Chang'e Descends to the Mortal Realm

A fanfic written by a player of the game Honor of Kings who plays Chang'e, celebrating the peerless love story of an ancient mythological couple.

The earliest account of Chang'e's myth comes from the Gui Cang, while the earliest account of Hou Yi, the Archer Who Shot Down the Suns, comes from the Shanhai Jing: The Classic of Mountains and Seas, specifically the section called “The Southern Lands Within the Seas.” A Qin-era text, the Gui Cang, was also unearthed at Wangjiatai in Jiangling in 1993. The Gui Cang's accounts are incomplete, and both figures are described as unmarried. It wasn't until the Han dynasty text Huainanzi that they were first described as husband and wife. Since they both appear in the same book, later generations had grounds to connect them.

Also, a Han dynasty work, Questions of Heaven from the Chu Ci, conflates Hou Yi the Archer with Hou Yi, a historical figure from the Xia dynasty. The two people associated with Hou Yi in this work are the Luo River Goddess Fu Fei and Chunhu. This has nothing to do with Hou Yi the Archer. From ancient times to the present, the only wife our Archer Who Shot Down the Suns has ever had is Chang'e.

Since the story touches on the debate over Yi and Hou Yi, the text uses Hou Yi as a general name. In my view, whichever Yi people mean, later generations have always sung the praises of that divine archer who shot down the suns, the husband of Chang'e.

After Chang'e accidentally swallowed the elixir of immortality in her desperate haste and flew to the moon, the Jade Emperor appointed her to oversee the moonlight that shone upon the world.

From then on, the fairy Chang'e gazed down at the human world from the cold palace on the moon day after day, longing for her husband. Meanwhile, distraught Hou Yi fell victim to the treacherous Meng, and soon afterward died at home.