Thank you for visiting. This article is the first installment in a series explaining the original texts of Chinese mythology.
This time, we look in detail at China’s creation myths of how the world and humankind were born, centered on the giant “Pangu” and the goddess “Nüwa.”
What matters here is that these myths are not recorded gathered into a single scripture. The Pangu story is in the Three Kingdoms-period Sanwu Liji, Nüwa’s mending of heaven in the Western Han philosophical work the Huainanzi, Nüwa’s creation of humankind in the Later Han Fengsu Tongyi — they are left as fragments in several original texts differing in age and character. In this article, I read them while showing which original text each myth is recorded in.
For an overview map of Chinese mythology’s original texts as a whole, please see this summary article.
China’s creation myth is told roughly in the following flow.
Pangu — the Giant Who Gave Birth to the World
Surprisingly, the story of the giant Pangu, who opened up the world, is not found in early original texts. It first appears as a document in the Sanwu Liji, written by Xu Zheng of Wu in the Three Kingdoms period (3rd century), and in the sequel-like Wuyun Linian Ji, where the tale of his corpse turning into all things is recorded. Within Chinese mythology it is rather a late-arriving creation myth, but for its grandeur it spread in later ages as the representative story of the world’s beginning.
The story the Sanwu Liji conveys is as follows. The beginning of the world was a “chaos” like a single egg, with heaven and earth not yet separated. Within that egg, the giant “Pangu” slept and grew.
After 18,000 years, the awakened Pangu, disliking the dark, stifling chaos, swung an axe and shattered the egg. Then the light, clear part (the yang qi) rose up and became “heaven,” and the heavy, turbid part (the yin qi) sank down and became “earth.”
But so that heaven and earth would not stick together again, Pangu stood between them, supporting heaven with his head and pressing down the earth with his feet, and kept pushing the two apart. As Pangu’s height grew one zhang (about 3 meters) a day, heaven grew higher and earth thicker day by day.
After another 18,000 years, when heaven and earth were sufficiently separated, Pangu, having used up his strength, finally collapsed and breathed his last. Then, it is said, everything in the world was born from his giant corpse. What conveys this “transformation of the corpse” passage is the aforementioned Wuyun Linian Ji.
| Pangu’s body | What it became |
|---|---|
| His breath | Wind and clouds |
| His voice | Thunder |
| Left eye / right eye | The sun / the moon |
| Limbs and torso | The mountains (the sacred mountains of the four directions) |
| Blood | Rivers and seas |
| Hair and beard | The stars |
| Sweat | Rain and dew |
In this way, as with the giant Ymir of Norse mythology and Tiamat of Mesopotamia, the creation pattern of “the world made from the body of a primeval being” appears in Chinese mythology too — an interesting point.
Chinese Mythology: The Birth of the GodsView on Amazon →
Zhulong and Hundun — Another Primeval Form
China’s oldest geography, the Shanhaijing, also records, apart from Pangu, a mysterious being symbolizing the root of the world.
One is the giant dragon god said to dwell at the far north, “Zhulong.” Zhulong is said to make day when he opens his eyes and night when he closes them. Further, it is told that winter comes when he breathes in and summer when he breathes out, and his breath generates the wind — a being deifying the rhythm of nature, governing day, night, and the seasons themselves.
Also handed down is the tale of “Hundun (Chaos)”, making the world’s beginning “chaos” itself into a god. This is a famous fable recorded in the chapter “The Way of Emperors and Kings” of the philosophical work Zhuangzi. Hundun was a featureless god without the “seven openings” of eyes, ears, mouth, and nose on his face. Friend gods who pitied him, meaning well, bored one opening a day, but when all the openings were open on the seventh day, Hundun died. This is known as a Taoist fable teaching “a warning against humans adding their hand to nature as it is.”
Nüwa — the Goddess Who Made Humans
The world was made, but there were still no humans in it. There appears the goddess “Nüwa,” with the form of a human upper body and a serpent lower body. This myth of Nüwa shaping humans from clay is recorded in the Fengsu Tongyi, written by Ying Shao of the Later Han.
Wandering alone in the just-made world of heaven and earth, Nüwa felt lonely and kneaded yellow clay to make a small creature resembling herself. When it was set on the ground, it at once gained life and began to move. This was the first “human.”
Nüwa joyfully made humans one after another, but kneading each one by hand was hard work. So she dipped a rope into the mud and swung it vigorously, producing many humans at once from the scattered drops of mud.
A certain “explanation” is said to be set into this myth. Those carefully kneaded by hand became the high-ranking people, and those born from the mud scattered from the rope became the common people — the origin of the social-rank distinctions of the time. Further, Nüwa is said to have established the institution of “marriage” so humans could leave descendants on their own, and was revered as the mother of humankind.
Nüwa Mends Heaven — Repairing the Broken Sky
The most famous of Nüwa’s stories is “Nüwa mends the heavens,” the story of repairing the broken sky. What conveys this is the Western Han Huainanzi, chapter “Lanming.” The same Huainanzi’s “Tianwen” chapter also has the explanation that heaven and earth tilted as a result of Gonggong breaking the pillar of heaven; read together with Nüwa mending heaven, the whole picture of the story emerges.
One time, the water god “Gonggong,” defeated in a struggle with another god and enraged, rammed his head into “Mount Buzhou,” one of the pillars supporting heaven, snapping the pillar.
As a result, a great catastrophe struck the world. A corner of heaven crumbled, great fissures ran across the earth, fires blazed, floods overflowed, and ferocious beasts attacked the people — the world fell into a crisis of destruction.
Seeing this, Nüwa rose to save humankind. What she did is as follows.
- Gathered “five-colored stones” from rivers, melted them, and sealed the hole in the fallen heaven
- Cut off the four legs of a giant turtle and made them pillars of the four directions so heaven would not fall
- Defeated a rampaging black dragon and quelled the ferocious beasts
- Piled up the ash of burned reeds to dam the overflowing flood
Thus Nüwa splendidly repaired the world on the verge of collapse and saved humankind. It is explained that at this time it did not fully return to normal: because heaven tilted slightly to the northwest, the sun, moon, and stars move toward the west, and conversely, because the earth grew lower to the southeast, China’s rivers came to flow east. The myth tells the origin of features of the natural world.
Gonggong’s Wrath — Why the Pillar of Heaven Broke
Why did the water god “Gonggong,” the trigger of Nüwa mending heaven, ram into the pillar supporting heaven? The original text tells the reason in a bit more detail.
According to the Huainanzi’s “Tianwen,” Gonggong fought a god named “Zhuanxu” over the imperial throne (rule of the world) and was defeated. In his rage, Gonggong rammed his head into “Mount Buzhou,” the northwestern pillar supporting heaven, and snapped it. Then the cords suspending heaven broke, the pillars connecting the earth crumbled, and the world tilted to the northwest and sank to the southeast. “This is why the sun, moon, and stars flow west, and China’s great rivers flow east (to the sea)” — so it is explained.
In another tradition, Gonggong is said to have broken the pillar after being defeated by the fire god “Zhurong,” and is also depicted in the structure of the conflict of water (Gonggong) and fire (Zhurong). In any case, this myth forms the great framework of the Chinese creation myth — the gods’ strife (chaos) causes the catastrophe of heaven and earth, and Nüwa (the restorer of order) repairs it.
Fuxi and Nüwa — the Brother and Sister Who Became Humankind’s Ancestors
Nüwa is often depicted as the sibling (or spouse) of another important god, “Fuxi.” Both have the form of a human upper body and a serpent lower body, and in paintings are depicted with their lower bodies intertwined like two snakes. This is taken to symbolize the creation of life and the prosperity of descendants.
The story of this brother and sister surviving the great flood to become the ancestors of humankind is relatively new, recorded in works such as the Tang-era Duyi Zhi. According to it, humankind perished in a great flood, and only the brother and sister Fuxi and Nüwa survived. To keep humankind from dying out, the two, after casting lots to heaven, became husband and wife and became the ancestors of a new humankind. And Nüwa is said to have established the “institution of marriage” so people could properly build families, and came to be enshrined as the “goddess of marriage.”
Fuxi, for his part, as the god who brought the wisdom of civilization, is counted as the foremost of the “Three Sovereigns” explained in the next article (Article 2). Thus Chinese mythology connects smoothly from the creation of the world (Pangu), through the creation and revival of humankind (Nüwa and Fuxi), to the stories of the sage-kings who built civilization (the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors).
To Learn More
Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.
Chinese Myths and Legends from ZeroView on Amazon →
Chinese Myths and LegendsView on Amazon →
Conclusion
In this article, I explained China’s creation myths in detail, centered on Pangu and Nüwa. How was it?
The giant “Pangu,” who opened the world from a chaos-egg and whose corpse became all things. And the mother goddess “Nüwa,” who made humans from clay and repaired the broken heaven with five-colored stones. I hope you have grasped the grand opening of Chinese mythology — the creation of the world and the birth and salvation of humankind.
In the next article (Article 2), I will explain the legendary sage-kings who granted civilization to the people, the “Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.”
I hope you’ll read the next article too.
📚 Series: The Original Texts of Chinese Mythology (2/4)
