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"...and if the dam breaks open many years too soon..." Perhaps interesting to note the origin of this name for spacecraft. The legend "Chang'e flies to the moo
by arduanika 8y ago
"...and if the dam breaks open many years too soon..."
Perhaps interesting to note the origin of this name for spacecraft. The legend "Chang'e flies to the moon" (嫦娥奔月) lies behind the Mid-Autumn Festival (featuring mooncakes, as it were). Point is, the names of Chinese space missions are every bit as carefully steeped in tradition as, say, Mercury/Gemini/Apollo.
- tanilama 8y agoThe story behind Chang'e is also interesting. Essentially, she is the wife of a legendary hero, Hou Yi(后羿), who saved the mankind from dying of drought due to the presence of nine Suns, by shooting all but one of them down. Chang'e stole the Immortal Pill, and eat it alone without her husband knowing. After she ate it, her body became to float and she flied to the moon, to live there alone forever as her punishment, with only one rabbit being her companion. Sounds familiar? Yep I believe if you are a Naruto fan, you can make a lot of connections.
- dempseye 8y agoThe trisolarian plot in Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem also seems to have borrowed from this myth.
- sthomas1618 8y agoHaving read (and enjoyed) that trilogy, I'm not making the connection. Which part?
- nitrogen 8y agoThere is a 3-star system that causes periodic droughts on a planet in the system based on which star(s) the planet's semi-stable orbit crosses.
- headsupftw 8y agoIn the novel, the three-body civilization would go extinct if there are two or three suns in the sky.
- rukuu001 8y agoBeautiful story, thanks for sharing :)
- scotty79 8y ago> with only one rabbit being her companion. So that's why one of their rovers was called "Jade Rabbit"
- freeflight 8y agoThe "moon rabbit" [0] is a rather popular interpretation of the Moons surface in Asian folklore. Japanese/Korean people believe the rabbit is pounding the ingredients for rice cake. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit
- mattio 8y agoWhat did the rabbit do, to be punished with her :-P
- Rooster61 8y agoThe silly rabbit tried to eat the kids' Trix
- _void 8y agoSmite fans will know all this lore as well :) Chang'e main here.
- pfdzm 8y agoNothing more fun than a duo Hou Yi/Chang’e lane with their respective wedding skins :)
- dbllxr 8y agoIn one (more romantic) version of the lore, the Mystic Realm awarded Hou Yi (the husband) the Immortal Pill/Potion after he prevented the earth from being scorched. He and Chang'e were going to both take the potion so they can be together forever. A group of bandits heard about the potion, and broke into their home while Hou Yi was away, Chang'e had no choice but to swallow the potion entirely and that gave her divine powers in addition to immortality, she was able to escape and ascend into Heaven, and because she's no longer human, she and Hou Yi were forever separated...
- teacpde 8y agoAnd to add to that the relay satellite is named Queqiao (鹊桥, Megapie Bridge). It is how the separated lovers Zhinv (织女, Vega) and Niulang (牛郎, Altair) meet once every year. Zhinv is the seventh daughter of the Yuhuangdai (the god of gods, like Zeus), and fell in love with human Niulang. After discovering with anger, Wuangmuniangniang (wife of Yuhuangdadi, like Hera) separated the two with the Milky Way. Touched by the love story of Zhinv and Niulang, the magpies form the Queqiao bridge to help them meet once a year on July 7, which became the Chinese Valentine (七夕).
- codychan 8y agoMost of Chinese think Yuhuangdadi(玉皇大帝) and Wangmuniangniang(王母娘娘) are husband&wife, they work together to control all the gods(gods are not like western gods, they have 仙 and 神), but there are multiple versions of myths(books) and rumors mentioning them, none of them tells the relationship of them for sure, we can only deduce their relationship from the context. From different versions of sources, they can be: 1. husband&wife, 2. colleagues, 3. sister&brother, 4. mother&son.
- glandium 8y agoAnd the rover, Yutu(玉兔) is the jade rabbit, who pounds a mortar and pestle in Guanghan Palace on the moon. She later escapes to earth and Chang'e brings her back to the moon in 西遊記 (Journey to the West) right before Sun Wukong (孫悟空; japanese reading: Son Gokū; yes, like in Dragonball, heavily based on 西遊記) defeats her.
- xupybd 8y agoThey have to be careful then. Apollo now means more about the moon landings than the old traditions to me. I don’t know if that’s something the Chinese would like to have happen to their traditions.
- martimarkov 8y agoOr Battlestar Galactica. XD
- rsynnott 8y agoUnless you're an ancient Greek, that isn't particularly surprising; it was not part of current traditions when used as the name of a spacecraft.
- xanipher 8y agoLearning about the gods of old greece and their stories is still part of the curriculum in a lot of European countries. I doubt most would think of the Moon Landing first.
- bhhaskin 8y agoSame here in the states.
- riffraff 8y agoI grew up watching Japanese anime which reference ancient Greek mythology. Pollon[0], for example, focuses on a daughter of Apollo. I didn't even know the "man on the moon" thing was called Apollo until I was in high school. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Pollon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Pollon
- pastor_elm 8y agobetter than what Nike is now
- philwelch 8y ago
- ecp9 8y agoThank you for making the valid point that those asian people have a history and traditions as well. Like seriously? This is the top voted comment? Sometimes I seriously wonder about HN.
- dang 8y agoCan you please not post unsubstantive comments to HN, especially nasty ones? The interesting thing about the comment was the information about that specific name, not the generic point about naming things. Since you could have responded to either, it would be good to remember this guideline: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith." It would also be good to review all of https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and not to be a jerk to other users.
- stcredzero 8y agoThe legend "Chang'e flies to the moon" (嫦娥奔月) lies behind the Mid-Autumn Festival (featuring mooncakes, as it were). Point is, the names of Chinese space missions are every bit as carefully steeped in tradition as, say, Mercury/Gemini/Apollo. The People's Republic of China doesn't think of itself as a "Nation State." Instead, it thinks of itself as a "civilization state." A part of PRC's self appointed charge is to prevent the marginalization of Chinese civilization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhUmLtlZpw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhUmLtlZpw When I was working in Houston, it was a regular occurrence for me to meet yet another Chinese born employee of whatever corporation I was in, who would soon after ask me if I could read Chinese characters, then say it was a "shame" I couldn't. I'm not even Chinese, so I find this a bit parochial. I'm aware of the importance of Chinese characters in the culture of East Asia, but still, there's something a bit too self important about it. Now, many years later, I'm married to a Chinese woman. Even she gives me this guff! It's like they're trying to match the attitude level of the French. (EDIT: If you know of something wonderful more people should know about, most of the time, you should try to share it as a direct experience. That way, you're more likely to get across the magic and you're less likely to come across as a lecture.)
- swampthing 8y agoThat's very interesting to hear. I wonder if it is something specific to that corporation, or perhaps your role at the corporation, though? All the Chinese-born people I know would be pretty surprised if any non-Chinese person could read Chinese.
- godelski 8y agoAs someone who is learning Chinese (and VERY bad at it), (almost) every Chinese person I've met has been super encouraging and helpful. Most of them are surprised I'm learning it at all. But they also express encouragement differently, so I'm wondering if it is a misunderstanding.
- stcredzero 8y agoThat could well be. Some aspects of culture are quite subtle. There was this thing where, whenever some driver in traffic made me brake hard, my Chinese born wife would shout, "BE CAREFUL!" Well, here's the thing: I am very careful. I couldn't be blamed for any of those incidents. It's precisely that I'm careful that I was able to avoid a collision. It seemed very unfair that I should be blamed for any of these incidents. (Example, the car ahead of me spots a parking space at the last minute, then slams on his brakes to get the parking spot.) So after about the 5th time like that, we had the argument. It turns out that she was just being scared and telling me to be careful, not knowing how an English speaker would take that contextually.
- ucarion 8y agoAre there any good sources on the Chinese space program's change in naming convention? It seems like the older programs have names like "Long March" or "The East is Red", but they've now converged to the more common tradition of using mythology/mysticism.
- gherkin1 8y agoQueqiao(magpies bridge), name of the relay satellite for Chang'e is from another Chinese tale 'The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl '[0], related to Qixi Festival[1]. Queqiao is the bridge built by magpies to help Zhinü and Niulang to reunite. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cowherd_and_the_Weaver_Girl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cowherd_and_the_Weaver_Gir... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qixi_Festival https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qixi_Festival