The Ten Suns of the Sky
In the beginning, there were ten suns, sons of Di Jun, the Chinese Emperor of the Eastern Heavens, and of Xi He, his wife, goddess of the sun. They lived in an enormous mulberry tree watered by the waters of the Valley of Heaven — waters that were always in a state of boiling, because it was there that the suns took their baths.
Every morning, they took turns illuminating the sky, leaving the rest to rest in the tree. One day, tired of such an orderly life, all of them rose into the sky and raced back and forth to amuse themselves. As their combined intensity multiplied, they began to scorch the earth, but when their parents told them to behave and come down, they paid no heed. Di Jun sent his archer, Hou Yi, to teach his sons a lesson. Yi shot down nine of the ten suns with his arrows. Di Jun was inconsolable and stripped Yi and his wife Chang’e of their immortality, banishing them from the heavens.