The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, as one of the many traditional festivals in China, many people will take the moon viewing as an important activity on the day of the festival. From ancient times to the present, people have always been very fond of the moon, and countless literati and inkers have embellished it with a large number of flowery words. It is worth mentioning that when the ancients created poems, they often mentioned the fairy Chang'e in the Moon Palace, like the poetry immortal Li Bai once wrote: "The white rabbit pounds medicine in autumn and spring, and who is Chang'e's lonely neighbor?" ”
When it comes to myths and legends about the moon, Chang'e Running Moon must be the most classic, and it is also the first one that many people think of. As a well-known story for women and children today, the earliest known source is guizang, one of the "Three Easys". According to legend, the Guizang was written by the Emperor of the Ancient Gods, and this work is also recorded in the Zhou Li and the Classic of Mountains and Seas. However, in ancient times it was long lost, and only a few of its contents have been cited and preserved.
In 1993, a large number of bamboo janes were unearthed in the tomb of Wang jiatai Qin in Jiangling, Hubei Province, which reproduced the "Guizang" in the human world, and the story of Chang'e Running Moon was recorded: "In the past, Heng I stole the medicine of death from the Queen Mother of the West and took it to the moon." According to this record, the character of Ben Yue was actually originally called "Heng I", who stole the Immortal Medicine from the Queen Mother of the West and flew up to the moon after taking it. One theory holds that "heng" means longevity, while "I" indicates that the person has aristocratic status.
During the Western Han Dynasty, Liu An, the king of Huainan, was keen to collect various folk rumors, and the story of Chang'e was also included in the Huainan Zi. The book reads: "Yi please the medicine of immortality in the West Queen Mother, Tuo and Jiao'e." Whenever they are blinded, they steal it, and they do not succeed, and they want to harm Her Sister-in-law. Eun seol has no idea, swallowing the immortal medicine to ascend to heaven. However, he couldn't bear to leave Yi and stay in the Moon Palace. The most obvious difference between this version and Guizang is that the word "Heng I" has been added next to the female character, becoming "Jiao'e", which may be to highlight its female identity.
In addition, the story of the original few words has been further improved and become richer and more reasonable. At the beginning, Hou Yizhiri solved the human crisis, and then asked the Queen Mother of the West for the elixir of immortality and entrusted it to Chang'e for safekeeping. However, when Feng Meng learned of this, he became greedy and went to steal medicine, and after his actions were revealed, he intended to harm Chang'e. In a hurry, Chang'e had to swallow the Immortal Pill and soared because of it. Because she was reluctant to go to the mortal Houyi, Chang'e did not go to the Heavenly Palace, but stayed in the Moon Palace closer to the ground.
What needs to be added is that there is a follow-up plot in the book: Chang'e assigns Wu Gang to cut down the tree and the jade rabbit to pound the medicine, intending to reconfigure the immortal medicine and return to the human world. Hou Yi was devastated when he learned that Chang'e had ascended, and the "Moon Mother" was touched by her true feelings, so she allowed the two to meet under the laurel on the night of the full moon. According to legend, some people even claimed to have heard the whispering voices of Houyi and Chang'e on the night of the full moon.
In addition to this version, there are many different theories about why Chang'e took the immortal medicine. For example, some versions say that Chang'e stole and did not die because she could not suppress her greed; other versions say that Houyi was actually a fierce and cruel king, and in order to prevent him from enslaving the people for a long time after eating the immortal medicine, Chang'e preemptively ate it and exchanged her loneliness for the well-being of the people. There is even a theory that Hou Yi had an affair with the daughter of Hebo, and the betrayed Chang'e was angry and took the immortal medicine and left him.
Compared with other versions, the story in Huainanzi is earlier, more widely circulated, and the story is more reasonable, so it has become a generally accepted version today. Some of the contents of the above-mentioned "Guizang" have been quoted by later generations, and the literary scholar Liu Xun of the Southern and Northern Dynasties period once said in the "Wenxin Carved Dragon": "The classic of "Guizang", the Great Ming is strange, is called the Tenth Day of Death, Chang'e Running Moon. Here in Liu Xun, the concubine in "Huainanzi" has become "Chang'e".
In this regard, one theory is that the real name of Emperor Wen of Han is Liu Heng, and in order to avoid secrecy, Heng and Jiao have been changed to "Chang", which also has a long-term meaning. Later, the changzi was added next to the female character, which led to the current Chang'e. Incidentally, with the development of Taoism, Chang'e was gradually merged with the Taiyin Xingjun and the Lunar God into the same person, from a folklore figure to a Taoist deity with a "compilation".
In summary, the well-known Chang'e did not have a complete backstory at the beginning, and even the name was very different from today. In the beginning, the Guizang only recorded that a man named Heng I stole the Immortal Medicine of the Queen Mother of the West and used it to fly to the moon. Later, Heng I was identified as a woman, took on the new name of "Jiao'e", and was associated with the Houyi of the Shooting Sun. In order to avoid the name of Emperor Wen of Han, She'e became Chang'e and Chang'e, and during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Gao Luan's annotation of huainanzi officially proposed that Chang'e was Houyi's wife.
After a long period of development, the story of Chang'e was finally completed, and she who lived in the Moon Palace and accompanied jade rabbit and jade gui also became a character that people often remembered and mentioned when admiring the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival. For Chang'e's lamentable experience, Li Shangyin sighed: "Chang'e should repent of stealing the elixir, the blue sea and blue sky night heart", "rabbit cold toad cold osmanthus white, this night Sister E should cut off the intestines." In fact, perhaps it is loneliness and sorrow that give Chang'e a unique sense of beauty, allowing her to linger in people's mouths and pens for a long time.