page_title: Moon rabbit
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Moon rabbit / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A medallion on an embroidered imperial robe (above the head of a dragon - not shown), with the White Hare of the Moon, at the foot of a cassia tree, making elixir of immortality
context_page_description: The moon rabbit or moon hare is a mythical figure who lives on the Moon in Far Eastern folklore, based on pareidolia interpretations that identify the dark markings on the near side of the Moon as a rabbit or hare. The folklore originated in China and then spread to other Asian cultures. In East Asian folklore, the rabbit is seen as pounding with a mortar and pestle, but the contents of the mortar differ among Chinese, Japanese and Korean folklore. In Chinese folklore, the rabbit often is portrayed as a companion of the Moon goddess Chang'e, constantly pounding the elixir of life for her; but in Japanese and Korean versions, the rabbit is pounding the ingredients for mochi or other some other type of rice cakes. In some Chinese versions, the rabbit pounds medicine for the mortals. Unrelated moon folklore arising among native cultures of the Americas, also have rabbit themes and characters.
context_section_description: An early Chinese source called the Chu Ci, a Western Han anthology of Chinese poems from the Warring States period, notes that along with a toad, there is a hare on the Moon who constantly pounds herbs for the immortals. This notion is supported by later texts, including the Song-era Taiping Imperial Reader. As rabbits were not yet introduced to China during Western Han, the original image was not a rabbit but a hare.
  Han Dynasty poets call the hare on the Moon the "Jade Hare" (玉兔) or the "Gold Hare" (金兔), and these phrases were used often, in place of the word for the Moon. A famous poet of Tang China, Li Bai, relates how "The rabbit in the moon pounds the medicine in vain" in his poem, "The Old Dust".
caption: The Chinese mythological white hare making the elixir of immortality on the Moon is embroidered onto an eighteenth-century Imperial Chinese robe
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