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嫦娥
Pinyin: Cháng'é
Wade-Giles: Ch'ang2-o2
Also called: Héng'é 姮娥
Chang'e is the Chinese goddess of the moon. The legend is set in the time of the Emperor Yáo 堯.
Chang'e was wife of the heavenly archer Hòu Yì 後羿. Through no fault of his own, Hou Yi was banished from heaven and Chang'e was banished with him. Chang'e was resentful of her husband, because she felt that she had been unfairly treated.
They were both fearful of death but Hou Yi journeyed to Kunlun, where he pleaded with the Queen Mother of the West 西王母 who took pity on him. She gave him a bottle of medicine explaining that if the bottle was drunk, it would deify the drinker, but half the bottle would still make the drinker immortal. Hou Yi returned to his wife and explained what was said. They planned a great banquet after which husband and wife would each drink half and thus be saved from death. Hou Yi entrusted the bottle to Chang'e's safe keeping.
While he was away, Chang'e, still resentful, drank the entire contents of the bottle herself. Realising that she could never return to heaven, she fled instead to the moon. Hou Yi returned to discover only the empty bottle.
The legend has inspired much literature. "Chang'e" is the title of a poem by the late Tang dynasty poet Lǐ Shāngyǐn 李商隱.
雲母屏風燭影深
長河漸落曉星沈
嫦娥應悔偷靈藥
碧海青天夜夜心
Candlelight reflects dimly in the marble screen,
The Milky Way slowly sets and the dawn stars are sinking,
Chang'e must regret stealing the medicine that made her immortal,
As she meditates, night after night, over jasper sea and indigo sky.