Hello and welcome to Chinese Folk Tales.
This is Bei Bei.
Today we're not going to talk about ancient gods or fairies, but a hero that the Chinese people have come to worship since the ancient times.
We need to start the story with one of the goddesses that we talked about in previous episodes, the goddess of sun Xi He.
Do you remember her?
She had ten suns, S-O-N-S, which were ten suns, S-U-N-S.
And every day, the dutiful goddess would drive one of her suns up to the sky to light up the world.
And the other nine boys would stay behind and just chill.
For a really long time, it all seemed like a very good plan.
But as they say, boys are boys.
They were bound to grow tired of the same old routine, the same old places and the same old schedule.
They want to do something different, something more exciting. than being the sun for the universe.
So one day, one of the suns came up with a plan.
He said to his brothers, yo bros, or whatever they say to your buddies.
He said, we've got enough of the same old arrangement.
It's time for us to have some fun.
Tomorrow, let's all go up to the sky.
Together.
All ten of us.
And let's have a good time.
Who will notice anyway?
Yeah, right.
Now the other brothers had been pining for someone to make a suggestion just like this.
And the support was unanimous time for some freedom.
So the next day, before goddess, she came with her dragon carriage.
Her ten sons had already sneaked out.
They let themselves loose on the sky, having quite a hot party.
They were having so much fun that they decided Guess what.
We're not going back to our old job.
No way!
They were young, and life was supposed to be full of adventures and unpredictable thrills.
Not the same beaten path day after day, even if it's on a dragon carriage.
Who wants stability when you can have freedom, right?
Well, it turned out that the little pitiful humans did.
One sun in the sky was just about right most of the time, but ten would never be right.
Land cracked and rivers dried up.
Grasses became hay and then burned up into ashes.
The pitiful humans were not going to last.
But in times like this, in Chinese culture, a hero always arises to save the people, to save the world.
This time, the man who came forward was called Hou Yi.
This is another household name that every Chinese knows.
Hou Yi was known as the archer with a perfect aim.
With his bow and arrows, he has saved many people from the teeth of wild beasts, and people had always loved and admired him.
When he saw ten suns in the sky and how the people were near their deaths, he picked up his bow and arrows and set out to save them again.
He climbed onto a tall mountain, melting in the incredible heat.
Without harming anyone except himself, he shouted first to the suns in the sky.
Go back, please.
The people can't take this a moment longer.
But the sons, they were young boys.
They were not going to pay any attention to a mere human.
So this time, Hou Yi warned them.
If you hang out there any longer, I'll have to shoot you all down.
Yeah, right.
Thought the sons, like you can just do that, they thought.
So they ignored him completely.
Hou Yi couldn't be nice anymore.
He picked up his bow and set an arrow in place.
For someone who could probably kill flies with his arrows.
Objects as conspicuous as the sun in the sky could hardly escape his aim.
Every arrow counted.
The first sun went down in a cloud of bright white light.
It fell to the ground, and its color faded till it was all dark.
We pitiful little humans have always been curious creatures.
When this happened, they came out of their drawings into the open and went to check out the fallen sun.
And guess what they saw?
A huge black bird was what they saw with feathers scattered gracelessly all over the earth.
The arrow that was on the body definitely belonged to Hou Yi.
Now, only nine suns left.
The people cheered.
It was still burning hot, but they saw hope.
Hou Yi set flying one arrow after another, each one bringing down another sun, until there was only one left.
The earth finally cooled and the last sun left in the sky hid behind dark clouds that started gathering in the sky.
Soon, huge raindrops started falling, pouring water on cracked earth and withering plants.
Rivers were refilled, and people came out to dance in the rain.
They cried out Hou Yi's name to thank him for saving their lives.
This is the story of Hou Yi shooting down suns.
His story is different from that of Kuafu, who chased after the sun, and also Jingwei, who tried to fill the ocean.
Hua Fu had nothing but a stick as a cane at the end of his journey.
Jing Wei had nothing but her beak.
But Hou Yi had a very important weapon, his bow and arrows.
In the ancient days, when men were hunters, they used sticks and rocks frequently.
And later, during the Neolithic age, bows and arrows became common tools.
Bows became like extensions of people's arms and, together with the arrows, were very important weapons.
And men with superb marksmanship were worshipped by the people.
The story of Hou Yi was also a song of praise for people like him.
And shooting down the extra nine sons wasn't just the only heroic action of Hou Yi.
What else was he remembered for?
Well, let's wait till the next episode.
Hope to see you then, and bye for now.
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Special thanks go out to Sanlian Zhongdu for their help in creating the content for this show.
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