Moon Goddess

Chang'e did not flee to the moon out of fear — she ascended out of love. When her husband Hou Yi, the divine archer who had shot down nine of the ten suns, was given the elixir of immortality, Chang'e drank it herself rather than see him become a tyrant with eternal life. The elixir carried her upward, past the clouds, past the stars, to the cold and beautiful Lunar Palace.

For a thousand years she has kept her vigil there, accompanied only by the Jade Rabbit who pounds the elixir of immortality in an endless rhythm. But in her solitude, she has gained something no elixir could bestow: the ability to see all things clearly, without the distortions of desire or fear. Those who carry her image inherit a fragment of that crystalline perception.