Yi Archer and the Ten Suns 362

For Educational Purposes Only

Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology. 2nd ed. Chicago: NTC, 1994. 362-363. Introducing Yi the Archer and the Ten Suns The myth of Yi the Archer and the Chinese creation myth are so closely related that the introduction to the creation myth applies here as well. Just as the Mother Goddess Nugua restores order in the world in the creation myth, so Yi the Archer restores order in this nature myth. He kills the suns that are destroying the environment. Like many other heroes, Yi is both human and divine. He uses his skill to save the world from forces beyond the control of ordinary humans. During the Shang dynasty (15001000 B.C.), people may have believed that ten suns actually existed. Later, people connected the king with the sun. They believed that, just as only one king ruled them, only one sun existed. Some people believed that ten suns would appear in the sky as a sign that a dynasty was about to collapse.

Yi the Archer and the Ten Suns

Once, when the world was young, ten suns rode across the sky rather than just one. Their mother was the wife of Di Jun, the god of the east. She would

Yi Archer and the Ten Suns 363

bathe her ten children in a pool of hot water located in the Tang Valley, at the far end of the eastern part of the world. Then the suns would rest, like birds, in a huge mulberry tree, for the core of each sun was a bird. Nine suns would perch among the lower branches of the tree, while one - a different sun each night - settled on the topmost branch. When the time came for dawn to usher in the morning light, the sun that sat at the top of the tree would venture across the heavens in its chariot. Sometimes the chariot would be drawn by horses, sometimes by dragons. Each week had ten days, and a new sun crossed the sky each day of the week. Since the ten suns looked alike and only one rode across the sky at a time, the people who walked the earth did not know that more than one sun existed. At this time, humans and animals lived together as neighbors and friends. Animals could leave their young in their nests without fearing that humans would harm them. Farmers could leave their harvest stacked in piles in their fields without fearing that animals would rob them. A person could accidentally step on a serpent without being bitten. A child could pull the tail of a leopard or a tiger in play without being mauled to death. The time was one of plenty, with more than enough food for all. Humans and animals found it easy to think well of one another and to respect each other's property. One day, however, the ten suns decided that it would be fun to travel across the heavens together instead of one at a time. So when dawn arrived, all ten suns climbed aboard the chariot and set forth across the sky. Their blazing heat scorched the earth. Forests caught fire and burned to ash, killing many animals. Those who had not perished in the flames roamed among humans, vicious now in their desperate search for food. Rivers and even seas dried up; all the fish died, and water monsters scrounged for food upon the land. Many humans and animals died of thirst. Crops and orchards withered, putting an immediate end to the food supply of humans and domesticated animals. Some people burned to death because they left the shelter of their homes and caught fire from the heat of the sun. Others became the prey of wild animals, now that no other source of food existed. The people pleaded with their emperor, Yao, to help them. Yao quickly sought the aid of the only person he knew who could save the universe, a great archer named Yi. The archer had begged the queen mother of the west for the elixir of immortality and had drunk some of it before his wife had stolen the rest. The emperor commanded Yi to rescue civilization from the devastation by shooting his arrows at nine of the suns. Yi the Archer's aim was true. One by one he shot his arrows at the suns, and one by one they hit their marks. The nine suns could not survive the thrust of an arrow, and one by one they died. One by one their feathers fell to the earth, and one by one their light burned out. The earth became darker and darker until finally it was illuminated by the light of only one sun. Everywhere, the people gazed into the sky and rejoiced. Now they could begin again.