Hou Yi

Hou Yi was a renowned archer of Emperor Yao’s era. According to legend, during Yao’s reign, ten suns rose together in the sky, parching vegetation and plunging humanity into misery; simultaneously, ferocious monsters—including Ya Yu, Zao Chi, Jiu Ying, Da Feng, Feng Xi, and Xiu She—ravaged the land. The Celestial Emperor bestowed upon Hou Yi a vermilion bow and white-tipped arrows, commissioning him to descend to earth and rescue the people. Hou Yi drew his bow and loosed his arrows, felling nine suns and leaving only one to illuminate and nurture the world; he then slew each of the monstrous beasts, eliminating disasters across the realm. The grateful populace revered him as a hero. Later traditions intimately link him with the tale of Chang’e’s ascent to the moon: having obtained the elixir of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West, Hou Yi’s wife Chang’e consumed it and ascended to the Moon Palace; gazing sorrowfully at the moon, Hou Yi set up an incense altar to worship her from afar—thus inaugurating the Mid-Autumn Festival tradition of moon veneration.