1. Core Concept (核心概念)
Chinese literary tradition bestowed upon the moon over a hundred poetic names (别称, bié chēng)—each a two-character poem compressing a legend, a shape, a season, or a mood. Where English offers “the moon” and a handful of adjectives, Chinese offers 玉轮 (Jade Wheel), 蟾宫 (Toad Palace), 冰镜 (Ice Mirror)—names that carry their mythology inside them.
The naming project began with the Chu Ci (楚辞) of the Warring States period and reached full flower in Tang and Song poetry, when every poet needed fresh moons the way a painter needs fresh ink. The names fall into clear families—residence names (who lives there), form names (what it looks like), and substance names (what it’s made of)—and mastering them is a masterclass in how Chinese poetry works: concrete images, layered allusion, and a single word doing the work of a stanza.
2. The Residence Names: Who Lives on the Moon (居所系)
These names name the moon by its inhabitants and palace:
| Name | Chinese | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| Toad Palace | 蟾宫 (Chán Gōng) | The three-legged moon toad, companion of Chang’e; “passing the palace” (蟾宫折桂) means passing the imperial examinations |
| Jade Rabbit Hall | 兔宫 / 玉兔 | The Jade Rabbit pounding the elixir (see Moon Rabbit) |
| Guanghan Palace | 广寒宫 | Chang’e’s “Vast Cold Palace”—the moon’s lunar mansion in later legend |
| Su’e | 素娥 | “Plain Beauty,” a name for Chang’e herself doubling as the moon |
| Heng’e | 姮娥 | Chang’e’s older name, before the Han emperor Liu Heng’s taboo removed the shared character |
The Toad’s Strange Tenancy
Why a toad? Han dynasty texts explain: when Chang’e stole the elixir and fled upward, she transformed into a toad (or the toad was already there, harboring her). The dark markings on the full moon were read as the toad’s outline—one of the oldest recorded pareidolias. The moon-toad (蟾蜍) is thus an emblem of the Yin force and of longevity, its three legs marking it as a creature beyond ordinary nature.
3. The Form Names: What It Looks Like (形态系)
These names track the moon’s phases and light:
| Name | Chinese | Visual Source |
|---|---|---|
| Golden Disk | 金盘 (Jīn Pán) | The full moon as a polished gold platter—autumn’s harvest moon especially |
| Jade Wheel | 玉轮 (Yù Lún) | The moon’s round perfection, rolling across the night sky |
| Ice Mirror | 冰镜 (Bīng Jìng) | The frost-clear winter moon, cold and flawless |
| Silver Hook | 银钩 (Yín Gōu) | The waxing crescent, bent like a fishhook or calligraphy stroke |
| Jade Bow | 玉弓 (Yù Gōng) | The crescent drawn against the dark like a celestial bow |
| Bright Eye | 明眸 | The moon as heaven’s watching eye |
| Silver Candle | 银烛 | The moon as an unextinguishable lamp over the night |
The Hooks and Bows
Early-month names cluster around 银钩 and 玉弓 because the crescent’s shape invited exactly these comparisons—curved objects of beauty and function. A famous Tang line runs: “初月如弓未上弦”—“the first moon is a bow not yet strung”—the image turning the sky into an archer’s equipment rack.
4. The Substance Names: What It’s Made Of (质地系)
Jade (玉)
The moon’s supreme substance. 玉兔 (Jade Rabbit), 玉轮 (Jade Wheel), 玉盘 (Jade Plate)—jade’s cool luster, imperishability, and moral purity (the Confucian “gentleman’s stone”) made it the natural material for the moon’s body. A full moon is a flawless jade disk; a mooncake’s dense white filling is 莲蓉-white as the orb itself.
Silver (银)
Silver River (银河) names the Milky Way that the moon must cross; Silver Hook, Silver Candle, Silver Sea (银海)—silver supplies the moon’s colder, whiter light and the color of frost and autumn dew.
Ice and Frost (冰/霜)
冰轮 (Ice Wheel), 霜月 (Frost Moon), 冰鉴 (Ice Mirror)—the winter moon’s names borrow the transparent hardness of frozen water, matching the season’s Yin fullness.
5. The Seasonal and Emotional Names (时情系)
| Name | Chinese | Mood |
|---|---|---|
| Autumn Moon | 秋月 | The canonical poetic moon—clear, high, and melancholy; the Mid-Autumn moon at its fullest |
| Spring Moon | 春月 | Soft, veiled in blossom haze |
| Lone Moon | 孤月 | The traveler moon, companion of exile poetry |
| Reunion Moon | 团圆月 | The festival moon of Mid-Autumn, named for what it does to families |
| Dew Moon | 露月 | The moon that gathers night’s dew on chrysanthemums |
Two Moon-Seasons
Chinese poetry recognizes two great moons: the spring moon and the autumn moon. The spring moon belongs to longing (flowering branches against the crescent); the autumn moon belongs to reunion and to clarity (the air washed clean, the moon enormous). The Mid-Autumn festival simply institutionalized the autumn moon’s supremacy.
6. Using the Names: Festival and Daily Life (使用方法)
- Mid-Autumn greetings: Cards and banners deploy 玉轮, 冰镜, and 团圆月—a mooncake box inscribed 蟾宫折桂 blesses young scholars with examination success
- Qixi: 银钩—the young crescent of the seventh month—marks the night the Weaver Girl crosses to her lover; poetry wishes the hook would round quickly into the full moon of reunion
- Names and brands: 广寒 and 玉兔 grace tea labels, cosmetics, and spacecraft (China’s lunar rover program is named 玉兔, Chang’e’s missions 嫦娥)
- Everyday idiom: 月下老人 (Yuexia Laoren, the Old Man Under the Moon—the matchmaker god) keeps the moon in daily speech about marriage; 花前月下 (“before flowers, under the moon”) is still the phrase for romantic settings
The names’ function is participatory: they do not merely describe the moon but multiply it, giving every poet, painter, and festival-goer a private orb to gaze at—one legend deep, one allusion wide, one syllable long.
7. Symbolism Summary (象征意义)
- Compressed legend: each name carries a myth in two characters
- Phase poetry: hooks and bows for the crescent, disks and wheels for the full
- Jade and silver: the moon’s materials are its virtues—purity, endurance, cold light
- Two moons: spring’s longing moon and autumn’s reunion moon
- A hundred names, one gaze: the proliferation of epithets as an act of devotion