Ten Suns

Ten Suns
Medium: Watercolors
Size: 10x16 inches
Detail closeups -here-
Prints and original available -here-

A Chinese legend:

There was once a time when there was not just a single sun in the heavens, but ten suns. These ten suns were embodied in the forms of celestial Sun-Birds, who lived in a mulberry tree far out in the eastern sea.

Alternating amongst themselves each day, it was the task for a single one of the Sun-Birds to spread his wings and fly over the lands, to light the skies. As he soared across the vault of the heavens, the sun\'s glorious radiance bought warmth and life to the fields and people. In a day-long journey, the Sun-Bird flew to the western mountains. Each night, that Sun-Bird would come back to roost at the mulberry tree amongst his siblings.

Day after day, the Sun-Birds performed their duty, until they bored of the routine. On that fateful morning, they all took flight, in a burst of overwhelming flame and glory. The ten Sun-Birds flew out across the lands, and the people cried out in pain at the furnace that opened up from the heavens with the heat of ten suns beating down upon rice fields and rooftops and heads.

It fell to the Archer God, Houyi to remedy the situation. Drawing his great bow, he shot down nine of the ten Sun-Birds. So it is today, that there is but a single Sun.