As with so many of the myths and folktales that we’ve discussed, this tale has many variants; it also has several players, so it probably behooves me to start with a brief cast of characters:

Chang’e– either the lunar goddess, or an incarnation of the lunar goddess
Yu Tu – Chang’-‘e’s lunar companion
Hou Yi – a mortal but magically endowed archer
King Yao – a mythical emperor who charges Hou Yi with saving his people from the myriad of monsters and disasters that plague them
The Jade Emperor – in some variations of these tales, Hou Yi answers to the Jade Emperor instead of King Yao
Feng Meng – Hou Yi’s jealous disciple
NASA: the epicenter of several lunar landing conspiracies

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Let’s start at the obvious: there’s a rabbit on the moon. He has a mortar and pestle, and at least in the Chinese versions of this tale, he is a very alchemical rabbit (or hare before the introduction of rabbits into China), pounding out the Elixir of Life for the Heavenly Immortals. He stays there with his mistress, the Goddess Chang”e, in the Lunar Palace.

If you don’t believe me, look for yourself during a full moon. He’s there, pounding away.

If you still can’t see him, maybe you’ll believe NASA (let me rephrase that: I hope you believe the Earth is spherical, that we landed on the moon, and as cold blooded as the ruling elite are, they aren’t literal reptiles). So here’s a transcript between Houston Mission Control (CAPCOM) and the crew of Apollo 11 (the “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” guys -Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins)

Ronald Evans (CC): Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says the girl named Chang-O has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband.

You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported.


Michael Collins (CMP): Okay. We’ll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.

NASA

This little exchange gives a fairly concise summary of Chang’e’s story – stealing the pill of immortality from her husband and spiriting herself away to the moon. So why did she do it?

Version 1: Hou Yi the Tyrant

Originally, there were Ten Suns; each one would take a turn every day being the sun as we know it. However, one day, they decided to come out and play together at the same time.

If you think global warming is bad now…

Needless to say, with Ten Suns in the sky, the Earth started to burn. At this point, King Yao (or the Jade Emperor) asked Hou Yi to intervene. At first, he tried to reason with the suns. They ignored him.

Next, he fired warning shots with his arrows. Still, they ignored him.

Finally, he took to shooting them down. One by one, his arrows pierced the suns, who fell to earth as three legged crows.

He shot down Nine of the Ten, and was about to fell the last sun, when he was ordered to stand down by King Yao; he was also moved by the pleas of the last sun’s mother, the Goddess Xihi. He dropped his bow, and returned to his people, who quickly made him their king. Unfortunately, Hou Yi’s rule quickly turned brutal.

To make matters worse, he had been granted two doses of an immortality pill/potion by the Queen Mother of the West, one for himself, the other for Chang-e.

Chang’e watched her husband transform from a man who slayed monsters into a monster himself. Upon realizing Hou Yi had received the potential to live forever, Chang’e imagined what an eternity of tyranny might look like, and knew exactly what she had to do: she swallowed the elixir and started to float upward. Since she had consumed twice the immortality dosage, her ascent didn’t stop in the heavenly realm, but instead lifted her even further, up to the regions of the Moon, where even her husband’s arrows could not reach her.

As a result of her bravery, she is celebrated in the mid-Autumn festival to this very day.

This is a harvest festival, also known as the Moon or Moon-cake festival. Its date is determined using the Chinese luni-solar calendar, which means it falls on different days of the Gregorian calendar, depending on the year, on or between the 7th of September and the 8th of October (specifically, the 15th day of the 8th luni-solar month). This is believed to be when the Moon is brightest and fullest, marking the middle of the autumn harvest, and represents a time for gathering, gratitude, and prayer…and eating moon-cakes, which are sweet-bean or lotus-seed paste filled pastries. Lanterns are lit, parades are commenced, and street food vendors try to outsell each other, especially when it comes to moon-cakes.

Version 2: the Greed of Feng Meng

Feng Meng was a pupil of Hou Yi who was extremely jealous of his master. After shooting down Nine of the Ten Suns, Hou Yi had been granted two pills of immortality, one for Chang’e, and another for himself. When Feng Meng caught wind of this, he bid his time until Hou Yi went hunting, and then broke into his home to steal the gift of eternal life. He attempted to force Chang’e to give him the pills, but rather than hand them over, she swallowed them both, resulting in her ascent to the moon; that way, she would still be close to her beloved. Incidentally, the timing of Feng Meng’s assault was – you guessed it – mid Autumn, thus providing another origin myth to the mid-Autumn festival.

Hou Yi was so upset that he made sacrifices of the fruits and moon-cakes that Chang’e loved, before making a sacrifice of himself. To celebrate their acts, moon cakes are still consumed during the Moon festival.

2 very different interpretations of Hou Yi, one common ending for Chang’e.

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Or was it the end?

There are multiple pop culture references to Chang’e – books, anime, songs and video games just for starters. However, since I already brought NASA into this story, it only seems proper to end with this fun fact from the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA):

Starting in 2007, CSNA started sending lunar probes, all named Chang’e. In 2013, Chang’e 3 dropped a lunar rover.

Its name? Yu Tu, the rabbit on the moon, Chang’e’s pet.

Whether they will find the Lunar Palace remains to be seen; however, I’m sure both Chang’e and Yu Tu have to smile that immortal or not, they are still beloved some 3000 years after their tale (tail?) was first recorded.

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While lunar conspiracy theories abound, I haven’t heard of any that involve Nixon’s famous trip to China… yet. So here is my conspiracy theory, with evidence forthcoming…in the year 2169:

Ronald Evans (CAPCOM): Apollo 11, not sure we understood last transmission. Please repeat.

Michael Collins (APOLLO 11): Capcom, we found the Bunny Girl. Repeat made contact with the Bunny Girl, and the damned rabbit.

Ronald Evans (CAPCOM): Apollo…that’s…ummm..incredible. Routing call to the Presidential line.

Richard Milhous Nixon (PRESIDENT, (FRMR) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA): Okay son, calm down. Did she understand that we came in peace? Did she have any demands.

Michael Collins (APOLLO 11): She seemed to indicate [STATIC NOISE] she indicated she was hungry, sir.

Richard Milhous Nixon (PRESIDENT, (FRMR) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA): Well, did you offer her food?

Michael Collins (APOLLO 11): Negative sir. She insisted on something the Chinese call moon-cakes.

Richard Milhous Nixon (PRESIDENT, (FRMR) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA): [Long pause, followed by Nixon grumbling] Rose Mary, get me Kissinger on the other line. We’re going to China. [Another Pause. Nixon wheezes]

END OF TRANSCRIPT

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In reality, Nixon did visit the People’s Republic of China in late February of 1972, the first sitting U.S. President to do so. This marked 23 years of diplomatic silence between the two nations. Whether or not he returned with any moon-cakes for Chang’e is still classified.