Chang'e and the Jade Rabbit
In Chinese legend, a woman who drank the elixir of immortality floated up to the Moon, where she lives still with a rabbit pounding medicine.
What was reported
The best-known version tells of Chang'e, wife of the archer Hou Yi, who shot down nine of the ten suns that were scorching the Earth. He was given an elixir of immortality, and Chang'e drank it, to keep it from a thief, in some tellings, or out of curiosity in others. She became so light that she floated up to the Moon, where she lives in a cold palace.
Her companion is the Jade Rabbit, who pounds the elixir with a pestle; many people in East Asia see the rabbit in the Moon's dark patches. Families still look up at her during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Explanations offered
It's a myth, with many versions, recorded in Chinese texts from the 2nd century BC or earlier. The rabbit is a way of seeing shapes in the dark lava plains of the Moon. China named its lunar programme Chang'e and its rovers Yutu, 'jade rabbit', after the legend.
- When
- Told for more than two thousand years
- Where
- The Moon, as told in China
- Witnesses
- Chinese tradition
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.