NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Chang'e (mythology)

Chang'e, Ch'ang-O or Chang-Ngo (Chinese: 嫦娥; pinyin: Cháng'é), also known as Heng-E or Heng-O (姮娥; Héng'é), is the Chinese goddess of the moon. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang'e only lives on the moon. As the "woman on the Moon", Chang'e could be considered the Chinese complement to the Western notion of a man in the moon. The lunar crater Chang-Ngo is named after her. Image File history File links Change_flies_to_the_moon_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_15250. ... Image File history File links Change_flies_to_the_moon_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_15250. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... For the 1934 film, see The Goddess (1934 film). ... This article is about Earths moon. ... An 18th century drawing of Khoikhoi worshipping the moon In mythology, a lunar deity is a god or goddess associated with or symbolizing the moon: see moon (mythology). ... For other uses, see Man in the Moon (disambiguation). ... Alphonsus is an ancient impact crater on Earths Moon that dates from the immediate post-Nectarian era. ...

Chang'e is the subject of several legends in Chinese mythology, most of which incorporate several of the following elements: Houyi the Archer, a benevolent or malevolent emperor, an elixir of life, and the moon. Chinese mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written form. ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... The king or wang (王 wang2) was the Chinese head of state from the Zhou to Qin dynasties. ... The elixir of life, also known as the elixir of immortality or Dancing Water and sometimes equated with the Philosophers stone, is a legendary potion, or drink, that grants the drinker eternal life or eternal youth. ...

Story

Chang'e and Houyi the Archer (Version 1)

According to legend, Chang'e and her husband Houyi were immortals living in heaven. One day, the ten sons of the Jade Emperor transformed into ten suns, causing the earth to scorch. Having failed to order his sons to stop ruining the earth, the Jade Emperor summoned Houyi for help. Houyi, using his legendary archery skills, shot down nine of the sons, but spared one son to be the sun. The Jade Emperor was obviously not pleased with Houyi's solution to save the earth: nine of his sons were dead. As punishment, the Jade Emperor banished Houyi and Chang’e to live as mere mortals on earth. This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... The Jade Emperor (Chinese: ; pinyin: or çŽ‰å¸ YÃ¹ DÃ¬), are known by many names including Heavenly Grandfather (å¤©å…¬ TiÄn GÅng), the Pure August Jade Emperor, August Personage of Jade (çŽ‰çš‡ä¸Šå¸ Yu Huang Shangdi or çŽ‰çš‡å¤§å¸ Yu Huang Dadi), is formally known as Peace-Absolving Central-August-Spirit Exalted-Ancient-Buddha-Most-Pious...

Seeing that Chang'e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to journey on a long, perilous quest to find the pill of immortality so that the couple could be immortals again. At the end of his quest he met the Queen Mother of the West who agreed to give him the pill, but warned him that each person would only need half the pill to become immortal. Image File history File links Rabbits. ... Image File history File links Rabbits. ... The four heroes of the story, left to right: SÅ«n WÃ¹kÅng, XuÃ¡nzÃ ng, ZhÅ« BÄjiÃ¨, and ShÄ WÃ¹jÃ¬ng. ... Tteok (IPA: ) (also spelled duk, dduk, ddeog, or thuck) is a Korean sweet cake made with glutinous rice flour (also known as sweet rice or chapssal), by steaming. ... Rice Cake Pounding mochi in an usu Making mochi with a modern piece of equipment Mochi (Japanese ) is the Japanese variant of Chinese rice cake, which, like its Chinese origin, is made of glutinous rice, pounded into paste and molded into shape; however, unlike the Chinese variety, it is molded... Xiwangmu near Kaohsiung, Taiwan The Queen Mother of the West (Chinese: è¥¿çŽ‹æ¯; pinyin: XÄ«wÃ¡ngmÇ”; Japanese: SeiÅbo), in Chinese mythology, is the ruler of the western paradise and goddess of immortality. ...

Houyi brought the pill home and stored it in a case. He warned Chang'e not to open the case and then left home for a while. Like Pandora in Greek mythology, Chang'e became too curious: she opened up the case and found the pill just as Houyi was returning home. Nervous that Houyi would catch her discovering the contents of the case, she accidentally swallowed the entire pill. She started to float into the sky because of the overdose. Although Houyi wanted to shoot her in order to prevent her from floating further, he could not bear to aim the arrow at her. Chang'e kept on floating until she landed on the moon. For other uses, see Pandora (disambiguation) and Pandoras box (disambiguation). ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ...

While she became lonely on the moon without her husband, she did have company. A jade rabbit, who manufactured elixirs, also lived on the moon. The mythologies of Japan and Korea also feature references about rabbits living on the moon. An image of the Moon Goddess, (Hokkien : Guek Niao), enshrined and worshipped at Thee Kong Thuah (Jade Emperor Temple), Penang, Malaysia. ...

Another companion is the woodcutter Wu Gang. The woodcutter offended the gods in his attempt to achieve immortality and was therefore banished on the moon. Wu Gang was allowed to leave the moon if he could cut down a tree that grew there. The problem was that each time he chopped the tree, the tree would instantly grow back, effectively condemning him to live on the moon for eternity.

Chang'e and Houyi the Archer (Version 2)

Chang'e was a beautiful young girl working in the Jade Emperor's palace in heaven, where immortals, good people and fairies lived. One day, she accidentally broke a precious porcelain jar. Angered, the Jade Emperor banished her to live on earth, where ordinary people lived. She could return to the Heaven, if she contributed a valuable service on earth. Image File history File links Rabbit_in_the_moon_standing_by_pot. ... Image File history File links Rabbit_in_the_moon_standing_by_pot. ...

Chang'e was transformed into a member of a poor farming family. When she was 18, a young hunter named Houyi from another village spotted her, now a beautiful young woman. They became friends.

One day, a strange phenomenon occurred -- 10 suns arose in the sky instead of one, blazing the earth. Houyi, an expert archer, stepped forward to try to save the earth. He successfully shot down nine of the suns, becoming an instant hero. He eventually became king and married Chang'e.

But Houyi grew to become a tyrant. He sought immortality by ordering an elixir be created to prolong his life. The elixir in the form of a single pill was almost ready when Chang'e came upon it. She either accidentally or purposely swallowed the pill. This angered King Houyi, who went after his wife. Trying to flee, she jumped out the window of a chamber at the top of palace -- and, instead of falling, she floated into the sky toward the moon.

King Houyi tried to shoot her down with arrows, but without success. Her companion, a rabbit, is constantly pounding the elixir of immortality in a large mortar.

The moon is also inhabited by a woodcutter who tries to cut down the cassia tree, giver of life. But as fast as he cuts into the tree, it heals itself, and he never makes any progress. The Chinese use this image of the cassia tree to explain mortal life on earth -- the limbs are constantly being cut away by death, but new buds continually appear. Binomial name Cinnamomum aromaticum Nees Cassia (Cinnamomum aromaticum, synonym ), also called Chinese cinnamon, is an evergreen tree native to southern China and mainland Southeast Asia west to Myanmar. ...

Meanwhile, King Houyi ascended to the sun and built a palace. So Chang'e and Houyi came to represent the yin and yang, the moon and the sun. Japanese name Kanji: Hiragana: Vietnamese name Vietnamese: In Chinese philosophy the yin and yang (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) are generalized descriptions of the antitheses or mutual correlations in human perceptions of phenomena in the natural world, combining to create a unity of opposites in the theory of the Taiji. ...

Change and the Jade Rabbit; Picture taken September 18, 2004 by Allen Timothy Chang at San Francisco, CA Chinatown File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Change and the Jade Rabbit; Picture taken September 18, 2004 by Allen Timothy Chang at San Francisco, CA Chinatown File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... An image of the Moon Goddess, (Hokkien : Guek Niao), enshrined and worshipped at Thee Kong Thuah (Jade Emperor Temple), Penang, Malaysia. ...

Chang'e and the Cruel Emperor (Version 3)

Many years after she was already the moon goddess, Chang'e looked down upon Earth and saw that a terribly cruel emperor sat on the throne. To help the people, she allowed herself to be reborn into the mortal world. The other members of her mortal family were either killed or enslaved by the emperor, but Chang'e managed to escape to the countryside.

Meanwhile, the emperor was aging and obsessed with discovering the elixir of life. He had people all over the land brought to him and demanded of them how to find the elixir of life; nobody knew, of course, but the emperor would not accept ignorance for an answer and executed all those who could not answer.

In the countryside, Chang'e met the Buddhist goddess of compassion, Guan Yin, who proceeded to give Chang'e a small elixir. Chang'e brought the elixir to the emperor. The suspicious emperor worried that it was poison and demanded that Chang'e taste the elixir first. She did, showing no ill effects, so then the emperor took the elixir and promptly died. Then, Chang'e also left the mortal world; the effects of the elixir had only been delayed for her. However, instead of dying, she ascended to the moon to retake her place as a goddess. For the Chen Dynasty empress whose Buddhist nun name was Guanyin, see Empress Shen Wuhua. ...

Chang'e and Houyi the Archer (Version 4)

This version is very similar to Version 1, although in this instance Chang'e is bitter and abusive towards Yi for their exile from heaven. When Houyi obtains the Elixir of Immortality from the Queen Mother of the West, he is told that, if both he and his wife take half of it each, they will avoid death but remain on Earth. He informs Chang'e of this arrangement and trusts her with the knowledge of the Elixir's hiding place and goes out hunting to prepare a feast when they will both take the Elixir. Chang'e, however, is not content to simply avoid death so she swallows the entire Elixir herself and immediately begins to float up to Heaven. En route, she fears the wrath of the other gods for her selfishness in taking the Elixir and floats to the moon instead. Yet another variant of the story ends with Chang'e imprisoned on the moon in the form of a frog by the Queen Mother of the West as punishment for her selfishness.

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Worship of Chang'e

On Mid-Autumn day, the fullmoon night of the 8th lunar month, an altar is set up on the open air facing the moon to worship her. New toiletries are put on the altar for Her to bless. She endows her worshippers with beauty. Japanese name Kanji: Kana: Korean name Hangul: Hanja: Vietnamese name Quá»‘c ngá»¯: Chá»¯ nÃ´m: Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations in Victoria Park, Hong Kong. ...

Literature and adaptation

This story was adapted in 2003 into a Chinese TV period drama titled Moon Fairy, starring Singapore actors Fann Wong and Christopher Lee. Fann Woon Fong (Chinese: ; Pinyin: ; born January 27, 1971), better known by her stage name Fann Wong,[1][2] is a Singaporean actress, singer and model. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Chang'e appears in Wu Cheng'en's novel Journey to the West and also TV adaptions of the novel. Her story slightly changed from her going to the moon on her first try to going to the heavens, and would later be rewarded to live in the moon after an incident which involved her and Zhu Bajie.^{[citation needed]} Wu Chengen (Traditional Chinese: å³æ‰¿æ©; Simplified Chinese: å´æ‰¿æ©; pinyin: WÃº ChÃ©ngÄ“n) (1500? or 1506?-1582) , was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty. ... The four heroes of the story, left to right: SÅ«n WÃ¹kÅng, XuÃ¡nzÃ ng, ZhÅ« BÄjiÃ¨, and ShÄ WÃ¹jÃ¬ng. ... Zhu Bajie Zhu Bajie (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chu Pa-chieh), also named Zhu Wuneng (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chu Wu-neng), is one of the three helpers of Xuanzang in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. ...

The legend of Lady Chang-O plays a prominent role in Amy Tan's children's book, The Moon Lady, retold from her more adult novel The Joy Luck Club. Amy Tan (February 19, 1952) is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships as well as relationships between Chinese American women and their immigrant parents. ... Basic Characteristics There is some debate as to what constitutes childrens literature. ... For the film, see The Joy Luck Club (film). ...

Miscellaneous

The moon goddess was mentioned in the conversation between Houston Capcom and Apollo 11 crew just before the first moon landing:^[1] ^[2] This article covers the Apollo 11 mission itself. ...

In 2007, China launched its first lunar probe, named Chang'e 1 (Chinese: 嫦娥一号; pinyin: Cháng'é Yī Hào) in the goddess's honour. Changâ€™e 1 (å«¦å¨¥ä¸€å·), a lunar orbiting spacecraft, is part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. ...

References

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