Small Wander. Chinese Small Wander: Legend.

Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Cake Festival)

The moon cake festival is based on an old legend from China, it is in memory of a fairy called Chang Er...

Chang Er Flew To The Moon

Once there lived a paragon of beauty, the pretty goddess Chang Er, wife of Archer Yi.

Chang Er followed Yi to the human world, when Yi was ordered by Emperor Di Jun to descend to Earth to punish the suns (at that time, there were 10 suns rising above the Earth at the same time!) However, Emperor Di Jun was enraged by Yi's killing too many of the suns (the suns were actually the sons of Emperor Di Jun) and removed him from the rank of deities. Being Yi's wife, Chang Er had to unduly share the punishment and stay with him on Earth.

So Chang Er was indescribably broken-hearted. All day long she shed sad tears with a worried frown. She reflected how rash Yi had been, even though he had done good thing for the people. Having offended the emperor, they had been reduced from the rank of deities to mortals. The deities never grew old, whereas man would die.

Yi was depressed and restless with his wife's unceasing complaints. He realized that after death they had to go to hell to spend their bitter and miserable days with those dark spirits and apparitions. How unfair it was to his innocent wife and also how disgraceful to himself.

Later, he came to know that Empress Xi (the West Empress) of Kunlun Mountains in the West had a kind of elixir. Whoever took it would live indefinitely. He decided to go and ask for it from Empress Xi, however arduous and formidable the task might be.

The Kunlun Mountains towered into the clouds. On the mountains there were all kinds of bizarre birds and grotesque beasts, rare grasses and exotic flowers. Among them there was a tree called Deathless Tree which bore a special fruit. Whoever ate it would turn immortal. The elixir of Empress Xi was precisely a refined extract from this fruit.

Through his indomitable spirit and by means of his remaining divine power, Yi overcame all hardships and obstacles, managed to pass through fire and water and the numerous tight encirclement of beasts of prey, and finally ascended to the clouds-assembled top of the Kunlun Mountains.

By the charming and fascinating Yao Chi (Yao Pond), he found Empress Xi and explained to her his purpose in coming. Empress Xi deeply sympathized with him in his afflictions, who had made a great contribution to mankind. She was so marveled at his gallantry and tenacity that she consented to help him.

Empress Xi ordered the three-footed fairy bird to fly to the depth of the pitch-black rock cave and bring the gourd containing the elixir.

Empress Xi gave the gourd to Yi and said in earnest, "This gourd contains all the elixir. It is enough to make both of you immortal. However, this same dosage, if taken only be one person, will not only turn one immortal, but also give one a hope of transforming into a deity and ascending to heaven."

Yi happily returned home with the elixir and asked his wife to take care of it. Seeing that the knitted brows on her face gone and she was smiling all over, he immediately dismissed from his mind all those hardships of the past few days. He earnestly requested her to choose a favourable day to share the elixir, and told her that he would already be completely satisfied as long as they remained a lasting affectionate couple and were spared the sufferings from hell.

But Chang Er was not satisfied. She loved her husband, nevertheless, she yearned even more for the life in paradise. And also she could not entirely believe in the true effect of the elixir. So one day when Yi was away, she slyly poured out all the elixir from the gourd and took it in one gulp.

Chang Er instantly felt herself to be buoyant. Her two feet gradually rose from the ground, and her body involuntarily drifted out through the window. Outside there was a bright moon in the sky shedding its silvery light on the vast land. Her dress were gracefully spreading out just like the wings of the colourful phoenix, carrying her high up.

Where to? Chang Er suddenly realized that to return to Heaven Court would do her no good, as the deities there would reproach her for being faithless by forsaking her husband. Thus, she decided to make the moon her home.

In the moon Chnag Er had for company only a white rabbit pestling medicine and Wu Gang was penalized to fell trees throughout the year. What a cold and desolate place the moon was! When she fixed her eye on Earth, she came to discover what a happy life people led and how she missed her husband. However, she was not able to return to Earth but to stay forever in the moon.

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The Mooncake Festival of 1998 fell on Monday 5th October. Mid Autumn Festival is the 15th day of the 8th Moon (month) in the Chinese Calendar.

Press here for a peek at Chang Er!

This is a moon cake!

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FOOTNOTE:

To explain to my friend what is the mooncake festival, it took me 3 hours to type the Chang Er story early in the morning (6th Oct 1998) from 4am to 7am!!

Anyway Rob is not the only one asking about the moon cake festival, my own
children also ask the same question!! (That's the problem when they don't
go to Chinese School).

Rob's comment on my typing skill is

"You will have to take typing lessons.  I can do about 40 - 50 words a minute
now with about 40 - 50 mistakes as well."

HaHaHa, not much better!

I wish I can type like my secretary - using all the fingers and thumbs and
nails without looking at the key board.....

My typing gets worst with HTML home pages as it can't check the spelling for
me!!

Ah Well, even if I have to look at the key board and use only 2 fingers (sometiimes 3, I'm improving!) to type, my pages ARE typed, slowly...

Thanks for ignoring any typing mistakes... but enjoying the legend.

The images you see are scanned from the actual box that contained the mooncakes, they are made with red bean paste and lotus paste -- don't ask, I ate the mooncake, of course.

Michael, 15 October 1998

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 Chinese Legend

[ Small Wander - Chinese ]