When chaos first divided, ten suns filled the sky, their scarlet flames scorching the world. Emperor Yao pleaded before the Purple Heaven, blood streaming from his eyes. The Celestial Emperor bestowed a vermilion bow and white arrows, sending the divine archer Yi down to the mortal world. Yi climbed to the summit of Kunlun and looked up at the heavens. Seeing all living things suffer in the heat, he strung the Big Dipper as his bowstring and drew back with the Milky Way as his arm. Nine arrows pierced the sky, bringing down the Golden Crows and restoring order to the world. He then slew Zhaochi in the fields of Chouhua and killed Jiuying in the depths of the Xiong River. All six great calamities of Heaven and Earth fell to his bow.
Yet shooting down the suns defied the harmony of Heaven, and his name was erased from the immortal registers forever. The Queen Mother of the West, moved with pity, gave him two Taiyin Golden Pills. Yi entrusted them to his wife Chang'e for safekeeping, and they agreed to take them together. But his disciple Feng Meng grew covetous. Taking advantage of Yi's absence, he threatened Chang'e and demanded the elixir. In desperation, she swallowed both pills. Her body instantly grew light as floating silk, and she drifted into the sky. Yi rushed home, only to see her pale figure flying through the void toward the moon palace. All he held was a coil of her sash, trailing to the ground. He stroked the torn sash and gazed at the moon. His divine bow rang out, and the stars turned cold. From then on, immortals and mortals were forever parted.
Having lost Chang'e, Yi devoted the rest of his life to the mortal world. He taught countless people archery and the means to survive, and disciples flocked to him. Yet whenever the moon was full, he would set honeyed treats and fresh fruit in the courtyard and gaze up at its brilliant light, his heart forever bound to the Moon Palace.
Years later, Feng Meng took advantage of Yi's declining strength and struck his master from behind with a peachwood club. Even as Yi died, he thought of all living things, his lifelong aspirations undimmed. His thoughts and spirit flowed as one, his essence did not scatter, and he rose on the wind, crossing the Milky Way and ascending to the blue heavens. In the end, no one knew where he went.
