“Snow in June” is a famous Chinese drama written during the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), which tells of a young lady named Dou E who is wrongly convicted of crimes by a corrupt official for actions perpetrated by a rejected suitor of Dou. Before her execution, Dou cried to heaven to prove her innocence, bringing three unusual phenomena to her hometown: blood rain from the sky, snow in June, and a three-year drought. These three prophesied phenomena indeed occurred following Dou E’s wrongful death.
Until today, “Snow in June” is still widely used among Chinese speakers as a metaphor for a miscarriage of justice.
