When night falls, the bright moon rises in the sky. Drenched in the limpid moonlight, one may indulge in idle reverie. Looking up at the silvery globe of the moon, one may see something black in it. Legend has it that a fairy called Chang E lives in the palace of the moon and she raised a jade rabbit and grew cherries. The black shadows in the moon may be just them. Why does Chang E live there alone? It is a very interesting story.
Chang E was originally a beautiful and kind girl who lived in a village. She was a lovely, hard-working girl with a pure heart. She was particularly fond of white rabbits, which could be found everywhere in the courtyard and garden of the house where she lived.
One of the rabbits she had was extremely naughty; it often escaped and ran off to the riverside behind the house to eat grass. One day, Chang E came to the riverside to look for the rabbit. At that time, the river god He Bo, known for his evil intentions, happened to be there eating grass. Seeing the striking beauty, he changed himself into a handsome lad and tried to strike up a conversation with Chang E. Seeing that he harbored evil intentions, Chang E tried to walk away, but He Bo showed his voracious ferocious side and carried her by force into the river. At this critical moment, a young man arrived. Seeing what was happening, he was enraged. He picked up his bow and shot an arrow through an eye of He Bo. He Bo screamed in agony, released the girl and escaped into the river.
The young man was Hou Yi who legend has it shot down nine suns from the heavens and exterminated six evils on earth. He was much appreciated by Yao and by all the people on earth. However, Hou Yi had offended the Emperor of Heaven because he shot and killed the nine sons of the Emperor of Heaven. The Emperor flew into a rage and wouldn’t allow Hou Yi to return to the heaven. Hou Yi was forced to live in the world of men. After Hou Yi rescued Chang E, they soon fell in love and finally get married. They lived happily for some years.
Hou Yi was famous for his unparalleled achievements. He was respected and loved by the people and lots of excellent people came to him to study martial arts. He had thousands of disciples. Among them was a person named Peng Meng. Unbeknown to all Peng Meng was in fact the river god He Bo in another form. Peng was naturally, as he was a god, very cunning. Hou Yi failed to realise who he really was and thus was not wary of him at all but just taught him like any other disciple.
One day on his way to Kunlunshan Mountain to visit friends, he came upon the West Empress of Heaven Wangmu who was passing by. The West Empress was a deity of heaven responsible for natural disasters, plague and punishment. She also prepared and collected elixirs. She had heard the story of Hou Yi before. She admired his behavior and sympathized with his plight and so she generously presented him with an elixir pill saying, “This elixir is refined from deathless fruits on deathless trees which blossom only once every three thousand years and bear fruit only once every three thousand years. It also takes three thousand years to refine the deathless fruits into this elixir. I have only one elixir pill left and by taking it, you can ascend immediately to heaven and become once more a celestial being.” Hou Yi, however, could not bear to part from his wife. So he gave the elixir to Chang E to keep for the time being. Chang E hid it in a treasure box in her dressing table where, unexpectedly, it was seen one day by Peng Meng.
Three days later, Hou Yi brought his disciples hunting. Peng Meng having feigned illness remained in the house. Shortly after the others had left, Peng Meng, sword in hand, rushed into the inner chamber and tried to force Chang E to hand over the elixir. Aware that she could not hope to defeat Peng Meng, Chang E made an instinctive decision at that critical moment. She turned round to open her treasure box, picked up the elixir and swallowed it down in one gulp. As soon as she had swallowed the elixir, she fell into a trance and her body floated off the ground, out of the window and flew towards heaven, finally entering the lonesome Moon Palace, where Chang E became a fairy.
When Hou Yi returned home after dark, he found out from the maidservants what had happened. He was shocked and angry and almost mad with grief. Hou Yi went to kill Peng Meng but he had already fled. Overcome with grief, Hou Yi looked up into the night sky and called out the name of his beloved wife. Suddenly he noticed a swaying shadow in the moon that was exactly like his wife. Hou Yi then had an incense table arranged in the back garden that Chang E loved. He put sweetmeats and fresh fruits that Chang E particularly enjoyed on the table. He held a memorial ceremony for Chang E whose silhouette he could still see in the Moon Palace. When people heard the story of how Chang E had become a celestial being, many of them also arranged incense tables in the moonlight and prayed to kindhearted Chang E for good fortune and peace. From then on the custom of worshiping the moon spread among the people.
