Chapter 3 Chapter 2 The Rabbit in the Moon

Before Qin Dynasty, there was not only trade relationship between China and India, but also other exchanges.Communication in astronomy is one of them. There is an ancient Chinese legend that there is a rabbit in the moon.Exactly how old this legend is is hard to say.There is a saying in "Heavenly Questions" written by Qu Yuan, a great poet in the Warring States Period, called "Gu Tu is in the belly", which means that there is a rabbit (some people say it is a toad) in the moon.Until now, this saying is still circulating among the people.Similarly, there is also a legend in ancient India that there is a rabbit in the moon.This story in India is also very old. The general plot is: In ancient times, there were three beasts, fox, rabbit and ape, in the woods.The Emperor of Heaven turned into a hungry old man and asked the three beasts for food.As a result, the fox brought carp, and the ape picked flowers and fruits, but the rabbit brought nothing.The rabbit was ashamed, and in order to show his sincerity, he jumped into the fire and set himself on fire, intending to burn his own meat to the old man.At this time, the old man appeared as the emperor of heaven, praised him sadly, and sent the rabbit into the moon.Since then, there have been rabbits in the moon.This story in India is one of more than 500 Jataka stories of Buddha, and the Jataka story of Buddha Sakyamuni was written by Buddhists based on folk stories after the death of Sakyamuni, telling about the five hundred lives of Sakyamuni’s predecessor. The process of continuous reincarnation, its writing time is about a few centuries BC.So, since both Chinese and Indians say that there is a rabbit in the moon, is it because "heroes see the same thing" or is one influenced by the other?Mr. Ji Xianlin said: "According to the ancient origin of this story in India, the wide spread, and the many records in ancient books, it is more reasonable to say that it originated in India." According to Mr. Ji, this story was passed from India to India. It comes from China, and it reflects the observation and imagination of the ancients on celestial bodies.

However, what is more interesting is that the ancient Chinese divided the stars in the sky into twenty-eight mansions, and the ancient Indians did the same.This is the same story as the rabbit, obviously not a coincidence, but a mutual influence relationship.So, did China influence India, or did India influence China, or both were influenced by a third party?Scholars have conducted a lot of research on this, and there are many opinions, but the Japanese scholar Xincheng Xinzang Lizhu's twenty-eight mansions originated in China, it seems that the argument is more powerful.He believes that the twenty-eight mansions in China may have been introduced to India during the Zhou Dynasty.In fact, we don't need to discuss who is the first and who is the last. We just need to admit that this is the result of cultural exchanges between China and India.Whether it is the story of the rabbit or the twenty-eight mansions, these are the early results of cultural exchanges between China and India.

From this, we can assert that the starting point of cultural exchanges between China and India must have been before Qin unified China in the 3rd century BC. This is probably an opinion that most people can accept.As for when this communication started, it is now impossible to determine.