Chang'e

Origins and descriptions[edit]

Chang'e first appeared in Guicang, a divination text written in Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC - 256 BC). From the few preserved fragments of the text, it mentions "Yi shoots the ten Suns,"^[1] and "Chang'e ascending to the moon."^[1] Chang'e—originally named Heng'e (姮娥)—was renamed to avoid the taboo on sharing names with a deceased emperor,^[2] in this case, Liu Heng, an emperor from Han Dynasty. Many Chinese poems are written around the theme of Chang'e and the moon.


In pre-Qin Dynasty (pre 221 BC), the text, Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海经), mentions "a woman is bathing the moon; she is Chang Xi, the wife of Emperor Jun. She has given birth to twelve moons, and only then does she begin to bathe the moon.^[3] (有女子方浴月，帝俊妻常羲生月十二，此始浴之。)" The name "Chang Xi" in this text refers to "Chang'e" since the pronunciation of "e (娥)" is identical to "xi (羲)" in ancient Chinese.^[4]


Late Tang Dynasty (618-907), famous poet, Li Shangyin, wrote the poem "Chang'e" based on the story of Chang'e stealing the immortal elixir. Like this goddess, the poet discovers a connection in the solitude of moonlight, sensing their shared loneliness while gazing at the night sky. Among the hundreds of poems around Chang'e and the Moon, she gradually evolved into a symbol of nostalgia and solitude^[5] for numerous poets beyond Li.


The original poem in Traditional Chinese:


嫦娥


雲母屏風燭影深，長河漸落曉星沉。


嫦娥應悔偷靈藥，碧海青天夜夜心。


The translation by Witter Bynner, in his book The Jade Mountain:


To the Moon Goddess^[6]


Now that a candle-shadow stands on the screen of carven marble


And the River of Heaven slants and the morning stars are low,


Are you sorry for having stolen the potion that has set you


Over purple seas and blue skies, to brood through the long nights?


During the Ming and Qing dynasties (Ming: 1368–1644, Qing: 1644–1911), with the flourishing of urban literature, the image of Chang'e gradually became more secularized. In the novel Journey to the West (西游记, 1592), Chang'e is a title that refers to the celestial maidens in the Moon Palace, and it is the Weathervane Marshal who teases the Niche Dress Fairy, not Chang'e. In Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (聊齋志異, 1766), while Chang'e remains a celestial being from heaven, her character undergoes a transformation as she descends to the mortal realm, shedding her divinity.