Page 353 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 346

Phoenix and sun

remain of the oracle-book known as Guei Zang. This myth concerns Xi-he, Mother of
Suns, who rises up in the hollow mulberry tree which is the residence of our sun, and
who stands in the valley of the sunrise (the East). Her issuing forth and her disappearance
cause ‘darkness and light’ (hui ming). According to one myth, there were once ten suns –
the sons of Xi-he – which threatened to scorch the earth until the heroic Hou Yi shot

down nine of them. A different version of this myth gives the god of thunder the credit
for destroying eight of nine suns: though some sources say that these eight were removed
by the young god Er-Lang, who crushed them with a mountain.
The aboriginal inhabitants of Taiwan say that there were once two suns: one of them
was shot down, and became the moon. Among the minority peoples of South China,
it is believed that there were originally twelve suns, ten of which were shot down by the
sun-hero: the two that were left became our sun and moon. Another myth current in the
same area of South China says that in the beginning when it was dark on earth, the
cock induced the sun to come forth (the Japanese had a similar myth).
Elsewhere, we find stories of how the sun went backwards or even stood still (cf.
parallels in the Old Testament).
A three-legged raven is supposed to live in the sun, though its place is taken in
some versions of the myth by a toad. From the way in which eclipses were
explained, we can see that the sun was associated with the husband, the moon with the
wife. A solar eclipse was taken as a