Sunbonnet Soliloquy

By Jewell Ellen Smith

A Chinese Moon Legend

A myth told and retold for centuries in China is the story of Chang E, a beautiful woman who flew to the moon 4,000 years ago.

According to the ancient legend, when Chang E was yet a young girl she was obsessed with the idea that one day she would be able to reach the moon.

In due time, though, as the custom was, arrangements were made for her to marry Hou Yi, a powerful tribal chieftain. And she gave up all the wishful thinking and daydreaming of her girlhood days as she made herself happy being an ideal wife to the handsome Hou Yi.

Then one day Chang E discovered that her husband had managed to obtain a flying elixir from the Celestial Queen, Xi Wang Mu. That night, as soon as the moon was high and her husband was asleep, Chang E swallowed the magic potion -- every drop of it. Immediately, she could fly!

She left the earth, her tribe and her husband, and went straight to the moon, where she lives to this day, alone in her lunar kingdom “with only the old woodchopper Wu Chang and a little white rabbit for company.

She dwells “in a sea of blue sky, with a lonely heart.”

(How, when and why the woodchopper and the rabbit went to the moon the legend tellers do not explain.)

With a bit of imagination and a light Aesop touch, this tale out of the East could be transformed into a combination fable and allegory for U.S. Army wives. Yes! Such a hybrid story would be fun to fabricate!

Let’s try it. First, though, to be sure we know what we’re up to, let’s remember that in fables -- of the kind Aesop was telling the Greeks in the sixth century B.C. --animals speak and act like human beings to get across an edifying or cautionary point.

In allegories, the surface or apparent story illustrates something far deeper. For example, the story of the search for the Holy Grail represents a deep spiritual search.

Now, let’s have at it. Be thinking of what we can have that little white rabbit say. And remember there’s no reason we can’t change part of the plot to suit our purpose. Here we go:

There was a beautiful, brilliant young woman who lived in the middle of the USA during the last part of the Twentieth Century.

When her parents sent her away to school, she majored in chemistry; for she dreamed of becoming great and famous and rich, a chemist acclaimed all over the whole world. She could fairly see herself accepting a Nobel prize.

This charming girl’s name was Christine Elizabeth, but she was called Chris E.

At the end of her senior year at college Chris E met and married a handsome young Army aviator and went with him to live in the Deep South, at a place called Fort Rucker, Alabama, the U.S. Army’s Aviation Center.

Chris E knew little about the Army, less about aviation. But she made fine friends and contented herself with doing the things the other young wives were doing.

She soon noticed that her husband and all the other fellows they knew worked very hard and bore serious obligations. At the same time Chris E began to sense that the wives too were really a part of the U.S. Army -- with responsibilities and duties. It was an informal, unspoken thing. But it was there.

“Oh well,” Chris E thought, “that’s alright. I’m patriotic. I can help keep the Red-White-and-Blue waving!”

Then came the day Chris E’s husband became a flight instructor. After that, it seemed she saw less and less of him and more and more of the four walls of their quarters. (house)

“This is getting ridiculous,” she told herself. “Why, I’m practically a widow! And I didn’t major in chemistry for nothing! I’ll mix up a magic flying potion for my husband to issue to his students. One gulp of it and they’ll know how to fly any and every known vehicle ever seen in the sky! Then my husband will have more time for me!”

That very night, while her husband was asleep, Chris E stirred up the potent elixir and flavored it well. To see if it tasted exactly right, she took a sip. Wow! She sprouted wings! She could fly!

She opened the back door, flapped her wings, and lifted herself up into the air. She circled the Post once and then soared off to the moon.

As Chris E touched down, and while she was still wiping moon dust from her eyes, a little white rabbit came hopping toward her, bouncing along like a fluffy cotton ball. Right behind him came an old man with an axe in his hands.

“Go back! Go back!” cried the rabbit.

“Yes, go back! Go back!” shouted the old man. “I’m Wu Chang the woodchopper. But there’s no wood on the moon to chop!”

She waved to Wu Chang and called out, “I’m Chris E!”

Then she folded her wings and stooped down to listen to the little white rabbit, who was now right at her feet. He was barely whispering.

“Chris E,” the rabbit said, “there’s nothing here. When you fly away from reality and duty, you find only emptiness.”

So Chris E flew back to Fort Rucker.

That’s just the first draft. We must make revisions. And there’s the polishing to do. It’s a bit too loose, don’t you think?

Perhaps you would rather have the rabbit say something different. You could even leave Chris E on the moon with Chang E.

Suppose we let you decide that part.

Published March 1984. Click your browser’s “Back” key to return.