Houyi Shot the Suns

Houyi, also called simply Yi, was the hero who shot the suns in the ancient mythology of China. He is sometimes portrayed as a god of archery descended from heaven to aid mankind, and sometimes as the chief of the Youqiong Tribe during the Xia Dynasty.

In Chinese mythology, the sun’s true forms are the Sun-birds. It is believed that there were ten of them, whom all the offspring of Dijun, God of the Eastern Heaven. Each morning, one of these Sun-birds was to rise and give the world light. One day, the Sun-birds grew tired of the routine and decided that all of them were to rise at once. The heat on earth then became intense. At a result, crops shriveled in the fields, lakes and ponds dried up, and humans and animals cowered in shelters or collapsed from exhaustion.

It was too hot to live under the suns. To save the people, Yi started to shoot the suns. He shot down nine of them one by one, and he might have shot the last one if it was not called off by others. Thus the severe drought was gone. He also got rid of those fierce animals for the people.