MYTHS OVER CREATION

Creation myths are found in every culture. How was the earth created? Where did men come from? From storyteller to storyteller, variations occur within time. Below are the most entertaining parts of the Chinese creation myth.

In the beginning, there wasn’t a heaven or an earth. Everything was one giant mass. The lightness of this mass, called yang, slowly rose while the darkness, called yin, sank. In the middle of it all was a giant black egg. Sleeping inside the egg was Pan Gu. The separation of the lightness and darkness took 18 thousand years to happen, creating the seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Pan Gu awoke from his sleep and cried out. It was this cry that cracked the shell open and freed Pan Gu. Pan Gu was so large that when he stood, his head touched the sky and his feet planted on the ground. It was then that heaven and earth was created.

Pan Gu separated heaven and earth for 18 thousand years. Tired and weak, Pan Gu died. His last breath became the wind and clouds, and his last cry became thunder. Stars came from his hair. One eye became the sun, the other the moon. His arms and legs became the four points of the compass and the five great mountains of China. His blood flowed to become water of rivers and seas while his bodily hair sprouted up to become forests. His flesh became soil fertilized by the rocks and minerals from his bones.

It was Nu Kua who decided to put people on the earth. She was lonely and had idle time. She molded yellow fertile clay to make men one at a time. This took too much time and too much effort. So she made mud from the clay, dipped a cord from around her waist. The mud which fell from the cord became men, but not as strong as those who she molded by hand. The strong and the weak, Nu Kua loved them all for they were her children and her loneliness went away.

Two demi-gods, Kung Kung and Chuan Tsu, watched Nu Kua make her little men. When she wasn’t watching, they came to earth and created havoc for the men. Sometimes they would eat a man or two. One day Kung Kung and Chuan Tsu had a big fight over who was going to eat the next human. They rolled in between mountains and caused the sky to rip open. The earth rumbled with earthquakes and rainstorms.

Nu Kua heard the cries of the men and rushed to earth to save them. She caught a giant tortoise and used its feet to hold up the space inbetween heaven and earth. She caught a black dragon and stuffed it in the rip in the sky, trying to stop the rainstorms. By doing this, she scared off all demons and monsters from visiting earth. Because the dragon was too small to fill the rip, it continued to rain. So she found five magic stones, crushed them together, and used this paste to mend the sky. All of this was so exhaustive to Nu Kua that she laid down to sleep. Her body was transformed in to the vast mountain range in the middle of China.

So you’re asking me when did this really happen? There is a Chinese saying, "Since Pan Gu created earth and the heavens", it means "a very long time ago."

Chinese Tea Stories