Yi Shot Down the Suns

A long time ago, there were ten suns in the sky; they were the sons of the Oriental Lord. These ten suns lived with their mother, the wife of the Oriental Lord, in the Eastern Sea. After having the bath in the Eastern Sea, she always put them on a tree, just like birds perched in their nests. Nine of them perched on the shorter branches of the tree, while the other sun rested on the top of the tree. When the sky needed dawn, the sun on the top of the tree would cart through the sky, spreading the light and heat all over the world to every corner. Ten suns took turns on duty orderly every ten days; everything in the world was in a harmonious appearance. At that time, people were grateful to the sun for bringing them time, light and joy, they even often kowtowed towards the sky to show their worship.

However, as time went by, ten suns became feeling bored; they wanted to travel around the sky together since they thought it must be very interesting. So, one day, when the dawn came, the ten suns rode the cart together, setting foot on the journey through the sky. But, the life on earth could not stand the heat that ten suns released; they were just like ten giant fire balls. They not only burned out forest to ashes, but also burned many people and animals. Those who were not burnt in the fire, the animals, the pigs, the wolves, and the wanderers, frantically searched for a place which had water and food to escape from the calamities. The river dried up, even the sea was also facing dryness, and all the fish also died off, so the monster in the sea climbed up to steal food in villages. Crops and orchards also burned out, and the sources of food for people and livestock were cut off. People were either burned out to die by the high temperature of the sun or killed by the beast. In a word, people were struggling in the fire disaster.

At this time, there was a young handsome guy called Hou Yi, who was a skillful archer. He was in much pain seeing people living in misery, so he determined to shoot the extra nine suns to save the people from the untold miseries. Yi climbed over the ninety nine high mountains, crossed the ninety nine rivers, passed through ninety-nine canyons, and he finally arrived at the Eastern Sea. Yi climbed on the top of the highest mountain beside the sea. Without hesitation, he shot down the first sun in one second; his second arrow shot down two suns together; and at this time, there were still seven suns staring red glowing eyes in the sky. Hou Yi still felt very hot, so he continued to shoot the other suns. He shot the third arrow fiercely, this arrow shot was very strong, and it shot down four suns at this time! The other suns trembled all over, and then Yi shot the arrows to the sun one by one, and finally all nine suns were shot down. Their feathers fell down to the ground, their light and heat disappeared slowly. The last sun in the sky was extremely afraid of Yi; he was in accordance with the instructions of Hou Yi to stay in the sky contributing light and heat to the earth as before.

Since then, the sun rises from the east of the sea and sets in the west side every day. And underneath all of the horrible cloud cover, the sun will always be there, warming everything in the word. (Lingjuan Qi. China. 2016)