Who is Chang'e? Guide to the Chinese Moon Goddess
Chang’e is the goddess who lives on the moon. She is the wife of the archer Hou Yi, who shot down nine of the ten suns to save the world from burning. She drank the elixir of immortality that had been meant for both of them, and rose from the earth to the moon, where she has lived ever since with the Jade Rabbit for company. The Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the most important observances in the Chinese calendar, is dedicated to her memory. Families gather beneath the full moon, eat round mooncakes, and look up at the shape of the woman visible in the moon’s surface. Chang’e is one of the tenderest figures in Chinese mythology, and the goddess whose story is renewed every year.
Key Takeaways
- Chang’e (also spelled Chang-e, Chang O, Ch’ang-o, or Sheng-o) is the Chinese goddess of the moon, wife of the archer-hero Hou Yi.
- Her story is one of the most beloved in the Chinese tradition: she drank the elixir of immortality intended to be shared with her husband and rose alone to the moon.
- She lives on the moon with the Jade Rabbit (Yutu), who pounds herbs of immortality in a mortar, and with the woodcutter Wu Gang.
- The Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie), held on the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar month, is dedicated to her memory and is one of the most important annual observances in the Chinese-speaking world.
- Her name in Chinese is 嫦娥 (Cháng’é); she is sometimes called Sheng-o in older romanisations.
- The China National Space Administration named its lunar exploration program after her: the Chang’e series of robotic missions has been landing spacecraft on the moon since 2007.
- The tradition preserves multiple versions of her story. In some she stole the elixir; in others she drank it to protect it from theft; in some she was compelled to drink it. Her motives are one of the tradition’s most debated questions.
Who is Chang’e?
Chang’e is the Chinese goddess of the moon in Chinese folk religion and Taoist tradition. She is the wife of Hou Yi, the great archer, and her story is one of the foundational myths of the Chinese lunar tradition and the annual Mid-Autumn Festival.
Definition - Chang’e
The Chinese goddess of the moon, wife of the archer-hero Hou Yi. Chang’e drank an elixir of immortality intended for her husband and rose alone to the moon, where she has lived ever since. Her Chinese name is 嫦娥 (Cháng’é). The Mid-Autumn Festival is dedicated to her memory.
Her worship is a living tradition. The Mid-Autumn Festival draws hundreds of millions of celebrants across the Chinese-speaking world each year. Her image appears in temples, on mooncakes, and on the packaging of every tea-related product sold around the festival. She is not a historical or purely literary figure. She is a goddess who continues to be honoured in contemporary practice.
The story of Chang’e and Hou Yi
The story begins with a crisis. In the ancient tradition, there were ten suns that took turns crossing the sky. One day, for reasons the tradition does not always explain, all ten rose at once. The earth began to burn. Crops died. Rivers dried. The people prayed for help.
The Jade Emperor sent Hou Yi, a mortal archer of legendary skill, to solve the problem. Hou Yi shot down nine of the ten suns with his bow, leaving one to continue the ordinary rotation. The earth cooled. The people lived. Hou Yi was celebrated as a hero. Read Hou Yi shoots down the suns and the legend of the ten suns.
But there was a complication. The nine suns had been the children of the Jade Emperor, and the Jade Emperor was not pleased. Hou Yi was punished by being made mortal and exiled to the earth. He married Chang’e, and they lived as ordinary humans on the earth, working as commoners.
Hou Yi, wanting to protect his wife, eventually sought out the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu), the powerful goddess who ruled the paradise of Mount Kunlun and possessed the elixir of immortality. She gave him a single portion of the elixir - enough for one person to become immortal, or for two people to become long-lived but not immortal.
Hou Yi brought the elixir home. He and Chang’e planned to share it and become long-lived together. He hid the elixir in a rafter of their house and went out to hunt.
Then the story diverges.
The moment of the elixir
The tradition preserves several versions of what happened next.
In one version, Hou Yi’s apprentice Peng Meng - a treacherous man who wanted Hou Yi’s power for himself - waited until Hou Yi left, then broke into the house and demanded the elixir from Chang’e. Rather than let it fall into his hands, Chang’e swallowed all of it herself. She rose from the ground and floated up to the moon. Read the story of Hou Yi and the elixir of immortality and Chang’e flies to the moon.
In another version, Chang’e was simply curious. She took the elixir down from its hiding place while Hou Yi was away, drank it out of curiosity, and rose to the moon accidentally.
In another, less flattering version, Chang’e stole the elixir deliberately, choosing full immortality for herself over shared long life with her husband.
The Chinese tradition has kept all these versions. The heroic reading (Chang’e sacrificing her marriage to keep the elixir out of Peng Meng’s hands) is the most widely told in modern China. The versions with more ambiguous motivation are older and still preserved.
Whichever version is told, the result is the same. Chang’e is on the moon. Hou Yi is on the earth. They do not meet again.
Chang’e on the moon
Chang’e’s life on the moon is one of the tenderest images in Chinese mythology. She lives in a palace called the Guanghan Gong (“Palace of the Vast Cold”), made of jade and silver, forever illuminated by moonlight.
She is not alone, though her companions are unusual. The Jade Rabbit (Yutu) lives with her, pounding herbs of immortality in a mortar. In some tellings the rabbit is trying to recreate the elixir that would bring Hou Yi to the moon to join her. In others the rabbit’s mortar simply produces the light of the moon.
The woodcutter Wu Gang also lives on the moon. He is a mortal who was sent there as a punishment for arrogance and given the task of cutting down a magical osmanthus tree. The tree’s wound heals as fast as he cuts, and he has been cutting forever, making no progress. His figure is sometimes visible in the shadows of the moon. Read the jade rabbit on the moon and the tale of the moon rabbit.
Chang’e herself is visible in the moon’s surface, according to Chinese tradition. When you look up at the full moon, the shapes in its surface are her palace, the rabbit, the tree, and Chang’e herself, dancing or watching.
The Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie) is Chang’e’s festival. Held on the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar month - when the moon is at its fullest and brightest of the year - it is one of the most important annual observances in the Chinese calendar, second only to the Lunar New Year in significance.
Families gather. They eat round mooncakes - dense pastries filled with lotus seed paste, red bean paste, salted egg yolks, or countless regional variations - which are shaped like the full moon. They light lanterns. They look up at the moon and think of Chang’e, and of family members who are far away.
The festival’s practices vary across the Chinese-speaking world. In some regions, women make offerings to Chang’e for the health of their children. In others, students pray to her for success in exams. In Southeast Asia, elaborate lantern processions accompany the festival. In modern mainland China, the festival is a national holiday, and family reunions are the central practice.
The festival is not solely a story about Chang’e; it is also a harvest festival marking the end of the growing season. But her figure sits at its centre, and the full moon of the eighth month is understood as the goddess in her most visible form.
Chang’e compared to other lunar deities
Moon deities are common across mythologies. Chang’e is unusual for being fully mortal in her origin.
| Tradition | Lunar deity | Gender | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | Chang’e | Female | Originally mortal; became immortal after drinking the elixir |
| Greek | Selene | Female | Titan; drives the moon chariot |
| Roman | Luna | Female | Directly cognate to Selene |
| Egyptian | Khonsu | Male | Male lunar god; young child of Amun and Mut |
| Japanese | Tsukuyomi | Male | Male moon god; brother of Amaterasu |
| Norse | Mani | Male | Male personification of the moon |
| Hindu | Chandra | Male | Male lunar god |
The gendering of the moon varies widely. Chinese, Greek, and Roman traditions treat the moon as female. Egyptian, Japanese, Norse, and Hindu traditions treat it as male. Chang’e is unusual not for being female but for being a former mortal - most lunar deities are primordial gods, not humans elevated after death.
Read the stories
Chang’e appears throughout Chinese folk tradition. Some entry points:
- Chang’e Flies to the Moon
- Hou Yi Shoots Down the Suns
- The Story of Hou Yi and the Elixir of Immortality
- The Legend of the Ten Suns
- The Jade Rabbit on the Moon
- The Tale of the Moon Rabbit
- The Legend of the Heavenly Queen Mother
Chang’e is the goddess the Chinese tradition puts in the moon, and the goddess whose story every family retells at the Mid-Autumn Festival each year. Whether she drank the elixir to save it, to try it, or to keep it for herself, the outcome is the same: she is on the moon, her husband is on the earth, and every full moon of the eighth month is her memorial. The tradition has kept her there for over two thousand years, and continues to keep her there today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Chang’e go to the moon?
She drank the elixir of immortality intended to be shared with her husband Hou Yi, and rose alone from the earth to the moon. The tradition preserves several versions of why she drank it: to protect it from theft by Hou Yi’s treacherous apprentice Peng Meng, out of curiosity when she was alone in the house, or out of a desire for immortality that outweighed her marriage. The heroic version - saving the elixir from Peng Meng - is the most widely told in modern China.
Who is the Jade Rabbit?
The Jade Rabbit (Yutu) is Chang’e’s companion on the moon. He is a rabbit who lives in her palace and pounds herbs of immortality in a mortar. In some tellings he is trying to recreate the elixir that would bring Hou Yi to the moon. In others he simply produces the light of the moon through his mortar. He is one of the figures Chinese tradition sees in the shadows of the full moon.
What is the Mid-Autumn Festival?
The Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie) is one of the most important annual festivals in the Chinese calendar, held on the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar month when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. It is dedicated to Chang’e and celebrated with family reunions, round mooncakes (which represent the full moon), lanterns, and the making of offerings under the moon. It is a national holiday in mainland China and is celebrated throughout the Chinese-speaking world.
Who is Hou Yi?
Hou Yi is Chang’e’s husband, a mortal archer of legendary skill who saved the world by shooting down nine of the ten suns when they all rose at once and threatened to burn the earth. For this act - which killed nine of the Jade Emperor’s children - he was made mortal and exiled to earth. He obtained the elixir of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West, intended to be shared with Chang’e, but she drank it before he could return, and he was left on earth.
Is Chang’e worshipped today?
Yes. Chang’e is a central figure in Chinese folk religion and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and her worship is a living tradition throughout the Chinese-speaking world. Families make offerings to her under the full moon on the fifteenth night of the eighth month, women pray to her for the health of their children, and students pray to her for academic success. Her image appears in temples and on countless everyday objects, particularly around the festival.
Why is China’s lunar exploration program named after Chang’e?
The China National Space Administration named its robotic lunar exploration program the Chang’e Project (Chang’e Gongcheng) in her honour. The program has launched a series of missions to the moon since 2007. The Chang’e 4 mission made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon in 2019. The Chang’e 5 mission returned lunar samples to Earth in 2020. The naming reflects the enduring cultural importance of the moon goddess in modern China.