Watercolour
11.7″x8.27″

This is the finale of my Rising Sun series.

Houyi 后羿 hide the bottle of elixir in a box. He was thrilled but withheld breaking the news to Chang’e 嫦娥 until the wedding night.

Like Pandora in Greek mythology, Chang’e became suspicious. Before the wedding, she found the box and the elixir inside. While smelling the content, her pet rabbit knocked her over and she accidentally drank the entire elixir. Holding her rabbit in her arms, she started to float until she landed on the desolate moon.

Meanwhile, Houyi became the emperor on earth due to his good deeds and was granted to ascend to the sun with the companion of dragon which is just like his shadow 形影相吊. Although Houyi and Chang’e each lived a separate life, they came to represent the yin and yang 陰陽, the moon and the sun.