Houyi

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Houyi (后羿) was a mythological Chinese archer. He was the chief of the Youqiong Tribe (有窮國) during the Xia Dynasty. His wife, Chang'e, became a lunar deity.

Supposedly, in ancient times, there were ten suns that came out in turns, but, tiring of this routine, decided to come out all at once. It became so hot that rocks were melting, people dying, and plants withering, so the current emperor, Yao, begged the father of the suns, Dijun, to control his children. However, the suns did not listen to Dijun. So Dijun sent Houyi, the archer, to earth with a magic bow and arrows. Yi was only supposed to scare the suns, but he shot nine of them out of the sky, leaving only the present sun. Dijun got so angry at Houyi that he banished the hero to earth to spend the rest of his days as an ordinary mortal.

References

Goddesses Heroes and Shamans by Scholastic inc., 1994.

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