The world had ten suns
Long ago, ten suns rose into the sky at once. Rivers dried, crops burned, and the people cried out for help. A great archer named Hou Yi 后羿 climbed a mountain, drew his enormous bow, and shot down nine of them — leaving the single sun we still see today.
As a reward, the Queen Mother of the West gave Hou Yi a single pill: the elixir of immortality. Drink it, and you would rise to heaven and live forever. But Hou Yi loved his wife, Chang'e 嫦娥, more than he wanted to live forever alone. So he gave the elixir to her to keep safe, and said nothing more about it.
The night she flew
One day, while Hou Yi was away hunting, a greedy apprentice broke into their home and demanded the elixir. Chang'e refused. Cornered, with no other way to keep it from him, she did the only thing she could — she swallowed the pill herself.
At once her body grew light. Her feet lifted from the floor; she drifted past the window, past the rooftops, up and up into the autumn night — until she came to rest on the moon: the place closest to the people she loved, and the farthest away.
Friends on the moon
Chang'e is not entirely alone up there. Beside her lives the Jade Rabbit 玉兔, forever pounding herbs for the elixir of life, and a woodcutter named Wu Gang, endlessly chopping a self-healing cassia tree. We'll meet them both in the next lesson.
✓ Retell the complete Chang'e story to children, in the right order.
✓ Explain why mooncakes, the full moon and reunion belong together.
✓ Recognise the key names in pinyin: Hou Yi, Chang'e, Yu Tu (jade rabbit).