Author: Christine Welch
Northwestern University BA (Chinese Literature)
National Taiwan Normal University MA student (Chinese Literature)
Chang'e - 嫦娥
-Goddess of the moon
-Symbol of beauty, loneliness, sometimes as a thief
-Often portrayed with a rabbit, toad, pipa, moon, flowing garments, elixir of immortality, cassia tree
With origins in ancient divination texts, Chang'e has a long history stretching back to the time of the creation of Chinese characters, and yet her story is still retold today in popular culture, most often at the time of the Moon Festival, or the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節, which occurs in September or October (depending on the lunar calendar). Let's trace the evolution of her figure throughout written history.
Origins of Chang'e 嫦娥
Background on Ancient Chinese Divination Texts
- Confucian records hold that there were five main classic texts, one of which was called the "Classic of Changes," or the Yijing 易經. This Classic was supposed to be composed of three different texts, the Lian Shan 連山, Gui Cang 歸藏, and the Zhou Yi 周易. Only the Zhou Yi was passed down complete through written tradition. The Lian Shan and Gui Cang were only preserved in fragments. However, in 1993, a copy of the Gui Cang from the Qin Dynasty (~200 BC) was unearthed, leading to new study of the text.
- The Lian Shan was supposed to be from the Xia Dynasty (2070 – c. 1600 BC), the Gui Cang from the Shang (1600 BC to 1046 BC), and the Zhou Yi from the early years of the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC). By the late Zhou Dynasty, it was already almost unreadable. Thus many misinterpretations of the texts came about.
- Chinese divination texts are composed of trigrams, or ba gua 八卦, which are then arranged in pairs to form 64 hexagrams. The ba gua are composed of three broken or unbroken lines (-- or _), which come together to create a certain meaning (ex: three broken lines is earth, while three unbroken lines is heaven, etc.) These ba gua are then stacked vertically, one upon the other, to make hexagrams, with six lines each. Each line (broken or unbroken) is called a yao 爻.
- Depending on the diviner, a set of methods were used to achieve the result of a certain trigram and then hexagram, which in turn gave a meaning. Early diviners used tortoise shells, yarrow stalks, and later, coins.
- Looking at the South Korean flag, you can see that it has four trigrams on it!! (heaven, earth, fire, and water) This demonstrates how great an influence Confucianism had on Korea.
Zhou Yi 周易 Example
- Here is an example of how a hexagram might be explained in the Zhou Yi (translation by James Legge).
訟：有孚，窒。惕中吉。終凶。利見大人，不利涉大川。
"Song" intimates how, though there is sincerity in one's contention, he will yet meet with opposition and obstruction; but if he cherish an apprehensive caution, there will be good fortune, while, if he must prosecute the contention to the (bitter) end, there will be evil. It will be advantageous to see the great man; it will not be advantageous to cross the great stream.
- Obviously the meaning of this is very difficult to grasp. The explanation of the "Song" hexagram is a series of symbols meant to give the diviner an arrow toward a meaning, but is vague enough that it can apply to many situations.
Chang'e's 嫦娥 Appearance in the Gui Cang 歸藏:
*Wen Xuan 文選 is an anthology of Qin and Han literature compiled by Xiao Tong during the Liang Dynasty, 520 AD.
*The Wen Xuan records excerpts from the Gui Cang, supposed to be the Shang Dynasty version of the Zhou Yi, a part of the original Yi Jing.
Wen Xuan -《文選》引《歸藏》
昔常娥以西王母不死之藥服之，遂奔月，為月精。
Ancient Chang'e drank Xi Wangmu's elixir of immortality, then fled to the moon, where she became a moon fairy.
- This excerpt tallies well with later versions of Chang'e's legend. But was this the original version found in the Shang Dynasty Gui Cang? We can get a little closer to this answer, by looking at an excavated copy of the Gui Cang, dated to the Qin Dynasty (about 700 years before the Wen Xuan).
- Since it is an excavated copy, many characters are unreadable, lost through the wear of time, but that which we can see is very interesting.
Excavated Gui Cang -《王家台秦簡歸藏 》
「歸妹曰：昔者恆我竊毋死之[藥]/（307）/□□奔月而?占□□□/（201）
Returning Bride: In ancient times Heng'wo (Eternal Me) stole the elixir of immortality...fleeing to the moon and divining...
- As explanation and in comparison to the Zhou Yi, "Returning Bride" or "Gui Mei" is a hexagram like the above-mentioned "Song." What follows the hexagram's name is a description of how the hexagram is to be read.
- This seems very similar to the Wen Xuan version, but it is different in several important ways. For instance, the title of the passage (returning bride), and Chang'e's name change, to Heng'wo. Missing components (Xi Wang Mu, Yi) are also conspicuous.
Let's compare the Gui Cang 歸藏 Returning Bride 歸妹 to the Zhou Yi 周易 Returning Bride 歸妹 passage:
歸妹：征凶，无攸利。歸妹，天地之大義也。天地不交，而萬物不興，歸妹人之終始也。說以動，所歸妹也。征凶，位不當也。无攸利，柔乘剛也。
Gui Mei indicates that (under the conditions which it denotes) action will be evil, and in no way advantageous. By Gui Mei (the marrying away of a younger sister) the great and righteous relation between heaven and earth (is suggested to us). If heaven and earth were to have no intercommunication, things would not grow and flourish as they do. The marriage of a younger sister is the end (of her maidenhood) and the beginning (of her motherhood). We have (in the hexagram the desire of) pleasure and, on the ground of that, movement following. The marrying away is of a younger sister. 'Any action will be evil:' - the places (of the lines) are not those appropriate to them. 'It will be in no wise advantageous:' - the weak (third and fifth lines) are mounted on strong lines.
- This passage seems extremely different from the Gui Cang passage on Chang'e and the stealing of the elixir of immortality and fleeing to the moon. How on Earth did one passage evolve into the other? Both are explanations evolving from the pairing of two trigrams, in the case of Returning Bride: Zhen and Dui, or the thunder and lake trigrams. The pairing of these two trigrams results in the hexagram of Returning Bride.
- Because I am not a scholar of the Yi Jing, just find it extremely fascinating, I will here quote the findings of one and translate them for you!
Explanation of the Gui Cang text using Zhou Yi symbolism
- The following is quoted from a prominent scholar of ancient Chinese divination manuals at Tzu Chi University in Taiwan, and the original text can be seen here.
- Professor Zhang analyzes how the Gui Cang relates to the Zhou Yi, and how we can use what we know about the Zhou Yi to analyze the Gui Cang.
兌為歸、震為女（《周易·隨》《周易·震·上六》），故曰「歸妹」。歸妹：意思是把媳婦娶回家。兌與震為夫婦（《周易·隨》），兌男娶震女，故曰「歸妹」。
Dui (兌 the Lake trigram) is the same as "Returning," and Zhen (震, the Thunder trigram) is the same as "Bride," as according to the Zhou Yi commentary, and thus this hexagram is titled "Returning Bride." The meaning of "Returning Bride" is marrying a woman and taking her back to one's house. In the Zhou Yi, "Dui" and "Zhen" are a married couple, the male Dui marrying the female Zhen, and thus it corresponds with "Returning Bride. "
-This paragraph ties the meaning in Zhou Yi of the trigrams Dui and Zhen to the Gui Cang's Returning Bride. The trigrams and hexagrams used in both texts are the same, so this has some foundation, although the correspondence needs to be proved.
歸妹卦三至五爻為坎，坎為常（《周易·坤·六五》），故曰「恆」。我，當讀作「娥」。震為女，故曰娥。坎為盜寇（《周易·蒙·上九》），故曰「竊」。坎為常、震主生，常生，故曰「毋死」。歸妹卦二至四爻為離，離為藥（《周易·無妄·九五》），故曰「毋死之[藥]」。震為足（《周易·剝·初六》）、兌為月（秦簡《歸藏·大過》、秦簡《歸藏·兌》），故曰「奔月」。
The 3－5 yao in Returning Bride make the trigram Kan (坎, the Water trigram) which means "chang" or eternal, thus it reads "heng" (which also means eternal). The character "wo" was pronounced "e" at the time, and thus can be read as the "e" in Chang'e. Zhen is female, thus “Zhen" refers to Chang'e. Kan can also mean to steal, and thus it is here read as "qie" or to steal. As previously stated, "kan" also means eternal, or to be immortal, and Zhen, a subjective existence, thus the next portion is "immortality." The 2-4 yao in Returning Bride make the trigram Li, which means "medicine," thus it reads an elixir of immortality. Zhen can mean "foot," and Dui can mean "moon," thus this trigram reads "fleeing to the moon."
- (The reason why the "chang" in Chang'e began as "heng" is another story. Whenever an Emperor was named a certain character, that character became unusable, taboo. Thus Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty's name was Heng, and this character became taboo during his life. In all works written after this time, the "heng" eternal character was changed to "chang," with a similar meaning. Texts unearthed today from before the Han Dynasty thus often read "heng" where modern versions read "chang". The "heng" character slowly came back into usage, but in old texts that were rewritten during this time, the "chang" was never changed back to "heng.")
- Each of these descriptions corresponds to the ancient divination system passed from the Shang dynasty to the Zhou dynasty, with a character corresponding to a trigram, which has a set of distinct meanings. These meanings are woven together to create divinations with vague and all-applicable meanings.
- Explaining how the symbols in Gui Cang evolved into those of the Zhou Yi's greatest implication is that these symbols were originally not meant to tell a story, but rather were a set of symbols with meanings for divining the future, and did not apply to a specific person or thing at all.
- Thus if one returns to look at the Gui Mei of the Zhou Yi, one can see some similarities to the deeper divination meaning of the passage. There is reference to the eternal, the immortal, the undying, similar to talk of growth and flourishing in the Zhou Yi. There is also the relation of Heaven and Earth, similar to talk of the moon, which was often looked upon as a bridge between the two places in Chinese mythology. While the Gui Cang text does not specifically mention that the divination is unauspicious, it seems the talk of "stealing" and fleeing" gives the passage a negative tone.
- In addition, Xi Wang Mu's later addition can also be explained by the meaning of Zhen and Dui in this divination.
兌為西（《周易·小畜》）、震為帝王、離為牝（《周易·離》）、離為大腹（《說卦》），故曰「西王母」。
Dui corresponds to the West, while Zhen can mean a king or emperor, Li can mean female, or stomach. Thus came about the "Western King Mother," or Xi Wang Mu (who was the keeper of the elixir of immortality in mythology).
- Later divination manuals added another character, Feng Yi, into this phrase. It was Feng Yi to whom Xi Wang Mu gave the elixir of immortality. Chang'e stole it from Feng Yi and escaped to the moon.
有馮羿者，得不死之藥於西王母，娘[2]娥竊之以奔月。將往，枚筮於有黃，有黃佔之曰：「吉。翩翩歸妹，獨將西行，逢天晦芒，無恐無驚，後且大昌。」姮娥遂托身於月。（李淳風《乙巳占》） *Tang divination manual.
There was one called Feng Yi, he received the elixir of immortality from Xi Wang Mu, Niang'e stole it and fled to the moon. In the past, there was a shaman who knew about the diagram "huang" (yellow), and the diagram's divination was: "Auspicious, graceful 'returning bride,' she walks alone in the west, she comes across a darkened sky, but she is unafraid, for later she will come across a great light." Thus Chang'e ran away to the moon.
「嫦娥奔月」這一神話是由筮人根據歸妹卦的卦象、卦義而創造的。在秦簡《歸藏》中，恆娥奔月尚未與馮羿聯繫在一起。
Chang'e's myth springs from divination manuals and the shamans' later interpretation of them. In the Gui Cang, Chang'e and Hou Yi had not yet been tied together.
- Although the Gui Cang's passage is simply a string of divination symbols and meanings, later shamans read it to be a recorded legend or story, and created the figure of Chang'e. Thus later versions of this text grow closer and closer to the legend as we know it today.
*Again, the Wen Xuan is an anthology of Qin and Han literature compiled by Xiao Tong during the Liang Dynasty, 520 AD.
The Gui Cang was a Shang Dynasty divination manual (much like the Zhou Yi was for the Zhou Dynasty), lost between the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Some fragments can be seen today in other works, and a Qin dynasty copy was unearthed in 1993.
Another Possible Source - The Classic of Mountains and Seas or Shanhai Jing 山海經
《山海經 - Shanhai Jing》
《大荒西經》:有女子方浴月。帝俊妻常羲，生月十有二，此始浴之。
There was a woman who bathed the moon. Di Jun married Changxi, and she birthed twelve moons. It was from then on that the bathing began.
(At the time of the Shanhaijing's writing, Xi was pronounced E, and looked very similar to "Wo")
- Probably another source of the tradition of Chang'e as a moon goddess, the Shanhai Jing records a goddess named "Changxi" who gave birth to twelve moons. Thus she is also looked on as the creator of the lunar calendar (12 moons in a year). The similarities end here however. She was married to Di Jun, another god who is found mostly only in this classic, like Changxi. They both seem to be transitional gods whose traits were passed on to other gods in later works.
- It seems most likely that Changxi and Hengwo, and perhaps other elements in oral legend long since lost, were melded to form today's Chang'e, goddess of the moon.
*The Shanhaijing 《山海經》, or Classic of the Mountains and Seas, is a many genred classic which continually changed in form from about 400 BC until about 100 BC, when it reached the form which can be seen today. Its author(s) are unknown.
Conclusion
From the Shang Dynasty to the early Han Dynasty, Chang'e's story was much in flux, gathering elements from various sources until it became basically fixed in the Han Dynasty. It is after the Han Dynasty that Chang'e begins to appear as a symbol or reference in popular literature. But it seems that her early beginnings as a symbol in a dusty divination text, lost several times throughout history, remains a little known fact today, especially in English literature. For future reference on this topic, please see the blog of Professor Zhang of Tzu Chi University in Taiwan, for it was upon seeing his class notes based upon his research of the Gui Cang that I discovered this little known fact and was able to compare all of these sources and verify the possibility of this earliest known Chang'e.
As always, thanks for your comments and suggestions. ~:)
would you mind sharing the blog of Professor Zhang? the link doesn't work.
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