomplete, Jen started secretly learning gung fu from the sword manual which her teacher had stolen from Li Mu-bai's master. It contained the secrets of the Wudan style of sword fighting of which Li is a master. As she slowly she discovered that her gung fu was better than her teacher's, she found her life had become frightening to her because she no longer had any boundaries or any direction to follow in pursuing her life. This realization was also frightening because Jen was being extremely disrespectful of her teacher by not passing on what she had learned from reading the manual (Jade Fox was illiterate). The world and universe were before her, but she had no sense of which direction she should follow or how she should proceed.
Bamboo Fighting
In Buddhism, bamboo represents the spirit of emptiness spirit in the vase which the Bodhisattva Kuan Yin carries. This vase contains purification water. The hollow bamboo represents the true mind, so the bamboo forest lets Jen and Li calm their minds. Their pursuit through the bamboo forest like a pair of butterflies is like a butterfly transforming into a higher level. Li tells Jen he didn't kill her in the old temple because he wanted to see her true mind. Now in the bamboo forest, where they are alone with just the shadows of the wind and bamboo and their own two shadows he seems to know her true mind. This happens because in the bamboo forest they can exchange their energies with each other. The Taoist concept of taichi emphasizes the relationship between emptiness and reality; this is meaning of the shadows. Their shadows mutually exchange and yield, giving way to each other and Li is confused about whether or not to try and step into her heart. This confusion is like the situation in Chuangtse's story of the butterfly dream; is he a man dreaming of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of a man dreaming of a butterfly? That sort of inter-reactive and unified state of combination of man, mind, environment, and dimensional forces leads to complete transformation and true understanding: a sort of enlightenment coming up to see through other people without needing to use any language. When Li and Jen can't see their ego, then their real mind is born, and their basic quality appears. When their basic quality appears, they automatically resonate, allowing them to see a bigger mind (their buddha quality is coming up). So when our ego disappears, our true mind comes up, our basic quality is established and linked with the buddha quality for each person involved thus permitting intuitive interaction: language and explanations are no longer necessary to understand the real mind of each person involved. At this time Jen can understand Li will transmit the gung fu to her as well as feel his sincerity to teach her the way of Taoist gung fu. In addition, she can feel his romantic emotion for her, which is still a bit stagnant. As they fight in the bamboo, whenever Jen falls or descends, Li pulls her up, indicating his ability to help her go up to a higher level of practice.
Passing through the bamboo forest, they come to a small deep mountain lake, which is located at a lower elevation than the forest itself. In the bamboo forest there were shadows, but the lake has no shadows. The shadows represent the obstacles from which true mind is revealed in overcoming obstacles we lessen the strength of our ego. The lake is crystal clear very much like a mirror, which means we can clearly see our mind's five poison and five perceptive emotions. This means the problems of a distinguishing mind (ego) appear, so the true mind disappears. 
Bamboo Today
As for Li, the first time he fought with Jen was like meeting another expert swordsman; the second time fighting in the old temple he was transmitting Tao; the third time fighting in the bamboo forest he found she had learned everything which he could teach her in the old temple and she had learned it very well. He admired her and was very moved (in his heart and mind). But when they arrived at the lake, Li changed. Li was very conscious of his face/dignity as a martial arts master, so he found he could not ask Jen to be his friend. Instead, he said he wanted to be her teacher. As for Jen, with her strict, rigid and direct personality, she didn't want to be Li's student; she wanted to be his friend. She couldn't promise to be his student. Li was hurt by poison darts in the cave. When Jen realized that Li Mu-bai had saved her, she did not realize that she was helping Li Mu-bai enter the state of nirvana, neither did she feel their predestined relationship. Her awareness at that time had totally disappeared because she knew he had used his life to save hers. Her distinguishing mind and ego had returned. When Jen says she will get the antidote for Li, he believes her but since Shu-lien is there, they are unable to say anything else. At this time Shu-lien wants Li to conserve whatever original/real chi he still has left so he could have a peaceful death, and not speak at all. He says that he had wasted a lot of things in his life, so he doesn't have any real (original) chi left; he feels that since what he wanted to love, he couldn't love, and what he wanted to do he couldn't do, the least he can do is to tell Shu-lien his feelings for her. This proves that he certainly did have feelings for Shu-lien, certainly love and certainly fate. Their levels of relationship were inadequate to overcome the many blockages between them and be able to connect. Since it was their fate to have insufficient forces to overcome these blockages, their relationship was like that of most husbands and wives: their love had an ethical level and a desire level, but no romance level. Although Li and Shu-lien had not married each other, the relationship in which they waited for each other had its own type of ethical relationship. The relationship between Li and Jen was different; the consequences of the two times they fought caused their superficial relationship to opened up. They were able to break through their face and dignity step by step to directly reach a higher sensation and spiritual level. In this way their relationship was like a diving dragon and hidden tiger. The forces steadily accumulated, transformed deep inside and finally opened them up. They were able to break through and express their feelings, and enter the spiritual level and romance level standard. This emotional relationship is like a hidden dragon and crouching tiger. Related Articles: The Spirits of Chinese Religion Add to your favorite Bookmarking sites             
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Three Persons, Three belief
Li Mu-bai: entered a Taoist monastery and becoming an expert in the