The Elixir of Immortality
After shooting down nine suns, Houyi was banished to the mortal world. Refusing to accept mortality, he journeyed to Mount Kunlun to petition the Queen Mother of the West for the elixir of immortality. She gave him a packet — enough for two. If one person consumed it all, they would ascend to heaven as an immortal; if shared, both would live forever on earth.
Overjoyed, Houyi returned home and entrusted the elixir to Chang'e, planning to choose an auspicious day for them both to take it. But his apprentice Peng Meng discovered the secret.
The Night of the Full Moon
On the night of the Mid-Autumn full moon — the fifteenth day of the eighth month — Houyi went hunting. Peng Meng broke into the house and demanded the elixir at sword-point. Chang'e knew she could not overpower him — if the elixir fell into wicked hands, the consequences would be unthinkable.
“Chang'e stole [the elixir] and ascended to the moon. Bereaved and sorrowful, there was no way to undo it.”
— Huainanzi, Lánmíng Xùn
In that moment of crisis, Chang'e made her choice. She swallowed the entire elixir. Instantly, her body became weightless as a feather. She floated through the window, drifting upward toward the luminous full moon in the night sky.
The Cold Lunar Palace
Chang'e landed on the moon and entered the Guanghan Palace — the Cold Lunar Palace, a place of exquisite solitude. Her only companions were a jade rabbit who endlessly pounds medicine beneath a cassia tree, and Wu Gang, a failed immortal condemned to chop the tree forever. The tree stood five hundred zhang tall and regenerated with every stroke, never to fall.
When Houyi returned and found the elixir gone and his beloved wife vanished, he howled at the sky. He ran toward the moon, but could never reach it. From then on, on every full moon night, he laid out Chang'e's favorite cakes and fruits in the courtyard, gazing at the moon and pouring out his longing.
Origins of the Mid-Autumn Festival
The legend of Chang'e is inseparable from the Mid-Autumn Festival. Every fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, Chinese families gather to admire the full moon, eat mooncakes, and celebrate reunion. Mooncakes are said to originate from the cakes Houyi laid out for Chang'e. This festival remains one of the most important family gatherings in the Chinese world.
An Eternal Longing
Chang'e's story endures because it transcends simple morality. She is not a perfect victim; Houyi is not a pure hero. Both made their choices within the whirlpool of fate, and both paid their own price.
In 2007, China named its first lunar satellite 'Chang'e-1.' In 2013, 'Chang'e-3' landed the 'Yutu' (Jade Rabbit) rover on the moon — a thousand-year myth reborn through modern science.