Ten Red Lanterns
for Mandy Ridley's exhibition,
Chinese Souvenirs (on not knowing)

Using a mortar and pestle, the Hare pounds the elixir of immortality from the bark of the magical cinnamon tree. The great archer, Yi had been entrusted with the elixir and was as furious as a dragon when he found that his wife, Chang'e had consumed it. He was so angry that she fled from him to ask the Hare, who dwells on the moon, for refuge. Even though Yi and Chang'e made their peace with the Hare's assistance, Chang'e remained on the moon. So, Yi built her a palace where he visited Chang'e twice every month. During those visits, they sipped tea, ate plum blossom and shared all the stories of the world. Glancing through a palace window, Yi saw in the distance ten red lanterns burning as if the dragon's panting breath: the dragon's breath turns to fire when it touches air.

"Do you remember?" Yi asked, for the lanterns also burned like the ten suns of long ago. Lit by ten fervid suns, the sky was once bursting with light and flame. "There were once ten suns which threatened to burn the earth to cinder."

Chang'e smiled because she knew this story well. She also watched the ten red lanterns as their flames reached into the sky like the dragon's flexing tail. The lanterns glowed through the moon's silver-rimmed darkness. As her long fingers stroked the shimmering cord of her gown, she paused to drink silently from a translucent teacup, then replied: "Beloved Yi, I have no recollection of this story."

Yi was surprised, and more than a little disappointed, because this story was his, about how he had saved the earth. Drawing his breath, he began.

In the time of Yao's reign, there were ten suns which took turns to light the world. Each morning, after bathing, all the suns, except one, would climb the great mulberry tree to rest in the branches. The one who did not rest rose to the top of the tree where a chariot drawn by dragons waited. The sun and the chariot would be drawn across the sky by the dragons to a tree in the west. So the suns contined to take turns until one day there was a dispute about Yao's successor. You see his reign was about to end. On that day, the rebellious and willful suns all rose into the sky at the same time. Had it not been for an archer who expertly shot nine of the suns out of the sky, leaving just the one who still warms and lights us today, then the earth would have been scorched to a cinder.

Still stroking the cord of her robe, reclined in silk cushions, she faced him, laughing and asked, "What became of this brave and skillful archer?"

"Now I know you are toying with me. The great archer, Yi, lived well and lived long. He was rewarded with a palace on the sun where he lives except for the times when he visits his beautiful wife, the moon goddess, Chang'e on the moon."

They both laughed and in the distance, the red lanterns flared like the strike of the dragon's claws scratching at the night. It prompted Yi to say absently, "The dragon loves the moon."

"And the water. I know of a dragon who loves water," Chang'e replied. As she continued, her soft voice became tense and dramatic. "He is the Red Dragon of the South, Qiantang, whose temper erupted into a deluge. The flood was so devastating that the supreme ruler of Heaven had Qiantang chained to a pillar in the dungeon of his own brother's underwater palace for 2000 years."

"Then it is a good thing that the Red Dragon loves water," Yi laughed. His laugh simmered like the flames of the ten red lanterns, as if the dragon had shed its glistening skin and the scales had changed into red dragonflies which hovered and hummed in the dark, as hypnotic as Chang'e's story.

But the dragon loved his brother's daughter more than water. Humbled as he was, having been chained to a pillar for 2000 years, he was still wild and angry. He could not bear the news that his niece, a beautiful princess, had married a tyrant who had not only cut her off from her family but made her work as a slave. One day by the River Qing, she asked a young student passing by to follow her instructions to deliver a message to her father. The boy did as he was asked and was lead to an underwater palace, standing before a handsome and proudly dressed man. He was not a stupid boy and had guessed that he was in the court of a dragon king. While this made him nervous, it did not make him forgetful and he delivered the girl's message to her father. The king read the letter aloud. When he learned of the cruel fate that had befallen his beloved daughter, there was such fury and grief throughout the court. When the news reached the Red Dragon of the South, he was moved to such rage that he snapped the pillar to which he was shackled. Qiantang raged through the palace like a thunderstorm, crimson fire streaming from his eyes and the broken pillar trailing behind him. In an instant, he had returned with the princess.

"Surely, it was not as simple as that?" Yi asked.

"You know the dragon's heart too well."

In his anger, the dragon had eaten the princess' husband and raised a flood which killed 60,000 people. The dragon never means to cause such harm. He is just impetuous. He was so remorseful that he immediately flew to Heaven to explain what had happened to the supreme lord so as to be punished. So impressed was the supreme lord that he forgave the Red Dragon and decided to restore him as Dragon Lord of the South. The lucky dragon returned to his own palace which was piled with gems, pearls and all his other precious things.

"Of course, the pearl is his greatest treasure," Chang'e said as she lifted her hand towards Yi as if lovingly cupped around an oyster shell, offering it to him.

"Pearls are said to be droplets that fall like rain from the moon into the sea," Yi said. "Perhaps they are gifts from the moon goddess."

"But it is not the pearls. It is the moon that the dragon loves. Some dragons have tried to steal the moon from the sky, but it is always just out of reach. Each night the dragon chases the moon across the heavens. He tries but never succeeds in catching it."

With the ten red lanterns still glinting like the dragon's piercing eyes in the distance, Yi and Chang'e continued to eat plum blossom, sip tea and tell stories until it was time for him to return to his palace on the sun.