STUDY IN CHINA GLOBAL (SCG)颜丹晨版嫦娥
As we all know,the moon goddess（月神嫦娥yuèshén Cháng’é）is one of the Chinese popular folk tale which stems from the Tang Dynasty(A.D.618-906).The version varies on different provinces.People always connect her to the Mid-autumn Festival（中秋节zhōngqiūjié）,a harvest celebration that occurs in mid-September.Thus,her story is engraved in every Chinese memory.
When the Hou Yi（后羿HóuYì）shot down the nine suns, the sun god Dijun（太阳神帝君tàiyángshén Dìjūn）banished him. Dijun had expected Hou Yi merely to discipline, not to kill, his sons. In addition to the Hou Yi, Dijun also banished Hou Yi’s goddess wife, Chang’e, to the earth below. The banishment suited Hou Yi because he was regarded as a hero on earth, but Hou Yi’s wife was lonely for her sister goddesses and missed the luxuries of heaven. Chang’e was also angry at her husband for jeopardizing her social status. Therefore, although the Hou Yi and his wife loved each other deeply, they often quarreled.
In order to keep their bodies in perfect condition, every three thousand years, gods must eat the peach of long life and drink the elixir of immortality （长生药chángshēngyào）from the Garden of the Western Paradise（蟠桃园pántáoyuán）. This garden is tended bythe Queen Mother Wang Mu（西王母Xīwángmǔ）, an old woman who has the fangs of a tiger and the tail of a panther. She lives alone and is protected by birds of prey and fearsome beasts. She also controls plagues and evil spirits. However frightful her appearance and her powers, Wang Mu is a motherly figure to all the gods in heaven.
In her enchanted garden grow the coveted peaches which she plucks and serves at a sumptuous banquet for the gods. She is an alchemist, or a person who practices the art of combining substances that will transform. Wang Mu can mix many elixirs, or magic potions, including the one that will insure immortality for the gods. In more recent versions of the story, the Queen Mother is shown as a graceful elderly woman.
