Saturday, September 17, 2005

Illustration Friday - Escape


Escape

It is an old Chinese fairy tale that is related to the Chinese Moon Cake Festival (or A Mid-Autumn Festival), celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month of Chinese calendar.

A woman , Chang-O, was married to the great General Hou. He was a skilled archer. One day, at the behest of the emperor, he shot down eight of nine suns that had mysteriously appeared in the heaven that morning. The people feared that these suns would appear again to torture them and dry up the planet, so they prayed to the Goddess of Heaven to make General Hou immortal so that he could always defend the country. Their wish was granted and he was given a Pill of Immortality. One day his wife Chang-O swallowed the pill and fled to the moon.

By coincidence, tomorrow is the Moon Cake festival and we are eating moon cakes.

4 comments:

atomicvelvetsigh said...

havent heard of the tae i think. but luv the way you made this illo. .escaping to outerspace.. very spacey.. and a touch of trad too coz of the dress the peincess is wearing (im assuming she is a princess tho)

8)

mid-life zhen said...

Hi atomicvelvetsigh

Sorry, I did not tell you the fairy tale earlier. Thanks for your comments.

Aravis said...

Thank-you for sharing this tale with us. It's lovely, as is your illustration!

mid-life zhen said...

Hi, aravis

Thanks for taking time to read the tale and gave your comments.