The Celestial Kingdom duology is a modern retelling of the classic Chinese myth of Chang’e and Houyi, which is central to the annual Mid-Autumn Festival. In most versions of the legend, the heroic archer, Houyi, is rewarded with an elixir of immortality after shooting down nine of the 10 suns that were scorching the earth. His wife, Chang’e, consumes the elixir—either accidentally, to protect it from a thief, or selfishly—and ascends to the moon, where she lives in exile as a goddess, forever separated from her mortal husband.

As documented in works such as the Handbook of Chinese Mythology (2008) by Lihui Yang, Deming An, and Jessica Anderson Turner, this story is traditionally a tragic romance of eternal separation. Sue Lynn Tan reimagines this foundational myth by giving Chang’e and Houyi a daughter, Xingyin, whose quest to reunite her parents drives the narrative. Heart of the Sun Warrior directly references the myth’s key elements, including Xingyin’s reflection that her mother ascended after consuming the elixir “gifted to my father for slaying the sunbirds” (4). Tan expands the legend by challenging its traditional ending, revealing that Houyi did not simply die a mortal but was an exiled immortal himself. By focusing on a new generation, Tan explores the inherited trauma and consequences of the original myth, a technique seen in other modern mythological retellings such as Madeline Miller’s Circe (2018).