Introduction.

This is one of the most popular of Miao stories, widely known and often retold. In this short, prose version it is reduced to its simplest form. No explanation is offered of how Ya-ya contrived to shoot the suns, and the tiger’s effort to recall the sun is omitted. Its final conclusion, however, that the cock crows early each morning to reassure the sun that it is safe to rise, is perfectly satisfactory.

There is some diversity of opinion as to the number of suns and moons involved. In the story of the separation of earth and sky, M104, it says that there were twelve of each, a number which, in his introduction to Document N, and also in his Chinese paraphrase of the Ya-ya song, Wang jian-guo repeated. However, Yang Xiu-gong says explicitly that there were only seven suns and seven moons, and both the song versions imply the same without saying so directly.

Translation
Literal Transcription
Notes

You can see the original documents for this song.

You can also see these pages as Word97 documents

Word97 Introduction
Word97 Translation
Word97 Transcription
Word97 Notes

Return to Index of Songs
Return to First Page of the Archive