“Who could bring to us stories about the original times? On what basis can we judge the time when the earth had not yet separated from the sky? Who could look into the depths of the chaos of that time and how can one discern what was spinning in this cycle?
Light arose from the endless darkness. - Why did it arise? Having united, the forces of Yin and Yang were formed. - What gave birth to them and where did they come from? The firmament has nine circles. - Who erected them? Who could be the first builder of this majestic structure?
Two thousand three hundred years ago, the poet Qu Yuan, in one of his famous poems, asked how heaven and earth arose, how the universe was formed, and who separated heaven from earth.
His “Questions to Heaven” reflected the myths and legends of antiquity, fragments of which are contained in early philosophical treatises. Qu Yuan only poses questions, but does not answer them; the records in the ancient books are also extremely scarce and laconic, and it is very difficult for us, living more than two thousand years later, to restore the true appearance of the ancient myths.
Here is a fable reminiscent of a myth from the ancient book of Chuang Tzu, earlier than the above poem. The story goes like this: “Lord South Sea their name was Shu - Swift, the ruler of the North Sea was called Hu - Sudden, and the ruler of the Center was Hun-tun - Chaos. Shu and Hu often visited Hun-tun for fun. Hun-tun greeted them unusually warmly and helpfully. One day, Shu and Hu thought about how to repay him for his kindness. Every person, they said, has eyes, ears, mouth, nose - seven holes on the head for seeing, hearing, eating, etc. Hun-tun had none, and his life was not truly wonderful. The best thing, they decided, was to go to him and drill a few holes. Shu and Hu took tools similar to our ax and drill, and went to Hun-tun. One day - one hole, seven days - seven holes. But poor Hun-tun, whom his best friends had so torn to pieces, cried out sadly and ordered him to live long.” This fable, with some comic overtones, incorporates the mythological concept of the creation of the world. Although Hun-tun, on whose body Shu and Hu, who personified the transience of time, drilled seven holes, died, the universe and the earth arose as a result.
“The Book of Mountains and Seas” says that in the western part of the Tien Shan mountains there lived a sacred bird that resembled a yellow bag; she could blush and then become like a fiery red ball, she had six legs and four wings, but she had no ears, no eyes, no mouth, no beak; she understood songs and dances; her name was Di Jiang.
Di Jiang is the same as Di Hong, the same as Huang Di, who is considered the supreme lord of the Center. Therefore, in Chuang Tzu’s parable he appears as the supreme deity of the Center. Some consider Hun-tun to be the son of Huang Di. This legend probably arose in later times.
But was Hun-tun the heavenly emperor himself or his son - dark, formless chaos was not liked by anyone except the Taoists, who strived for a “return to nature”, “passive perception”, “management without action”, etc. Therefore, in the legends of subsequent generations, Hun-tun turned into something unpleasant. The “Book of the Wonderful and Extraordinary” says that Hun-tun is a wild animal, similar to a dog and a brown bear, having eyes but seeing nothing, having ears but hearing nothing. Since his eyes are blind, he himself moves with great difficulty. But as soon as someone wanders into those lands, he will immediately sense it. If he encounters a virtuous person, he attacks him in wild rage, and if he encounters an evil rapist, then, crouching low, nodding his head and wagging his tail, he will begin to fawn on him. Such a vile character was given to him by nature. When he has nothing to do, he spins around, happily bites his own tail, lifts his head, looks at the sky and laughs loudly. From this legend we can conclude that the word “huntun” - “darkness” was then clearly perceived as negative.
The well-known myth about the origin of the universe is recorded in a book called Huainanzi, created in the 2nd century. BC In ancient times, when there was neither heaven nor earth, the world was only a gloomy, formless chaos. And in this darkness, two great spirits were gradually born - Yin and Yang, who with great effort began to order the world. Subsequently, Yin and Yang separated, and eight main directions in space were established. The Yang spirit began to rule the sky, the Yin spirit - the earth. This is how our world was created.
This myth, with a clear philosophical overtone, is not of great interest from the point of view of mythology.
More interesting for us is the myth of the heavenly spirit Julin. They say that he appeared simultaneously with the original substance, and he is called the true mother of the nine principles. He was so omnipotent that he was able to create mountains and valleys, launch large and small rivers, so he can be considered the first creator. They say he came from the headwaters of the Fyn Shui River and was originally the spirit of the river. Since ancient times, Mount Huashan stood across the Yellow River. Juling, “kicking it with his feet and swinging it with his hands,” split it and pushed it apart, so that the river flowed straight. To this day, traces similar to the hand and foot prints of the spirit of Juling are still preserved on Mount Huashan.
It can be assumed that for such legends, the Taoists took their favorite image of the spirit of the river and made him the first creator who separated heaven from earth. Thanks to this artificial embellishment, not a trace remained of the myth.
When it comes to the spirit of the Julin River, one involuntarily recalls one ancient legend about two lazy giant spouses who laid channels for the overflowing waters.
According to legend, when heaven and earth were just created, there was a flood on the earth, so the supreme ruler Shang Di sent the giant Pu-fu and his wife to pacify the flooded waters. Both of them had no equal, they were a thousand miles tall and the same in girth. These two huge fat men, of course, cared very little about the difficult work assigned to them and did it without any diligence, just to finish it as quickly as possible. The river beds they laid were dug deep in some places, shallow in others, clogged in some places, and dammed in others - in a word, all the work went down the drain. Therefore, many years later, the hardworking Yu again pacified the flooded waters. The heavenly emperor, angry at the negligence of the spouses, exposed their bodies as punishment and, completely naked, placed them next to each other in the middle of the vast desert in the southeast. Neither in the cold nor in the heat did they drink or eat; they only quenched their hunger and thirst with the heavenly dew. And only when the water in the Yellow River cleared were these spouses allowed to “return to their duties.”
According to legend, in order to purify the waters of the Yellow River, it was necessary to interrupt the connection between the river and the sea. Of course, this was an impossible task, and therefore the couple of giants could only stand forever in the desert, naked, under the rays of the sun.
In the story of the Pu-fu spouses, at some points the appearance of an ancient myth appears. The activities of these two people, who ordered the waters, are also somewhat reminiscent of the activities of the first creator of the universe. Unfortunately, however, the recorded history seems incomplete.
Here is another myth about the mother of demons - Gui-mu. Gui-mu, who lived in the Xiaoyushan Mountains near the South Sea, was also called Gui-gushan. She had the head of a tiger, the legs of a dragon - the moon, eyebrows like a four-fingered dragon, eyes like a water dragon, her appearance was surprisingly bizarre. She was able to give birth to heaven, earth and devils. At one time she could give birth to a dozen devils; she gave birth in the morning, and in the evening she swallowed them like a delicacy. This character is somewhat reminiscent of the creator of all things, but, unfortunately, being a demon who ate her children, which is very unethical, she remained the “mother of demons.”
Looking through the mythical first creators of the universe, in conclusion one cannot help but recall the spirit of Zhu-long - the dragon with a candle from Mount Zhongshan, the story of which is recorded in the ancient “Book of Mountains and Seas”. This spirit with the face of a man, the body of a snake, with red skin was a thousand miles long. He had unusual eyes, like two vertical olive trees, and when he closed them, they were like two straight vertical slits. As soon as he opened his eyes, day came in the world, and when he closed his eyes, night descended on the earth; as soon as it blew, a veil of red clouds appeared, heavy snow fell in flakes, and winter came; dies - immediately the red sun began to scorch, metals flowed and stones melted, and summer came. He lay curled up like a snake: he did not eat, did not drink, did not sleep and did not breathe - as soon as he died, the wind would blow ten thousand li. With the light of the candle that Zhu-long held in his mouth, he could illuminate the highest spheres of the sky and the deepest layers of the earth and where eternal darkness reigned. And since he always held a candle in his mouth and illuminated the darkness in the heavenly gates in the north, he was also called Zhu-yin (zhu means “candle”, yin means “darkness”) - Illuminating Darkness.
Zhu-long really looks like the first creator. However, while retaining the obvious features of a living creature, he still could not, like other famous heavenly spirits, turn into a human. He did not become the first creator in the eyes of people and remained only the spirit of one of the mountains, despite his amazing appearance and extraordinary strength. You could say he was really unlucky.
2. The Legend of the Dragon Dog Pan-hu. From Pan-hu to Pan-gu. Pan-gu separates heaven from earth. The divine power of Pan-ry and his transformation. Pan-gu and the dragon holding a candle. Burial place of Pan-gu.
Who created heaven and earth? Before talking about this, let me tell you a story about an amazing and... brave dog, who destroyed the enemy and as a reward received a beautiful princess as his wife.
They say that in ancient times, when Gao-hsin-wan ruled, his wife suddenly developed an earache. For exactly three years the pain did not stop, hundreds of doctors tried to cure her, but to no avail. Then a small golden worm, resembling a silkworm, about three inches long, jumped out of the ear, and the disease immediately passed. The princess was very surprised, put this worm in a gourd and covered it with a dish. Who could have known that the worm under the dish would turn into a beautiful dog, as if covered with brocade with dazzlingly shiny multi-colored patterns? And since he appeared in a gourd under a dish, he was given the name Pan-gu (pan is “dish” in Chinese, gu is pumpkin). Gao-hsin-wan, seeing Pan-gu, was very happy and from that time on did not let him go one step away from him. At that time, Prince Fan-wan suddenly rebelled. Gao-hsin-wan was afraid for the fate of the state and turned to all the dignitaries with the words: “If there is a person who will bring me the head of Fan-wan, I will give him my daughter as a wife.”
The dignitaries knew that Fang-wan’s army was strong and difficult to defeat, and they did not dare to go towards danger. They say that on the same day Pan-gu disappeared from the palace, and no one knew where he fled to. They searched for several days in a row, but found no traces, and Gao-hsin-wan was very sad.
Meanwhile, Pan-gu, leaving the palace of Gao-hsin-wan, went straight to Fan-wan's military camp. He saw Fan-wan and wagged his tail and turned his head. Fang-wan was extremely happy and, turning to his dignitaries, said:
I'm afraid that Gao-hsin-wan will soon die, even his dog abandoned him and came running to serve me. Look, this will bring me success!
Fang-wan arranged a great feast on the occasion of the joyful omen. That evening Fang-wan had too much to eat, got drunk and fell asleep in his tent. Taking advantage of this, Pan-gu crept up to him, grabbed his throat with his teeth, bit off his head and rushed headlong back to the palace. Gao-hsin-wan saw his beloved dog, holding the enemy’s head in his teeth, return to the palace, and his joy knew no bounds, and he ordered the people to give the dog more finely chopped meat. But Pan-gu just sniffed the dish, walked away and sadly went to bed in the corner of the room. Pan-gu stopped eating and lay motionless, and when Gao-hsin-wan called him, he did not get up to answer the call. This went on for three days.
Gao-hsin-wan did not know what to do, and finally asked Pan-gu:
Dog, why don’t you eat anything and don’t come when I call you? Are you really thinking of getting my daughter as your wife and are you angry with me because I didn’t keep my promise? It’s not that I don’t want to keep my promises, but a dog really can’t marry a girl. Pan-gu suddenly said in a human voice:
Don’t worry about it, prince, just put me under the golden bell for seven days and seven nights, and I can turn into a man.
The prince was very surprised to hear such words, but fulfilled his dog’s request and put him under the golden bell to see how the transformation would take place.
A day passed, a second, a third... The sixth day arrived. The good princess, who was looking forward to the wedding, was afraid that the dog would die of hunger, and quietly raised the bell to look at Pan-gu. Pan-gu's body had already turned into a human one, and only the head was still a dog's, but now it could no longer turn into a human one. Pan-gu ran out from under the bell, threw on his clothes, and the princess put on a hat in the shape of a dog's head. And they became husband and wife. Then Pan-gu and his wife went to the Southern Mountains and settled in a cave among the wild mountains, where no man had ever set foot.
The princess took off her expensive and beautiful clothes, put on a simple peasant dress, began to work and did not complain, and Pan-gu went hunting every day. So they lived in peace and happiness. A few years later they had three sons and a daughter. Then they took the children and went to the palace to visit their father-in-law and mother-in-law. And since the children did not yet have a name, they asked Gao-hsin-wan to give them names. After birth, the eldest son was placed on a dish, so he was called Pan - Dish; after birth, the second son was placed in a basket and called Lan - Basket. Youngest son They couldn't come up with a suitable name. Suddenly the sky opened up and thunder roared, so they called it Lay - Thunder. When the daughter became an adult, she was married to a brave warrior, and she received his surname - Zhong - Bell. Subsequently, people from these four clans - Pan, Lan, Lei and Zhong - married each other and from their sons and grandsons a people arose, among whom everyone revered Pan-gu as a common ancestor.
Subsequently, the myth of Pan-gu developed even more. This was manifested, in particular, in the episode with the ax. In Zhou Yu’s book “The Tale of the Creation,” written at the beginning of the 17th century, it says: “[Pan-gu] stretched out, pushing the sky further up and the earth down. Still, there was a bridge between heaven and earth. Then he took in left hand a chisel, an ax in his right hand and began to chisel and chop with an ax. And since he possessed magical powers, he eventually managed to separate heaven from earth” (Chapter I, “Pan-gu separates heaven from earth”).
So, Pan-gu gets not only an ax, but also a chisel; consequently, he masters two powerful tools. “He began to chisel with a chisel and chop with an axe” - this development of the myth of Pan-gu romantically and at the same time realistically reflects the great idea that everything on earth was created by labor.
The same legend, with certain modifications, is widespread among the peoples of Southern China - Yao, Miao, Li, etc.
It is known that the Yao people make sacrifices to Pan-gu, calling him Pan-wan - Prince Pan. According to their ideas, the life and death of people, longevity, wealth and poverty - everything is in his hands. Whenever there is a drought, they certainly pray to Pan-wan, and they go out with his image into the fields and walk around the crops.
The Miao people also have a legend about Pan-wan, reminiscent of the story of the creation of the world from the Old Testament. The Miao people praise him as the creator of various tools and things. In the 3rd century. AD Xu Zheng wrote “Historical Records of the Three Rulers and Five Emperors,” in which he used the legends about Pan-gu, common among the peoples of Southern China. By adding philosophical elements from the ancients classic books, as well as his own ideas, he portrayed him as the creator of the universe, who separated heaven from earth in times of universal chaos, and turned him into the common ancestor of all Chinese.
How were earth and heaven finally separated, and how was the universe created? Chinese mythology has an answer to this question.
According to legend, at a time when the earth and sky had not yet separated from each other, the universe was a complete chaos and resembled a huge chicken egg. Our first ancestor Pan-gu was born in it. He grew up and, breathing heavily, fell asleep in this huge egg. Eighteen thousand years passed before he suddenly woke up. I opened my eyes slightly to look around, but, alas! - he saw nothing: there was complete black and sticky darkness around him, and his heart was filled with melancholy. Not knowing how to get out of this egg, Pan-gu grabbed a huge ax that had come from nowhere and forcefully hit the darkness in front of him with it. There was a deafening roar, the kind that happens when mountains crack - hua-la! - a huge egg cracked. Everything light and clean immediately rose up and formed the sky, and everything heavy and dirty sank down and formed the earth. Thus, heaven and earth, which at first represented complete chaos, were separated from each other by the blow of an axe. After Pan-gu separated the sky from the earth, he, fearing that they would unite again, rested his feet on the ground and supported the sky with his head. So he stood, changing with them. Every day the sky became higher by one zhang, and the earth became thicker by one zhang, and Pan-gu grew by one zhang.
Another eighteen thousand years passed - the sky rose very high, the earth became very thick, and Pan-gu's body also grew unusually. How tall did Pan-gu become? It is said that his height was nine thousand li. The giant Pan-gu stood like the highest pillar between heaven and earth, preventing them from turning into chaos again. So he stood, alone, supporting the sky and resting on the ground, and in this hard work he did not notice how entire eras had passed. Finally, heaven and earth, apparently, had become strong enough, and Pan-gu could no longer fear that they would unite again - after all, he also needed to rest. In the end, like all people, he fell and died. The sigh that escaped from his lips became the wind and clouds, the voice became thunder, the left eye became the sun, the right eye became the moon, the torso with arms and legs became the four countries of the world and five famous mountains, the blood became rivers, the veins became roads, the flesh became soil. , hair on the head and mustache - stars in the sky, skin and hair on the body - herbs, flowers and trees, teeth, bones, bone marrow, etc. - shiny metals, strong stones, sparkling pearls and jasper, and even the sweat that appeared on his body, seemingly completely useless, turned into raindrops and dew. In a word, Pan-gu, dying, devoted himself entirely to this new world was rich and beautiful.
There are other legends about the magical powers and transformations of Pan-gu. According to one version, the tears that flowed from his eyes turned into rivers, a sigh into a gust of wind, a voice into rumbles of thunder, and the shine of his eyes into lightning.
They also say that clear weather happens when Pan-gu is happy, but as soon as he gets angry, the sky becomes clouded with heavy rain clouds. There is another amazing report that Pan-gu had the head of a dragon and the body of a snake. When he inhaled, the wind and rain rose, and when he exhaled, thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, he opened his eyes - day came, closed - night descended - almost like the spirit of Zhu-long from Mount Zhongshan, described in the “Book of Mountains and Seas”.
Despite all the discrepancies in the description of Pan-gu, the common thing is that all people revered him as the ancestor who separated heaven from earth. Therefore, legend says that in the South Sea there is a tomb of Pan-gu, three hundred li long. And there is also a story about the state of Pangugo, in which all the inhabitants bore the surname Pan-gu, etc.
3. Gods create people. Fu-si and Nyu-wa in Han paintings. Imprisonment and escape of the thunder god. The great role of one tooth. Fu-si and Nyu-wa are hiding in a gourd from the flood. Marriage of brother and sister. Where did the people come from?
We have already told how the heavens and the earth were created. But how did people appear on earth? A relatively early version of the appearance of people is the version that people, as already mentioned in the first chapter, arose as a result of the interaction of the two great gods Yin and Yang.
After heaven and earth were created, from the remaining coarse particles they created animals, birds, fish and insects, and from pure particles - people. No one believed this version, and in the end it disappeared without a trace, without leaving any significant trace.
According to an even later legend, Pan-gu had a wife. She, as expected, bore him sons, and from them the human race descended. This version did not receive wide recognition and disappeared, as it deprived the image of Pan-gu of its fantastic quality.
There is also an amazing and beautiful legend about how heavenly spirits together created people. Huang Di created differences between men and women, Shan Pian - ears, eyes, mouth and nose, San Lin - arms and legs. It is worth mentioning Nyu-wa, who participated in this joint work, but what she created is not clear to us.
The myth of how spirits created people is indeed very interesting, but, unfortunately, records about it in ancient books are very scarce, and we know nothing about the deities Shan-pan and San-lin. We do not know at all under what circumstances people were created through their joint efforts. Therefore, this myth is also not widespread. On the contrary, the myth of the creation of people by one goddess Nyu-wa, which enjoyed the greatest confidence among all the previously mentioned myths, since it is both unusual and at the same time close to the understanding of people, formed a rich poetic part in Chinese mythology.
When it comes to Nui-wa, the hero of another legend comes to mind - Fu-si, who is also called Pao-si, Bao-si, etc. All these names are found in ancient books as a variety of names.
Fu-hsi is also one of the famous heroes among our ancestors. According to legend, he and Nyu-wa were originally brother and sister or later husband and wife. The reliability of this “ancient in antiquity” legend is confirmed by reliefs on stone and bricks of the Han era, as well as legends widespread among the peoples of Southwestern China - Miao, Yao, Yi, Tong, etc. In stone and brick carvings of the Han era, we often we see Fu-si and Nyu-wa, having the head of a man and the body of a snake. Fu-si and Nyu-wa are depicted up to the waist in the form of people dressed in a hat and robe, and below the waist - in the form of a snake (sometimes a dragon), with tightly intertwined tails and faces facing each other, or, conversely, with each other’s backs to a friend. He holds a yardstick in his hands, she holds a compass. In some images, Fu-si holds the sun, in which a golden crow is inscribed, and Nü-wa holds the moon with the image of a toad. Some images are decorated with clouds, among which winged messengers of the sky soar human heads and snake bodies. There are paintings with a naive little boy on bowed legs, who pulls adults by the sleeves - this image symbolizes family happiness.
After studying these images, there is no doubt that Fu-si and Nyu-wa were depicted as husband and wife in ancient legends. Based on these images and entries in ancient books, we can confidently say that, according to Chinese mythology, the human race descended from heavenly deities - half people, half animals.
They were deified ancestors and also turned into guardian spirits. In ancient times, people often carved images of Fu-si and Nu-wa on graves and in temples so that the deceased, under their protection, could calmly enjoy the joys of the other world.
The myth that brother and sister Fu-si and Nyu-wa entered into marriage and laid the foundation to the human race, was already recorded in the book of the Tang author Li Rong “Description of the Unique and Strange” (Du and Zhi). There we read: “In the old days, when the universe was just created, Nyu-wa lived with her brother on the Kunlun Mountains, but there were no people in the Celestial Empire yet. They decided to become husband and wife, but they were ashamed. Then the brother took his sister to the top of Kunlun and cast a spell: “If heaven wants us to get married, let the smoke rush upward in a column; if not, let the smoke clear." The smoke rose in a column. Then the sister approached her brother, weaving a fan out of grass to cover her face. The current custom of holding a fan at a wedding originated from here."
Apart from the episode with the fan, which reflects the subordinate position of women in later times, this record is very valuable, since it preserves the appearance of an ancient myth and corresponds to the legends about the marriage of Fu-si and Nui-wa, which are still prevalent among the national minorities of the South-West.
Interesting are the legends common among the peoples of Southwestern China - the Yao and Miao. According to these legends, Fu-si and Nyu-wa are not just spouses, but siblings who entered into marriage. There are some discrepancies in these legends in different localities. Below we present a legend of the Yao people, recorded in the city of Luocheng, Yongxian County, Guangxi Province.
A downpour was about to break out, the clouds were getting bigger, the wind was getting stronger, and thunder was rumbled in the sky. The children were very scared, and those who worked in the field had not yet returned home, and they were not very worried, because everyone knows that there are often thunderstorms in the summer and this is not surprising.
That day, one man took moss from a dry ditch and climbed to repair the roof covered with tree bark so that it would not leak. At this time, his two children, a boy and a girl, who were a little over ten years old, were playing outside in the open air and watching their father work. Having finished his work, he took the children and entered the house. And at this time the rain suddenly poured. The father and children closed the doors and windows and enjoyed the comfort of home in a small warm room. The rain became more and more intense, the wind howled, the thunder intensified, as if the god of thunder Lei Kung was angry and, in order to instill fear in the people, intended to send down a great disaster on them.
The father seemed to foresee the approach of a great misfortune, so he took the iron cage he had prepared long ago, placed it under the eaves of the roof, opened it, and, taking a tiger-hunting spear in his hands, fearlessly began to wait near the cage.
The sky turned black with continuous clouds, menacing peals of thunder were heard one after another. And the brave man, hiding under the cornice, remained fearless. Following a flash of lightning and a powerful clap of thunder, like the sound of a collapsing mountain, the blue-faced Lei Gong grabbed a wooden ax and quickly descended from the roof, flapping his wings, his eyes emitting a sharp, bright light.
The brave man, hiding under the cornice, saw Lei-gun, quickly grabbed the spear and rushed at him. He hooked it to his belt, shoved him into the cage and dragged him into the house.
This time I caught you, what can you do now?” the man asked the thunder god mockingly.
Lei Kung lowered his head dejectedly and did not say a word. The man called his children to look at the captive Lei-kung.
The children were very scared of this strange blue-faced god, but soon got used to it.
The next morning, the father went to the market to buy incense sticks, intending to kill Lei-kung and cook him into a meal. Before leaving, he told his children:
Do not let him drink under any circumstances.
When he left, Lei Kung pretended to groan, pretended to suffer, and said:
I'm very thirsty, give me a cup of water.
The older boy said to Lei Kung:
I won’t give it, my father didn’t order me to give you water,
If you can’t give me a cup, give me at least a sip, I’m terribly thirsty!
The boy did not agree:
No, I can’t, my father will find out and he will scold me.
“Then scoop at least a few drops from the cauldron,” Lei-kung stubbornly continued, “otherwise I’m completely dying of thirst.” He closed his eyes and opened his mouth in anticipation.
The girl, seeing Lei-kung's suffering, felt pity for him in her kind heart and thought that day and night had already passed since her father locked him in a cage, and during this time Lei-kung had not drunk a drop of water. I really feel sorry for him! And she said to her brother:
Let's give him a few drops.
The brother thought that nothing bad would happen with a few drops, and agreed. The brother and sister went to the kitchen, scooped up some water from the cauldron, and returned to pour it into Lei Gong's mouth.
After drinking the water, the thunder god became cheerful and said with gratitude:
Thank you! Now leave the room for a moment.
The children ran out in fear, and immediately there was a strong roar that shook heaven and earth: it was Lei Kung, breaking the cage and flying out of the house. Lei Kung hastily pulled out the tooth from his mouth and handed it to the children with the words:
Take it quickly and plant it in the ground, and if trouble happens, you can hide in its fruits.
After this, thunder roared again, and the god flew into the sky. The children stood rooted to the spot and looked after him.
After some time, having bought incense and everything to prepare food from Lei-gun, the father returned home.
He saw the broken cage and was very surprised that Lei Kung had disappeared. He quickly found the children, asked them what had happened, and only then did he understand what was going on. He felt that a great misfortune was approaching, but did not punish the foolish children, but got to work and, without stopping day or night, made an iron boat in order to escape from trouble.
The children, while playing, planted the tooth given by Lei Gong into the ground. And it’s strange - before they had time to do this, a delicate green sprout appeared from the clay. It began to grow before our eyes, and on the same day an ovary appeared on it. The next day in the morning, the children saw a huge fruit on it - it was an unprecedented size gourd. The brother and sister returned home, took a knife and a saw, sawed off the top of the pumpkin, and what they saw inside could have scared anyone: countless teeth grew in close rows in the gourd. However, the children were not afraid, they pulled out these teeth and threw them away, climbed into the empty pumpkin themselves, and it turned out that there was just enough space in it for both of them to hide. They dragged the pumpkin to a secluded place and hid in it.
On the third day, as soon as my father finished the iron boat, the weather suddenly changed dramatically: a black wind blew from all sides, a fierce rain poured from the sky, as if from an inverted basin, streams of water began to seethe on the ground, as if a herd of wild horses had rushed by. The hills have disappeared high mountains surrounded by water; fields, gardens, homes, forests and villages - everything turned into a continuous seething sea.
Children!” the father shouted, trying to shout above the rain and wind. “Hide quickly!” It was Lei Kung who caused the flood to take revenge on us!
The children quickly climbed into the gourd, and the father got into his iron boat. Soon the stream picked her up, and the waves either threw her to the east or carried her to the west.
The water kept rising and had already reached the sky. The brave man, boldly steering the iron boat in the wind and rain among the raging waves, sailed straight to the gates of heaven. He stood on the bow of the boat and began knocking on the gate. Loud sounds of “peng-peng!” spread across the sky.
Open it quickly and let us in! Let me in!” he shouted, impatiently banging his fists.
The spirit of the sky was afraid and ordered the spirit of the waters to immediately drive away the waters. The spirit of the waters fulfilled the order, and after a few moments the rain stopped and the wind died down. The water subsided for a thousand zhangs, and dry land appeared on the earth, as before. When the flood stopped, the daredevil and his boat fell from the sky to the ground. The iron boat broke into small pieces. And the poor brave man, who entered into the fight with Lei-kung, suffered the same fate - he fell to his death.
The children sitting in the gourd survived. The pumpkin was soft, and when it fell to the ground, it only bounced a few times, but did not break. Brother and sister got out of it safe and sound.
During the flood, all people on earth died. Only two children survived. They did not have a name, and since they were saved in a gourd, they were called Fu-si. Fu-si is the same as Pao-si, i.e. "Gourd pumpkin" The boy was named “Brother Pumpkin” and the girl was called “Sister Pumpkin”.
The human race on earth ceased, but the brave boy and girl began to work and lived cheerfully and carefree. In those days, heaven and earth were not so far from each other, and the gates of heaven were always open. The brother and sister often walked up the heavenly staircase, holding hands, to play in the heavenly palace.
Years passed, the children grew up and became adults. The brother wanted to marry his sister, but she did not agree and said:
How is it possible? You and I are brother and sister!
The brother asked again and again, and the sister could not refuse him and suggested:
Try to catch up with me, if you catch up, then I agree, and we will get married.
She was agile and fast, and he chased her for a long time, but could not catch her. A cunning plan was born in the brother’s head: he suddenly turned around, and the out of breath sister, who did not expect this, came face to face with him and found herself in his arms. They soon got married and became husband and wife.
A little time passed, and the woman gave birth to a lump of meat. The husband and wife were very surprised, cut it into small pieces, wrapped them and, together with the bundle, climbed the heavenly staircase-Vyatsa to the heavenly palace to have fun. But halfway through the journey, a gust of strong wind suddenly blew in, tore the package, and pieces of meat scattered in all directions. Having fallen to the ground, they turned into people. The one that fell on the foliage of the trees received the surname E (leaf), the one that fell on the tree received the surname My (tree); on what and where the piece of meat fell, such a surname was given to the person. This is how people appeared in the world again. The Fu-si spouses revived the human race, and they are essentially “not much different from the first creator Pan-gu, and it is quite possible that Fu-si and Pan-gu are one and the same image.
4. Huaxu Country. The Giant's Trail at the Thunder Swamp. Stairways to heaven. Tree in Duguan Wasteland. The god of wood and at the same time the deity of life. Gou-man. Creations and inventions of Fu-xi. An ancient legend about making fire by friction. Descendants of Fu-si.
Above we briefly recounted the myth of Fu-si and Nui-wa and the origin of people. Now we will again, in accordance with the ancient legends of the Chinese, tell separately about each of the myths dedicated to Fu-si and Nyu-wa, since in the records of ancient books before the Qin and Han dynasties, Fu-si and Nyu-wa are not at all connected yourself.
First, let's dwell on the myth of Fu-si, and then about Nui-wa, and then the question of where people came from according to the ancient Chinese will become completely clear.
There are very few myths about Fu-si that have survived to this day. In our story we can only rely on some scattered materials.
They say that hundreds of thousands of li to the northwest of China there was a prosperous country and it was called the Country of the Huaxu clan.
This country was so far away that it was impossible to reach it either on foot, or in a cart, or by boat and one could only “go there in thoughts.” In that country there were no rulers or leaders, people had no aspirations or passions, they followed only their natural desires, and therefore everyone lived a very long, beautiful and cheerful life. They could walk on water without fear of drowning, walk through fire without fear of being burned, fly through the air as freely as they could walk on land. Clouds and fogs did not interfere with their vision, and thunderclaps did not disturb their hearing. The people of this country were something between people and deities, and they could be considered earthly shenxians - immortals.
In this paradise country there lived a girl. She had no name, and everyone called her Hua-hsu-shi (nee Hua-hsu). One day she headed east for a walk to the beautiful, large Thunder Swamp, Leize, overgrown with grass and trees. Suddenly she saw the footprints of some giant on the shore. I was surprised and stepped on this trail for fun. As soon as I stepped foot, I suddenly felt some kind of excitement. Then she became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, who was named Fu-si.
What kind of giant left his footprints in the Thunder Swamp? The ancient books say nothing about this. But we know that the main spirit of the Thunder Swamp was Leishen - the god of thunder. He was half man, half beast with the head of a man and the body of a dragon. Who, besides Leishen, could have left traces in those places? In addition, according to legend, Fu-si had “the face of a man and the body of a snake” or “the body of a dragon and the head of a man.” Therefore, we can talk about a blood relationship between Fu-si and Leishen, i.e. that Fu-si was indeed the son of the thunder god.
Fu-si, being the son of a god and a woman from a paradise country, was a deity from birth. One of the proofs of this is that he could freely ascend to heaven and descend to earth using the heavenly staircase. We have already talked about how Fu-si and his sister ascended to heaven. But what kind of staircase was this? Let's talk about this.
Of course, this ladder was not made by human hands, like those ladders we use to climb walls or climb in houses. Myths speak of ladders in the form of mountains and ladders in the form of trees. They appeared by themselves. The ideas of the ancients were naive and simple, and it seemed to them that the gods and immortals rose to heaven and descended, “without jumping on a cloud or bridling a cloud,” but step by step they rose to heaven and descended to earth along mountains or tree ladders .
It was not an easy task. You had to know where the mountains or trees were that you could climb straight into the heavenly palace, and you had to be able to climb. For example, everyone knows that the Kunlun Mountains are the lower capital of Tian Di, the heavenly emperor, and their highest peak reaches the heavenly palace. However, it's not that simple. According to legend, the foot of the mountains is surrounded by the deep and rapid stream of the Ruoshui River - Weak Water and the fiery mountains, and it is extremely difficult to climb them. Climbing the tree ladder is also not easy, which is why ancient books say that only gods, immortals, and even shamans could freely climb and descend the heavenly ladders.
Besides Kunlun, other mountains led to heaven. After all, the immortal Bo Gao ascended to heaven along Mount Zhaoshan, which is east of Mount Huashan and the Qingshui River. And in the western desert there was Mount Dengbaoshan, along which shamans climbed straight to the heavenly palace to find out the will of the gods and convey it to people.
Only one tree - jianmu - reached the very sky. Although the sansan tree and the xunmu tree that grew beyond the North Sea, and the fusang tree that grew beyond the Eastern Sea, and the zhumu tree in the western desert and others were several tens or thousands of zhang and even thousands of li, but the ancient books do not say, was it possible to use them to reach the sky?
The Jianmu tree grew in the southwest of Duguang, where it was believed that the center of heaven and earth was located. It was an amazing place: everything that grew there - rice, millet, beans, wheat; their grains were white, smooth, as if filled with fat. And they could be sown at any time - be it winter or summer. The magical bird Luan sang there, phoenixes danced, a variety of birds and animals gathered, because the trees and grasses were green in Duguan in winter and summer. And the lingshou tree, similar to bamboo, whose strong trunk could serve as an old man’s staff, bloomed there with beautiful fragrant flowers. In a word, it was the Garden of Eden on earth. Some believe it was located on the site of Chengdu in modern Sichuan Province. Both in terms of geographical location and description of the landscape, it really is somewhat reminiscent of Sichuan.
The Jianmu tree grew in the middle of the garden, which was located in the center of heaven and earth. And when noon came and the sun illuminated its top, there was no shadow from the tree. If they shouted loudly near this tree, the sounds were lost in the void and the echo did not repeat them. The Jianmu tree was very strange in appearance: its thin long trunk crashed straight into the clouds, there were no branches on it and only at the top there were several bent and crooked branches like an umbrella; The roots of the tree were also curved and intertwined with each other. This tree had one more feature: its elastic and durable bark came off in the same way as a woman’s belt or the skin of a yellow snake.
The heavenly staircase was located in the center of heaven and earth, and the gods of different places ascended and descended along this muddy trunk that went straight into the clouds. Fu-hsi climbed this tree, and it is quite possible that he was the first to climb it. This alone confirms its magical power.
According to legend, he created musical instrument se - gusli - and the beautiful melody of jiaban. These harps originally had fifty strings, but it so happened that one day Fu-si forced Saint Su-nyu from the desert near Duguang to play the harps for him. Her performance caused him deep sadness, and he asked not to continue the game, but the headstrong woman did not listen to him. Then Fu-si broke the instrument, and se had only twenty-five strings left, and the melody became less sad. Therefore, se in subsequent times had nineteen, twenty-three and at most twenty-five strings. The fact that Fu-xi could force Sunyu to play for himself once again suggests that he is truly an extraordinary, amazing character in Chinese mythology.
In the myths and legends of antiquity, Fu-si appears as the supreme ruler of the East. His assistant was a tree spirit named Gou-man. Gou-man held a compass in his hands and, together with the Lord of the East Fu-si, controlled the springs. He had the square face of a man and the body of a bird. He wore a white robe and rode two dragons. They say that he was the son of the Lord of the West Shao-hao from the Jin-Tian clan, but became an assistant to the Lord of the East. His name was Chun, and people called him Gou-man, which meant that spring grasses and trees were quirky and twisted, and the word “Gou-man” became a symbol of spring and life. There is a legend that during the Spring and Autumn times there lived a wise prince named Qin Mu-gong, who knew how to select wise dignitaries. Once in the Principality of Chu, for five sheep skins, he bought a certain Bo Li-si and appointed him to the most important post in the state. He was very kind to people. When three hundred Qixia nomads killed and ate the beautiful horses that ran away from him, he forgave them. In gratitude for his mercy, they helped him defeat the army of the Principality of Jin and capture the Jin ruler Yi. For these good deeds, the Heavenly Lord ordered the spirit of the tree and trees Gou-man to extend his life by nineteen years. This supreme lord was undoubtedly the Lord of the East, Taihao Fu-si.
Fu-si had a beautiful daughter named Mi-fei. While crossing the Luo River, she drowned and turned into the spirit of the Luo River. Poets sang of her beauty in the highest odes and hymns. We will tell you about it in detail in the chapter “The Story of Shooter Yi and his wife Chang-e.”
Fu-si did a lot for the people, it is written about in historical works. They say that he drew eight trigrams: qian - sky, kun - earth, kan - water, li - fire, gen - mountains, zhen - thunder, xun - wind, dui - swamps. These few signs embraced various phenomena of the universe, and people used them to record various events of their lives. Historical writings also say that Fu-si was the first to weave nets from ropes and taught people to fish. His close associate Man (apparently this is Gou-man), imitating him, made snares and taught people to catch birds. All this made people's lives easier.
However, perhaps Fu-hsi's greatest merit was that he gave people fire so that they could eat boiled meat and get rid of stomach pain. The ancient historical books known to us do not say definitely who taught people to use fire: this is attributed to Sui-ren, Fu-si, and even Huang-di. Fu-si was also called Pao-si, which means “meat fried on fire”, or “meat from the kitchen” (“Chronological records of emperors and rulers” - Divanshi-ji), “stopped eating raw meat"(Wang Jia, Shiiji - "Records of Forgotten Events"). The word "Yao-si" (lit.: "fried meat") essentially expresses the idea of \u200b\u200bthe use of fire. People learned from Sui-ren to use fire primarily to cook food.
Fu-si in Chinese mythology is the son of Leishen - the spirit of thunder and at the same time the supreme ruler of the East, who was in charge of springs and the growth of trees. What phenomena occurred from lightning strikes on trees? There is no doubt that as a result of this, fires started and larger flames arose. Thus, the very appearance of Fu-hsi and his duties as a spirit are very easy to identify with the appearance of fire on earth. Therefore, we believe that the use of fire should first of all be associated with the name Fu-si, this is the most justified. Of course, the fire that Fu-hsi produced was apparently a natural fire, caused by a fire in a mountain forest after a thunderstorm. Sui-ren's discovery of the method of making fire by friction was clearly made later.
There is a very interesting legend about producing fire using friction. They say that in ancient times, in the west of the vast desert, there was the country of Suimingo. It was located in a place where neither the rays of the sun nor the light of the moon reached, and since the inhabitants of this country did not see the sun, they knew neither day nor night. The Suimu tree grew in this country. It was unusually large, with a very winding trunk, crooked branches and curled leaves, and occupied a huge space. Once a wise man went to travel the earth and went very far, to places where neither the sun nor the moon was visible, and reached the country of Suimingo. He decided to rest a little under a bizarre and huge sumumu tree. There was no sunlight in the country of Suimingo; complete darkness seemed to reign there, like in a large forest, but only by looking closely could one be convinced that this was not the case. In this forest, beautiful lights lit up everywhere, as if sparkling pearls and gems, lighting up everything around. People of Suimingo Country all year round They did not see the sun in the sky, but they worked and rested, ate and slept in the light of these brilliant and beautiful lights.
A wise man wanted to find out where these lights came from. And they appeared because big birds, which resembled fishing birds, with long claws on their paws, a black back and a white belly, beat tree trunks with their short and hard beaks (apparently, they pecked insects). They hit the tree with their beak and a bright light flashes. And the sage suddenly came up with the idea that this is how to make fire. He broke off several branches from the sumumu tree; He took a small branch and began to drill a large one with it, and a light actually flashed, but there was no flame from it. He began to take branches of other trees, again trying to get fire. The sage spent more effort than the first time, so that in the end, from the rotation of the branch, first smoke appeared, and then fire - the branch caught fire, and he produced real fire.
He returned to his country and taught people the method of making fire by friction. Now people could make fire when they needed it, rather than waiting for a thunderstorm. From now on, they no longer had to guard the fire all year round, fearing that it would go out. And people called the man who discovered the method of making fire by rubbing wood, the name Sui-ren, which means “who made fire.”
In subsequent eras after Fu-si, as we know, the country of Bago existed in the southwest. According to legend, Xian-nyao was born from Fu-si, Cheng-li was born from Xian-nyao, and Hou-zhao was born from Cheng-li, who became the ancestor of the Bago people.
The country of Bago was not far from the places where the Jianmu tree grew. And nearby was the country of Liuhuangsinipi, which occupied an area of three hundred li. It was surrounded by mountains and rivers, removed from the bustle of the world and was pure, like the abode of the immortals. The country of Bago, judging by its description, was almost no different from it.
5. Nyu-wa makes people from yellow clay. Nü Wa establishes the marriage system. A cheerful celebration in front of the temple of the gods during a sacrifice with a prayer for the gift of children to the ruler. The fight between the god of water Gun-gun and the god of fire Zhu-zhong. Nyu-wa repairs the firmament.
We find the first mention of Nü-wa in “Questions to Heaven” by Qu Yuan, where it is said: “Who was the one who created Nü-wa itself?” This question is very strange, because if it was Nyu-wa who created people, then who could have created her? Wang Yi, in his comments to Qu Yuan, based on another legend, outlines the image of Nü-wa. According to him, it had the head of a man and the body of a snake. This coincides with the image of her in the Wulyantsa temple, but, unfortunately, he does not say what gender Nyu-wa was. In the earliest Chinese dictionary, under the character Wa, the following explanation is given: “Wa is a female spirit who in ancient times created all things in the world.” Essentially, only from this explanation do we learn that Nyu-wa was a female deity.
She was endowed with exceptional divine power and could perform seventy reincarnations in one day. It can be assumed that she had a certain relation to the creation of the human race. Here we will not touch upon the issue of her reincarnations, but will only retell the story of how she created people.
At that time, when the earth was separated from the sky, although there were already mountains, rivers, grass and trees on the earth, and even birds and animals, insects and fish, there were no people on it yet, and therefore the world was deserted and silent. A great spirit, Nui-wa, roamed this silent land. In her heart she felt extraordinary loneliness and understood that in order to revive the earth, something else needed to be done.
She squatted down on the shore of the pond, took a handful of yellow clay, moistened it with water and, looking at her reflection, sculpted something like a little girl. As soon as she put it on the ground, suddenly - and it’s strange to say - this little figure came to life, shouted “wa-wa” and jumped joyfully. Her name was Ren - “person”.
The first man was very small, but, according to legend, he was created by a goddess. He was different from flying birds and from four-legged animals, and he behaved like the master of the universe. Nyu-wa was very pleased with her creation and, continuing this work, sculpted many people of both sexes from clay. Naked men surrounded Nyu-wa, danced and shouted joyfully. Then they, alone and in groups, fled in different directions.
Surprised and calmed down, Nyu-wa continued her work. Living people continued to fall from her hands to the ground, and she, hearing the laughter of the people around her, no longer felt lonely in the silence, because the world was populated by her sons and daughters. She, wanting to populate the entire earth with these intelligent little creatures, worked for a very long time and, not yet having time to fulfill what she wanted, was very tired. In the end, she took something like a rope, apparently it was a vine torn from a mountain cliff, lowered it into the swamp and, when it became covered with liquid yellow clay, shook this clay onto the ground. In the places where pieces of clay fell, little people appeared shouting “wa-wa” and jumping joyfully.
So she simplified her work - she shakes the rope, and immediately many living people appear. Soon traces of people were visible everywhere on the ground.
People appeared on earth, and it would seem that Nui-wa’s work could end with this. However, she wondered what else could be done to ensure that the human race continued - after all, people were dying, and creating them again every time was too tedious. Therefore, she, having united men and women, forced them to continue their family line and assigned them the responsibility of raising children. This is how the human race began to continue, and day by day there were more and more people.
Nyu-wa established a form of marriage for people and, connecting men and women, became the very first matchmaker. Therefore, subsequent generations revered her as the goddess of matchmaking and marriage. People made sacrifices to this deity, the ceremonies were unusually magnificent: an altar was built in a field outside the city, a temple was erected, and during the holiday they sacrificed pigs, bulls and rams to her. Year after year, in the second month of spring, young men and women gathered together near the idol, having fun and having fun. Everyone, having found a couple after their hearts, could freely marry without any rituals. Under the open sky, in the light of the stars and the moon, they built huts, a carpet of green grass served as their bed, and no one could disturb their relationship.
This was what is called “a connection by the will of heaven.” During these meetings, beautiful songs and dances dedicated to the goddess were performed, and young people could have fun as much as they wanted. Those who did not have sons came to the temple to ask for male offspring. So Nyu-wa became not only the goddess of marriage, but also the goddess who gives children.
In each principality, sacrifices to this goddess were made in different places, be it in the mountains or forests, such as in the mulberry forest - Sanlin in the Principality of Song, or on lakes and rivers, for example at Lake Yunmeng in the Principality of Chu, etc. , in a word, in some beautiful area. On the altar, usually vertically, stood a stone, which people treated with extraordinary respect. The meaning of this symbol is not entirely clear, but apparently it is associated with the phallic cult popular in ancient times.
After Nuwa created the human race and established a system of marriage between people, she lived in complete serenity for many years. Suddenly, the god of water Gun-gun and the god of fire Zhu-zhong, for some unknown reason, fought and disrupted the happy and calm life of people.
Gun-gun was known in the sky as an evil spirit, he had the face of a man and the body of a snake, his head was covered with red hair, he was ignorant and evil. He had a dignitary named Xiang-liu, his most important assistant, who had nine heads with human faces and a blue body of a snake, cruel and greedy. Gong-gun also had a dignitary named Fu-yu, who also helped him do evil. We don’t know what Fu-yu looked like during his life, we only know that after his death he, having turned into a brown bear, ran to the house of the Jin prince Ping-gun, lay down behind the canopy and, carefully peeping from there, eventually frightened the owner so much that that he was sick.
Gun-gun also had a son who had no name, who was no better than these father’s assistants. He died on the day of the winter solstice, turning after death into evil devil who cast delusions on people. This devil was afraid of nothing but red beans. Smart people knew this and, in order to avoid his obsessions, every year on the day of the winter solstice they cooked a stew from them. Seeing this food, he immediately ran away.
Of all Gong-gun's entourage, only his son Xiu was good. He had a gentle disposition, had no vices, loved to wander and admire the famous mountains and rivers, and everywhere he could reach by cart, boat and on foot, there were traces of his carefree and cheerful travels.
People treated him with gratitude and after his death they revered him as the god of travel. In ancient times, every time people set off on a journey, they first of all made a sacrifice to him, calling him Tzu-dao or Tzu-jian, and set out wine and food to ask him for safety and a safe journey for the departing one. During the struggle between Gong-gun and Zhu-rong, Xiu, presumably, was on a long journey and did not take part in it. But even without him, Gong-gun’s strength was very great, since the nine-headed Xiang-liu with the body of a snake and Fu-yu, who turned into a bear after death, as well as that same devil son who was afraid of red beans, fought with him. However, in the ancient books there are only brief records of this event and the details of the battle are unknown, so we can only omit it. It is only known that this battle was extremely fierce and it moved from heaven to earth. The elements of water and fire are essentially incompatible, so it is not surprising that Gong-gun, as one of the legends says, the son of Zhu-rong, who usually sat on a chariot of clouds drawn by two dragons, eventually met in fight with his father - the spirit of fire.
Gun-gun and his assistants boarded a large raft and, raising huge waves, sailed down the river to attack Zhu-rong. All the water creatures of the big river apparently served him as war horses. Finally, the spirit of fire, unable to contain its anger, directed an all-consuming flame at them and pretty much scorched the commander and his warriors. In the end, good defeated evil - the spirit of fire, the exponent of the light principle, won, and the malicious and warlike spirit of water, the bearer of darkness, was defeated.
For the defeated water spirit army, the circumstances were very sad. The impatient Fu-yu, without taking a breath, ran all the way to the Huai River, the devil son, who was afraid of red beans, apparently gave up the ghost immediately after the defeat, the nine-headed Xiang-liu remained alive, but, filled with shame, fled to the northern part of the mountains Kunlun also hid there and avoided people. Gong-gun, seeing that nothing came of his idea, lost heart, out of shame and resentment he decided to commit suicide and began to beat his head on Mount Buzhoushan, which is located in the west, but remained alive. Having come to his senses, he went to the great Yu to prevent him from pacifying the flood.
When he hit his head on the mountain, the earth and sky changed their original shape, and a great disaster threatened the world.
Previously, Mount Buzhoushan served as a support that supported the sky, but from the blow of the water spirit Gong-gun, it broke and one of the sides of the earth collapsed, and part of the sky fell off and large gaping openings appeared in the sky, and black and deep pits appeared on the ground.
During these upheavals, mountains and forests were engulfed by a huge, fierce fire, waters gushing from underground flooded the land, and the earth turned into a continuous ocean, the waves of which reached the sky. People could not escape from the water that overtook them, and they were still in danger of death from various predatory animals and birds, which the flood drove out of the forests and mountains. It was real hell.
Nui-wa, seeing how her children were suffering, became very sad. Not knowing how to punish the evil instigator who was not destined to die, she began the hard work of repairing the sky. The work ahead of her was big and difficult. But this was necessary for the happiness of the people, and Nyu-wa, who dearly loved her children, was not at all afraid of the difficulties and boldly took on the task alone.
First of all, she collected many stones of five different colors, melted them over the fire into a liquid mass and used it to seal the holes in the sky. If you look closely, there seems to be some difference in the color of the sky, but from a distance it seems the same as before.
In order not to fear a collapse in the future, Nyu-wa killed a huge turtle, cut off its four legs, and placed them vertically on the four sides of the earth, like props that would support the sky like a tent. These supports were very strong, and therefore there was no fear that the sky would collapse again. Later, she caught a black dragon in the Central Plain, which had been doing evil for a long time, and killed it. She drove out evil and predatory animals and birds so that they would not frighten people. Then she burned the reeds, raked the ashes into heaps and blocked the path of the flood. The Great Nuwa delivered her children from disasters and saved them from death.
6. Big Crab and Hillfish. Five sacred mountains in Guixu. God of the sea and wind Yu-Qiang. The laughter of giants from the land of Lun-bo. The legend about the mountains of the immortals. "Golden Age" of antiquity. Lip organs and reed shengs. Moon dances. Ten demigods from Liguan. Puy-wa is retiring.
Although Nui-wa repaired the firmament well, she could not make it the same as before. They say that the northwestern part of the sky was slightly askew, so the sun, moon and stars began to tilt towards this part of the sky in their movement and set in the west. A deep depression formed in the southeast of the earth, so the waters of all rivers rushed towards it, and seas and oceans are concentrated there.
Seas and oceans easily aroused the imagination of ancient people. Fantastic changes in the outlines of clouds rushing across the sky, and endless, with changeable colors, huge expanses of water, people have inhabited amazing, extraordinary and beautiful creatures. We will not talk here about the palace of the sea king of dragons, oyster spirits, daughters of the dragon king, were-turtles and magical snakes. Let us just briefly recount two legends about a huge crab and a fish man.
There lived in the sea a huge crab a thousand miles long. People rarely see such huge crabs! And according to another legend, this crab was so huge that it would take up an entire cart. Just by its size, it was something amazing, but this seemed not enough to people, and they created such a legend.
Once upon a time there lived a merchant. One day he went to sea on a boat for his trading business. It is unknown how many days had passed when, in the vast sea, he suddenly saw a small island overgrown with emerald green trees. The merchant was surprised and ordered the sailors to land on the island. At once everyone jumped ashore and tied the ship. Then they chopped branches and lit a fire to cook food. But before the water had time to boil, they suddenly felt that the island was moving and the trees began to sink into the water. Frightened people rushed to the ship in confusion, cut the rope and, saving their lives, swam away from the sinking island. We looked closely and it was a huge crab, whose shell had been scorched by the fire of the fire.
More more interesting legend about the fish man. The earliest record of the legend says that the fish man was also called lingyu, which means hill fish. She had the face of a man, but the body of a fish, with human arms and legs. She could leave the water and move on land. That is why it was also called land fish. This character is actually the same as the dragon fish that the female sorceress rode and which will be discussed in the chapter “The Story of the Archer Yi and his Wife Chang-e.” This half-man, half-fish was a very cruel creature, and later legends made him a beautiful nymph.
They also say that in the southern seas there lives a fish-man called a jiaoren - a nymph. And although she lives at sea, she, as in former times, often sits down at the loom and weaves. Deep and quiet at night, when the sea is calm and there are no waves, standing on the shore in the light of the moon and stars, you can hear the noise of weaving looms coming from the depths of the sea. It is the nymphs who weave. Jiaoren, like people, had a soul, and they could cry, each tear turning into a pearl.
According to another legend, fish people are very similar to people - they have the same eyebrows, eyes, mouth, nose, arms, legs. All of them - both men and women - were extraordinarily beautiful, with thin white skin resembling jade, their hair, like ponytails, was up to five or six chi long. As soon as they drank a little wine, their whole body turned pink, like peach flowers, and they became even more beautiful. If a wife or husband died of coastal residents, the fish people caught them and kept them as their husbands and wives.
There is also a legend about how one official went to Korea and saw that there was a woman lying on the coastal shallows, on whose elbows red hair grew like flames. Apparently, this was also a nymph.
All these legends about fish-people are very close in content to famous fairy tale Andersen's "Mermaid". In general, many such legends could be cited. The sea has always aroused fantasy in people, and whether in ancient times or now, in China or in other countries, many similar legends arose everywhere.
The sea gave birth to another legend among the ancients. Watching how the waters of the rivers continuously flow into the sea day and night, they wondered if this was threatening the sea: although the sea is large, could it not overflow and flood everything? What should we do then? In response to this difficult question, a myth arose that in the eastern part of Bohai Bay, far, far from the coast, there is a large bottomless abyss called Guixu. The waters of all rivers, seas, oceans and even the celestial river (Milky Way) flow into it and maintain a constant water level, without increasing or decreasing it. And people calmed down: since there is such a bottomless abyss, then why grieve?
Near Guixu, according to legend, there were five sacred mountains: Daiyu, Yuanjiao, Fanhu, Yingzhou, Penglai.
The height and circumference of each of these mountains was thirty thousand li, the distance between them was seventy thousand li, on the tops of the mountains there were flat spaces of nine thousand li, on them stood golden palaces with staircases made of white jade. Immortals lived in these palaces. And birds and animals were there white, jade and pearl trees grew everywhere. After flowering, jade and pearl fruits appeared on the trees, which tasted good and brought immortality to those who ate them. The immortals apparently dressed in white clothes and had small wings growing on their backs. Little immortals could often be seen flying freely in the azure blue sky above the sea like birds. They flew from mountain to mountain, looking for their relatives and friends. Their life was fun and happy.
And only one circumstance overshadowed her. The fact is that these five sacred mountains floated in the sea without any solid support under them. In calm weather this did not matter of great importance, and when the waves rose, the mountains moved in uncertain directions, and for the immortals flying from mountain to mountain, this created a lot of inconvenience: they thought they would quickly fly somewhere, but their path unexpectedly lengthened; heading to a place, they suddenly discovered that it had disappeared and had to be looked for. This put a lot of work into my head and took a lot of energy. All the residents suffered and in the end, after consulting, they sent several envoys with a complaint to Tian Di, the heavenly ruler. Tian Di decided that this was nothing. But if one fine morning huge waves carry these mountains floating without support to the Northern Limit and they drown there, then the immortals will lose their homes. Here's something to think about. And he ordered the spirit of the North Sea, Yu-Qiang, to immediately figure out how to help them.
The god of the sea, Yu-qiang, the grandson of Tian-di from his first wife, was also the god of the wind. When he appeared in the form of a wind spirit, it was a terrible deity with the face of a man and the body of a bird, two blue snakes hung from his ears, and he trampled two more with his feet. As soon as he flapped his huge wings, a terrible hurricane arose. The wind carried disease and pestilence; those whom he overtook developed ulcers and died.
When Yu-Qiang appeared in the form of the god of the sea, he was relatively kind and, like the “land fish,” had the body of a fish, arms, legs, and sat on two dragons. Why did he have the body of a fish? The fact is that originally it was a fish in the great North Sea and its name was Gun, which means “whale fish.” The whale was huge, you can’t even say how many thousands it was. He could suddenly swing and turn into a pen bird, a huge evil phoenix. He was so large that his back alone stretched for who knows how many thousands of miles. Angry, he flew away, and his two black wings darkened the sky like clouds stretching to the horizon. Every year in winter, when the currents in the seas change their direction, he went from the North Sea to the South Sea, from a fish he turned into a bird, from the god of the sea into the god of the wind. And when the roaring and groaning, chilling and bone-piercing northern wind rose, it meant that Yu-Qiang, the god of the sea, who had turned into a huge bird, blew. When he turned into a bird and flew out of the North Sea, with one flap of his wings he raised huge wings that reached to the sky. sea waves three thousand li high. Pushed by a hurricane wind, he climbed straight onto a cloud ninety thousand li away. This cloud flew south for six months, and only after reaching the South Sea did Yu-Qiang descend to rest a little.
It was this spirit of the sea and the spirit of the wind that the heavenly ruler ordered to find a suitable place for the immortals from the five sacred mountains.
The spirit of the sea did not dare to hesitate and hurriedly sent fifteen huge black turtles into the Guixu abyss so that they could support the five sacred mountains with their heads. One turtle held a mountain on its head, and the other two supported it. Thus, for sixty thousand years, they took turns carrying out their duties. But the turtles who held the sacred mountains did this work very unscrupulously. They hold and hold, but suddenly something comes over them, and the whole group, striking the water with their paws, begins to dance merrily. This meaningless game, of course, caused some worries to the immortals, but compared to the past, when the wind and waves freely carried their mountains, it was nothing. The immortals rejoiced immensely and lived happily and calmly for several tens of thousands of years. But then a misfortune as big as the sky fell on them - the giant from Lunbo mercilessly attacked them.
Longbo, the land of giants, was tens of thousands of li north of the Kunlun Mountains. The people of this country apparently descended from dragons, which is why they were called “lunbo” - relatives of dragons. They say that among them lived one giant, who became sad from idleness and, taking a fishing rod with him, went to the large ocean, beyond the Eastern Sea, to fish. As soon as he stepped foot into the water, he found himself in an area where five sacred mountains were located. I took a few steps and walked around all five mountains. I cast the fishing rod once, twice, three times and pulled out six hungry turtles that had not eaten anything for a long time. Without thinking twice, he put them on his back and ran home. He tore off their shells, began to heat them on fire and tell fortunes from the cracks. Unfortunately, two mountains - Daiyu and Yuanjiao - lost their support and the waves carried them to the Northern Limit, where they drowned in the great ocean. No matter how hard we try, we will not be able to find out how many immortals rushed back and forth across the sky with their belongings and how much sweat left them.
The heavenly ruler, having learned about this, burst into mighty thunder and called upon his great magical powers and made the country of Lunbo become very small, and the inhabitants stunted, so that in the future they would not go to other lands and do evil.
By the time of Shen-nong, the inhabitants of this country had become so tiny that it was impossible to be smaller, but to the people of that time they still seemed to be giants of several dozen zhangs.
Of the five sacred mountains in Guixue, only two sank, and the turtles, who held the other three mountains on their heads - Penglai, Fang-chang (also called Fanghu) and Yingzhou, began to fulfill their duty more conscientiously after they were taught a lesson by the giant from Longbo. They carried their load evenly, and from then on no misfortunes were heard of.
However, after the giant from Longbo attacked these sacred mountains, their fame quickly spread throughout the world. When people on earth learned that not far away in the sea there was a place where such beautiful and mysterious mountains rose, everyone wanted to visit them. Apparently, it happened that an unexpected wind blew close to these sacred mountains the boats of fishermen and fisherwomen who were fishing near the shore. Mountain residents warmly greeted hardworking guests from afar. Then, taking advantage of the fair wind, the fishermen safely returned home on their boats. And soon an even more interesting legend about these sacred mountains began to spread among the people, and also that the inhabitants of those mountains kept a medicine that gave immortality to people.
This legend eventually reached the ears of princes and emperors. The rulers, whose wealth and power knew no bounds, who indulged in all the joys and pleasures of earthly life, were afraid only of the spirit of death, which could suddenly come and take everything from them. Hearing that there was a medicine for immortality on the sacred mountains, they trembled with the desire to get it and, sparing no money and treasures, began to equip big ships, supplied them with provisions and sent Taoists out to sea to the sacred mountains, trying at all costs to get the largest jewel in the world.
During the period of the Warring States (IV-III centuries BC) Wei-wang and Xuan-wang, princes of the state of Qi, Zhao-wang, prince of the state of Yan, Qin Shi-huang, the first Qin emperor, Han emperor Wu -di and others made such attempts, but without success. They all died like ordinary people, without ever obtaining the medicine of immortality and without even seeing the outlines of the sacred mountains. Alas! Alas! Ignorant and greedy rulers!
And people who returned after a vain search for the elixir of immortality said that they actually saw these sacred mountains from afar, far, far away, like clouds floating along the edge of the sky. However, as soon as they approached, the sacred mountains, dazzlingly sparkling, plunged into the abyss, and from the ship’s masts one could clearly distinguish immortals, trees, birds, and animals on them. As soon as they got any closer, an unexpected gust of sea wind came and they had no choice but to turn back. So they could not swim to these mountains.
Probably, the immortals did not want to receive envoys from their lords, princes and emperors, or perhaps this was just a wonderful fiction invented by Taoists who were trying to reach the sacred mountains - and nothing more. In a word, this is just a legend, and we don’t know anything reliable.
Let's return to our previous topic and tell more about Nui-wa. She spent a lot of effort to repair the sky, level the earth and rid humanity of disasters. People repopulated the earth; The seasons followed in the usual sequence, without any disturbances: in the summer, as expected, it was warm, in the winter it was cold.
They say that by this time some of the wild animals had long since died, and those that remained were gradually tamed and became friends of man. A happy life has come for people, without sorrows and worries; you just had to want it - and in a moment the person had a horse or a bull. Edible plants grew in vast expanses; there was no need to take care of them, and you could eat to your heart’s content. What they couldn’t eat was left on the edge of the field, and no one touched it. If a child was born, he was placed in a bird's nest hanging on a tree, and the wind rocked the nest like a cradle. People could drag tigers and leopards by their tails and step on snakes without fear of being bitten. Apparently, this was a time even more ancient than the “golden age”, which was subsequently depicted in people’s imaginations.
Nyu-wa herself rejoiced, seeing that her children were living well. The legends say that she also created the shenghuang musical instrument for them. In essence, it was a lip organ of sheng with thin leaves-tongues of huang; as soon as you blew, sounds flowed from it. It had thirteen tubes that were inserted into the hollow half of the gourd, and was shaped like a phoenix's tail. Nui-wa gave it to people, and their life became even more fun.
This means that the great Nuwa was not only a creator goddess, but also a goddess of music.
The Miao and Tong peoples of Southwestern China still play the shen created by Nüwa. It is called “lusheng” (“reed sheng”), it differs from the ancient sheng only in the material from which it is made. In ancient times it was made from gourds, but now from hollowed out wood, and there are fewer tubes. But overall it retains its ancient features. It is known that the ancient peoples played lusheng during joyful gatherings, which are so closely associated with pure youthful love. Every year, in the second or third month of spring, when peaches and plums are in bloom and the sky is cloudless, at night, under the bright light of the moon, people chose a flat place among the fields, which they called the lunar platform; young men and girls put on festive clothes, gathered on this platform, played merry and joyful melodies on the shen, stood in a circle, sang and danced “moon dances”.
Sometimes they danced in pairs: the young man walked in front, playing the lusheng, and the girl followed him, ringing the bells. So they danced around all night without getting tired. If their feelings were mutual, they could, holding hands, go away from the others to some secluded place. How similar these dances are to the dances and chants of young men and women that were performed in ancient times in front of the temple of the supreme deity of marriage! After all, the creation of sheng was originally closely connected with love and marriage.
Having finished her work for humanity, Nyu-wa finally decided to rest. We call this rest death, but it is not disappearance without a trace. She, like Pan-gu, turned into various things in the universe. For example, in the “Book of Mountains and Seas” it is said that the intestines of Nui-wa turned into ten saints who settled on the Liguan plain; they were therefore called "Nyu-wa zhi chang" ("Intestines of Nyu-wa"). If her intestines alone produced ten saints, then we can guess how many amazing things her entire body turned into.
According to other versions, the great Nyu-wa did not die at all, but only after finishing working for people, she sat in the chariot of thunder, harnessed two dragons, sent white hornless dragons ahead to pave the way, and ordered the snakes to fly behind. Yellow clouds floated above her chariot, all the spirits and demons of heaven and earth followed her in a noisy crowd. On this chariot she ascended directly to the ninth heaven, passed through the heavenly gates and, appearing before the heavenly emperor, told what she had done. After that, she lived quietly and calmly in the heavenly palace, like a hermit who had left the world, she did not boast of her merits and was not blinded by glory. She attributed all her merits and fame to great nature, believing that she performed all her deeds only following the inclination of nature, and that she did so little for people that it is not worth talking about. From generation to generation, people remembered with gratitude this great mother of people, the loving and kind Nyu-wa, the fame of whose merits “reached to the ninth heaven and to the Yellow Spring underground,” and she remained to live forever in the hearts of people.
Chapter VI. The story of the shooter Yi and his wife Chang-e Chapter X. Later legends (continued)
The ancient myths of China describe the history of the ancient civilization of China since the birth of the universe. One could say that from the moment big bang, but this is part of modern scientific mythology, and in the ancient myths of China the Universe is described as a kind of egg that was broken from the inside. Perhaps, if there had been an outside observer at that moment, it would have looked like an explosion to him. After all, the egg was filled with Chaos.
Creation of Earth and Sky
From this Chaos, with the help of the forces of the Yin and Yang Universe, Pangu was born. This part of the ancient myths of China is quite compatible with the modern scientific myth about how from chaos chemical elements A DNA molecule was created on Earth by accident. So, according to the theory about the origin of life accepted in ancient Chinese civilization, it all started with the first ancestor Pangu, who broke an egg. According to one version of this ancient myth, Pangu used an axe, with which he was often depicted on antiques. It can be assumed that this weapon was created from the surrounding chaos, thereby becoming the first material object.
Chaos burst out of the egg, dividing into light and heavy elements. More precisely, the light elements rose up and formed the Sky - the bright beginning, white (yang), and the heavy ones sank down and created the Earth - cloudy, yolk (yin). It’s hard not to notice a certain connection between the ancient myths of China and the scientific explanation of the creation of the solar system. According to which our planetary system was formed from a rotating chaotic cloud of gases and heavy elements. Under the influence of rotation, heavy elements accumulated closer to the center, around the Sun, which appeared as a result of natural causes (which we will not discuss here). They formed rocky planets, and the light elements that accumulated closer to the edge became gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune...)
But let’s return to the theory of the origin of life accepted in the ancient civilization of China, to what our self-confident science calls mythology. So, the ancient myths of China tell how Pangu, being the first and only inhabitant of the new universe, rested his feet on the ground, his head in the sky and began to grow. For 18,000 years, the distance between heaven and earth increased by 3 meters every day until it reached today's scale. After this, Pangu's body disintegrated and was reincarnated into the whole world. His breath became wind and clouds, his body with arms and legs became huge mountains and the four cardinal directions, blood became rivers, flesh became soil, skin became grass and trees... The ancient civilization of China thereby confirms the myths of other peoples in which our planet plays a role living being or organism.
Creation of people
According to ancient legends, when the earth had already separated from the sky, everything was on it - majestic mountains rose high, rivers flowed to the seas, full of fish, the forests and steppes were overflowing with wild animals, but the world still remained incomplete without the human race.
As in various religious versions, in ancient China it was believed that people were created from clay. In a treatise from the 2nd century " General meaning customs" it is written that the creator of people was Nuiva - the great feminine spirit. In the ancient myths of China, Nüwu was seen as a beautifier of the world, and therefore she was depicted with a measuring square in her hand or, as the personification of the feminine principle Yin, with the disk of the Moon in her hands. Nüwa was depicted with a human body, bird legs and a snake tail. She took a handful of clay and began to sculpt figures, they came to life and became people.
Nuiva understood that she did not have enough strength or time to blind all the people who could populate the earth. And then she pulled a rope through the liquid clay. When the goddess shook the rope, pieces of clay flew in all directions. Falling to the ground, they turned into people. But either because they were not molded by hand, or because the swamp clay, nevertheless, differed in composition from that from which the first people were molded, but the ancient myths of China claim that people have a faster method of creation significantly differed from those created by hand. Thus, it is believed that the rich and noble are people created by the gods with their own hands from the yellow earth, while the poor and insignificant people are created with the help of a rope.
Further, Nuiva gave her creatures the opportunity to reproduce independently. True, before that she passed on to them the law on the responsibilities of both parties in marriage, which was strictly observed in the ancient civilization of China. For the Chinese, Nuwa was considered the patroness of marriages, who could save a woman from infertility. Nuiva's divinity was so strong that even from her insides 10 deities were born. But Nuiva’s merits do not end there.
Ancestress Nuiva protects humanity
Nuiva lived calmly for some time, without any worries. But the land, which was already inhabited by the people she had created, was engulfed by great disasters. In some places the sky collapsed, and huge black holes appeared there. The spirit of fire Zhuzhong gave birth to the spirit of water Gungun, the fight against which occupied a large place in ancient mythology. Ancient myths of China describe incredible fire and heat that seeped through them, as well as a fire that engulfed forests on Earth. Depressions formed in the ground through which groundwater flowed. Two opposites that characterize the ancient civilization of China, two elements hostile to each other, Water and Fire, joined forces to destroy people.
Seeing how human creatures were suffering, Nüwa, as a true beautifier of the world, set to work to “patch up” the leaky firmament. She collected multi-colored stones and, melting them over the fire, filled the heavenly holes with the resulting mass. To strengthen the sky, Nüwa cut off four legs of a giant turtle and placed them on four parts of the earth as supports supporting the sky. The firmament strengthened, but did not return to its previous state. He looked askance a little, but in reality this can be seen by the movement of the sun, moon and stars. In addition, a huge depression formed to the southeast of the Celestial Empire, which became the Ocean.
Ksenia Velichko. The Epoch Times
In the beginning, in the Universe there was only the primeval water chaos of Hun-tun, shaped like a chicken egg, and formless images wandered in the pitch darkness. In this World Egg Pan-gu arose spontaneously.
For a long time Pan-gu slept soundly. And when he woke up, he saw darkness around him, and this saddened him. Then Pan-gu broke the egg shell and went outside. Everything that was light and pure in the egg rose up and became the sky - Yang, and everything heavy and rough sank down and became the earth - Yin.
After his birth, Pan-gu created the entire Universe from the five primary elements: Water, Earth, Fire, Wood and Metal. Pan-gu took a breath, and winds and rains were born, exhaled - thunder rumbled and lightning flashed; if he opened his eyes, then day came, when he closed them, night reigned.
Pan-gu liked what was created, and he was afraid that heaven and earth would mix again into primeval chaos. Therefore, Pan-gu firmly rested his feet on the ground and his hands on the sky, not allowing them to touch. Eighteen thousand years have passed. Every day the sky rose higher and higher, the earth became stronger and larger, and Pan-gu grew, continuing to hold the sky at outstretched arms. Finally, the sky became so high and the earth so solid that they could no longer merge together. Then Pan-gu dropped his hands, lay down on the ground, and died.
His breath became wind and clouds, his voice became thunder, his eyes became the sun and the moon, his blood became rivers, his hair became trees, his bones became metals and stones. From Pangu's seed pearls arose, and from bone marrow - jade. From the same insects that crawled on Pan-gu’s body, people turned out.
But there is another legend that is no worse
The ancestors of people are also called the pair of divine twins Fu-si and Nui-wu, who lived on the sacred mountain Kun-lun. They were children of the sea, the Great God Shen-nun, who took on the guise of half-humans, half-snakes: the twins had human heads and the bodies of sea dragon snakes.
There are different stories about how Nyu-wa became the ancestor of humanity. Some say that she first gave birth to a shapeless lump, cut it into small pieces and scattered it all over the earth. Where they fell, people appeared. Others claim that one day Nyu-wa, sitting on the shore of a pond, began to sculpt a small figurine from clay - a likeness of herself. The clay creature turned out to be very joyful and friendly, and Nui-ve liked it so much that she sculpted many more of the same little men. She wanted to populate the whole earth with people. To make her work easier, she took a long vine, dipped it into liquid clay and shook it. The scattered lumps of clay immediately turned into people.
But it is difficult to sculpt clay without bending, and Nyu-wa was tired. Then she divided people into men and women, commanded them to live in families and give birth to children.
Fu-si taught his children to hunt and fish, make fire and cook food, and invented “se” - a musical instrument such as a gusli, a fishing net, snares and other useful things. In addition, he drew eight trigrams - symbolic signs reflecting various phenomena and concepts, which we now call the “Book of Changes”.
People lived a happy, serene life, knowing neither hostility nor envy. The land bore fruit in abundance, and people did not have to work to feed themselves. Born children were placed in bird's nests, as if in a cradle, and the birds amused them with their chirping. Lions and tigers were as affectionate as cats, and snakes were not poisonous.
But one day the spirit of water Gun-gun and the spirit of fire Zhu-zhong quarreled among themselves and started a war. The spirit of fire won, and the defeated spirit of water, in despair, hit its head and Mount Buzhou, which supported the sky, so hard that the mountain split. Having lost its support, part of the sky fell to the ground, breaking it in several places. Underground waters gushed out of the breaches, sweeping away everything in its path.
Nuwa rushed to save the world. She collected stones of five different colors, melted them over the fire and repaired the hole in the sky. In China, there is a belief that if you look closely, you can see a patch in the sky that differs in color. In another version of the myth, Nyu-wa repaired the sky with the help of small shiny stones, which turned into stars. Then Nyu-wa burned a lot of reeds, collected the resulting ashes in a heap and dammed the water streams.
Order was restored. But after the repair, the world became slightly askew. The sky inclined to the west, and the sun and moon began to roll there every day, and in the southeast a depression formed into which all the rivers on earth rushed. Now Nyu-wa could rest. According to some versions of the myth, she died, according to others, she ascended to heaven, where she still lives in complete solitude.
The season of “Xiaoxue” - “Small Snows” 小雪 has begun. This is the 20th season in the 24-season traditional Chinese agricultural calendar. This year it started on November 22 and will last until December 12. In China they say: “Severe frost during the Lesser Cold Period - wait for a warm spring.” Often, it is during this season that the first snow falls, reminiscent of […]
The season of "Shuangjiang" 霜降 - "fall of frost" - is the 18th of the 24 seasons of the Chinese agricultural lunar calendar. This year it began on October 23 and will last until November 7. At the end of October or beginning of November, it gets colder every day. In southern China, the last harvests are still being harvested, and the first frost is falling in the Yellow River. The air clears, the sky becomes high and transparent blue. Trees and grasses turn yellow and wither, everything is preparing for winter, and some for hibernation.
In Chinese lunar calendar, 2017 is the year of the Rooster. If you look closely at the zodiac series, it is easy to notice that the rooster is the only bird among the 12 signs Chinese zodiac. The Chinese have long viewed the rooster as a bird of the sun and treat it with respect. The rooster is called the “virtuous bird.” The pronunciation of the word “rooster” 鸡 (“ji” - rooster) is similar to 吉 (“ji” - happiness), therefore, the rooster symbolizes happiness. The drawing on the door in the form of a rooster symbolically protects from troubles; the hidden meaning of this image is the wish for happiness and fulfillment of desires, therefore the rooster received the status of “guardian of the hearth.”
In ancient times, the Lord of Heaven, the god Tian Li, saw how much evil had increased among people, and sent a Great Flood against them. Endless torrential rains began, rivers overflowed their banks, rice fields and houses were flooded. Almost the entire earth disappeared under water, and it seemed that there was no hope for the human race to survive.
In the end, the young god Da Yu took pity on the people and asked Tian Li to let him save humanity from destruction.
There is also a well-known myth about how Nuiva single-handedly gave rise to the human race. In this myth, she is described as a creature that had the head of a man and the body of a snake. She was endowed with exceptional divine power, which allowed her to perform seventy reincarnations a day.
There was a time when the earth and sky had not yet separated from each other, and when fused together they formed something vaguely reminiscent of a chicken egg. Here the first man, Pan-gu, was born, like a chicken in an yolk. Eighteen thousand years passed before he awakened. There was impenetrable sticky darkness all around, and the man’s heart was numb with fear. But then his hands found some object. It was an ax that came from nowhere. Pan-gu swung as hard as he could and hit in front of him. There was a deafening roar, as if a mountain had split in two. The motionless world in which Pan-gu was located began to move. Everything light and clean floated up, and everything heavy and dirty sank to the bottom. This is how heaven and earth came into being.
Chinese mythology is a complex combination of several ancient mythological systems - ancient Chinese, Buddhist and Taoist. It was possible to reconstruct the mythology of Ancient China based on historical, philosophical, religious teachings - great works created several centuries BC. Among them are “Shu-ching” (dated to the 14th-11th centuries BC, “Book of History” from the Confucian Pentateuch), “I-Ching” (created in the 8th-7th centuries BC, “ Book of Changes"), "Zhuang Tzu", (IV-III centuries BC, named after the philosopher), "Le Tzu" ("Treatise of Teacher Le"), "Huainan Tzu" (II century BC). BC, treatise on mythology). A lot of information about classical mythology is gleaned from the treatise “Shan Hai Jing” (“Canon of Mountains and Seas,” 3rd to mid-1st millennium BC) and the poetry of Qu Yuan.
Ancient Chinese mythology
Chinese mythology is especially characterized by the desire for historicization at all levels. So, for example, the heroes of myths are associated with emperors, and minor spirits with officials: it is believed that they were real personalities, figures of ancient times.
Totem animals are no less important. It is generally accepted that Chinese mythology is based on the beliefs and legends of two tribes. The first tribe believed that their ancestor was a swallow, the second considered the snake to be their ancestor. Thus, gradually the snake in myths acquired the appearance of a dragon (Lun), which was associated with underground forces and the element of water, and the bird, according to a number of versions, is the prototype of Fenghuang - the mythical bird. The combined symbol of Dragon and Fenghuang is the personification of the sovereign and empress.
This myth about Pangu expresses the cosmological ideas of the ancient tribes of the Celestial Empire, and also expresses one of the key ideas of Eastern philosophy - the connection between the external and internal space.
The cycle of myths about Nuiva, half-man, half-snake, is considered even more ancient. In myths, Nuiva appears as a demiurge, the progenitor of people and all things. And if Pangu participates in the creation of the elements and the world unconsciously, passively, then Nyuwa personally improves and restores the world: for example, in myths she repairs the firmament, props up the world with the feet of a turtle, and also collects the ashes of reeds so that the waters do not spill.
One of the most famous ancient myths about a hero is the myth of Fuxi, who is considered the first ancestor of one of the Eastern Chinese tribes. Traditionally, Fuxi is represented as a bird-man caring for humanity. Myths tell how Fusi taught people to hunt and fish, and to fry meat on a fire. It is he who is considered the inventor of fishing nets and fortune-telling trigrams. Experts suggest that the totem animal, the swallow, was embodied in the image of Fusi.
The myths also tell about the further fate of Fusi, who, according to legend, married his sister Nuiva for the revival of humanity after the flood. Moreover, according to early myths, the flood was the embodiment of water chaos, and only later it began to be interpreted as a punishment for sins.
Late folk mythology of China
For later times in Chinese mythology, there is a tradition of reverse historicization of mythical heroes. The Middle Ages were characterized by the mythologization of historical figures. They began to be turned into gods, patrons of cities and crafts. Now the reasons for the deification of this or that figure seem random, although this often happened officially at the behest of the emperor.
For example, the mythologization of Liu Bei, the commander of the 3rd century AD. From his biographies it is known that in his youth he was engaged in weaving mats and straw shoes, this made him the god of weavers in late Chinese mythology. And his friend Guan Yu, known for his courage, was deified as a guardian of monasteries, and later as a patron of demons. And from the 16th century he became the god of war Guandi. This is how real heroes of the 3rd century BC later turned into universal benefactors.
By the end of the first millennium, the mythological systems of China were becoming increasingly closer. Syncretic mythology combines Buddhist, Taoist, folk mythology and heroes of the Confucian cult. Syncretization was even more active in the village, where statues of Buddha, Confucius and Lao Tzu could be found in one temple. In cities the process was slower, and adherents of different religions still preferred different deities.
However, syncretism led to the emergence of a consolidated pantheon of gods headed by Yudi in the Middle Ages. During the late Middle Ages, mythological heroes of the syncretic pantheon began to appear on popular popular prints, replacing icons for the Chinese. These splints are still common today.