The Three Rabbits on the Moon
- Date of account
- Ancient Chinese textual and visual tradition; later East Asian variants
- Location
- China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
The image of a rabbit or hare living on the Moon, often pounding an elixir of immortality, is documented in Chinese tradition and was transmitted into related East Asian interpretations. It appears in poetry, calendrical imagery, religious cosmology, and Mid-Autumn festival materials. The motif is valuable for comparing lunar animals, immortality, sacrifice, and cross-cultural transmission. Not every moon-rabbit image carries the same story, and the familiar “rabbit making medicine” formulation should not be assumed for all periods or regions. Sources range from early textual allusions to modern festival symbolism.
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