Long, long
ago, when the sunbirds scorched the world with their shallow flights, the
Celestial Emperor enlisted the great archer Hòu Yì's 羿. Hou Yi eliminated nine of the ten
sunbirds—sparing only one, so that on Earth there was no darkness, no cold. As
a reward, he received the elixir of immortality, enough to share it with his
wife, Cháng'é 嫦娥. But the woman was a beset of immortality and
took all the potion at once: she found herself suddenly flying to the Moon, not
being able to return, where she still lives today in a palace made of ice and
lost her companion forever.
