shooting down the suns
Houyi drew his mighty bow (definitely superpower strength required) and shot down one, two, three suns… four, five, six suns… seven, eight, nine, t-
I got part of the idea for this image of Houyi from a picture I found of a statue in Changzhi, China in The Washington Post. It makes quite an impressive image – especially against the backdrop of the solar eclipse… very appropriate! I just read a version of the story where Houyi journeys to the Eastern Sea to shoot down the suns after I drew this picture – I guess it made sense to me that a large body of water would be the safest place to have the suns crash land – so that’s how I drew it! lol
On a more academic note, I have been thinking that the shooting down of the suns could be redressing an excess of yang energy… and of course later on in the story there could be considered an ascendancy of yin… when the moon comes into play… Or perhaps the story can be seen in the end as the final establishment of the power of yang and the banishment of yin to the moon… (and therefore the final overthrow of the ancient matriarchal society in China) Anyone have thoughts on this now or later as the story evolves – I’d love to know!
image and text variant (cc) 2009 Hilary Farmer
