WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Jade Rabbit

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the

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<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact, a short form theories from Stuff to Blow

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<v Speaker 2>Your Mind, focusing on unmithical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.

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<v Speaker 2>In celebration of the lunar New Year, I thought today

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<v Speaker 2>it would be a great time to consider the lunar rabbit. Now,

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<v Speaker 2>exactly what you see in the dark splotches of the

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<v Speaker 2>full moon will depend on your individual and or cultural priming.

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<v Speaker 2>You may see a face, a man with a cane

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<v Speaker 2>or a fork, a frog or toad, or some other

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<v Speaker 2>animal reel or imagined. But the rabbit has been a

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<v Speaker 2>popular choice since Time out of Mind, and why not.

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<v Speaker 2>Indigenous rabbit or hair species exist on every continent except

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<v Speaker 2>Australia and Antarctica. The rabbit also boath's a great deal

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<v Speaker 2>of character, inspiring numerous and varied tales that detail just

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<v Speaker 2>how that rabbit made it to the Moon, or from

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<v Speaker 2>the Moon to the Earth in the first place. Author

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<v Speaker 2>Randolph S. Albright recounts several of these in his twenty

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<v Speaker 2>twenty book House of the Three Rabbits. According to Albright,

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<v Speaker 2>the Yoruba people of Nigeria and the Woloff people of

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<v Speaker 2>Senegal recount legends of a rabbit sent down from the

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<v Speaker 2>moon with the secret of immortality, but the rabbit got

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<v Speaker 2>the message backwards or mangoled in one form or another,

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<v Speaker 2>and instead bestowed mortality upon human beings. Oops the moon

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<v Speaker 2>punished the rabbit by splitting its nose and forcing it

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<v Speaker 2>to accompany each dying mortal into the afterlife. The Siberian

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<v Speaker 2>moon goddess caltes Uku sometimes takes the form of a rabbit.

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<v Speaker 2>The Mayan moon goddess Excel often carries a rabbit. The

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<v Speaker 2>Cree people of North America telle of a rabbit who

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<v Speaker 2>traveled up to the moon with the help of a

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<v Speaker 2>passing crane, and the Celtic goddess Ostra took on the

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<v Speaker 2>form of a hare during the full moon. In Buddhist teachings,

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<v Speaker 2>Albright shares the rabbit's image appears on the moon because

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<v Speaker 2>the rabbit offered up its own body to feed a

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<v Speaker 2>starving beggar who was actually Sakra, lord of Davs in disguise.

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<v Speaker 2>The Aztecs told a similar tale concerning the god quetzalkotal.

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<v Speaker 2>As Victoria Dickinson explores, in her book Rabbit from the

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<v Speaker 2>excellent Rakotan Animals series. The Aztecs associated the rabbit with

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<v Speaker 2>drunkenness as well as the moon, and held that the

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<v Speaker 2>rabbit must first pass through fire on its way to

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<v Speaker 2>the lunar's surface. And of course, the lunar rabbit has

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<v Speaker 2>an important place in many East Asian traditions, often as

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<v Speaker 2>a lunar zodiac animal, and Chinese traditions invoke the creature

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<v Speaker 2>in the myth of Chenga. We discussed various versions of

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<v Speaker 2>this myth in great detail in our Stuffable your Mind

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<v Speaker 2>episode Chinese Mortality, which you can find in our archives.

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<v Speaker 2>But the simple version is as follows. The hero Ye

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<v Speaker 2>the archer, receives the elixir of immortality from the Queen

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<v Speaker 2>Mother of the West, and then, while her reasoning varies

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<v Speaker 2>depending on the telling. Sometimes it's to protect the potion

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<v Speaker 2>from theft by an enemy, Yi's wife shang A, drank

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<v Speaker 2>it instead and was instantly transported to the moon. In

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<v Speaker 2>some earlier tellings, she is then transformed into a toad

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<v Speaker 2>who pounds the elixir of immortality there, and it's of

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<v Speaker 2>course the very toad we might see when we gaze

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<v Speaker 2>up at the full moon other times, and certainly in

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<v Speaker 2>later tellings, she retains her human form and is accompanied

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<v Speaker 2>by the jade rabbit, who pounds the elixir of immortality instead.

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<v Speaker 2>Thus we see the rabbit on the moon. Dickinson writes

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<v Speaker 2>to Chinese alchemists the pale jade moon rabbit embodied the

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<v Speaker 2>yin or female principle that was associated with the moon,

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<v Speaker 2>not only in Asia, but in the West, where the

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<v Speaker 2>moon is often referred to as feminine. She also pointed

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<v Speaker 2>out that in Japanese traditions, the rabbit doesn't pound the

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<v Speaker 2>elixir of immortality, but instead pounds the rice that will

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<v Speaker 2>be used in lunar New Year mochi cakes. Tune in

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<v Speaker 2>for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or

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<v Speaker 2>Anamalia Stupendium each week. As always, you can email us

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<v Speaker 2>at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

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