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How to say “I see a waxing [waning] moon ” in Chinese? Wo3 jian4 dao4 le5 yi4 lun2 man3 [can2] yu4. 我见到了一轮满[残]月。Wo3 (我 pronoun, I) jian4 dao4 (见到 verb phrase, means look and see it; this also an resultative complement usage – see is the verb, the action, and dao4 see it is the result) le5 ( 了 particle to show action has occurred, a past tense marker) yi4 (一 number, one) lun2 （ 轮 lun2 originally means the wheel, here it is used as a measure word for the moon) man3 (满 adjective, full) [can2 (残 adjective, incomplete)] yue4 (月 noun, moon).
Moon is the heavenly body （天体 tian1 ti3) that revolves (运转 yun4 zhuan3) around the earth. The Moon travels around the Earth in a circle called an orbit （轨道 gui3 dao4). You should wonder: How long does it take for the Moon to orbit the Earth?
The Moon takes about 27 days to go all the way around the Earth and return to its starting point (起点 qi3 dian3). The Moon’s orbit around the Earth is not exact round, but a slightly squashed circle called an ellipse （椭圆 tuo3 yuan2).
Lunar calendar (农历 nong2 li4 or 阴历 yin1 li4) still is used in many of Chinese families. What is a Lunar Month ?
A lunar month is the time the moon takes to pass through a complete cycle of its phases and is measured from New Moon to New Moon or from full moon to full moon. A lunar month is about 29.5 days.
What the moon is like:
The surface of the moon has craters (huo3 shan1 kou3, 火山口), lava （yan2 jiang1,岩浆) plains, mountains, and valleys.The Moon has no atmosphere (大气层 da4 qi4 ceng2), however, moon’s water was discovered （发现 fa1 xian4) in 2009. There is no wind or weather on the moon; it is eternal (yong3 heng2 永恒) in scene and in weather. It is said that the famous footprints （jiao3 yin4, 脚印） left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts (太空人 tai4 kong1 ren2) will remain intact for over 10 million years because there is no erosion (侵蚀 qin1 she2) on the Moon.
Seeing from western view point, footprints are the only human traces on the moon. However, when we see the moon through the Chinese imaginary mind, the moon is rich with legend (传说 chuan2 shuo1) and myth (神话 shen2 hua4) and creatures.
The first creature who lives on the moon is the beautiful moon lady 嫦娥 Chang’e (Chang2 e2).
According to the legendary story:
In ancient times there were 10 blazing suns took their turn to shine their heat on the earth. However, one day, the ten suns started misbehaving and came out together to bring drought and scorching heat to people. People living on the earth could not endure the burning temperature, and people were starting dying. Luckily at that time, there was a brave and skilled archer 后羿 Houyi, who shot down nine suns and only let the present one remain shining. Houyi got rid of the nine suns and cure the potential serious drought, thus he won the position of the King. However, afterwards Houyi eventually turned into a tyrant. Houyi wanted to live forever and enjoy the life as a king, he went to the Queen of Wang Mu ( wang2 mu3 王母） on the 昆仑 Kun Lun Mountain asking for the elixir that can turn people into immortals. In fear of his ever lasting life would make people under his ruling suffer more, His wife 嫦娥 Chang’e took the elixir and swallowed it up herself. In no time, her body turned as light as a cloud and began flying. According to legend, this event happened at the evening of the 15th day of the eighth lunar month when the bright full moon was shining high up in the sky. Thinking of her tyrannic husband, Chang’e decided to leave the world and went to the moon. So, this is why there is a beautiful lady living in the Chinese culture moon.
Beside the beautiful immortal Chang’e, there is a Jade Rabbit （玉兔 yu4 tu4) or the Moon Rabbit lives on the moon. There are many different versions of explanation about why Jade Rabbit got sent to the moon. One of them I prefer goes like this:
Once upon a time, there were three immortals (xian1 ren2 仙人） who wanted to test the kindness of creatures. Thus, one day they transformed themselves into three hagged and pale old men and begged three animals, fox, monkey and rabbit, for food. Fox and monkey were kind enough to offer these three old men food to eat, and the rabbit who had no possession of any food at that moment even offered his own fresh as the food and rushed to the fire, tried to cook himself. The three immortals were so touched by the rabbit’s ultimate selfishness and kindness, thus they transcended the rabbit to the moon as the forever rabbit to accompany Chang’e, to live in the moon, and do the pounding of herb to make medicine which can make people live forever.
There is a woodcutter （樵夫 qiao2 fu1) lives on the moon, and his name is Wu2 Gang1. 吳剛 Wu Gang was a person who was short of persistence. Everything he did all was temporary, could not last long. One day he wanted to be an immortal, so he went to the mountains to learn how to live forever from an immortal. First, the immortal told him that he needed to study herbs and use them to cure sickness, but after a few days Wu Gang’s restlessness characteristic appeared, so he asked the immortal to teach him some other thing. But, again and again Wu Gang’s interest faded in a few days no matter what he was learning. The immortal was frustrated by Wu Gang’s impatience, so he banished Wu Gang to the Moon and told him to cut down a giant cassia tree and then he could return to earth. Wu Gang did not want to live in the cold moon palace, so he diligently chopped the tree day and night. However, the magical tree healed itself with each blow, and so, till now poor Wu Gang still is up there chopping that forever cassia tree still.
Chinese mythology and legend about moon beautify the moon image in Chinese people’s mind. Next time when there is a full moon up in your night sky, you might as well try to search for the moon palace to locate the whereabouts (qu4 xiang4 去向 or 踪影 zong1 ying3) of Chang’e, Jade Rabbit and the forever cutter Wu Gang, and paint your mind with Chinese culture, legend and imagination （想像力 xiang3 xiang4 li4) 🙂
The Moon Represents My Heart – Teresa Teng
for pinyin, lyrics, and English translation see:
http://www.chinesetolearn.com/chinese-mid-autumn-festival-origin-mooncakes-chang-er-legend/
Bruno Mars – Talking To The Moon lyrics
Moon of the West River 月西江