The Sun and the Moon

In our parts, a story has been passed down from generation to generation.

Since time immemorial, two stars have wandered in the sky, bright and shining. One was hot, the other cold, and they were never apart.

On Earth, in a certain village, there lived a girl named Taiyang (Taiyang means "sun"). She was clever and very beautiful, and everyone in the area praised her. Taiyang loved a young man named Yueliang (Yueliang means "moon"), who lived in a neighboring village.

He often came to her house to help with chores, and the two had known each other since childhood. In her heart, the girl dreamed of becoming his wife. He, too, secretly loved her deeply. But Yueliang was poor; he owned not a scrap of land and dared not even think of marrying Taiyang.

Meanwhile, Taiyang's parents betrothed her to a powerful and evil sorcerer named La-ya. Upon learning of this, the girl ran to Yueliang with the sad news. They walked along the pond's edge for a long time, trying to come up with a way to prevent the wedding. At the dam, they saw a large black stone, sat on it, and deliberated again—what could they do? But they couldn't think of anything.

Suddenly, they heard a groan. Both were surprised: after all, there was no one else around! But then Taiyang, as if realizing something, grabbed Yueliang's hand, both knelt down, and the girl said:

"Stone, stone! If you have a soul—help us in our trouble!"

To their astonishment, they heard a reply:

"Come here on Thursday before dawn, and I will help you."

When Taiyang learned that La-ya's relatives were coming to take her away, she told them to come on Thursday before sunrise.

And so the day arrived. It was still dark when La-ya and his relatives came for the bride. Taiyang ran to the dam and saw that Yueliang was already sitting on the stone, waiting for her. She jumped onto the stone as well.

La-ya saw the girl run to the dam, jump onto the black stone where a young man was sitting, and suddenly both of them disappeared.

La-ya approached the stone, lit a fire around it: a terrible roar sounded, the stone split, flames shot up to the sky, and Taiyang and Yueliang, transformed into a pair of swans, flew away.

But La-ya used his magic to bring them back to Earth and turned them into humans again. The sorcerer tried to force Taiyang to become his wife, but despite all his power, he could not succeed.

Having lost all hope, La-ya decided to separate her from Yueliang and planned to place each of them on one of the two stars wandering in the sky. Thus, the girl ended up on the cold star, and the young man on the hot one. Taiyang suffered terribly from the cold and asked La-ya to move her to the hot star. He granted her request but moved Yueliang to the cold one...

Once again, they were separated. True, the stars roamed the sky together all day, and the lovers could see each other, talk to each other, and joke. But even this did not satisfy La-ya, and with his sorcery, he arranged it so that the hot star appeared only during the day, and the cold one only at night.

From that time until today, people see Taiyang—the Sun—in the sky during the day, and Yueliang—the Moon—at night. And never again are these poor lovers destined to be together!

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The Sun and the Moon

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