The Chinese creation myth tells of Pangu, a giant who formed the earth from an egg, and Nu Wa, who created humans from clay. Pangu’s body parts became mountains, fields, and rivers. Nu Wa saved the world from ruin and created a class system.
The Chinese creation myth is a narrative detailing a vision of the origin of the world and all that it includes such as the earth, water, skies, and human inhabitants. This legend ascribes the earth’s beginnings to the work of a god and goddess similar to the creation stories of other cultures. There are different views of the Chinese creation myth, but the most popular can be traced back to the teachings of Taoist monks which date back to around the year 200 of the Common Era (CE). The story tells of an all-powerful giant named Pangu who was born inside an egg that eventually became too small as it grew, so he opened the top and bottom halves of the shell to form the basic structure of the earth. A goddess named Nu Wa later carried on Pangu’s work.
Once the two halves of Pangu’s egg formed the sky and earth, other parts of this god’s body formed the details of the world according to this Chinese creation myth. Pangu lived and grew tall enough to further separate heaven and earth over the span of 18,000 years. After his death, his limbs became mountains, his muscles turned into cultivated fields, and his tears, sweat and blood formed rivers. Some versions of the Chinese creation myth tell that man’s first ancestors came from fleas and lice on Pangu’s body. Other versions attribute human creation to the work of Nu Wa, who came to earth several centuries after Pangu’s death and formed people out of clay to keep her company.
The legend of Nu Wa resembles the common mythology of a deity who creates humans in his image. This part of the Chinese creation myth also describes how people were initially separated into nobility and commoners. Those that Nu Wa created by hand became the wealthy ruling class while the lower classes came from the drops of mud that the goddess threw into the air. Nu Wa is also credited in this narrative for saving the world from ruin from fires and floods that occurred when the sky started to fall apart. He patched holes in the sky from molten rock, used the legs of a giant tortoise to support the rest of the collapsing skies, and died shortly after this work was completed.
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