The Goddess ChangE Fly to the Moon is also called the original the Chinese moon festival. It is said that in ancient times there were ten suns coexisting in the sky, blazing the earth, drying rivers and lakes, scorching all crops and driving people to starvation.
To save the world from misery, a great archer named Hou Yi ascended to the top of the Kunlun Mountain and shot down nine superfluous suns. Hou Yi's extraordinary deeds won the love and respect of the populace. People came from far and wide to learn from him, including Peng Meng, an evil man.
Also because of his heroic feat, Hou Yi was rewarded with an elixir of immortality, by taking which, it was said, one would ascend immediately to heaven and become a celestial being.
Unwilling to leave his wife, a beautiful girl name Chang E, Hou Yi handed the elixir to Chang E. Chang E hid the parcel in a treasure box at her dresser when, unexpectedly, it was seen by Peng Meng.
One day when Hou Yi was out for hunting, Peng Meng, sword in hand, broke into Chang E's room and forced her to hand over the elixir. Aware that she was unable to defeat Peng Meng, Chang E turned round, took up the elixir and swallowed it in one gulp. As soon as she swallowed the elixir, Chang E started to float into the sky toward the Moon. See more details at The traditional Chinese festival series: Mid-Autumn Festival.
After returning home at night and learning what had happened, Hou Yi was so grief-stricken that he called out the name of his beloved wife. To his surprise, he found that the moon was especially clear and bight and on it, there was a swaying silhouette similar to that of his wife.
The book comes with Chinese characters and the Pinyin (phonetic transcriptions), a great adventure book to enjoy and practice reading Chinese. The high-quality print is nicely produced to capture the vivid color and exceptional detail of the original artwork.
