Hello and welcome to Chinese Folk Tales.
This is Beibei.
At the end of the last episode, I said that we might hear the name Hou Yi again.
Because this episode starts with him.
Well, I should say he will be one of the main characters of today's story, but not the leading one.
In today's episode, I'm about to reveal one of the most prominent legendary figures in Chinese culture.
And it's a Xi, a beautiful lady.
Her name is Chang'e.
And she's such a familiar character for the Chinese people that we almost think of her as a member of our mortals.
That beautiful lady in a long flowing gown who happened to fly up to the moon.
So yeah, every Chinese knows the story of Chang'e.
Let me start from the beginning.
After what Hou Yi had done for the people, it was no wonder that people hoped that he could live forever and offer them protection if the occasion ever arises, which they were sure would.
People started thinking of ways to make Hou Yi immortal.
Someone said to him I heard that the Queen, Mother of the West, lives on the Kunlun Mountain and she has pills of immortality.
Whoever swallows one will never get old.
You are certainly powerful enough to travel to the Kunlun Mountain and get some of those pills.
Hou Yi was very excited to hear about this.
He went home and told his wife.
And yes, his wife is the lady I mentioned, Chang'e.
In fact, I think his wife is even more famous than he is.
Now usually, kids in China learn about his wife's stories before they hear about his.
So who was his wife?
As I mentioned, her name is Chang'e, the lady who flew to the moon.
But that part is coming up soon.
So his beautiful wife Chang'e heard what he had related and said I've heard of the mountain and that it's very difficult to get there.
There is a bottomless abyss called weak water.
Nothing can flow on top, not even leaves, not to mention boats.
And a ring of fire surrounds the mountain, burning non-stop.
Anything that goes near would turn into ashes instantly.
The immortality pill sounds really great, but how are you going to get it?
Hou Yi was one confident man.
Of course, he had reasons to be confident.
He said to his wife, Don't you worry.
I'll see what happens.
I'm sure I can get there.
Nothing can stop a man like Hou Yi from meeting a challenge head on.
He set off the next morning at sunrise and rode on his horse in the direction of the Kunlun Mountain.
You'll hear the name of this mountain time and time again in our series.
So the story goes that one had to cross a desert and two large rivers to get to the mountain.
The name of Queen Mother of West, Xi Wang Mu, sounds like a kind old lady, right?
Maybe because her name has Mu, the word mother, in it.
Some say she was actually a monster deity with the face of a human, but the body of a tiger and a tail of a leopard.
Most of the time, she stays inside a cave on the mountainside and doesn't really go anywhere.
Three big blue birds fly back and forth to get her food or other things that she needed.
Now this doesn't sound like someone that I want to meet, but Hou Yi was all focused on getting those pills.
He crossed the desert and came to the valley of weak water.
So far, so good.
When he was contemplating how to cross the valley, he heard the cries of a bird.
It was one of the blue birds.
In fact, it had feathers of bright colors and very strong wings.
So what did Houyi do?
He picked up his bow and arrow, of course.
But this time, he didn't want to kill it.
Don't mess with the pets of the Queen Mother of the West.
In a show of his archery skills, he shot out an arrow with a rope attached.
And it did not hit the bird. but circled around one leg of the bird and tied a knot around it.
Yep, that's how good he was, according to the legend.
So then, he hang on to his end of the rope and was dragged across the valley and over the burning fire before he landed safely on the Kunlun Mountains.
The mountain was really high, all the way into the clouds.
Hou Yi climbed on all fours up the cliffside and finally came to the cave of the Queen, Mother of the West.
The Queen Mother of the West was rather nice towards Hou Yi.
I mean it's not every day or every year that a handsome and muscular young man would come to this part of the world.
She sent one of her birds to fetch the pills of immortality and even reminded him a very important message.
She told him in the sweetest voice she could manage.
If two people each takes one, both will live forever.
If one person swallowed both, he or she would rise to the heavens and become an immortal there.
I'm not sure what Hou Yi did to thank the Queen, Mother of the West, but he was able to leave in one piece with the pills in his pocket.
Before long, he was back at home and handed those precious pills to his wife to keep.
Now, Houyi didn't really want to become a god of any sort and live in the high heavens.
He was very happy where he was, and being able to help others was especially satisfying for him.
Life wasn't easy on Earth, but he was free and fulfilled and happy.
Hou Yi was also interested in teaching others the great skills that he had.
He had one particular apprentice named Pang Meng, who seemed like a very good lad diligent, smart and was eager to learn and practice.
Hou Yi liked the young man and taught him all the archery skills that he knew.
I'm sure you can sense that there is a but coming.
Peng Meng was smart, but a bit too smart, and couldn't stand it that someone near him lived a superior life, had better skills, a beautiful wife and people that worshipped him.
And no matter how he practiced, he was never as good of an archer as Hou Yi.
The seeds of jealousy were quickly sprouting in the young man's heart.
Even when people paid him compliments saying that he was the second best archer after Hou Yi, which was a really high compliment, he was mad.
His thinking was, if it wasn't because of Hou Yi, I would be the number one.
Hmm. talking about being ungrateful.
Soon, Pang Meng heard about the pills of immortality hidden somewhere in Hou Yi's house.
He wanted them, of course.
One day, when Hou Yi took Pang Meng into the hills to practice archery, Pang Meng hit his teacher in the back of his head when Hou Yi wasn't aware.
Hou Yi, the hero who had helped so many others, fell on the spot and died.
What an end for a hero of mankind.
And then Pang Meng ran to Hou Yi's house and saw that Chang'e was home alone.
Chang'e was very surprised to see Pang Meng coming back all by himself.
And I guess her feminine sixth sense had long ago been suspicious of this man.
In fact, he had warned Hou Yi about him many times.
But who can convince a hero who was not afraid of anything and always chose to see the good side of everybody?
Pang Meng knew that he could not fool Chang'e. and threatened her to turn over the pills.
Chang'e was one smart lady.
She pretended to be scared and agreed to go get the pills.
But a nice lady like Chang'e would do anything to stop someone like Pang Meng, who tried to murder her husband, to get a pill that would prolong his unscrupulous life forever.
What could she do, though?
She was no match for this young man, with or without any weapons.
She did the only thing she could think of, swallowing both pills as soon as she got hold of them.
Anything to prevent a murderer from becoming an immortal.
Pang Meng soon found out what Chang'e was doing.
But it was too late.
The Queen Mother of the West knew what she was talking about.
Upon swallowing the pills, Chang'e started to feel lighter and lighter.
And soon, she floated into the air, right out the window, before Paomeng could drag her down.
It was already dark outside, and Chang'e was soon no more than a little speck rising up to the moon.
The moon was indeed where she was headed.
I'm not sure if it was programmed in the pill or if Chang'e had a choice in her destination, but the moon was certainly where she was going.
Chang'e came to be known as the Lady on the Moon.
In the stories that I have heard, she had no one else but a little bunny to keep her company in the chilly palace on that cold planet.
It's a sad story, isn't it?
Other legend has it that Hou Yi also became a god after his death and specialized in killing bad deities and monsters.
I like this version better, but I don't think he ever saw his beautiful wife again.
This story of Hou Yi reminds me of one Chinese saying which is better an open enemy than a false friend.
I'm sorry to end on this sorry note.
We'll be moving on to stories about the five heavenly lords and hopefully they will be a bit more delightful.
We'll see.
So hope to see you then, and bye for now.
If you've got any questions or feedback, please feel free to contact us via email at podcast at cricomcn or find us on Twitter China Plus Pods.
