In China, the story has the Jade Emperor-not Buddha-disguising himself as a beggar to find a worthy animal to help prepare the elixir of life for the immortals. To remind everyone of the hare’s magnanimity, Buddha took rabbit to the moon to shine brightly forever. However, before the rabbit could leap into the fire, Buddha revealed himself, having been impressed by rabbit’s generosity. Thus, the rabbit had the monkey and the fox help him build a fire, promising to give his cooked flesh to the old man to eat. The monkey brought him mangoes and the fox brought him fish, but poor rabbit ate only grass, so had nothing to offer the man but himself. The Indian tale of the moon rabbit myth says that one day Buddha decided to test three friends-monkey, fox, and hare (or rabbit)-and so disguised himself as a hungry old man. From what I could gather, it seems legend of the moon rabbit travelled from India to China before hopping on over to Korea and Japan. Rabbit in the moon standing by pot from Wikimedia at Īs you may have guessed, many cultures’ folklore mentions a rabbit living on the moon.
#THE MOON RABBIT ELIXIR OF IMMORTALITY FULL#
Wow! I found out the world is full of moon myths-much too much for a single blog post-but I will tell you more about that mythical moon rabbit. Indeed the first two spacecraft of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program launched in 20 were named Chang’e 1 and Chang’e 2 in her honour.Earlier this year while looking up information about the Earth’s moon for January’s blog post, I came across the myth of the moon rabbit and couldn’t resist looking closer into some of the mythology surrounding the moon. The Moon goddess still holds an important place in Chinese society. If you look at the moon through a telescope, you may see him there yourself. The Jade Rabbit was already on the moon since ancient times people have been able to see him there and he features in the folk mythology of many societies including the Aztecs, Koreans, and Japanese. She immediately became immortal and floated up to the moon – Houyi was heartbroken and tried to shoot her down but he never succeeded and she has remained on the moon ever since. Alas he did not tell Chang’e this, and one day when he was out she became curious and swallowed the whole pill. Houyi was told it was extremely powerful and that he should only take half the pill and give the other half to his wife. They lived very happily until one day he mysteriously acquired a special pill which could make him immortal. As a reward he was allowed to marry the beautiful girl he loved – Chang’e. An archer called Houyi used his skill and shot down nine of the suns, thus saving humanity. There are many folktales about Chang’e and how she came to be the Moon goddess, and they all go something like this: Long, long ago ten blazing suns rose in the sky and were scorching the earth.
He can leave the moon and come down to earth sometimes on one occasion he came down and saved Beijing from the plague, and here he is venerated and called Lord Rabbit. Her companion on the moon is a Jade Rabbit (confusingly considered to have white fur) who stands on his hind legs under a Cassia (cinnamon) tree pounding the elixir of immortality in a big mortar. This festival is particularly linked to the moon and its immortal goddess Chang’e who lives on the moon and cannot leave. It is also often called ‘Mooncake Festival’ because of the prodigious quantities of mooncakes which are made, bought and sold. Zhongqiu Jie always falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, which this year is September 19th.
Later this week millions of Chinese will be on the move to visit family and friends during this three-day national holiday. Hey ho! time flies and once again the Zhongqiu Jie 中秋節(Mid-Autumn Festival) is nearly upon us.
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