Chinese Mythology · God / Legendary Figure
嫦娥 · Cháng'é
The goddess who drifted to the Moon — and the reason families gather at Mid-Autumn.
嫦娥
High in the Moon Palace, with only the Jade Rabbit for company, lives Chang'e, goddess of the Moon. Wife of the archer Houyi, she ends up taking the elixir of immortality and floats up to the Moon, forever separated from her husband.
Two canonical versions exist and shouldn't be blended: in the sympathetic telling she swallows the elixir to keep a thief from stealing it while Houyi is away; in older, harsher versions she takes it selfishly.
Her legend is the heart of the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) — mooncakes and moon-viewing — and she is the namesake of China's Chang'e lunar program.
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