China
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Nuwa Mended the Sky
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Houyi Shot the Sun
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Chang’e Flies to the Moon
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The Story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl
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Pangu created the world
6. Gonggong Destroyed the Sky Pillar
7. The Origin of the Sun and the Moon
8. Eternal Separation of Ebo and Shishen
9. The Mid-Autumn Festival
01 Nuwa Mended the Sky
This is the story of a goddess who created
humans and stabilized a chaotic world.
Compiled by: Sze-leung Cheung
Nuwa* was the creator of human beings. She created men and women from yellow clay. During the time when Nuwa was living, the world was not a peaceful place. The earth shook suddenly, and the land of nine provinces** cracked. The sky broke into pieces, and many holes appeared. There were huge disasters; fires and flooding occurred everywhere. Wild beasts and savage violent birds gobbled up humans. All the world was in chaos.
At this crucial moment, Nuwa made a furnace and produced rocks with five different colors. She used these five-colored rocks to patch the sky. Then she cut off the legs of a huge tortoise. She placed each of these four legs at the four corners of the rectangular earth to support and stabilize the heavens. She defeated the Black Dragon and saved the people. She used ashes of reeds to stop the floods. As a result, the sky was mended, and the world became peaceful. The colored rocks made colorful clouds in the sky.
Nuwa’s brother (or husband) was Fuxi (伏羲), who was believed to be the inventor of fishing and trapping. It was said that Fuxi became the first of the Three Sovereigns (三皇) of ancient China.
Fuxi was the Sun god while Nuwa was believed to be the Moon goddess; drawings dating back to Han Dynasty (206 B.C. ? 220 A.D.) frequently show Fuxi and Nuwa together with the Sun and the Moon. However, as the myth has evolved for thousands of years, Nuwa lost her place as the Moon goddess. Today, a completely different version of the moon goddess is the story of Chang’e (嫦娥: see “Chang’e and the Moon”)***.
*Nuwa (女?) is a mythological figure. She is often depicted in the form of serpent’s body with a woman’s head. She changes her shape 70 times a day.
**China was divided into nine provinces in the past.
***Nuwa and Chnag’e were actually the same god. The difference in names resulted from derivations in written form, but they had the same ancient phonology.
Nuwa (left) and Fuxi (right) as appeared in ancient Chinese drawings.
02
Houyi Shot the Sun
Compiled by: Sze-leung Cheung
Tang Valley (湯谷) was located very far away from the East China Sea, where the Sun rises every day. In the center of Tang Valley was a large pond called “Xian Pool” (咸池), and next to it was a giant tree named “Fusang” (扶桑), an 800-foot-tall mulberry tree with 70-foot-long leaves. A total of ten Suns lived on the Fusang tree. Nine of them bathed in the Xian Pool every day, and one of the ten Suns gradually ascended to the sky, leaving the Fusang. This is the Sun we see every day. Since it sets at the Xian Pool, people suggested that the Xian Pool should be located in the western part of China.
These ten Suns were the sons of God Emperor Jun (帝俊) and Goddess Xihe (羲和), who helped nine of the ten Suns bathe every day. Similarly, Emperor Jun and Changxi (常羲) had 12 Moons, which Changxi helped to bathe every day. The Moons would also come out, one by one, into the sky*.
One day during the rule of Emperor Yao(堯), all ten Suns rose together into the sky. The intense heat released by the ten Suns produced a serious drought; crops burned, grasses died, and people could not find food. Various ferocious monsters such as Zhayu (with a dragon’s head and leopard’s body), Zaochi (with teeth as sharp as chisels), Jiuying (with nine heads), Dafeng (an enormous bird), Fengxi (a large wild boar), and Xiushe (a huge snake), all took advantage of that time to attack and eat humans.
Then a hero named Yi (?), a great archer with almost perfect technique, showed up. He was sent by the god Emperor Jun to help the people. Emperor Jun gave Yi a red bow and arrows adorned with white feathers. When Yi arrived at the tribe of Emperor Yao, Yao appointed him to be an official who would teach the people archery skills.
After Yi assumed his position, his first action was to shoot down the Suns. Yi shot down the Suns one by one, but he only shot down nine Suns successfully, leaving one Sun in the sky. Nine sunbirds** died, and the fallen Suns burned the land, as seen on the eroded features around the Eastern Sea. Yi also killed the dangerous monsters, so all the people could finally return to their normal lives. However, Emperor Jun was angry that Yi killed his sons, and forbade him from returning to Heaven from Earth.
*Perhaps the idea of ten Suns and twelve Moons was associated with the Chinese system of time reckoning with ten “heavenly stems” (天干) and twelve “terrestrial branches” (地支).
**In ancient China there was a special three-legged crow, the sunbird, in the Sun.
***While stories of multi-suns are widespread in China, written records of multi-moons are much fewer.
03
Chang’e Flies to the Moon
Compiled by: Sze-leung Cheung
Chang’e * was the wife of Yi(?), the hero who shot down the nine Suns. Although Chang’e was a goddess, she was also forbidden by Emperor Jun to return back to heaven, just like her husband Yi.
After Yi shot down the Suns and killed the monsters, he headed northwest to Mount Kunlun (崑崙山) to seek the elixir of immortality. Yi climbed many mountains, passed many rivers in many days, and finally reached his destination, where he met Xiwangmu(西王母), the Queen Mother of the West. Xiwangmu was depicted as a woman with a human head and a tiger’s body. She was the ruler of punishment, calamity, and disease. Yi asked Xiwangmu to give him the elixir of immortality so that he could continue to serve the people. Xiwangmu knew that Yi was the hero who had saved humankind, and, so, after deep reflection, she agreed to give him the elixir.
Excited, Yi took the elixir back home, and shared the happy news with his beloved wife Chang’e. Yi put the elixir in a case and warned Chang’e not to open it. Chang’e was curious about the elixir of immortality and opened the case when Yi was not at home. However, Yi returned home suddenly. Chang’e was so surprised and nervous that she accidently swallowed the elixir. Another version read that Chang’e stole the elixir from her husband. Although the elixir could help both Yi and Chang’e return heaven if each swallowed half of it, but Chang’e consumed the entire elixir. As a result, Chang’e’s body became lighter and lighter, she could not control herself and floated into the sky. Eventually, she landed on the Moon, where she remained alone for eternity.
In some versions, Chang’e is said to metamorphose into an ugly toad, and in others, into a rabbit. Since the rabbit is pure white, it is often called the “Jade Rabbit”**. In a different version, the rabbit who had been pounding the elixir with a mortar for Xiwangmu, changed her living place to the Moon and became Chang’e’s companion.
Chang’e had a neighbor on the Moon called Wugang (?剛), who was also punished for doing something wrong. There was a 5000-foot cassia tree on the Moon, and Wugang’s punishment was to cut down the cassia tree. However, whenever he chopped it down, the gash healed itself, and tree cutting become his endless task.
Chang’e’s unfortunate destiny was interpreted with sympathy after the Six Dynasties era (3-6 A.D.). Many poems were written to show compassion for her. She was often described as a beautiful goddess, and her metamorphosis into a toad was gradually forgotten.
*Chang’e(嫦娥) was originally called Heng’e(?娥), but the ancient Chinese practice of taboo names forbade the use of a name the same as the Emperor’s. Therefore, Heng was renamed Chang’e.
**The toad or rabbit on the Moon appears in early texts from the Warring States Era, suggesting that stories of the toad and rabbit on the Moon originated independently from the Chang’e myth and were incorporated into the story later.
*** Chang’e’s story is the most well-known Chinese legend. The very popular mid-autumn Moon festival is related to Chang’e’s story. The Chinese spacecraft sent to the Moon was named after Chang’e. It echoes the dreams of the Chinese people for over a thousand years.
04
The Story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl
Compiled by: Sze-leung Cheung
Every year, the 7th day of the 7th month of the Chinese calendar is the date of the Qixi Festival (七夕節), the Chinese Valentine’s Day, or the Night of Skills (乞巧節). This festival recalls the romantic and extremely popular ancient love story of the cowherd star and the girl weaver star. The earliest written record of this story is in the classic “Book of Songs” (詩經) dating back as early as 1000 B.C. to the Western Zhou Dynasty. For over 3000 years, the story has been transformed from a myth into a legend and then localized into many cultural tales. As time has passed, the story has evolved into hundreds of different versions, and has spread outside of China to neighboring regions.
Here is one version of the story.
The star goddess Zhinu (織女, Vega in the constellation Lyra) and the star god Niulang (牛郎, Altair in the constellation Eagle) lived in the sky. They loved each other, but celestial rules forbade such love. Zhinu was the granddaughter of Xiwangmu (王母), who punished them by ordering Zhinu to weave a cloud and by sending Niulang to the Earth. Zhinu’s task was to weave the “clothes of the sky," different colors of the sky for different seasons. But after Niulang left, Zhinu thought about him and cried every day; she wished Xiwangmu would allow him to return to heaven.
One day, Zhinu asked Xiwangmu for permission to visit the Earth for a short period of time. At that time, Niulang had been reborn as a normal human being in a farmer’s family. However, his parents died early, and his brother did not treat him well. He only gave Niulang an old ox, and then asked him to leave home and live by himself.
The Ox was a god that came from the Ox star. One day he suddenly began to speak to Niulang; he told him to take away the red clothes of a goddess while she was bathing, and then she would marry him. He did what the Ox had suggested and watched a goddess come to take a bath in the pond. The goddess was Zhinu. When she learned that the man was her longed-for lover, she agreed to marry him. They loved each other and enjoyed a happy life. They soon had one son and one daughter. Unfortunately, Xiwangmu knew what had happened on Earth and sent her guards to bring Zhinu back to heaven.
With the Ox’s help, Niulang flew to heaven to catch up with his wife. Using her hairpin, Xiwangmu scratches a wide river in the sky and separated the lovers on two sides of the river. This river, the Milky Way, (called the “Silver River” in China) eternally separates the lovers. However, Xiwangmu allowed them to meet once a year on July 7th. On that day, many magpies fly up to heaven and form a bridge over the Milky Way so the lovers can meet. On the 7th of July in the Chinese calendar, people used to celebrate the two stars (Vega and Altair) beside the Milky Way. Traditionally, ladies asked Vega for better skill in weaving by offering various ornaments. This is why this festival is also called the Night of Skills (乞巧節).
(Commentary)
Similar stories, as well as the festival on the 7th of July, occur in Korea, Japan and in Vietnam.
05
Pangu Created the World
Compiled by: Sze-leung Cheung
A long, long time ago, at the very beginning of the universe, only chaos existed. It was like a huge egg or a watermelon, where a mix of everything lived. Pangu (盤古) had been sleeping in the cosmic egg for 18,000 years. When he woke up, he was surrounded by complete darkness, so he used a giant axe to split the darkness apart. The cosmic egg cracked, and its matter started to separate into two distinct groups: one of light, clear matter that gradually ascended to become the sky, and another of heavy muddy matter sank down to become the earth. Since then, the world began to form.
Pangu was happy with the new world, but he was still afraid that the world would return to chaos; so, he stood between the earth and the sky to push them apart. He grew ten feet taller everyday; the sky got ten feet higher and the earth got ten feet thicker. Another 18,000 years passed, and the sky become extremely high, while the earth become extremely thick. The sky and the earth reached their size limit when they were 90,000 miles apart.
Pangu was exhausted after accomplishing this task. He lay down and died, and his body was transformed into many things. His last breath became the winds and the clouds. His final voice became the thunder. His left and right eyes became the Sun and the Moon. His body became the mountains; his blood formed rivers; and his muscles formed the farmland. His hair became the stars; his fur became trees and plants; his teeth and bones turned into iron and rocks; and his sweat fell as rain. Most importantly, many little bugs emerged from his body and became humans.
(Commentary)
*The story of Pangu does not appear in the very early Chinese record until the period of late Eastern Han Dynasty, around 200 A.D.. Some studies suggest that the story may come southern China or was borrowed from the very similar story of Pursa in India.
08
The Eternal Separation of Ebo and Shishen
From the Zuo Zhuan written no later than 389 BCE
Compiled by: Sze-leung Cheung
Emperor Ku (帝嚳) was a mythical emperor of China during the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period after Zhuanxu (顓頊). He was the great grandson of Huangdi (黄帝).
Emperor Ku had two sons, Ebo(閼伯) and Shichen(實沈). They fought each other every day. When Yao (堯) became the tribe’s leader, Ebo was sent to a place called Shangqiu(商丘) to monitor the Chen(火) star for the Shang tribe, and Shichen was sent to Daxia(大夏) to monitor the Shen(參) star for the Tang tribe. The Chen star is Antares in the constellation Scorpio, and the Shen star refers to the three stars of Orion. The observations of these stars were important for establishing precise times for the people. Therefore, Ebo and Shichen became the first royal astronomers of China.
Since they were separated into two locations, they could never fight again. The star Antares and the Orion stars never appear in the sky at the same time, as they are located 180 degrees apart. This is a reminder of the eternal separation between the two brothers Ebo and Shichen. Today we can see a remnant of an ancient observatory in Shangqiu, the place of Ebo.
06
Gonggong Destroyed the Sky Pillar
Compiled by: Sze-leung Cheung
In very early China, before the dynasty periods there were several competing tribes with their own mythological leaders. It was said that the tribe of Huangdi (黃帝) first took the leading role among different tribes. After generations the leading role settled on a tribe with a leader named Zhuanxu (顓頊). Gonggong (共工), the leader of another tribe at that time, did not obey Zhuanxus’ rules; he wanted to be the leader of the tribal association and started a war. In one legend, Gonggong was portrayed as half-man half-serpent; he had red hair, ate raw rice and animals, and was cruel and greedy.
Finally, Gonggong was defeated. He became so angry at his defeat that he smashed his head against Mount Buzhou (不周山), a pillar that held up the sky. The pillar was destroyed, and its loss caused the sky tilt towards the northwest; since then, all celestial bodies move towards the northwest. The earth tilted towards the southeast, causing all rivers in China to flow southeast into the Eastern Sea.
(Commentary)
The story of Gonggong took place in a period than the story of Nuwa. However, as time has passed, the Chinese people have mixed them up so that we now see versions in which the stories of Gonggong and Nuwa are combined together.
07
Atayal's Myth about the Origin of the Sun and the Moon
As compiled by: Yi-nan
It is said that there were two Suns a long time ago. When one set in the west, the other would rise in the east. Therefore, there was no difference between day and night. Water dried up in the creeks, and no plants could grow. The people decided to shoot down one of the the Suns.
Three youths volunteered to carry out this mission and walked towards east toward the place where the Sun comes out. However, the distance was so long that they could not reach it. One of them turned back to the valley and asked for help.
Another three youths were selected for the task. Each of them not only carried provisions and seeds to grow their own food on the way to the east, but they also brought their own children. Twenty years passed. All of the original three youths had grown old, but their descendants finally reached the place where the Sun came out.
The most powerful of the descendants successfully shot down one of the Suns, but the blood of the Sun fell on him, and it was so hot that he died immediately. The rest of the blood spread over the sky and formed the stars. This Sun lost its blood and turned white, becoming the moon that we see today. The shadows on the Moon are wounds inflicted by the arrows.
The two remaining heroes eventually went back to their valley. People in the homeland gave them a very warm welcome, and they have enjoyed a pleasant climate ever since then. This mission took three generations!
09
The Mid-Autumn Festival
Compiled by: Sze-leung Cheung
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is an important festival for the Chinese people. It is held every year on the 15th day of the 8th Chinese month. This usually corresponds to the night of the full moon in September in western calendars and occurs in autumn. The festival has a long tradition among the Chinese people. The culture of moon worship can be traced back to the Xia and Shang Dynasties from 2000 B.C., and the festival has became very popular among citizens since the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 A.D.).
During the Moon Festival people enjoy eating mooncake, lighting lanterns, coming together with their families, enjoying time under the full moon, and being amazed by the story of Chang’e, who flew to the moon. If the weather is bad, the people are very disappointed. Because the full moon suggests the unity of the people, it is one of the major festivals in the Chinese community.