Chang'e swallowed the elixir of immortality meant to be shared and floated up to the Moon, where she has lived ever since with a rabbit and, in some tellings, considerable regret.

The versions differ on whether she stole it, drank it to keep it from a thief, or took it under threat, and Chinese literature has never settled which. Her husband Houyi set out her favourite food once a year and looked up, which is the origin story attached to the Mid-Autumn Festival. China's lunar programme is named after her, and its sample-return craft after the rabbit.