Hằng Nga

The Vietnamese Goddess of the Moon (Art by Qiu Ying)

### Aliases

Chang'e, Hằng Ngã, Thường Nga, Chị Hằng, Thường Nga Tiên tử, Miss Hằng, Young Fairy of the Moon, Companion of Cuội, Nguyệt Cung Hoàng Hoa Tố Diệu Nguyên Tinh Thánh Hậu Thái Âm Nguyên Quân, Nguyệt Cung Thái Âm Hoàng Quân Hiếu Đạo Minh Vương

## Physical Description

### Spirit of

The Moon, Beauty, Marriage, Festivity, Children

## Relatives

### Consorts

Hậu Nghệ

**Hằng Nga**, also known as **Hằng Ngã** or **Thường Nga**, is the Vietnamese goddess of the moon and festivity. She is one of the handmaidens of Princess Liễu Hạnh. She is also the wife of Hậu Nghệ and the frequent companion of Cuội.

## Appearance

Hằng Nga is a beautiful young girl in her late teens - early 20s, often dressed in white clothing.

In the modern era, she abandoned her ancient and more traditional clothings, preferring western dresses give her a "princess-like" appearance.

## History

### Origins

Hằng Nga was originally a young fairy who lived amongst the gods in heaven who served as the handmaiden of Princess Liễu Hạnh. One of the trips down to Earth, she fell in love with a human man named *Nghệ*. With the permission of her mistress, the two of them married each other and lived a happy life together.

As time went on, Nghệ became older and older while she was still young and beautiful. He feared that either his wife would one day see him as old and ugly and abandon him or they would be forever be separated by death, Nghệ begged Hằng Nga to return to the heavens and steal him a pill of immortality. Because of love, she agreed but was found out by the Jade Emperor himself.

In his anger, he killed Nghệ but spare Hằng Nga because of his daughter's plead. However, because she had broken the sacred rule of heaven, she still had to receive a punishment. Liễu Hạnh then revealed that Nghệ was a descendant of Chang'e and Hou Yi in their mortal incarnation and asked him to banish her to the Moon to live with her ancestor-in-law to atone for her crime, which he agreed.

Sometimes in the moon, she and Cuội met and quickly became great friends.

### Second Descend

One day, while looking down from the Moon, she discovered Hậu Nghệ, the reincarnation of her former husband Nghệ. She then begged Liễu Hạnh and Chang'e to help her travel down to Earth to be with him once more, in spite of her banishment, which they begrudgingly agreed.

This time, however, she had to be reborn as a mortal girl born in an old farmer family, instead of being a goddess like she was before. Due to her celestial lineage, she was renown as a beauty ever since a young age, thus attracting countless suitors from all over the countries, including Hậu Nghệ himself. However, unbeknown to her, he had become a tyrant who caused great pain to the people. When her parents refused his marriage proposal, he ordered them to be either killed or enslaved but she managed to escape into the countryside.

As time went on and he became older, the tyranical Hậu Nghệ became obsessed with the ideal of eternal youth and seeking out the miraculous pill that would bring him immortality. He ordered everyone to come to ask for how to create it, which no one known as the secret to its creation was a heavily guarded secret of the heaven, but he did not accept the answers and execute all those who either didn't have the answer or gave him the answers he didn't feel satisfied.

In the countryside, Hằng Nga met Guan Yin who gave her a small "pill of immortality", telling her to bring it to the king. Hậu Nghệ, feeling suspision that the woman who once fled from him suddenly came forth and offered him a pill said to grant him immortality, order her to try half of it first. After she tried and had no signs of poisoned, he consumed it and died immidiately. Hằng Nga soon followed, but due to her divine essence, she did not truly die but only return to her true status as a goddess, her body became lighter and flew back to the moon in fronts of thousands of people.

Due to her having killed a tyranical king, as well as the asking from Guan Yi herself, the Jade Emperor decided to lift her banishment, though she still decided to live on the moon alongside Chang'e and Cuội.

## Trivia

* In Daoism, she is also known as **Thái Âm tinh quân** (太阴星君). Her other epithets are:
	+ **Nguyệt Cung Hoàng Hoa Tố Diệu Nguyên Tinh Thánh Hậu Thái Âm Nguyên Quân** (月宫黄华素曜元精圣后太阴元君).
	+ **Nguyệt Cung Thái Âm Hoàng Quân Hiếu Đạo Minh Vương** (月宫太阴皇君孝道明王).
* She and Chang'e have a mother-daughter relationship.
* She is considered a protector/guardian of young children in Vietnamese culture.