The worship of the sun is part of the State religion, and the officials make their offerings to the sun-tablet.  The moon also is worshipped.  At the harvest moon, the full moon of the eighth month, the Chinese bow before the heavenly luminary, and each family burns incense as an offering.  Thus “100,000 classes all receive the blessings of the icy-wheel in the Milky Way along the heavenly street, a mirror always bright.”  In Chinese illustrations we see the moon-palace of Ch’ang O, who stole the pill of immortality and flew to the moon, the fragrant tree which one of the genii tried to cut down, and a hare pestling medicine in a mortar.  This refers to the following legend.

The sun and the moon are both included by the Chinese among the stars, the spirit of the former being called T’ai-yang Ti-chuen, ‘the Sun-king,’ or Jih-kung Ch’ih-chiang, ’Ch’ih-chiang of the Solar Palace,’ that of the latter T’ai-yin Huang-chuen, ‘the Moon-queen,’ or Yueeh-fu Ch’ang O, ‘Ch’ang O of the Lunar Palace.’

Ch’ih-chiang Tzu-yue lived in the reign of Hsien-yuean Huang-ti, who appointed him Director of Construction and Furnishing.

When Hsien-yuean went on his visit to O-mei Shan, a mountain in Ssuch’uan, Ch’ih-chiang Tzu-yue obtained permission to accompany him.  Their object was to be initiated into the doctrine of immortality.

The Emperor was instructed in the secrets of the doctrine by T’ai-i Huang-jen, the spirit of this famous mountain, who, when he was about to take his departure, begged him to allow Ch’ih-chiang Tzu-yue to remain with him.  The new hermit went out every day to gather the flowering plants which formed the only food of his master, T’ai-i Huang-jen, and he also took to eating these flowers, so that his body gradually became spiritualized.

The Steep Summit

One day T’ai-i Huang-jen sent him to cut some bamboos on the summit of O-mei Shan, distant more than three hundred li from the place where they lived.  When he reached the base of the summit, all of a sudden three giddy peaks confronted him, so dangerous that even the monkeys and other animals dared not attempt to scale them.  But he took his courage in his hands, climbed the steep slope, and by sheer energy reached the summit.  Having cut the bamboos, he tried to descend, but the rocks rose like a wall in sharp points all round him, and he could not find a foothold anywhere.  Then, though laden with the bamboos, he threw himself into the air, and was borne on the wings of the wind.  He came to earth safe and sound at the foot of the mountain, and ran with the bamboos to his master.  On account of this feat he was considered advanced enough to be admitted to instruction in the doctrine.

The Divine Archer