The magnetic power of myths
Myths and legends have captured our imaginations ever since modern humans could communicate. Prehistoric cave paintings clearly reveal our long fascination with tales and folklore. However, once a legend is created, and retold over and over for thousands of years, can it be changed?
Many of the world's best writers believe so, and are putting a new spin on old yarns.
Last month Ye Zhaoyan became the second writer on Chinese mainland to publish a reconstructed Chinese legend, which is part of the global project.
Following in the footsteps of well-known contemporary writer Su Tong, Ye was also commissioned by English publisher Canongate to rewrite a classic Chinese tale of Chang E and her self-banishment to the moon.
In his novel Hou Yi, Ye juxtaposes Chang E's passage to the moon with the story about her husband Hou Yi, an earthly emperor and celestial archer who shot the suns from the sky to save the mortal world.
New angle
The telling of beautiful Chang E's journey to the moon has been a Mid-Autumn Festival tradition since Chinese people began to have family reunions. The tale is thousands of years old and even in these modern times fathers and mothers still gaze at the full moon and explain to their children why Chang E chose to fly to the moon and remain lonely forever.
According to the tale, a white rabbit follows Chang E and when the moon is full, it can be seen sitting under a tree
crushing herbs for the beautiful heavenly princess.
Children continue to be spellbound by the legend and stare at the moon to see the tree, the rabbit and the beautiful goddess. One version of the legend says Chan E's desire to become a goddess caused her to flee to the moon.
However Ye's has a new take. He believes the beautiful woman deliberately banished herself on a desolate, lonesome land because her heart breaks.
"No one is willing to banish herself, especially for a mortal who once savored the taste of love unless she was rejected," Ye said. The concept that women are afraid of their man's wavering commitment of endless love was Ye's inspiration for the new story.
Ye likes to compare the style of Chinese mythology to traditional Chinese ink and brush sketching called baimiao. "It looks simple, but the immense possibilities beneath the appearance bring about a lingering charm," Ye said.
Hou Yi and Chang E have been long remembered in two idioms: Hou Yi she ri (Hou Yi shoots the suns) and Chang E ben yue (Chang E ascends to the moon).
Ye said these two seemingly simple idioms have left great space for his reinterpretation.
In the new story Ye changes the relationship between Hou Yi and Chang E: from mother and son, sister and brother to lovers. "At whatever the stage, they remain dependent on each other," Ye stressed. This dependence runs through the new book, which took seven months to write.
Spinning a new yarn
The novel starts with 12-year-old Chang E being held captive in house in the countryside. She later works as a shepherd for her captive and one day while keeping the sheep is swept away in a flash flood. The girl manages to grasp on to a magical calabash (a curved piece of wood) and survives in a surging flood. During the turmoil Chang E's virginal blood splashes on the wood, which splits and a baby comes into the world: Yi, the symbol of child.
Under Chang E's motherly care, Yi grows up and whenever pains or difficulties fell on her Chang E would call on the magical calabash for help. "This infant is by no means a human being," Ye smiled.
During this time, 10 suns haunt the people of earth and make living conditions unbearable. Heaven sends Yi, a god, to help people out of the misery. "For a deity, it's natural for him to grow up much faster than the mortals like Chang E," Ye added.
Supernatural Yi grows up fast and Chang E's role turns from a mother to a sister and finally, lovers. Before Yi falls in love, he never believed he had the strength to draw the magic bow and shoot down the suns. But later, Yi's dormant strength is awakened by the power of love for Chang E.
"I initially portray Hou Yi as an impotent and seemingly frail man who under the blessing of love can do the things that the average man cannot."
Because of this heroic deed, Yi is crowned as the emperor, and Chang E chooses "Hou" as the name for her husband.
According to Ye, the most difficult part in recreating this mythology was to explain why Chang E intends to drink the elixir and leave for the moon, leaving Hou Yi alone on the brink of jeopardy.
In Ye's novel, Hou Yi gradually loses his love for Chang E after he becomes an emperor, and at the same time, loses his strength and the once all-powerful emperor is under siege. Chang E begs Hou Yi to take the elixir and flee.
"All of a sudden, Hou Yi's love for Chang E is reawakened," Ye said. For the sake of Chang E's life, Hou Yi decides to tell a lie and force Chang E to flee. "In fact, I don't care about you," he says.
Ye said the desperate Chang E was determined to escape the pain of love by ascending to the moon. As Chang E ascends to the moon, Hou Yi, with renewed love, restores his strength and his empire.
"It is too late. Two lovers are separated forever. And this brings Hou Yi more pains," Ye explained.
History and love
In both his early novels Tale of the Jujube Tree and Nanjing 1937: A Love Story, Ye demonstrates his innovative style of knitting intriguing, and often bizarre tales of love, against a historical background.
Ye said he was unable to truly understand history as defined by historians.
"All I see are shattered pieces and broken fragments, and a handful of melancholic stories destined to come to naught, all quietly playing out upon the grand stage of history," said Ye in a literature review.
Ye has the knack of piecing together the daily life of the average person and moulding them into a grand, realistic historical scene.
"In China, the mythology and history is often overlapping and their boundary can be blurred," he said.
Ye said without the project of Canongate Myth Series he would still write a novel on a Chinese traditional mythology. "I regard Hou Yi as a historical piece about an emperor, a novel to fulfil my wishes to depict a Chinese emperor in the ancient time."
Back in his university years, Ye began to develop a strong interest in Chinese history and has always read extensive emperor-themed biographies.
"I wanted to write a story about the emperor, or rather called a dictator, about how a man would live his life after acquiring the supreme authority."
(China Daily 01/09/2007 page19)
