Get to know more stories about Mid-Autumn Festival including the Jade Rabbit. Because of the overdose, Chang'e kept on floating until she landed on the moon, instead of just floating up to heaven in the clouds. Unable to wait for her return to heaven, Chang'e swallowed the entire vial of elixir. En la antigua Grecia, por ejemplo, esta sustancia se conocía como 'ambrosía' o 'néctar de los dioses'.Los antiguos griegos creían que los dioses alcanzaron su inmortalidad al consumir esta sustancia. Upon arriving home, Hou Yi stored the vial in a case and warned Chang'e not to open the case, before going off on urgent business. El elixir de la inmortalidad se encuentra en varias culturas a lo largo de la historia. The Queen Mother warned Hou Yi that the elixir must be shared between him and his wife or else they would not become immortal together. But one day, one of Hou Yi's students named Pang Meng tried to steal the elixir when Hou Yi wasn't home. So, he did not consume it straight away, but let Chang'e keep it with her. The Jade Emperor was so sad and angry at his nine sons' deaths that he punished Hou Yi and Chang'e by making them live as mere mortals on earth.ĭistressed by his wife's grief over becoming an ordinary mortal, Hou Yi journeyed to meet the Queen Mother of the West and requested a vial of her elixir. However, the elixir was only enough for one person, and Hou Yi didn't want to gain immortality without his beloved wife.

So, Hou Yi shot down nine of the sons, leaving just one. The Jade Emperor asked Hou Yi to stop his 10 sons ruining the earth.

One day, the ten sons of the Jade Emperor transformed into ten suns, causing the earth to scorch. In another popular version of the legend, Chang'e and her husband Hou Yi were immortals living in heaven. Chang'e and Houyi the Archer (Version 2) Want to share the Mid-Autumn Festival story with your family? The 3-minute video below will show you all about it. Worshipping the moon and eating mooncakes have become traditions of Mid-Autumn Festival. Since then, on lunar month 8 day 15 every year, which has become Mid-Autumn Festival, people look forward to their reunion (and their own family reunions). Moved by their true love, the Mother of the Moon allowed Chang'e to reunite with Hou Yi every year on the full moon of the eighth lunar month. The elixir of life is a mythical brew believed to grant those who consume it immortality, but sometimes these potions were deadly, especially in ancient China. Then he displayed the fruits and cakes that Chang'e had enjoyed to convey to Chang'e that he missed her. He caught sight of a swaying figure that was exactly like Chang'e. He shouted to the sky and surprisingly discovered the moon was extremely bright that night. It was initially thought that the liquid was liquor because it smelled like alcohol. Around 3.5 litres of the elixir of immortality were found in the tomb in the city of Luoyang during excavations last October. Hou Yi was heartbroken when he was told what had happened to Chang'e. It was found secretly stowed away in a 2,000-year-old bronze pot in an ancient tomb in central China’s Henan province.

Elixir of immortality