“Every Mid-Autumn Festival the whole mortal world eats mooncakes in her honor and she watches, luminous and alone, the most beautiful exile in heaven.”
A Moon immortal of The Celestial Court
3 known connections · an open question
She flew to the moon with the elixir of immortality — stolen, the tellings say, from her husband Houyi, who had it from the Queen Mother of the West — and she has lived there ever since with only a jade rabbit for company. Every Mid-Autumn Festival the whole mortal world eats mooncakes in her honor. She watches, luminous and alone, the most beautiful exile in heaven.
She is standing at the edge of the moon's bright side tonight, looking down at a world full of lanterns lit for her. The rabbit is pounding the elixir behind her, hop by hop. She has not touched the elixir in centuries. She doesn't need to.
The elixir made her immortal, not unchanging — and one Mid-Autumn night, the tellings whisper, she will finally finish the long walk back down the moonbeam. The mooncakes will be waiting. They are always waiting.
“Thump, thump, thump — the elixir pounding, hop by hop, the moon's oldest rhythm. Except the night attendant counted: every night, one stroke in ten thousand lands without a sound. No thump. Just the motion, and the silence where the sound should be. The rabbit keeps pounding. Chang'e, asked about it, looked at the earth for a long time and said nothing.”
One pestle-stroke a night makes no sound.
The Jade Emperor’s court: the Queen Mother of the West, the thunder dukes, the star lords, the weaver and the cowherd. The bureaucracy of the cosmos — every god holds an office, every office holds a ledger, and somebody is always auditing.
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