1. Dilemma – Emerald

There are always two sides to every story. In parallel with my rendering of the ups and ups of Chang’e 嫦娥, Lady on the Moon, I’m delving into the perspective of her lover Houyi 后羿. This trilogy is entitled Rising Sun in the form of emerald, garnet and tanzanite.

The first episode is Dilemma – Emerald. Like Greek divine hero Heracles, Houyi, the immortal archer is renowned for his marksmanship. Hence, the Jade Emperor 玉帝, ruler of Heaven, summoned Houyi to descend to the earth to punish his 10 unruly sons who transformed into suns. To save the earth, Houyi had left with no choice but shooting down 9 of the suns, leaving one alive to give the earth light and warm. The Jade Emperor was furious upon hearing the news about the death of his 9 sons. He banished the hero and his lover Chang’e from the heaven and stripped them of their immortality.

2. Redemption – Garnet

This is the second episode of my Rising Sun series. Contrary to popular speculation, Houyi 后羿 didn’t care much at all about being banished from Heaven but he couldn’t bear the fact that he and Chang’e 嫦娥 would one day die and become nothing. Houyi sought help from the merciful Queen Mother of the West, Xiwangmu 西王母. After he scared the dragon away from her palace, Xiwangmu gave Houyi two things. One was the elixir of immortality; the other was a warning. “Drinking half the elixir will grant everlasting life. The entire elixir, however, will make one ascend to heaven as a full-fledged immortal.” Half for himself; half for Chang’e. It was all Houyi could have hoped for. Houyi kept the secret and planned to tell Chang’e the good news on their wedding night.

3. Solitude – Tanzanite

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.

Behind the Dragon 人中之龍

There are several aspects in this painting that defy Chinese conventions. It may raise controversy were it to be exhibited in China.

• Centre Point 大中至正 – Chinese emperor or revered figure is normally placed in the centre of a picture, out of respect. Here I deliberately moved Emperor Houyi to the side in parallel with the dragon to show the influence of dragon around Houyi’s rise to the sun.
• Power Struggle 權力爭鬥 – Despite Houyi’s unrivalled power 舉世無雙 on the sun, his fate is dictated by the deity dragon (and the artist’s hands). To show that, I moved the dragon’s head above Houyi’s eye levels. I stamped my artist seal even higher up.
• “Draw Dragon Dot Eyes” 畫龍點睛 – this idiom is used to describe adding a finishing touch to a work. However, I deliberately left out the dragon pupils for fear the dragon would come alive, according to an ancient Chinese fable. To me there is no finishing point in my art.
• Fiction versus Fact 假作真時真亦假，無為有处有還無. The legendary dragon might only exist in Houyi’s mind, which became so real in my painting for the part over his body. Around him, I want to show that the fierce dragon is just a mask “like smoke and clouds passing before the eyes” 過眼煙雲. It may as well be a wallpaper. The real power resides within the will of Houyi.