Pangu
Text
Chinese Creation Myths
There are five major views of creation in China: The first, and most consistent historically, is that no myth exists. This is not to say there were none existing at all, only that there is no evidence showing an attempt to explain the world's origin. The second view is very indirect. It is merely based on a question of a dialog in an earlier reference. The idea in the question implies that the heavens and the earth separated from one another. The third view is the one perpetuated by Taoism by the nature of its philosophy. It appears "relatively" late in Chinese history. In it, Tao is described as the ultimate force behind the creation. With tao, nothingness gave rise to existence, existence gave rise to yin and yang, and yin and yang gave rise to everything. Due to the ambiguous nature of this myth, it could be compatible with the first myth (and therefore say nothing). But it could, like its antithesis, be explained in a way to better fit the modern scientific view of the creation of universe. The fourth view is the relatively late myth of Pangu. This was an explanation offered by Taoist monks hundreds of years after Laozi; probably around 200 CE. In this story, the universe begins as a cosmic egg. A god named Pangu, born inside the egg, broke it into two halves: The upper half became the sky, the lower half became the earth. As the god grew taller, the sky and the earth grew thicker and were separated further. Finally the god died and his body parts became different parts of the earth. The fifth view would be tribal accounts that vary widely and not necessarily connect to a system of belief. Phan Ku - P'an Ku Of various creation stories which evolve in China, the most striking is that of P'an Ku. He is hatched from a cosmic egg. Half the shell is above him as the sky, the other half below him as the earth. He grows taller each day for 18,000 years, gradually pushing them apart until they reach their appointed places. After all this effort P'an Ku falls to pieces. His limbs become the mountains, his blood the rivers, his breath the wind and his voice the thunder. His two eyes are the sun and the moon. The parasites on his body are mankind. Another version ... In the beginning was a huge egg containing chaos and a mixture of yin-yang (female-male, cold-heat, dark-light, wet-dry, etc). Also within this yin-yang was Phan Ku who broke forth from the egg as a giant who separated the yin-yang into many opposites, including earth and sky. With a great chisel and a huge hammer, Phan Ku carved out the mountains, rivers, valleys, and oceans. He also made the sun, moon, and stars. When he died, after 18,000 years, it is said that the fleas in his hair became human beings. In summation, the Chinese say that everything that is - is Phan Ku and everything that Phan Ku is yin-yang. Pan Gu In the beginning , the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos. The universe was like a big black egg, carrying Pan Gu inside itself. After 18 thousand years Pan Gu woke from a long sleep. He felt suffocated, so he took up a broadax and wielded it with all his might to crack open the egg. The light, clear part of it floated up and formed the heavens, the cold, turbid matter stayed below to form earth. Pan Gu stood in the middle, his head touching the sky, his feet planted on the earth. The heavens and the earth began to grow at a rate of ten feet per day, and Pan Gu grew along with them. After another 18 thousand years, the sky was higher, the earth thicker, and Pan Gu stood between them like a pillar 9 million li in height so that they would never join again. When Pan Gu died, his breath became the wind and clouds, his voice the rolling thunder. One eye became the sun and on the moon. His body and limbs turned to five big mountains and his blood formed the roaring water. His veins became far-stretching roads and his muscles fertile land. The innumerable stars in the sky came from his hair and beard, and flowers and trees from his skin and the fine hairs on his body. His marrow turned to jade and pearls. His sweat flowed like the good rain and sweet dew that nurtured all things on earth. According to some versions of the Pan Gu legend, his tears flowed to make rivers and radiance of his eyes turned into thunder and lighting. When he was happy the sun shone, but when he was angry black clouds gathered in the sky. One version of the legend has it that the fleas and lice on his body became the ancestors of mankind. The Pan Gu story has become firmly fixed in Chinese tradition. There is even an idiom relating to it: "Since Pan Gu created earth and the heavens," meaning "for a very long time." Nevertheless, it is rather a latecomer to the catalog of Chinese legends. First mention of it is in a book on Chinese myths written by Xu Zheng in the Three Kingdoms period (CE 220-265). Some opinions hold that it originated in south China or southeast Asia. There are several versions of the Pan Gu story. Among the Miao, Yao, Li and other nationalities of south China, a legend concerns Pan Gu the ancestor of all mankind, with a man's body and a dog's head. It runs like this: Up in Heaven the God in charge of the earth, King Gao Xin, owned a beautiful spotted dog. He reared him on a plate (pan in Chinese ) inside a gourd (hu, which is close to the sound gu ), so the dog was known as Pan Gu . Among the Gods there was great enmity between King Gao Xin and his rival King Fang. "Whoever can bring me the head of King Fang may marry my daughter, " he proclaimed, but nobody was willing to try because they were afraid of King Fang's strong soldiers and sturdy horses. The dog Pan Gu overheard what was said, and when Gao Xin was sleeping, slipped out of the palace and ran to King Fang. The latter was glad to see him standing there wagging his tail. "You see, King Gao Xin is near his end. Even his dog has left him," Fang said, and held a banquet for the occasion with the dog at his side. At midnight when all was quiet and Fang was overcome with drink, Pan Gu jumped onto the king's bed, bit off his head and ran back to his master with it . King Gao Xin was overjoyed to see the head of his rival, and gave orders to bring Pan Gu some fresh meat. But Pan Gu left the meat untouched and curled himself up in a corner to sleep. For three days he ate nothing and did not stir. The king was puzzled and asked, "Why don't you eat? Is it because I failed to keep my promise of marrying a dog?" To his surprise Pan Gu began to speak. "Don't worry, my King. Just cover me with your golden bell and in seven days and seven nights I'll become a man." The King did as he said, but on the sixth day, fearing he would starve to death, out of solicitude the princess peeped under the bell. Pan Gu's body had already changed into that of a man, but his head was still that of a dog. However, once the bell was raised, the magic change stopped, and he had to remain a man with a dog's head. He married the princess, but she didn't want to be seen with such a man so they moved to the earth and settled in the remote mountains of south China. There they lived happily and had four children, three boys and a girl, who became the ancestors of mankind. The Legend of Tan'gun The Wei Shu tells us that two thousand years ago, at the time of emperor Yao, Tangun Wanggom chose Asadal as his capital and founded the state of Chos'circon. The Old Record notes that in ancient times Hwanin's son, Hwanung, wished to descend from heaven and live in the world of human beings. Knowing his son's desire, Hwanin surveyed the three highest mountains and found Mount T'aebaek the most suitable place for his son to settle and help human beings. Therefore he gave Hwanung three heavenly seals and dispatched him to rule over the people. Hwanung descended with three thousand followers to a spot under a tree by the Holy Altar atop Mount T'aebaek, and he called this place the City of God. He was the Heavenly King Hwanung. Leading the Earl of Wind, the Master of Rain, and the Master of Clouds, he took charge of some three hundred and sixty areas of responsibility, including agriculture, allotted lifespans, illness, punishment, and good and evil, and brought culture to his people. At that time a bear and a tiger living in the same cave prayed to Holy Hwanung to transform them into human beings. The king gave them a bundle of sacred mugworts and twenty cloves of garlic and said, "If you eat these and shun the sunlight for one hundred days, you will assume human form." Both animals ate the spices and avoided the sun. After twenty-one days the bear became a woman, but the tiger, unable to observe the taboo, remained a tiger. Unable to find a husband, the bear-woman prayed under the alter tree for a child. Hwanung metamorphosed himself, lay with her, and begot a son called Tangun Wanggom. In the fiftieth year of the reign of Emperor Yao, Tangun made the walled city of P'yongyang the capital and called his country Choson. He then moved his capital to Asadal on Mount Paegak, a lso named Mount Kunghol, whence he ruled for fifteen hundred years. When, in the year kimyo [1122 BC], King Wu of Chou enfeoffed Chi Tzu to Choson, Tangun moved to Changdangyong, but later he returned and hid in Asadal as a mountain god at the age of one thousand nine hundred and eight. The Lay of King Tongmyong In the third year of Shen-ch'ueh of Han, in early summer, when the Great Bear Stood in the Serpent, Haemosu came to Korea, a true Son of Heaven. He came down through the air in a five-dragon chariot, with a retinue of hundreds, robes streaming, riding on swans. The atmosphere echoed loudly with chiming music, and banners floated on the tinted clouds. From ancient times men ordained to rule have come down from Heaven, but in daylight he came from the heart of the sky - a thing never before seen. In the mornings he dwelt among men, in the evenings he returned to his heavenly palace. The ancients have told us that between heaven and earth the distance is two thousand billion and eighteen thousand seven hundred and eighty ri. A scaling-ladder could not reach so far, flying pinions could not bear the strain, yet morning and evening he went and returned at will. By what power could he do it? North of the capital was the Green River, where the River Earl's three beautiful daughters rose from the drake-neck's green waves to play in the Bear's Heart Pool. Their jade ornaments tinkled, their flowerlike beauty was modest -- they might have been fairies of the Han River banks, or goddesses of the Lo River islets. The King, out hunting, espied them, was fascinated and lost his heart, not from lust for girls, but from eager desire for an heir. The three sisters saw him coming and plunged into the water to flee, so the King prepared a palace to hide in till they came back: He traced foundations with a riding whip: A bronze palace suddenly towered, silk cushions were spread, bright and elegant, golden goblets waited with fragrant wine. Soon the three maidens came in, and toasted each other until they were drunk. Then the king emerged from hiding; The startled girls ran, tripped, and tumbled on to the floor. The oldest was Willow Flower, and it was she whom the king caught. The Earl of the River raged in anger, and sent a speedy messenger to demand, "What rogue are you who dares behave so presumptuously?" "Son of the Heavenly Emperor," replied Haemosu, "I'm asking for your noble daughter's hand." He beckoned to heaven: the dragon car came down, and straightaway he moved unto the Ocean Palace where the River Earl admonished him: "Marriage is a weighty matter, needing go-betweens and gifts. Why have you done these things? If you are God's own heir, prove your powers of transmogrification!" Through the rippling, flowing green waters the River Earl leapt, transforming into a carp; the king turned at once into an otter that seized the carp before it could flee. The earl then sprouted wings, flying upward, transformed into a pheasant; but the king was a golden eagle and struck like a great bird of prey; the Earl sped away as a stag, the king pursued as wolf. The Earl then confessed that the king was divine, poured wine, and they drank to the contract. When the king was drunk, he was put in a leather bag, set beside the girl in his chariot, and set off with her to rise to Heaven together. But the car had not left the water before Haemosu woke from his stupor and, seizing the girl's golden hairpin, pierced the leather and slid out through the hole, alone to mount the car beyond the crimson clouds. All was quiet; he did not return. The River Earl punished his daughter by stretching her lips three feet long, and throwing her into the Ubal stream with only two maidservants. A fisherman saw them in the eddies, creatures disporting themselves strangely, and reported the fact to King Komwa. An iron net was set in the torrent, and the woman was trapped on a rock, a monster of shocking appearance, whose long lips made her mute. Three times they were trimmed before she could speak. King Komwa recognized Haemosu's wife, and gave unto her a palace where she might live. The sun shone in her breast and she bore Chumong in the fourth year of Shen-ch'ueh. His form was wonderful, his voice of mighty power. He was born from a pottle-sized egg that frightened all who saw it. The king thought it inauspicious, monstrous and inhuman, and put it into the horse corral, but the horses took care not to trample it; it was thrown down steep hills, but the wild beasts all protected it; its mother retrieved it and nurtured it, till the boy hatched. His first words were:"The flies are nibbling my eyes, I cannot lie and sleep in peace." His mother made him a bow and arrows, And he never missed a shot. Years passed, he grew up, getting cleverer every day, and the crown prince of the Puyo began to grow jealous, saying, "This fellow Chumong is a redoubtable warrrior. If we do not act soon, he will become trouble later." So the king sent Chumong to tend horses, to test his intentions. Chumong meditated, "For heaven's grandson to be a mere herdsman is an unendurable shame." Searching his heart, he sought the right way: "I had rather die than live like this. I would go southward, found a nation, build a city -- but for my mother, whom it is hard to leave." His mother heard his words and wept; but wiped her glistening tears: "Never mind about me. Rather I fear for your safety. A knight setting out on a journey needs a trusty stallion." Together they went to the corral and thrashed the horses with long whips. The terrified animals milled about, but one horse, a beautiful bay, leapt over the two-fathom wall, and proved itself best of the herd. They fixed a needle in his tongue that stung him so he could not eat; in a day or two he wasted away and looked like a worn out jade. When the king came around to inspect, he gave this horse to Chumong, who took it, removed the needle, and fed the horse well, day and night. Then he made a compact with three friends, friends who were men of wisdom; they set off south till they reached the Om, but could find no ferry to cross. Chumong raised his whip to the sky, and uttered a long sad complaint: "Grandson of Heaven, Grandson of the River, I have come here in flight from danger. Look on my pitiful orphaned heart: Heaven and Earth, have you cast me off?" Gripping his bow, he struck the water: Fish and turtles hurried, heads and tails together, to form a great bridge, which the friends at once traversed. Suddenly, pursuing troops appeared and mounted the bridge; but it melted away. A pair of doves brought barley in their bills, messengers sent by his mysterious mother. He chose a site for his capital amid mountains and streams and thick-wooded hills. Seating himself on the royal mat as King Tongmyong, he ordered the ranks of his subjects. Alas for Songyang, king of Piryu, why was he so undiscerning? Was he a son of the immortal gods, who could not recognize a scion of Heaven? He asked Tongmyong to be his vassal, uttering rash demands, but could not hit the painted deer's navel, and was amazed when Tongmyong split the jade ring; he found his drum and bugle changed and dared not call them his; he saw Tongmyong's ancient pillars, then returned home biting his tongue. Tongmyong went hunting in the west, caught a tall snow-white deer, strung it up by the hind feet at Haewon, and produced a great malediction: "Let Heaven pour torrents on Piryu, and wash away his capital. I will not let you go till you help me vent my wrath." The deer cried with great sounds so piteous they reached the ears of Heaven. And from the horrible music of the deer, a great rain fell for seven days, floods came like Huai joined with Ssu; Songyang was frightened and anxious. He had thick ropes stretched by the water, knights and peasants struggled to clutch them, sweating and gaping in fear. Then Tongmyong took his whip and drew a line at which the waters stopped. Songyang submitted and thereafter there was no argument. A dark cloud covered Falcon Pass, the crests of ridges were hidden, and thousands upon thousands of carpenters were heard hammering there. The king said, "Music from Heaven is for me preparing a great fortress up yonder." Suddenly the mist dispersed and a palace stood out high and splendid, where Tongmyong ruled for nineteen years, till he rose to heaven and forsook his throne. Nuwa Makes Men Nuwa is the goddess who separated the heaven from the Earth, creating the Divine Land (China). She is the original ancestor of the Chinese nation. According to legend, Nuwa was also the younger sister of Emperor Fuxi (said to have lived during the third millennium BC) and she herself was an empress. The historical records say: Nuwa had the surname Feng; she had the body of a snake, a human head and the virtue of a divine being. She is also known as Mixi. The name Nuwa first appears in one of the Elegies of Chu entitled Tian Wen: Nuwa loved peace and delighted in making things. She moulded figures from the yellow earth and gave them life and the ability to bear children: this is how humanity was created. When demons fought a terrible war, they broke the pillars which held the heavens up. The firmament cracked open and the human world was put in mortal peril. To save the lives of those she had created, Nuwa worked unceasingly, melting down the five-coloured stones to mend the breach. When the firmament was whole again, Nuwa, exhausted by her toil, lay down on the earth and was transformed into a vast mountain range. In this way, she nurtured the growth of the Chinese nation by providing a rich and fertile land. This well-known tale is known as 'Nuwa Mends The Firmament.' Amongst China's ethnic minorities, another story has survived concerning how Emperor Fuxi came to take his sister Nuwa as his bride. This tale is known as A Brother And Sister Marry. The ferocious God of Thunder was captured by Fuxi's father and imprisoned deep within a mountain cave. No one was allowed to visit him. Fuxi and NŸwa could no longer bear to hear the Thunder God's pitiable entreaties for water, but they dared not bring him any water. Eventually, the two of them shed tears which the god drank out of their cupped hands. The Thunder God was so strengthened by the tears that he burst out of his mountain prison. To repay Fuxi and Nuwa for their part in the rescue, the Thunder God pulled a long canine tooth from his mouth and gave it to them saying: "In three days, mankind will suffer a terrible calamity. You may use this tooth to keep yourselves safe from harm." Having said this, the Thunder God leaped into the sky and disappeared. Three days later, the sky was filled with thunder and lightning. A tremendous storm broke out. Rain fell incessantly and the flood waters rose; huge waves swept across the earth and the entire human race was destroyed. As the flood began, the Thunder God's tooth transformed itself into a boat. Safe aboard this vessel, Fuxi and his sister rode the waves and drifted with the tides. Only when the waters had subsided did Fuxi and Nuwa realise that they alone had survived the desolation. When they had grown into adults, Fuxi and Nuwa became husband and wife in order to bear descendants and establish a new human race. This second story reflects the custom of intermarriage between blood relations in ancient China. It also shows why Nuwa is known as the mother of the Chinese nation. It is said that there were no men when the sky and the earth were separated. It was Nuwa who made men by moulding yellow clay. The work was so taxing that her strength was not equal to it. So she dipped a rope into the mud and then lifted it. The mud that dripped from the rope also became men. Those made by moulding yellow clay were rich and noble, while those made by lifting the rope were poor and low. - from Tai ping yu lan (Taiping Anthologies for the Emperor) Nuwa Mends the Sky In ancient times, the four corners of the sky collapsed and the world with its nine regions split open. The sky could not cover all the things under it, nor could the Earth carry all the things on it. A great fire raged and would not die out; a fierce flood raced about and could not be checked. Savage beasts devoured innocent people; vicious birds preyed on the weak and old. Then Nuwa melted rocks of five colours and used them to mend the cracks in the sky. She supported the four corners of the sky with the legs she had cut off from a giant turtle. She killed the black dragon to save the people of Jizhou, and blocked the flood with the ashes of reeds. Thus the sky was mended, its four corners lifted, the flood tamed, Jizhou pacified, and harmful birds and beasts killed, and the innocent people were able to live on the square Earth under the dome of the sky. It was a time when birds, beasts, insects and snakes no longer used their claws or teeth or poisonous stings, for they did not want to catch or eat weaker things. Nuwa's deeds benefited the heavens above and the Earth below. Her name was remembered by later generations and her light shone on every creation. Now she was traveling on a thunder-chariot drawn by a two-winged dragon and two green hornless dragons, with auspicious objects in her hands and a special mattress underneath, surrounded by golden clouds, a white dragon leading the way and a flying snake following behind. Floating freely over the clouds, she took ghosts and gods to the ninth heaven and had an audience with the Heavenly Emperor at Lin Men, where she rested in peace and dignity under the emperor. She never boasted of her achievements, nor did she try to win any renown; she wanted to conceal her virtues, in line with the ways of the universe. Jiang Taigong Meets King Wen When King Wen decided to go hunting, Bian, his official historian, burnt a tortoise shell to forecast the result. After reading the cracks he said, "Hunting on the north side of the Wei River is bound to bring a great gain. It will not be a dragon or a Chi, nor will it be a tiger or a bear. It will be a wise man sent by Heaven to be your minister and mentor." King Wen got on his carriage, started the horses, and set out for the place. There he saw Jiang taigong sitting on the grass and fishing. - From Liu tao (Six Tactics) Zhou Xibo went hunting and on the north bank of the wei River he met Jiang Taigong. After talking with him, Xibo was very pleased, saying, "Before he died, my father had anticipated that Zhou would become prosperous when a sage came to us. Are you the sage? My father had long expected your arrival!" So he called him Taigong Wang (Father's Expectation). He returned with Taigong, sharing his carriage with him, and was to treat him as his mentor. - From Shi ji (Records of the Grand Historian) King wen made Taigong the magistrate of Guantan. During the year Taigong was there, there was never a wind that was strong enough to disturb the leaves of the trees. Once in his dream, King Wen saw a beautiful woman weeping before his carriage. When asked the reason, she replied, "I am the daughter of the god of Mount Taishan and married to the god of the East sea. Now I want to go home, but the virtuous magistrate of Guantan makes the trip difficult. For my movements are always accompanied by a violent storm, which damage his good name." After waking up, the king summoned Taigong to ask what had happened. He was told that a violent storm with pouring rain had swept areas outside Guantan that day. King Wen then promoted Taigong to the position of Chief General. - From Sou shen ji (Stories of Immortals)
The Rhinoceros Totem and Pangu Myth: An Exploration of the Archetype of Pangu
Region and Ethnicity of the Pangu Myth There are theories that the Chinese Pangu myth originated either in Western India, the Central Plains, or the South. As for the ethnicity of the Pangu myth, since it is found in almost every group in China many different peoples believe that the Pangu myth belongs to them. However, only the Miao and Yao language families reflect a seamless connection between the regional and ethnic diversities. This is because the Miao and Yao language families migrated from the Central Plains to the South. Many scholars—notably Lu Simian, Yang Kuan, and He Xin—believe that the Pangu myth has an Indian origin. In The Origin of the Gods the scholar He analyzes all works before the Qin Dynasty1 that have no trace of the myth in which Pangu opens heaven and breaks the earth (1996:235). Nor is this myth documented in such compendia of surreal phenomena as Shanhaijing, Tianwen, and Diwang Jishi. It first appears in Xu Zheng’s Sanwu Liji and Wuyun Linian Ji2 at the time of the Three Kingdoms (222-280 CE), as well as Ren Fang’s Shuyi Ji of the Liang Dynasty (440-589 CE).3 During this period, China experienced the 1 During the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE) Chinese scholars first began documenting and annotating their culture in the unified Chinese Writing System established by Emperor Qin shi huang. 2 The original copies of Sanwu Liji and Wuyun Linian Ji were lost. Sanwu Liji was first cited in Yi Wen Lei Ju from 557-641 CE (Ou et al., Tang Dynasty) and Wuyun Linian Ji in Yi Shi (Ma Xiao 1670). 3 Some scholars argue that Pangu myth was passed down orally among southern ethnic groups and barely recorded in early Chinese books. As a result, the Chinese (Han) literati were hardly aware of this storytelling tradition until it emerged in Xu Zheng’s books. Xu Zheng lived in the Wu Kingdom in southeast China, where he collected the PANGU MYTHOLOGY 365 encroachment of Indian Buddhism and culture. Due to this influence, He inferred that the Pangu myth had a Western Asian/Indian origin and that it later spread to the Central Plains via Southwest China sometime after the mid-Eastern Han Dynasty. Though the “Western Indian Origin Theory” is very influential in the study of the Pangu myth, the inferences upon which it is based are not reliable. Further discoveries and new research are causing it to give way. First, at the site of an ancient temple on a Pangu mountain4 where the locals hold a grand worship ceremony on March 3 (Chinese lunar calendar) each year,5 scholars from Beijing and Henan discovered fragments of earthenware and broken bricks. According to an assessment given by the archeological team in Nanyang district, the earthenware fragments came from the rim of a well dating from the Han Dynasty; the broken bricks date back to the same period. There are also remnants from the Song, the Ming, and the Qing Dynasties.6 Here, then, is proof that people built a brick and tile Pangu temple even in the Han Dynasty. In theory, this fact indicates that people at that time devotedly worshipped Pangu, and supports the idea that the Pangu myth was popular even earlier, back at least to the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties. This discovery fully proves that the Pangu myth did not first enter China with the advent of Indian Buddhism and culture. Second, that there is no record of the Pangu myth in the literature of the Han Dynasty before the Three Kingdoms period does not mean that there were no oral versions among the minority groups at that time. Though the Pangu myth appears only in the literature of the Three Kingdoms period, there remains the possibility of its dissemination among the folk. Whether the stories focus on Pangu’s opening up heaven and breaking up the earth or on his reincarnation, all are common to minority groups in the south. The description of those events in the Ancient Miao Song is quite similar to parallels in the Han Dynasty literature, but more detailed (Yan 1993:24): Ghet paif Gux dail lul, Nenx diub diot nangl lol, Pangu stories from local ethnic groups and recorded them in Chinese. See further Geng 1993:67-68 and Liu 1997:177-86. 4 Fifty kilometers north of the Taibai peak of the Tongbai Mountains in Henan province. 5 May 29, 1987. 6 Ma H. 1993:14. 366 WU XIAODONG Dad lol diongb dot bil, Lol pab ob liul niangl, Wangt zeit mongl ob dangl, Fangx waix dot ib liul, Fangb dab dot ib liul, Paif Gux dail vut hxut, Denl laib waix al zeit, Dad laib hfud mongl diut, Dliangx jil bil mongl hniangt. Old grandpa Pangu, He walked down from the East, Brought a big axe with him, Cutting two pieces of thin plank. The two pieces broke up into two; Heaven got one, The earth also got one. Old man Pangu is kindhearted, Raising heaven upward with all his might, Using his head as support, Reaching out his hand to back up. The splitting up of heaven and earth is described thus in the Ancient Miao Song (Ma Xueliang and Jin 1983:9): Once two pieces were cast: The white one floated upward, The black one sank down. In this way we have a wide expanse of heaven, And now we have a broad span of earth. Here, the description that “the white one floated upward, / the black one sank down” is probably derived from the opacity and purity of the white and yolk of the egg. This is similar to a claim found in the Sanwu Liji, that “the yang-opacity is the heaven and the yin-purity is the earth.” There are traces of egg-birth conception in the Ancient Miao Song. At the beginning of Sanwu Liji, we find that “the Heaven and the Earth were mixed like an egg, and Pangu was born into it.” The Ancient Miao Song, for its part, gives more detailed descriptions of the “egg,” or Shen Niu’s egg. But Xu’s “the Heaven rises by one zhang7 a day while the Earth thickens by one zhang daily, and Punban grows by one zhang each day, and Pangu is very tall” has come to be imaged in the Ancient Miao Song as simply a long-legged baby. 7 One zhang is equivalent to 10 Chinese feet (1 Chinese foot = 33 cm.). PANGU MYTHOLOGY 367 The reincarnation of Pangu also exists in the mythology of southern minority groups. The Ancient Miao Song represents Pangu’s transfiguration at the moment of death; this episode is similarly described in Xu’s poem. The Ancient Miao Song also discloses the cause of Pangu’s near-death—his fatigue in holding up heaven (Yan 1993:31): Paif Gux daib lul, Vud hseid jangx hob nul, Hseik mais jangx hob dul, Xangt bongt jent nangl, Eb mais jangx eb seil, dliub hfud jangx ghaib dul, Tiangt lax lax tiant dol, Ghut jox diub bel dlel. Grandpa Pangu is a hero, He speaks like thunder, He winks like lightning, His breath became the wind from the east, His tears converged into a stream, His hair turned to firewood and grass, He held up heaven for too long, His body fell into pieces, Pangu died and became the hillside. Such a transfiguration may be totemic and indeed seems close to other myths about totemic reincarnation. The Yi people regard the tiger as their totem, and their epic Meige8 describes the reincarnation of the totemic tiger in this way (CIFY 1959:12-14): The tiger’s head became the heavenly head, The tiger’s tail became the heavenly tail, Its left eye became the sun, Its right eye became the moon. . . . The tiger’s belly became the sea. The Miao people have the maple for their totem, and their Song of the Maple includes a similar description (Yan 1993:476-78): 8 “ Meige, a well-known Yi creation epic in Yao’an, Yunan describes how the universe and all plants and things on the earth were gradually generated from the tiger’s body” (CIFY 1959). 368 WU XIAODONG The tree roots became carp, The tree’s base became a bronze drum, The tree’s leaves became swallows, The tree trunk became a butterfly. From such similarities we can assert that the pre-death transfiguration of Pangu also evolved from totemic reincarnation. Its origin should be early, at least before the Qin and Han Dynasties. The transformation of Pangu recorded in Chinese literature is closer to this kind of pre-death reincarnation than it is to the stories of Brahma’s changes recorded in the Indian Veda. Brahma’s reincarnation is one of the senses, e.g., “that man has mouth and then language, has language and then fire, has nose and then breath, has breath and then wind” (Lemowanna 1984:50). On the basis of this evidence we cannot simply assume that such myths among the national minorities were imported. The “Southern Origin Theory” is represented by Mao Dun (1981). According to this perspective, the earliest appearance of the Pangu myth is in Sanwu Liji. Since its author, Xu, was from the southern Wu Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period, the Pangu myth he recorded might well have originated from his research tour in the south. In addition, related artifacts are also concentrated in the south. For that reason Xia Zengyou remarks that “it is doubtful that [the Pangu myth] is not a traditional Han Chinese tale; or else Pangu is homophonic to Panhu. That is why the Pangu Tomb is found only in the South Sea [the Dongting Lake] and Guilin has a Pangu Temple. If not, our ancestor-kings should live in the North. Why did only Pangu live in the South?” (Ma H. and Zhu 1992:5). Ma Huixin and Zhu Gelin represent the “Central Plains Origin Theory.” Because Dong Sizhang of the Ming Dynasty was Xu Zheng’s countryman, they believe that the Pangu myth was based on data gathered from around the Tongbai Mountains. In his Guangbo Wuzhi, Dong, quoting Xu, observes that “the master of Pungu has a dragon’s head and a snake’s body. His bones became mountains and forests after his death, his body became the sea and the river, his blood became the Huai and Du Rivers, and his hair became grass and wood” (Ma H. and Zhu 1992:8).9 Actually, if we combine the factor of ethnicity with that of territoriality, the difference between the Southern Origin Theory and the Central Plains Origin Theory can easily be resolved. I believe that the Pangu myth originated in the Central Plains. The reason why there are many Pangu remnants in the South is that the Pangu Tribe of the Sanmiao, who 9 The Huai and Du Rivers originate in the Tongbai Mountains. PANGU MYTHOLOGY 369 first lived at the foot of the Tongbai Mountains of the Central Plains, later migrated to the South and brought Pangu culture with them. As for the ethnicity of the Pangu myth, Ma Huixin is the recognized authority on the subject. He spent nine months in the field searching for the Pangu myth, covering a distance of 15,000 kilometers, and collecting myths and legends in different regions; the sheer weight of his collected material amounted to 90 kilos. He also made recordings on 27 cassettes and brought back more than 40 photographs. Ma H. learned much about the origin and spread of the Pangu myths in over twenty ethnic groups across more than twenty provinces and Autonomous Regions (1993:50). His data is rich and comprehensive. In his book The Pangu God, Ma H. compares the Pangu myths among such various ethnic groups as the Yi, the Bai, the Lisu, the Gelao, the Buyei, the Dong, the Maonan, the Zhuang, the Miao, the Yao, the Tujia, and the Tu, as well as among the Han Chinese in the regions of Hainan, the Chengdu Plains, and the Wu-Yue areas. He finally comes to this conclusion (1993:51): By surveying the Yao areas in Hunan and remote areas of Guangxi and Lingnan, my general impression is that the areas where the Pan Yao live are closely connected to ancient Pangu tribes. Wherever the Pan Yao go they build Pangu shrines and temples, and they seek help from Pangu and are grateful to him for good fortune. They make offerings to Pangu at festivals. Because of changes in ethnic elements in the Yao-populated areas, the Dog-Head Yao who worship Panhu were influenced by the Pangu Yao and added on their Dog-Head tablet, above the dog head itself, characters for King Pangu who opened up heaven and broke up the earth. Nowadays, the Miao, the Yao, and the She in Hunan and Guangxi still put the tablet for Pangu in the first place where they worship their ancestors, consigning the tablet for Panhu to the second place. We can see from this sequencing that the origins of Pangu are very old. At that time both the Yao and She belonged to the Sanmiao. They solved their territorial issues with the help of Pangu’s ethnicity: speakers of the Miao language family clearly occupied the Central Plains very long ago. More precisely, their habitat included the Tongbai Mountains, because the Miao-Man have spread out south to Huanan, Hubei, Jiangxi, and north to Xionger, Waifang (the Songshan Mountains), and Funiu. 370 WU XIAODONG “Pangu” A linguistic analysis of the term “Pangu” proves that the Pangu myth belongs to the Miao-Yao language family. In the early stages of Pangu studies, scholars believed that Pangu was the same figure as Panhu, since the pronunciation of the two names differs by only one phoneme. However, further research has shown that these two names were not the same. Wu Shunze holds that “Pangu” is derived from “Fuxi” (1991:26): Based on their pronunciation, Pangu and Fuxi are related by phonetic law, and Pangu is the phonetic transformation of Fuxi. Both “pan” and “fu” belong to the ancient “bing” sound. “Gu” belongs to the “jian” sound under section “yu,” and “xi” belongs to the “xiao” sound under section “ge.” “Yu” and “ge” are closest in transformation. Since there was no difference between guttural and palatal sounds, “gu” and “xi” can be the same anterior sound. For example, the anterior sound “hu” belongs to the sound “gu,” which was pronounced with a guttural sound in ancient times, the same way as “hu” is pronounced as “he” (the interrogative pronoun); therefore “he” and “xi” were the same in ancient times. However, this kind of far-fetched and confusing manner of textual interpretation can make almost any two sounds seem similar or related. With regard to grammar, the word “Pangu” does not conform to Chinese grammar: gu (“old”) is an adjective, and pan (“dish”) is a noun, and it is clear that “gu” modifies “pan” from a posterior position. Of course in the remote past it was possible for the modifier to follow the modified core word. However, if we say that “Pangu” is a survival from ancient Chinese, then we cannot explain why there was no record of the Pangu myth before the Three Kingdoms period. Then again, if we say that the Pangu myth emerged in the Three Kingdoms period or in the Qin and Han Dynasties, then why does the word “Pangu” not conform to Chinese grammar? Since at least the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the core word has followed the modifier. If we analyze the two characters “Pan/gu” according to the present Xiangxi dialect of the Miao language, the results are clearer. In this dialect, “old grandpa” is still called pangu (written in Miao as “poub ghuot”); pan means “grandpa,” and gu means “old.” According to Miao grammar, the modifier should follow the modified core, and it can be translated as “grandpa.” What attracts our attention is that since gu in Chinese also means “old,” is it the case that the Miao language borrowed this morpheme from the Chinese language? It is hard to say so, because the anterior sound for gu in Miao is a uvular sound, while there is no such sound in Chinese PANGU MYTHOLOGY 371 anymore. We can say therefore that this sound is relatively old, and it is possible that the word might come from the same root language from which both Miao and Chinese derived. To explain pangu as “old grandpa” according to Miao is in perfect agreement with the Pangu myth. Pangu is an ancestor of creation and it is therefore only proper to call him “old grandpa.” Generally, time and characters in the myth are represented ambiguously: with respect to time we often find such imprecise phrases as “one day” or “long, long ago.” Characters are often introduced with “there is one man” or “there is an old man,” and so on. In a word, it is never precise. Now in what we have been referring to as the Pangu myth, “pangu” is used as a personal name, a usage that does not agree with the account of the creation myth. When the myth came into being, people would absolutely not give a particular name to the hero of the myth. Therefore, if we explain “pangu” as “old grandpa” according to the Miao language, then it accords well with the ambiguity demanded by history. In the Ancient Miao Song this ambiguity remains. The ancestorcreators of the heaven and the earth are called “grandpa” and “grandma,” terms close in meaning to pangu (Ma H. and Jin 1983:9): Look how the heaven and the earth are created. Who will steel the heaven and the earth? The grandpa of the remote olden times who created the heaven, The grandma of the primitive past who made the earth. They made a big crucible, To be used for steeling the earth. The word “Pangu” also appears in Yan Bao’s annotation of the Ancient Miao Song. There it coexists with such divine names as Popa, Kedi, Xiuchou, and others. The poem proceeds as follows (Yan 1993:11): Kot dit bil hsat denx, nenx diub dai yut niox. Dail xid dail hvib fangx, Dail xid lol hsat denx? Paif Gux dail hvib fangx, Paif Gux lol hsat denx. Not that Kot dit [a god] is the earliest comer, He is still too young. Who is cleverest, Who is the first born? That Pangu is the cleverest, 372 WU XIAODONG Pangu is the earliest comer. When Yan translated and edited this passage, he added this note (idem): “Pangu, man of divinity; he appears directly in the Ancient Miao Song and is not from a transcription.” In Yan’s annotation of the the Ancient Miao Song Pangu is written as “paifgux” in the Miao script of East Guizhou, and its meaning is beyond comprehension. We can surmise that the word pangu has probably undergone a shift from a general name to a proper name. In other words, at first pangu was strictly a term of address, and later became a personal name. Characterization of Pangu and the Rhinoceros What is the archetype of Pangu? Is he a real man? An imagined man? A totem? We have demonstrated that the Pangu myth belongs to the Miao, and thus we may start with the mythology of the Miao language family in answering such questions. Pangu’s transformation before death is recorded in Xu’s Sanwu Linian Ji. The Pangu myth contains two parts. The first describes the opening of heaven and the breaking of earth, while the second tells of Pangu’s pre-death reincarnation. The latter part reveals traces of the belief in totemic reincarnation, which came into being and developed as a result of totemism. According to such convictions, totems are men and the two can transform into each other. It is this adherence to pre-death transformation that is responsible for the belief in totems’ reincarnation into various objects after death. The Yi people hold the tiger to be such a totem, believing that all beings descended from transformations of the tiger before its death. The Miao people consider the maple a totem, and in the Ancient Song the maple transfigures into all sorts of beings. Since Pangu also had the ability to transfigure before his death, his archetype might well be a totem, and therefore a totem for the Miao and Yao language families. As for Pangu’s reincarnation before death, the earliest description comes from Sanwu Liji and Wuyun Linian Ji, both of which date from the Three Kingdoms period. Unfortunately, both texts are lost. We can, however, learn something about them from a later generation of ancient texts that contain excerpts, such as Yiwen Leiju, Taiping Yulan, Guangbo Wuzhi, and Yi Shi. Volume 9 of Guangbo Wuzhi, for example, quotes Wuyun Linian Ji (Yuan 1985:358): PANGU MYTHOLOGY 373 King Pangu has a dragon’s head and a snake’s body; his sigh became the wind and rain, and his breath became the thunder and lightning; when he opened his eyes it became day, and when he closed them it became night. After he died, his bones turned into mountains and forests, his body became the river and sea, and his hair became the grass and wood. At first glance Pangu’s archetype seems to be something with “a dragon’s head and a snake’s body,” and for this reason Yuan Ke inferred that “it is possible that the Candle Dragon was Pangu in the old legend and Pangu was the outcome of a changed Candle Dragon” (1993:71). Actually we can see from the contradictions in this description that Pangu does not in fact possess “a dragon’s head and a snake’s body.” A dragon, after all, cannot have hair. That Pangu is described as having “a dragon’s head and a snake’s body” is probably the result of a false analogy. The first volume of Yi Shi quotes Wuyun Linian Ji as reporting nothing of these features (Yuan 1985:358): Pangu came into being first and then he transfigured before death: his breath became the wind and clouds, his voice became the thunder, his left eye became the sun, his right eye became the moon, his five bodies and limbs became the four directions and five mountains, his blood became the rivers, his tendon became the contours of the earth, his muscles became the fields, his hair and beard became the constellations, his skin and body hair became the grass and wood, his teeth and bones became gold and stones, his marrow became pearls and jade, his sweat became the rain and lakes, and the worms on his body turned into the earth’s inhabitants after touching the wind. In the Han people’s epic A Record of Darkness, which was unearthed in the Shennongjia area of Hubei, there are also descriptions of Pangu’s transfiguration before death (Ma H. 1993:104): Pangu the great hero, His speaking turned to thunder, His winking turned to stars, His breathing turned to wind, His tears became the rain, And he died because he held up heaven for too long. His hair became grass and wood, His skin and flesh became the soil, His bones and flesh became hillsides, The twelve mountains in the southeast. 374 WU XIAODONG Here again there is no mention of Pangu having “a dragon’s head and a snake’s body.” Based on the quotations above we can suggest the following about Pangu: 1) He has four limbs, and seems to be a kind of animal. 2) He is an animal with fur. 3) He has parasites on his body. 4) He has horns on his head. We can judge from the four points above that the archetype of Pangu seems to be something similar to an ox. Though the dragon also has four legs and horns, it has neither fur nor parasites. As for the legend that the worms on Pangu’s body became the denizens of the earth after touching the wind, there are other derivations of this detail as well. A legendary myth about the worm as the ancestor of humanity was discovered in the Dinghai County of Zhejiang province (Chen 1986:4): “It is said that after Pangu divided heaven and earth, at first there were no human beings; it was from heaven that many worms fell and became human beings.” This mythologem is probably derived from the statement that “the worms on his body turned into the inhabitants of the earth after touching the wind”—“inhabitants” here referring to humankind. There are not many places where such legends persist nowadays. Cheng Junjian believed that “the story of ‘the worms’ becoming human beings was given up by people later on because they spurned as ‘irrational,’ according to aesthetics of their own time, the primitive conception that was contained in ancient mythology” (1997:15). The image of a horned Pangu is still found among the folk in the Central Plains. As noted above, there is a Pangu Temple on a Pangu mountain in the Tongbai Range, in which people worship a clay figure: “Grandpa Pangu has a pair of horns on his head, with a square face and big ears, tree leaves and animal fur, and sits barefooted on the altar” (ibid.:21). Rock picture no. 378 in the exhibition hall of pictures from the Han Dynasty in Nanyang shows a naked horned man holding an axe in his right hand, with the left hand raised in front holding an unnamed bifurcated object. Ma H. has proposed (1993:75) that this was a picture of the Pangu who cut the mountain open and defeated the monster. There is also a legend among the folk around the Tongbai Mountains that explains why Pangu has grown a pair of horns (Ma H. 1993:16, 75-76): The picture of Pangu has been passed down from generation to generation; all the people around the mountain can tell how Grandpa PANGU MYTHOLOGY 375 Pangu looks. Grandpa Pangu is tall, as tall as one zhang, with a square face, big round eyes, a pair of horns on his head, kudzu vines interwoven with tree leaves, and bare feet. At the time of Pangu, human horns had two functions: as a weapon used by men against beasts and as a harbinger of death. Usually people were busy in search of food and game. However, as soon as their horns became soft, they would give up working and wait for death. Soon the number of people who had soft horns increased, and fewer people were working. The Heavenly Grandpa sent down heavenly generals with his arm and took back all the horns. At that time, there were fewer people on the earth. Overnight all the horns were taken back. The widespread dispersal of this legend shows that the archetype of Pangu does not have a dragon’s head and a snake’s body, but is an animal with horns and a square human face accustomed to fighting animals and beasts. The dragon also has horns, but they are different from what is described above. What, then, is this beast with four legs, a pair of horns, fur, and worms in its hair? It could be a deer, an ox, a buffalo, or a rhinoceros, but certainly not a dragon or its archetype, the snake. I believe that it is highly possible that the archetype of Pangu is the rhinoceros, since the Pangu myth came originally from the Miao and Yao language family, in which there is a buffalo-like animal totem called hxub niux. Hxub niux Gave Birth to Pangu In the Ancient Miao Song, Pangu was not the most archaic ancestor. A sacred animal called Hxub niux (as pronounced in Miao) gave birth to Pangu (Yan 1993:15-16): Dliel denx hxib khangd niul, Hxub niux daib bad lul, Hliad niux hxangb tid nongl, Tid nenx laib zaid dlenl, Ax was ghab diux yel, Laib zaid dliangt bongl liongl, Dlenx gib wib qut nangl, Jangx ghob hmob ax fal, Niangb lax lax niangb dol, Hfaid jangx git Hsenb Niul, Git Hsenb Niux hnaib niul. . . . 376 WU XIAODONG Git dangt daib hvib ngangl, Daib hlieb bongt hieb dliangl, Ghab ait Paif Gux dail, Paif Gux daib bad lul. In the remotest ancient times, There was a hero called Hxub niux. He vomited threads to build a storehouse with, He built a house for himself, With no door nor window; The whole house is smooth, Round in shape in the east. He turned himself into a chrysalis and slept in it, He was soundly asleep and could not wake up, He sat and lay and slumbered there for a long time, He then changed into an egg of Shen niux [another name for Hxub niux], The egg of Shen niux from long, long ago. . . . The egg of Shen niux gave birth to a long-legged son, The long-legged son was strong, He was given the name Pangu, Pangu was a hero. We may observe the relationship between Pangu and Hxub niux: Hxub niux became the egg of Shen niux, and the egg of Shen niux gave birth to Pangu. This implies that Hxub niux and Pangu are one. We might expect the archetype of Pangu to be the image of Hxub niux. Then what kind of animal was Hxub niux? In the Ancient Miao Song, the giant god Hxub niux is an animal with two horns, very close in appearance to the buffalo. Most scholars believe that this archetype might be the rhinoceros because the two animals share several similarities in the Miao epic. First, Hxub niux has horns. The ancient song “Opening Heaven and Breaking up Earth,” collected by Tang Chunfang, mentions this detail (Pan, Yang, and Zhang 1997:7): Hxub niux is powerful, With a pair of horns on its head; First he pried and broke the mountain, Second he pried and let the earth sink. Elsewhere Hxub niux is a kind of ox. In the story “Creating Heaven and Earth” in the Miao Epic, collected and translated by Ma Xueliang and Jin, we find the following (1983:20): PANGU MYTHOLOGY 377 Oh, Hxub niux, who broke up the mountain and opened the river, . . . Had a body very much like a buffalo, His head looked like that of a lion, His tail was similar to a palm leaf, His four legs looked like an iron-toothed rake. If it was the bull we offered as sacrifice for our ancestors, It would leave us with the horns even if it went away, Leaving them with our parents’ family, Hanging them on the core-pillar, Showing them to our ancestors. But Hxub niux had gone, Where had it left its horns? They were hung in the temple, In the court. The Miao and the Han were watching. These descriptions show that Hxub niux resembled the buffalo. Furthermore, the story “Plowing the Land” in the Miao Epic contains the following (ibid.:135): You said that Xiangliang’s ox looked like a frog. This is wrong; His ox looked like a barn, His plowing ox was Hxub niux. Xiangla drove it plowing the field, Harrowing and making it flat to grow the maple in. It should be carefully pointed out that Hxub niux is an ox and not a buffalo. But why do scholars use the analogy of the buffalo? In “Creating Heaven and Earth,” Ma Xueliang and Jin explain this tendency thus (1983:5): “Hxub niux . . . according to the correspondence law between the Miao and Chinese languages, it seems to be cognate with ‘rhinoceros’ in Chinese.” Yan Bao notes that Hxub niux was a kind of semi-god and semi-beast animal, with the appearance of a rhinoceros. I agree with him: Hxub niux is a rhinoceros. This identification explains why in The Ancient Miao Song Xiangliang employed Hxub niux to plow a field. If we affirm that Hxub niux gave birth to Pangu and had the appearance of a rhinoceros, then Pangu might well look like the rhinoceros. The rhinoceros is the archetype for Pangu. 378 WU XIAODONG Hxub Niux and the Pangu Myth Not only is Hxub niux Pangu’s ancestor, but it, like Pangu, also possessed the ability to break up mountains and rivers, and can be counted as a great creative god. “Creating Heaven and Earth” attests to this reality (Ma X. and Jin 1983:19): In the remotest ancient times, Heaven stuck to the earth, The earth stuck to heaven, The riverbed was only as thick as the human leg, The river ran quietly eastward. Hxub niux opened up a water route, Buba opened up a mountain road, Broadening the riverbed by three arm lengths. It was old man Hxub niux Who cut open the gorge to the barn, So not only the river could run freely, But so could the boat. These words potentially unfold before us a picture of the Pangu who opened up heaven and broke up the earth in primitive times. The depiction of Pangu’s reincarnation before death has also undergone a process of change. When totemic culture prospered, the totemic figure itself transformed into the aspects of the universe. When this culture became relatively depressed, the totemic image became half-man and half-beast, and even separated into a human accompanied by a beast. The transfiguration process became relatively esoteric, and when the totemic image was completely personified, the reincarnation often became the “ancestral creature.” In the Xiangxi Miao epic Opening up Heaven and Breaking up the Earth, Pangu’s transformation was in transition from the second stage to the third. The origin of all creatures resulted from Pangu’s killing a beast called Penggou; its body was used to create them (Shi 1991:4- 5): [He] came to kill King Penggou, Brought death to this gigantic sacred beast, Tore open its skin to make the blue heaven, To make the earth, Using its eyes to make the stars, Using its hair to make the bamboo, wood, and all creatures, Using its flesh juice to make salt wells and oil wells, Using its blood to make springs and water sources. PANGU MYTHOLOGY 379 Clearly, this story was derived from that about Pangu’s pre-death transfiguration. In the text the name Penggou could be a modified pronunciation for Pangu; the two are quite close. Since Pangu’s archetype is a kind of animal, and its pre-death incarnation has caused the origin of all creatures, then we may suppose that during the depression of the totemic culture the mythological plot changed into one in which Pangu killed some sort of beast and used it to make all creatures. The trace of this change remains crystal clear: the beast killed by Pangu is called Penggou, suggesting that what Pangu killed was himself. From this we can see clearly that the reincarnation of Pangu before death has totemic origins. We can come, after all this discussion, to some conclusions. The Pangu myth originated from the Sanmiao in the Central Plains. Put more concretely, it came from the rhinoceros tribe or clan in the Sanmiao, and the archetype for Pangu is the rhinoceros. The story of Pan
Chinese Myths
Chinese mythology is as varied and multi-levelled as the country from which it springs. China contains many different cultural groupings, who speak a number of different languages. However, it has had a literate cultural élite for thousands of years, and myths which were originally regional have spread by means of a pictographic script which transcended language barriers. Their evolution has not been entirely oral. Much Chinese mythology is based on animism, which sees the land itself as alive. It contains many therianthropic creatures, who are both animal and human, and demonstrates the playfulness of the gods. Strands of Chinese belief Chinese mythology has been influenced by a fear of outsiders. It has also been shaped, sometimes deliberately, by religious faiths and philosophies. Some myths even demonstrate the conflict between them, as in the story of the Monkey King, which reflects the conflict between Taoists and Buddhists. Chinese dragon Taoism A central quest within Taoist practices is the search for immortality - literal, physical immortality. The sense of an interplay between natural law and the abstract laws prevailing in the cosmos, is held in common by shamanism and Taoism. Taoism searched for balance within these forces and enshrined the concept that change cannot be forced, only experienced and assimilated. Confucianism Confucius lived in the sixth century BCE, a time of considerable political unrest and feuding. He taught the virtues of order, structure and correct behaviour, which was underpinned by a rigid notion of hierarchy, involving strict filial devotion. Confucian notions of hierarchy are evident in the bureaucratic pantheon of Chinese myths. Buddhism Buddhism was introduced to China in the first century CE and has been adapted by the Chinese so that the mythologies of the indigenous faiths and the imported are intertwined. Early Buddhism consciously created a mythology to give meaning to its practices and beliefs. Even the advent of Buddhism is mythologized in the tale of the Emperor Ming. His dream of a golden man who could fly led him to dispatch messengers to Afghanistan to bring back the Buddhist scriptures. Cover image Pangu and the Creation of the World This myth is similar to many creation myths worldwide, in which the world is formed out of the body of a primal being. In the beginning there was darkness everywhere, and Chaos ruled. PanguWithin the darkness there formed an egg, and inside the egg the giant Pangu came into being. For aeons, safely inside the egg, Pangu slept and grew. When he had grown to gigantic size he stretched his huge limbs and in so doing broke the egg. The lighter parts of the egg floated upwards to form the heavens and the denser parts sank downwards, to become the earth. And so was formed earth and sky, Yin and Yang. Pangu saw what had happened and he was pleased. But he feared that heaven and earth might meld together again, so he placed himself between them, his head holding up the sky and his feet firmly upon the earth. Pangu continued to grow at a rate of ten feet a day for 18,000 years, so increasing the distance between heaven and earth, until they seemed fixed and secure, 30,000 miles apart. Now exhausted, Pangu went back to sleep and never woke up. Pangu died, and his body went to make the world and all its elements. The wind and clouds were formed from his breath, his voice was thunder and lightning, his eyes became the sun and moon, his arms and his legs became the four directions of the compass and his trunk became the mountains. His flesh turned into the soil and the trees that grow on it, his blood into the rivers that flow and his veins into paths men travel. His body hair became the grass and herbs, and his skin the same, while precious stones and minerals were formed from his bones and teeth. His sweat became the dew and the hair of his head became the stars that trail throughout heaven. As for the parasites on his body, these became the divers races of humankind. Although Pangu is dead, some say he is still responsible for the weather, which fluctuates according to his moods. Commentary Despite the fact that this tale is accepted as a legacy of ancient China, it is probable that is was imported from South East Asia However, it is usually ascribed to Ko Hung, Taoist writer of the fourth century CE, who also wrote on the preparation of an elixir of life, and similar subjects. He also wrote Biographies of Spirits and Immortals, which is a prime source of mythological material. The Cosmic Egg Myths of a ‘cosmic egg’ are common to many cultures, signifying the origins of conscious life. In some versions the egg is produced by a mother figure of some description, and even where this is absent, it is present by implication. At one level it merely dramatizes the experience of every individual, starting existence in the egg-shape of the womb, which is at first a container and a totality. Conscious, separate existence is achieved when the container is breached, but ends at death, when the constituents of the body return to the earth to become part of the cycle of life. Rock BuddhaThe myth of Pangu on this small level gives meaning to each individual life, and may be a way of processing the idea that the world existed long before we did and will continue long after death. Creation myths embody the internal process of increasing consciousness of the world. A Buddha showing Chinese influence (actually a rock painting on a Scottish island) The creation motif On a larger scale, creation myths are a way for the conscious mind to attempt to explain the infinite and to make sense of a boundless universe. The conscious mind cannot truly conceive of something that has no beginning. However, creation myths of this sort have factors in common with modern scientific theory. The cracking open of the egg itself echoes the theme of the Big Bang, while the shape of the egg connects with Einstein's theory of curved space. According to the Big Bang theory, all matter was at first compressed into an unimaginably dense single point. A reaction took place which caused this to explode and expand into the stars and galaxies. Steve Eddy and Nicholas Campion in The New Astrology (Bloomsbury, 1999) write: On the physical level [the primal waters] are analogous to the state of the universe immediately after the Big Bang … composed largely of hydrogen (the H in H2O, or water) in a vast ocean of unformed potential. The myth of Pangu also reflects an animistic view of the world, prevalent in so-called primitive cultures, in which everything is seen as alive, even rocks and soil. It is a vibrant view of creation, and conveys an instinctual respect, a willingness to work with a living earth, rather than an intention to subdue inert matter. Human beings, in the myth, have a fairly lowly position. Rather than standing at the centre of the cosmos they are fairly insignificant, taking their place in the natural order. This perspective is echoed in Chinese paintings, where tiny figures are dwarfed by the sweeping vistas of natural features, mountains and waterfalls on varying levels. The development of a spiritual consciousness confers humility and balance.
Knowledge Graph
Examples
1 The first writer to record the myth of Pangu was Xu Zheng during the Three Kingdoms period.
2 Three main views describe the origin of the Pangu myth.
3 The Pangu myth appears to have been preceded in ancient Chinese literature by the existence of Shangdi or Taiyi (of the Taiyi Shengshui)