Embedded Files
*Scott No.: 199
Date of Issue: December 1, 1953
Frog on seismograph
*Scott No.: 1137
Date of Issue: November 20, 1973
Set: Historical Relics
*Scott No.: 1560
Date of Issue: 1980
Set: Qi Baishi Paintings
Scott No.: 2113
Date of Issue: September 15, 1987
Subject: Legend of Chang'e
See also: Maximum Card
This stamp tells the story of Chang'e Flying to the Moon. According to the back of the maxi-card: "Chang E swallowed an elixir of life and flew to the lonely and cold palace on the moon. When she turned to look back at the human world in the distance, she regretted having stolen the elixir of life and separated herself forever from her dear ones beyone the blue sea and azure sky."
This is a pretty tame version of the story.
It leaves out, for instance Chang'e's husband, Houyi. In one telling, Chang'e and Houyi are immortals who incur the wrath of the emperor when Houyi kills nine of the emperor's ten sons in order to save the earth (you can't hardly blame Houyi, the sons were scorching the place, and the one that got away became the sun). They don't like living among mortals, Chang'e overdoses on the immortality pill, and she floats to the moon where she is kept company by a rabbit.
In another version, Chang'e is banished from immortaliy, she meets Houyi (a mortal) and marries him after he proves his worth by getting rid of nine of the earth's ten suns (early global warming!). Again with the elixir, again with the trip to the moon, only this time she meets a woodcutter as well as a rabbit.
Does anyone else notice the distinct absence of the frog?
In some versions of the story, Chang'e turns into a three-legged frog (other times a rabbit). In other verstions, the frog lives on the moon along with Chang'e.
The story has even worked its way--sort of--into Harry Potter. According to the Harry Potter Wiki, there is a legend that a witch or wizard flew to the moon on a brrom and brought back a bag of moon frogs to prove they'd been there.
Scott No.: 2947
Date of Issue: March 16, 1999
Subject: Legend of Chang'e
Scott No: 3341
Date of Issue: January 14, 2004
Subject: New Year (part of set of 4)
Scott No: 4114 a-f
Date of Issue: June 1, 2013
Subject: Little Tadpoles Looking for Their Mother
The China Post web site has the specifics for the stamp. It tells the story like this: "Written by Fang Huizhen and Sheng Lude, "Little Tadpoles Looking for Their Mother" is a fairy tale and lively tells about the scientific law for tadpoles' development by metamorphosis. The fairy tale was filed in 1960 by Shanghai Animation Film Studio and was adaped inot a color ink painting cartoon, the very first one of China. Animals in the film, such as tadpoles, frogs, shrimps and crabs, all originally come from paintings by Oi Baishi, great master of Chinese traditional paintings. The stamps show little tadpoles ask Grandpa Shrimp for information and mistake the goldfish, the crab, and the tortoise as their mother before they finally find their mother"
The set was issued in booklet form:
Front and back
Inside front cover
*Scott No.: 4731
Date of Issue: June 1, 2020
Set: Calabash Brothers Animated Series
Scott No.:
Date of Issue: November 5, 2022
Set: National Parks
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