@Elfundertheshelf gave me permission to post more about chinese mythology in this forum, so i thought i'd start out with one of the most well-known ones (sorry it took me forever to actually make my first post lol).

the 《山海经》 / classic of mountains and seas names chang'e as the daughter of 常羲 changxi (or 常仪 changyi) and 帝俊 dijun (or 帝喾 diku), one of the 三皇五帝 / three sovereigns and five emperors of legend. it's recorded in the 《通典》 that diku's capital city is in 偃师 yanshi in what is today known as 洛阳 luoyang, so chang'e would have been born there.

the most prevalent version of chang'e's legend today portrays her as the wife of houyi, but that's not who she was originally. she first appears as 恒我 hengwo in the 《归藏》 guicang, a divination text said to have been written by 商汤 shang tang, the legendary founder of the shang dynasty. it's most famous for being part of the 三易, a triad of classic divination texts written before the qin dynasty. however, apart from the 《易经》 yijing / book of changes, none of these texts have survived to the modern day. in fact, the only extant bamboo strips of the guicang were first discovered in hubei in 1993. prior to this excavation, its existence was mere rumour.

anyway, in these strips, it is only recorded that hengwo took the elixir of eternal life from 西王母 / the queen mother of the west, thereupon flying to the moon and transforming into the lunar immortal. there's no mention of her husband here. her name, 恒我 hengwo, is interpreted to mean 使我永恒 / make me immortal. it was later changed to 恒娥 heng'e (with the female radical 女 added to 我 / me), and then to 嫦娥 chang'e due to naming taboos in the han dynasty (you couldn't have the same name as the emperor, and one of the emperors was named 刘恒 liu heng).

the next appearance of her story is in the western han text 《淮南子》 huainanzi, which also marks the first appearance of 羿 yi (or 后羿 houyi). this version of chang'e's story is much more familiar to us: yi gains the elixir of immortality from the queen mother of the west, but chang'e steals and drinks it before he can and flies to the moon to live there forever; yi is disconsolate because he doesn't know the recipe for the elixir of immortality. this version is also referenced in the poem 《嫦娥》 / chang'e by the tang poet 李商隐 li shangyin, which is one of the most well-known poems about chang'e's legend: 嫦娥应悔偷灵药，碧海青天夜夜心。 / chang'e must regret stealing the mystical elixir; now, facing the green seas and the blue skies, she remains alone, night after night.

the eastern han text 《灵宪》 lingxian embellishes this story a little by adding in a section where chang'e divines her fate just before she ascends to the moon. the great master youhuang (有黄大师) tells her that her fortune is auspicious, and informs her not to panic when she encounters a change in celestial phenomena when she ascends. "as long as you're brave enough to break through this obstacle," youhuang tells her, "your ill luck will turn into good fortune, and your tribulations shall become prosperity." that's why, upon her ascension to the moon, she turns into a toad. toads were traditionally viewed as divine creatures, able to ward off evil energies and assist one in gaining immortality. furthermore, since toads were nocturnal and underwent a process of metamorphosis (just as the moon waxes and wanes), they were seen as symbols of the moon.

however, both these texts do not tell us what relationship chang'e and yi have with each other. it was only at the end of the eastern han dynasty that the scholar 高诱 gao you annotated the huainanzi to add 姮娥，羿妻 / heng'e, yi's wife. from there, the story continues to develop and branch off into many different variants. the version i grew up hearing was that houyi's disciple 逄蒙 peng meng tried to steal the elixir of immortality, and chang'e drank it herself to keep it away from him. either way, i personally don't think any version where chang'e steals it makes sense given how revered the moon is in chinese tradition, and how inextricably tied to the moon chang'e is as well.

we also get many other legends that spin off from chang'e's presence on the moon. the jade rabbit, for instance, once the moon rabbit in the queen mother of the west's legends, gets sent to chang'e's palace on the moon to keep her company and pestle the elixir of immortality there. there's also an undying osmanthus tree in her palace that 吴刚 wu gang is commanded to chop down for the rest of eternity. this is the same osmanthus tree that appears in the idiom 蟾宫折桂 / to pluck an osmanthus branch from the toad palace (the toad palace being the moon, of course). this idiom refers to someone passing the 科举 / imperial examinations, which was insanely difficult to do (to give you an idea of how difficult it was, the emperor himself invigilated these examinations, and even renowned poets like 苏东坡 su dongpo didn't manage to claim first place).

finally, in the ming and qing dynasties, chang'e was often brought back down to the earth in popular novels. while this was usually for her to reunite with houyi, in 《聊斋志异》 / strange tales from a chinese studio, 蒲松龄 pu songling notably has her marry the mortal man 宗子美 zong zimei after she is banished from the heavens. she's so touched by zong zimei's infatuation for her that she remains in the mortal realm even after her banishment ends, birthing a son and a daughter for him, and staying with him until he dies, at which point she flies back to the moon. marriages between a female immortal/ghost (of higher status) and a (poor) mortal man are very common in pu songling's tales. the transcendence of the boundary between death/immortality and life is likened to that of the boundary between social classes; a man can only hope to marry a woman of higher social class if she's dead or a banished immortal.

on the other hand, 吕熊 lü xiong's 《女仙外史》 / informal histories of female immortals, which was written around the same time, has chang'e reincarnating as the mortal 唐赛儿 tang sai'er, who eventually marshalled the troops to go to the rescue of the king, fighting against the reincarnation of 天狼星 / the tianlang star (aka sirius).

anyway, chang'e and her legend is commemorated every mid-autumn festival, in which we eat mooncakes, guess lantern riddles, reunite with friends and family, etc. there are usually a bunch of stunning lantern displays in public gardens and spaces as well in chinese-majority areas. this year's mid-autumn festival will last from 25 to 27 september! (yes this post is way too early but i couldn't think of another post to make 😅)