Chang'e

The Chinese Moon Goddess (Art by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi)

### Aliases

Hằng Nga, Chang-o, Heng'e, Goddess of the Moon, Fairy of the Moon, Queen of Lunaria, Chang the Beautiful, The Lunar Songster, Fair Dancer of the Moonlit Night, Immortal Lady of the Guanghang Palace

## Physical Description

### Spirit of

The Moon, Beauty, Marriage, Dancing, Festivity

## Relatives

### Consorts

Hou Yi

**Chang'e**, also known as **Chang-o** and **Heng'e**, is the Chinese goddess of the moon and one of the most sought-after fairy dancers in the Chinese heaven. She is the wife of the Divine Archer Hou Yi and the dream woman of Zhu Bajie.

## Overview

She is the queen of Lunaria, one of the biggest celestial cities on the Moon, which she had personally built around her Guanghan Palace with the assistance of Gu Wang and her familiar, the Moon Rabbit Yu Tu.

## Appearance

Chang'e is one of the most beautiful goddesses in Chinese mythology, known for her elegant and grace.

In the modern era, she has come to embrace more modern and extravagant clothings.

## Personality

Chang'e is kind and gentle, graceful as a swan landing on a quiet lake and elegant as a dove on windswept currents. She is noted to be one of the kindest goddesses within the Chinese Pantheon, as well as one of the gods who wouldn't outright attack you when you accidentally offend them, according to Carl Black.

After spending years alone in the Moon with only her familar as her company, she became a cold and distant goddess who didn't care for anyone but other inhabitants of the Moon, such as Yue Lao, Hằng Nga, Hjúki and Bil, etc. Though, according to Zhu Bajie, this only makes her more attractive and desirable to the gods.

She could occasionally appear as prideful, vain, and arrogant, though this is merely a front to hide the fact she still miss her husband Hou Yi after thousands of years of separation.

Due to past encounters with the Crimson Moon, she developed a hatred toward all vampiric beings, mainly because of the Crimson Moon's vampiric creations known as the True Ancestors. Artemis once noted that she was one of the patron gods of the Vampire-Hunter Guilds. Despite this, she does show some respect toward some of the nicer of vampiric beings, such as Thomas Raith or Adrian Tepes.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Immortality**: After consuming the Elixir of Immortality given to her husband Hou Yi by the Queen Mother of The West, she became weightless and floated to the moon, staying there forever and hence granting her the ability of immortality.

## History

### Origins

Chang'e is the most elegant dancer amongst all the immortals of the Chinese heaven who was happily-wed to the Immortal Archer Hou Yi. When the ten sons of the Jade Emperor - the ten tripedal golden crows known as the Jīnwū - all simultaneously transformed into ten suns and rose together into the skies, scorching the Earth and caused hardship for the people of ancient China.

Fearing for the life of mankind, the Jade Emperor ordered Hou Yi to put an end to his sons' action but quickly became angered when he found out Hou Yi had hunted down and killed nine out of the ten suns, leaving behind only one sun to provide light and warm. As a punishment, both Hou Yi and Chang'e were made mortal.

After becoming a mortal, Chang'e grew melancholy and danced no more. To cheer his wife up, Hou Yi decided to go on an adventure to seek the pills of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West to return the two's divinity. However, when he arrived at her personal abode on Mount Kunlun, the immortal pills were almost gone entirely out, with only two pills left. Only by consuming two pills would the user become a god while consuming a single pill would make the consumer to become immortal in the flesh but not divine in nature.

Not wanting themselves to become a deity while the other stayed a mortal, the two of them had decided to put the pills aside and would drink them together when it was time. Unknown to them, Peng Meng, one of Hou Yi's apprentices, had heard their conversation and decided to take the pills for himself, wanting to become one of the deathless gods in heaven.

When Hou Yi went on to hunt for wild beasts and the monsters that preyed on the innocents, Peng Meng sneaked into their estate to seek the pills. Chang'e struggled to hide the pills, but, in the end, was forced to drink it to ensure they would not fall into the wrong hands. Just like what Xiwangmu had warned, Chang'e had regain immortality and punish Peng Meng for his crimes, just in time for Hou Yi to return.

Shocked and upsetted by his wife's (seemingly) betrayal, Hou Yi angrily shot arrows toward Chang'e which broke her heart and scared her away back into the heavens. However, as she and her husband were still banished, she was forced to stay in the moon in the **Guanghan Palace** (廣寒宮) where it is the closest to Earth as she still missed her husband and hoped to live nearby him. Hou Yi discovered what had transpired and felt sad, so he displayed the fruits and cakes that Chang'e had liked, and prayed and offered sacrifices to her.

### Journey to the West

#### **Bajie's Banishment**

Centuries after her ascended to the moon, the heaven summoned her back to rejoin the celestial ranks, though she had made the moon her new abode, due to her new authority as the moon goddess and her famed reputation as the greatest amongst the fairy dancers.

At a party organized for all the significant figures in the celestial court, the general of 80000 soldiers of Heaven Tiānpéng Yuánshuài(天蓬元帥) saw the goddess for the first time and was captivated by her beauty and grace. After getting drunk and attempting to seduce her, the Queen Mother of The West saw what was happening and told the Jade Emperor, and thus he was banished to Earth for a thousand lives where each life would end in a love tragedy.

However, while reincarnating into his 503rd life, something happened to him and he fell into the path of being reborn as an animal and was reborn as a man-eating pig-monster known as Zhū Gāngliè (豬剛鬛).

#### **Jade Rabbit Princess**

When the Jade Rabbit Spirit (玉兔精), one of the descendants of her familiar Yu Tu, descended down to Earth to take her revenge against the reincarnation of the fairy Su'e and tried to force Tang Sanzang to marry her, Sun Wukong sent a message to Chang'e to come and took the wayward-rabbit back.

The moment Chang'e arrived at the site, Sun Wukong was about to defeat the Jade Rabbit, but she was able to convince him not to kill the rabbit and took her back to the moon and to her work. Zhu Bajie, when he heard the moon goddess descended without his knowledge, berated Wukong, only for the Monkey King to hit him in the head for annoying him.

## Trivia

* Despite being well-known throughout the world as Chang'e, her real name is "Heng'e".
	+ The name Chang'e means "Chang the Beautiful".
* She and Hằng Nga have a sister relationship.
* She and all other Gods and Goddesses of the moon in different pantheons are friends.