Chang'e

Moon goddess

Chinese Living tradition

Moon Immortality

These figures are honored in living Chinese folk religion, Buddhism and Taoism.

The Moon Goddess Chang'e by Unidentified artist, after Tang Yin
The Moon Goddess Chang'e Unidentified artist, after Tang Yin, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Chang'e as painted by followers of the Ming master Tang Yin. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The lady who lives on the moon, honored at the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Chang'e was the wife of the archer Hou Yi, who shot down nine of the ten suns scorching the earth. In the best-known version she swallowed his elixir of immortality and floated up to the moon, where she lives with the Jade Rabbit. Families admire the full moon and share mooncakes in her honor.

Symbols

Moon Jade Rabbit Osmanthus tree

In the ancient sources
Early Chinese texts
Héng'é
“her original name, changed to Cháng'é to avoid the name of Emperor Wen of Han” Han dynasty texts
  • Huainanzi 8 (2nd century BCE) When ten suns rise together and scorch the crops, the sage-king Yao orders the archer Yi to shoot them down.
  • Huainanzi 6 Yi asks the Queen Mother of the West for the elixir of immortality; Heng'e steals it and flees to the moon.
  • Zhang Heng, Lingxian (2nd century CE) After reaching the moon, Chang'e is turned into a toad, the shape some saw in the moon's markings.
  • Songs of Chu, 'Heavenly Questions' The poet asks what the moon gains by having a creature, read as a toad or a hare, in its belly.

The Jade Rabbit pounding the elixir appears in Han art; the gentler, romantic Chang'e of the Mid-Autumn Festival grew up over the following centuries.

Cross-checked against these texts and records, in public-domain or freely available versions where they exist. Line, section and chapter numbers follow the standard editions, so a particular translation may differ slightly.

Correspondences Explore all
Planet
Moon
Moon phase
Full moon
Plants
Osmanthus
Animals
Rabbit, Toad
Offerings
Mooncakes

These come from the tradition itself, and practice differs between regions, lineages and houses. To go deeper, learn from the people and communities who keep this tradition.

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