Stories of the Mid-Autumn Festival

Hou Yi and Chang'e While Westerners may talk about the "man in the moon", the Chinese talk about the "woman on the moon". The story of Chang E, and her flight to the moon, is familiar to every Chinese, and a favourite subject of poets. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang'e only lives on the moon.

Tradition places Hou Yi and Chang'e around 2170 BC, in the reign of the legendary Emperor Yao, shortly after that of Huang Di. There are so many variations of the Chang'e legend that one can become overwhelmed and utterly confused. However, most legends about Chang'e in Chinese mythology involve some variation of the following elements: Hou Yi, the Archer; Chang'e, the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality; an emperor, either benevolent or malevolent; an elixir of life; and the Moon.

Hou Yi, the archer
There are at least four variations to this story where Hou Yi was an archer.

Version 1: Hou Yi was himself an immortal, while Chang'e was a beautiful young girl, working in the Jade Emperor's (Emperor of Heaven) Palace as the attendant to the Queen Mother of the West (wife of the Jade Emperor), before her marriage. One day, Yi aroused the jealousy of the other immortals, who then slandered him before the Jade Emperor. Yi and his wife, Chang'e, were subsequently banished from heaven, and forced to live by hunting on earth. He became a famous archer. Now at this time, there were 10 suns that took turns to circle the earth — one every 10 days.

One day, all 10 of the suns circled together, causing the earth to scorch. Emperor Yao, the Emperor of China, commanded Yi to kill all but one of the suns. Upon the completion of his task, the Emperor rewarded Yi with a pill, the elixir of life, and advised him: "Make no haste to swallow this pill, but first prepare yourself with prayer and fasting for a year". Yi took the pill home and hid it under a rafter, while he began healing his spirit. In the midst of this, Yi was summoned again by the emperor. While he was gone, Chang'e noticed a white beam of light beckoning from the rafter and discovered the pill, which she swallowed. Immediately, she found that she could fly. Just at that moment, Yi returned home, and realizing what had happened, began to reprimand her.

Chang'e flew out the window into the sky. With bow in hand, Yi sped after her, and the pursuit continued halfway across the heavens. Finally, Yi had to return to the Earth because of the force of the wind. Chang'e reached the moon, and breathless, she coughed. Part of the pill fell out from her mouth. Now, the hare was already on the moon, and Chang'e commanded the animal to make a pill from it, so that she could return to earth to her husband. As of today, the hare is still pounding.

As for Yi, he built himself a palace in the sun as "Yang" (the male principle), while Chang'e is "Yin" (the female principle). Once a year, on the 15th day of the full moon, Yi visits his wife. That is why the moon is full and beautiful on that night. This description appears in written form in two Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-24 CE) collections; Shanhaijing (Classic of the Mountains and Seas, a book of travels and tales), and Huainanzi (scientific, historical and philosophical articles, named for the Prince of Huai).

Version 2: Another version, very similar to the above story, had it that the Emperor of Heaven, moved by the people’s suffering caused by the 10 scorching suns, sent the archer, Prince Hou Yi, from heaven to help Emperor Yao bring order. Hou Yi, with his wife, Chang'e, descended to earth, carrying a red bow and white arrows given him by the Emperor of Heaven.

Version 3: The earth once had ten suns circling over it, each taking turn to illuminate the earth. One day, however, all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. Hou Yi, a strong and tyrannical archer, saved the earth by shooting down nine of the suns. He eventually became King, but grew to become a despot. One day, Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However, his beautiful wife, Chang'e, drank it in order to save the people from the her husband’s tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating, and flew to the moon. Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he did not shoot down the moon.

Version 4: Another version, however, had it that Chang'e and Hou Yi 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 Yi for help. Yi, using his legendary archery skills, shot down nine of the sons, but spared one son to be the sun. The Jade Emperor was obviously displeased with Yi’s solution to save the earth. As punishment, he banished Yi and Chang'e to live as mere mortals on earth.

Seeing that Chang'e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Yi 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 a pill to regain immortality. Yi 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 curious. She opened up the case and found the pill, just as Yi was returning home. Nervous that Yi would catch her, discovering the contents of the case, she accidentally swallowed the entire pill, and started to float into the sky because of the overdose. Although Yi 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. 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.

Hou Yi, the builder
Hou Yi, a famous builder who built a beautiful jade palace for the Goddess of the Western Heaven (also called the Royal Mother). In appreciation, she gave Yi a special pill that contained the magic elixir of immortality. But with it, came the condition and warning that he may not use the pill until he had accomplished certain self-purification. His wife, Chang'e, was a beautiful but inquisitive woman. One day, she discovered the pill, and without telling her husband, swallowed it. The Goddess was very angry, and as a punishment, banished Chang'e to the moon where, according to the legend, she can be seen at her most beautiful, on the night of the bright harvest moon.

Hou Yi and the sorcerer-chieftain
Chang'e was a village girl who married Hou Yi. Pang Meng, the sorcerer-chieftain, seeing his position threatened, tricked Yi into believing that Chang'e had been unfaithful. Still deeply in love with his wife, Yi fed her the elixir of immortality, and banishes her to the moon. He realized his error, and died gazing at her image in the sky.

Chang'e and the cruel emperor
Many years after she was already the moon goddess, Chang'e looked down upon Earth, and saw that a terribly cruel and tyrannical 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 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 give him a satisfactory reply. In the countryside, Chang'e met the Goddess of Compassion, Guan Yin, who proceeded to give Chang'e, a small elixir. Chang'e brought the elixir to the emperor, but the suspicious emperor, worrying that it was poison, demanded that Chang'e tasted it first. She did, and showing no ill-effects, the emperor then took the elixir, but promptly died. Chang'e also left the mortal world as the effects of the elixir had only been delayed in her case. Instead of dying, however, she ascended to the moon to retake her place as the moon goddess.

The Hare - Jade Rabbit
According to tradition, the Jade Rabbit pounds medicine, together with the lady, Chang'e, for the gods. Others say that the Jade Rabbit is a shape, assumed by Chang'e herself. You may find that the dark areas to the top of the full moon may be construed as the figure of a rabbit. The animal's ears point to the upper right, while at the left are two large circular areas, representing its head and body. In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men, and begged for food from a fox, a monkey, and a hare. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the hare, empty-handed, jumped into a blazing fire to offer his own flesh instead. The sages were very thankful for the meat and ate it but the sages were so touched by the hare's sacrifice and act of kindness that they let him live in the Moon Palace, where he became the "Jade Rabbit".

Overthrow of Mongol rule
The Mid-Autumn Festival also commemorates an uprising in China against the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty (1280–1368) in the early 14th century. As group gatherings were banned, it was impossible to make plans for a rebellion. Noting that the Mongols did not eat mooncakes, Liu Bowen (劉伯溫) of Zhejiang Province, advisor to a Chinese rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, came up with the idea of timing the rebellion to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival. He sought permission to distribute thousands of moon cakes to the Chinese residents in the city to bless the longevity of the Mongol emperor. Inside each cake, however, was inserted a piece of paper with the message: "Kill the Tatars on the 15th day of the Eighth Moon" (八月十五殺韃子). On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), under the rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang. Henceforth, the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated with moon cakes on a national level.

Vietnamese version
The Vietnamese version of the holiday recounts the legend of Thằng Cuội, whose banyan trees was uprooted after his wife accidentally urinated on it and took him with it to the moon. Every year, on the mid-autumn festival, children light lanterns to show Cuội the way to Earth.

Origin Of Mid-Autumn Festival

Chinese people love festivals and there are many festivities. Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most popular ones.

The joyous Mid-Autumn Festival, the third and last festival for the living, was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, around the time of the autumn equinox. Many referred to it simply as the "Fifteenth of the Eighth Moon". In the Western calendar, the day of the festival usually occurred sometime between the second week of September and the second week of October.

This day was also considered a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain had been harvested by this time and food was abundant. With delinquent accounts settled prior to the festival , it was a time for relaxation and celebration. Food offerings were placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates , melons, oranges and pomelos might be seen. Special foods for the festival included moon cakes, cooked taro, edible snails from the taro patches or rice paddies cooked with sweet basil, and water caltrope, a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns. Some people insisted that cooked taro be included because at the time of creation, taro was the first food discovered at night in the moonlight. Of all these foods, it could not be omitted from the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The round moon cakes, measuring about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness, resembled Western fruitcakes in taste and consistency. These cakes were made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels and lard. A golden yolk from a salted duck egg was placed at the center of each cake, and the golden brown crust was decorated with symbols of the festival. Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were piled in a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a "complete year," that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon. The custom of worshipping the moon (called Xi yue in Chinese) for both the Han and minority nationalities, can be traced as far back as the ancient Xia, and Shang Dynasties (2000 BCE-1066 BCE). In the Zhou Dynasty (1066 BCE-221 BCE), the people celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival to worship the moon. The practice became very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) that people enjoyed and worshipped the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), however, people started making round moon cakes, as gifts to their relatives in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. At night, they came out to watch the full moon to celebrate the festival. Since the Ming (1368-1644), and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration has become unprecedentedly popular.

Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival (Traditional Chinese: 中秋節, Simplified Chinese: 中秋节; pinyin: Zhōngqiūjié; Korean: Ch'usǒk or Chuseok 추석/秋夕; Vietnamese Tết Trung Thu; also known as the Moon Festival, Mooncake Festival, or the August Moon Festival. In Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, it may be referred to as the Lantern Festival, similar in name to a different festival which falls on the fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year) is a popular Chinese celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty.

The Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian Calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. At this time, the moon is at its fullest and brightest, marking an ideal time to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the moon cake, of which there are many different varieties.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. It is also common to have barbecues outside under the moon, and to put pomelo rinds on one's head. Brightly lit lanterns are often carried around by children. Together with the celebration, there appear some special customs in different parts of the country, such as burning incense, planting sweet-olive trees, lighting lanterns on towers, and fire dragon dances. Shops selling mooncakes, before the festival, often display pictures of Chang'e, floating to the moon.

Legend
Legend says that during King Yao's rule, ten suns appeared in the sky. Because the heat from these suns endangered crops, wildlife and the very existence of people, King Yao asked a famous archer to shoot down nine of the ten suns.

After shooting the extra suns down, archer Houyi asked for the hand of the Emperor's beautiful daughter, Chang E, as a reward.

Houyi took good care of Chang E but she remained indifferent to him, always considering herself the most beautiful woman in the world.

Meanwhile, the king was worried the extra suns would appear again and cause a new disaster so he gave Houyi a pill that was said to ensure immortality. But Chang E learned of this pill and decided she could make better use of it herself.

So she swallowed the pill and immediately started floating into the air. She soon reached the moon, where she remains, transformed into a toad as punishment.

Leaving poor Houyi to see only the shadow of his vain wife and only when the moon is full.

Tradition The Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival, is an occasion for family reunion. It is marked with moon gazing, fireworks displays and eating moon cakes.

In remembrance of Chang E who was exiled to the moon for eternity, Chinese eat moon cakes -- special sweet cakes made in the shape of the moon.

Lanterns Paper lanterns are a prominent feature of the celebrations, being hung around the area where the feasting takes place. The larger lanterns are very elaborate being decorated with pictures of various deities and characters associated with the moon whilst children carry smaller lanterns suspended from sticks during the celebrations.

MoonCakes
Probably the most recognizable feature of the festival is the boxes of moon cakes on sale in the months prior to the festival. They are in boxes of four and may be round or square in shape and are usually stamped with a deity associated with the festival. The cakes are made from a flaky pastry in which many varieties of fillings can be found. The most usual was sugared beans, ground sesame or lotus and the yoke of a preserved duck egg; but there are many other fillings and nowadays it is even possible to buy moon cakes filled with ice cream.