Bedtime Stories
2020 Scholastics Art & Writing Awards
National Gold Medal
Illustration by Julia Cheng
Vignettes
- 月 yuè, moon.
- craters
- 天 tiān, sky
- typhoon
- 倒影 dào yǐng, reflection
- Shapeshifter
- 日 rì, sun
- supernova
- 生 shèng, life
- bedtime stories
7 |日 rì, sun
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The Heavenly Emperor had ten sons, ten young phoenixes who took turns crossing the sky each day as the mortal’s sun. Over time, they grew rather tired of this cumbersome task—until the youngest proposed they all cross the sky together, which was met with clamourous enthusiasm. Ten suns rose into the sky and the earth was immediately set ablaze, their blinding heat scorching the crops and drying up the seas.
Distraught, the Emperor begged the Great Archer Houyi for help. When the stubborn suns refused to heed his words, Houyi grew furious. The proud archer drew back his great bow, and in nine swift motions shot down the suns from the sky, their limp bodies plunging to the blackened earth like falling stars. Only one sun was spared, and when the Emperor realised what the archer had done his roar of anguish shook all the layers of heaven. He banished Houyi to the mortal realm, but nothing else could be done—the earth had been reduced to a barren crater, and nine of his sons were dead.