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Mid-Autumn Festival Legends
1. The Lady - Chang Er
 It's
said that in the old old days, the earth
once had ten suns circling over it. Each day the suns' mother took one sun
to illuminate the
earth. But one day all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with
their heat. The Emperor of Heaven ordered a strong archer Hou Yi to save the
earth. He
succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns. One day, Hou Yi stole the elixir of
life from a goddess. However his beautiful wife Chang Er drank the elixir of
life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After
drinking it, she found herself floating and flew to the moon. Hou Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he didn't shoot down the moon.
Another version of the story is that Hou Yi built a beautiful jade palace
for the Goddess of the Western Heaven. The Goddess was very happy and she
gave Hou Yi a special pill that contained elixir of life and he could use it
after he had accomplished certain things. However, Chang Er took it
without telling her husband. The Goddess of the Western Heaven was
very angry and Chang Er was sent to the moon forever.
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2. The Man - Wu Kang
Wu Kang was a shiftless fellow who changed apprenticeships all
the time. One day he decided that he wanted to be an immortal. Wu Kang then went
to live in the mountains where he importuned an immortal to teach him. First the
immortal taught him about the herbs used to cure sickness, but after three days
his characteristic restlessness returned and he asked the immortal to teach him
something else. So the immortal decided to teach him chess. But after a short while Wu
Kang was not interested any more. Then Wu Kang was given the books of immortality
to study. Of course, Wu Kang became bored within a few days, and asked if they
could travel to some new and exciting place. Angered with Wu Kang's impatience,
the master banished Wu Kang to the Moon Palace telling him that he must cut down
a huge cassia tree before he could return to earth. Though Wu Kang chopped day
and night, the magical tree restored itself with each blow, and thus he is up
there chopping still.
3. The Hare - Jade Rabbit
In this
legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men and begged
for something to eat from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and the monkey
both had food to give to the old men, but the rabbit, empty-handed, offered his
own flesh instead, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself. The sages were
so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace
where he became the "Jade Rabbit."
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