Chinese mythology

Chinese mythology encompasses a diverse group of cultural tales, folklore, histories, and religious traditions compiled over the course of thousands of years. Among the most famous stories of Chinese myths are the creation tales of the god Pangu and the goddess Nüwa, the cultural hero known as the Yellow Emperor, the legendary archer Hou Yi, and the hierarchy of mystical Chinese dragons. The earliest accounts of Chinese mythology date back to about 1200 BCE and were passed down for a thousand years through storytelling, cultural dance, and plays. The first written accounts of the myths date to about the third century BCE. Chinese mythology has both influenced and been influenced by China’s three major religious systems: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Some elements of Chinese myth adopted ideas from these religions, while the religions also borrowed elements from Chinese myths.

Brief History

The precursor to China’s first civilization began with the development of farming villages in the Yellow River Valley about 5000 BCE. Over the centuries, these villages began to grow along the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, forming centralized governments that led to the first Chinese dynasties. According to legend, the first Chinese dynasty was the Xia, which was said to have flourished from about 2070 BCE to 1600 BCE. Archaeologists still debate whether the Xia dynasty existed or was entirely mythical, although some evidence has been found suggesting that it may have been real.

The first dynasty known to exist was the Shang, which lasted from about 1600 to 1050 BCE. Under the Shang, writing began about 1250 BCE. After the Shang dynasty fell about 1046 BCE, it was replaced by the Zhou dynasty, which lasted until 256 BCE. Chinese culture grew rapidly under the Zhou. The writing system was improved, metalworking became more advanced, and the religious concepts of Confucianism and Taoism were first introduced. Confucianism is a philosophical belief system that promotes moral and ethical behavior. It was founded by the philosopher Confucius in the sixth century BCE. Taoism, which was founded in about 500 BCE, is a religious philosophy that emphasizes living in harmony with the natural order of the universe.

In the final decades of the Zhou dynasty, China’s government disintegrated as groups of warring factions competed for control of the empire. In 221 BCE, Shi Huangdi of the Qin state defeated his last rival and consolidated his hold on China. Shi Huangdi declared himself the first emperor of China, beginning the short-lived Qin dynasty. Although it only lasted about fifteen years, the Qin dynasty marked the beginning of China as a nation. Shi Huangdi implemented many positive changes for the nation, although he was also a brutal, oppressive ruler. Shi Huangdi died in 210 BCE, and in 206 BCE, angry peasants staged a revolt and toppled the Qin dynasty.

The Qin dynasty was succeeded by the Han dynasty, which ushered in centuries of prosperity and peace. Under the Han, China began to trade with the kingdom of Europe along routes collectively known as the Silk Road. One of the Han’s great innovations was paper, which allowed Chinese literature to blossom. The religion of Buddhism was also introduced to China during this time. Like Confucianism and Taoism, Buddhism is also a moral philosophy. Followers attempt to achieve enlightenment by understanding the true nature of human existence.

Overview

The Chinese concept of mythology is different from Western ideas, which contain stories of gods and goddesses with purely divine origins. Chinese mythology contains figures who are a merger of religious and historical, with many cultural heroes later being revered as deities.

Although Chinese folktales and myths almost certainly existed before 1200 BCE, the myths that have survived the centuries originated around this period. They were passed down by word of mouth, plays, and cultural dances for almost one thousand years before being written down in the late Zhou dynasty. Many surviving myths come from Shan Hai Jing (Mountain and Sea Scroll), a type of encyclopedia that contained accounts of folklore, legends, religion, medicine, and geography. With the rise of the Qin dynasty, Shi Huangdi ordered all history books and accounts of the past burned so his own version of history could be taught. As a result, much of the original written mythology was lost. The leaders of the Han dynasty attempted to undo this damage and focused on recording and preserving China’s history.

The destruction and rewriting of Chinese texts, coupled with the long period of time from the origin of the myths to when they were first written, resulted in the existence of many variations. In some cases, mythological figures are presented as human, while in others, they are divine or semi-divine. Names, locations, and details of the myths also change, depending on the version.

Creation Myths

Chinese mythology is unique in that its earliest myths do not contain stories of the creation of the world. The Chinese creation myth was not developed until the mid-third century CE. It has its origins in the Taoist idea of a universal force that comes into existence from nothing and gives birth to yin and yang, the connected but opposing forces of the cosmos. To the Chinese, the spiritual world and the physical world overlap and exist together in harmony and balance.

The best-known version of China’s creation myth tells the story of Pangu (also stylized as Pan Gu, Pan Ku, and Phan Ku). Pangu was the primordial being who lived inside a giant cosmic egg that was formed from the chaos of the ancient universe. Pangu slept inside the egg for eighteen thousand years until he awoke and opened the egg with a swing of a giant ax. The egg cracked in two, with the lighter, more pure elements of the egg floating upward to become the heavens, and the heavier, impure elements floating downward to form Earth. The lighter elements were known as yang, while the heavier elements were yin.

As heaven and Earth grew larger, so did Pangu. After he grew for another eighteen thousand years, Pangu died. One of his eyes became the sun, while the other became the moon. His breath became the wind, his body, arms, and legs became the mountains, and his blood became the waters. The stars were born from his beard and the flowers from his hair. Variations of the myth say that humans were born from the fleas and lice on his body.

Another popular myth credits the creation of humankind to the goddess Nüwa, a mother goddess who was half-human, half-snake. Stories of Nüwa likely originated in the fourth or third century BCE. She was said to be the sister of divine Sovereign Fuxi who legend says lived in the third millennium BCE. According to the myth, Nüwa was living in the Kunlun Mountains in northwestern China. Nüwa enjoyed making things, so one day, she decided to make humans out of yellow clay. She breathed life into them and gave them the ability to have children.

Soon after the birth of humans, demons waged war upon heaven and Earth, causing terrible floods, wildfire, and calamities. The demons broke the pillars that held the sky above Earth. Before the world of humans could be destroyed, Nüwa came to their rescue. She cut off the legs of a giant turtle and used them to hold up the sky. Some variations of the myth have her building dams to stop the flooding rivers or melting stones to fix the breach in the sky. After her labors, Nüwa laid down to rest where she became a mountain range.

The Yellow Emperor

Nowhere is the merger of mythology and history better illustrated than in the figure of Huangdi, also known as the Yellow Emperor. Huangdi is both a cultural hero and a revered deity who was said to have ruled about 2700 BCE. According to tradition, Huangdi was the great father of the Chinese people, uniting groups of scattered tribes into a unified people. His real name may have been Xuanyuan, with Huangdi being an honorific title meaning “yellow” or “radiant” ruler.

Huangdi was said to have introduced many important inventions to China, including coined money, the wheel, sailing vessels, and writing. According to one myth, Huangdi invented the Chinese writing script after noticing the patterns that birds’ feet made in the ground as they walked. One of his wives was said to have developed a way to get silk from silkworms, creating one of the most valuable and coveted materials in ancient China.

Huangdi had four faces so he could look in the four directions at once and communicate with the gods. He traveled in a chariot pulled by elephants and dragons and was accompanied by groups of phoenixes. In addition, Huangdi was credited with discovering the Tao, the underlying universal force behind all creation. Upon his death, he was said to have been taken to heaven on a large dragon.

Modern scholars view Huangdi as a completely mythical figure, with some believing that he was originally considered a deity but was transformed into a historical figure over time. He ruled during the time of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, with Huangdi being counted as both a sovereign and an emperor, depending on the myth.

The Three Sovereigns were divine rulers, while the Five Emperors were wise human kings who led China during its “Golden Age,” a long period of peace and prosperity. The Three Sovereigns were the Heavenly Sovereign, the Earthly Sovereign, and the Human Sovereign, who are most often named Fuxi, Nüwa, and Shennong. Fuxi is the original male ancestor of Chinese culture. According to myth, he created the first laws and introduced the people to hunting and fishing. Nüwa is the Chinese mother goddess who created humans. In many stories she is also the wife of her brother, Fuxi. Shennong is the Chinese deity of agriculture who taught the people how to prepare seeds and harvest crops. He also invented the ax, plow, and medicine. Fuxi and Shennong appear in all the tales of the Three Sovereigns, although in some, Nüwa is considered purely the wife of Fuxi and Huangdi takes her place.

The Five Emperors are wise human kings who are viewed as being morally perfect. This focus on morality is a direct influence of Confucianism, which emphasizes ethical behavior and proper living. In most accounts, the first of the Five Emperors is Huangdi. The second emperor was Zhuanxu, the grandson of Huangdi. During his seventy-eight-year rule, Zhuanxu established China’s patriarchal system and invented the calendar and astrology. He was followed by Huangdi’s great-grandson Ku, who was known for inventing musical instruments. Ku’s son Yao was seen as the wisest and most morally perfect of the Five Emperors. His son, Shun, was also of high moral character and became the last of the Five Emperors upon Yao’s death.

The Xia Dynasty

China is home to two of the largest river systems in the world. The Yangtze River is the third largest and the Yellow River is the sixth largest. As a result, the nation has long been plagued by repeated and often devastating flooding. The effort to control this flooding played a large role in the mythology of early China.

According to one myth, a man named Gun, who was said to be a great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor, was given the task of controlling the annual flooding of the rivers. Gun set out to build a series of earthen dikes and dams to stem the flowing waters. To do this, he stole magical Earth from the Celestial Emperor. However, Gun’s dams failed, and the resulting flooding killed many people. This failure, combined with his affront to Heaven for stealing Earth, angered the Celestial Emperor who ordered the fire god Zhu Rong to kill Gun.

Zhu Rong killed Gun, but his corpse did not decay. Three years later, his body was cut open and released a great dragon that flew off into the heavens. The dragon born from Gun’s body became Yu the Great, the mythical founder of the Xia dynasty. Aided by the dragon Yinglong, Yu took up his father’s task to halt the flooding of the nation’s rivers. In addition to building dams, he constructed a system of canals and drainage ditches to stem the flooding. According to the myth, Yu was so focused on his task that he worked tirelessly for thirteen years. During this time, he never returned home to see his wife and children, even though he was close enough to pass by his house several times.

Yu’s project was a success, which pleased Emperor Shun so much that Yu was placed in charge of his army. After Shun’s death, Yu became emperor himself and founded the Xia dynasty. The consensus among many archeologists is that the Xia dynasty is purely mythical and appeared in stories from the Shang dynasty to contrast the moral righteousness of Shang leaders against their supposedly corrupt precursors. However, archaeological evidence uncovered in the 1960s and 1970s suggests that a Chinese dynasty may have preceded the Shang, although the evidence is far from definitive.

Dragons

Chinese mythology contains references to many sacred creatures, although the most revered are the phoenix and the dragon. The phoenix is a mythical bird said to have the face of a swallow, the beak of a rooster, the neck of a snake, the back of a turtle, the breast of a goose, and the tail of a fish. Its tailfeathers are the five sacred colors: red, blue, yellow, white, and black.

The Chinese phoenix is known as feng-huang, which is a combination of its male and female essences. Feng is the name of the male essence while Huang is the female. Together, the two sides of the feng-huang represent harmony, similar to the two sides of the Taoist yin-yang. The Chinese phoenix is different than its Western counterpart in that it does not undergo a cycle of death and rebirth. It is an immortal creature that signifies prosperity, peace, and moral virtue. It also signifies the peaceful ascent of a new emperor to power. According to myth, a feng-huang appeared during the Yellow Emperor’s establishment of his kingdom.

The most sacred creature in Chinese mythology is the dragon, which, unlike its evil Western counterparts, is a benevolent spirit that symbolizes fortune, power, and wisdom. Like the phoenix, Chinese dragons are a conglomeration of various creatures. They are snake-like with the horns of a deer, the claws of an eagle, the scales of a fish, the whiskers of a catfish, and the eyes of a demon. Although most of the dragons do not have wings, they are able to fly.

In Chinese mythology, dragons are divided into nine specific types:

• Tianlong,or heavenly dragon: The word long signifies “dragon” and Tian is the Chinese term for Heaven. Also known as celestial dragons, these creatures are protectors of the heavens who pull the chariots of the gods.
• Shenlong, or spiritual dragon: These dragons control the wind and the rain. People must seek their favor to ensure good weather.
• Fucanglong,or dragon of hidden treasure: The Fucanglong guard underground treasures such as precious metals or jewels. According to myth, volcanoes are born when these dragons burst out of the ground.
• Dilong, or Earth dragon: These dragons control rivers and streams.
• Yinglong: Yinglong, whose name means “dragon form,” is the oldest and most powerful of all dragons. Yinglong is a rain deity who guards the waters of Earth and the clouds of heaven. He is the only Chinese dragon who has wings.
• Qiulong,or horned dragon: These are the strongest of all dragons.
• Panlong, or coiling dragon: A Panlong is a long-bodied dragon that guards lakes.
• Huanglong,or yellow dragon: In some myths, these wise dragons emerged from the Luo River to give the gift of writing to Emperor Fuxi.
• Longwang, or the Dragon Kings: These four mighty dragons rule over the four seas to the north, south, east, and west. According to some myths, they guard the Yellow Sea, the South China Sea, Qinghai Lake in north-central China, and Lake Baikal in Siberian Russia. In other versions of the myth, Longwang is a single Dragon King who rules over all the seas.

Deities

Chinese mythology has more than two hundred gods and goddesses and thousands of nature spirits, immortal beings, and minor spirits. These deities lived in grand palaces on remote peaks such as the Kunlun Mountains, Mount Tai in the coastal province of Shandong, and the mythical peaks of the Jade Mountain and Mount Penglai.

The Chinese equivalent to a supreme god is called Shangti, which means “lord-on-high.” Shangti is sometimes referred to as the Jade Emperor or the Celestial Emperor, although these names have also been used to describe other deities. Shangti was the first god or primordial god who brought order, law, culture, agriculture, and strength in battle to the people. Shangti was especially revered during the Shang dynasty but was replaced during the Zhou period by the idea of Heaven, or Tian, as the ultimate spiritual force.

Xiwangmu, or Queen Mother of the West, is the most powerful goddess in Chinese mythology. She is the goddess of life, death, creation, and destruction. According to myth, she lives in a golden palace in the Kunlun Mountains where she tends to her peach orchards, the fruit that grants immortality. In some stories, Xiwangmu is married to Shangti.

Guanyin is the goddess of mercy and compassion. She developed from a Buddhist deity named Avalokiteśvara. Guanyin wanted to experience life as a human, so she was reincarnated in a living body. After she refused her human father’s command to marry a priest, he had her executed. She entered hell, but her passion for goodness turned it into a paradise.

The Baxian, or Eight Immortals, were once eight humans who lived as a poet, an army general, a beautiful woman, a sorcerer, a royal official, a magical flutist, a beggar, and a Taoist teacher. Each was granted the gift of immortality by the Queen Mother of the West. They lived on Mount Penglai in the Bohai Sea, a place where the water was so “weak” that no ships could sail to the island. Only the Baxian could travel to and from their home.

Hou Yi was a great archer who had a bow made of tiger bone and arrows made of dragon tendons. He was a semi-divine being who lived in the palace of the Jade Emperor during the reign of Emperor Yao. At that time, ten suns took turns bringing light to Earth. The Jade Emperor warned the sun not to enter the sky at the same time because their combined power would scorch Earth. However, being young, the suns did not listen and went into the sky all at once. Earth became unbearably hot, crops withered and died, and trees began to burn.

Hou Yi asked the Jade Emperor for permission to become a mortal to save Earth’s people. The emperor granted permission and Hou Yi came down to Earth to try and reason with the suns to return to Heaven. When they refused, he took his arrows and downed nine of the ten suns. The remaining sun is the sun that lights the world today.

For his deeds, Hou Yi was given an elixir of immortality by the Queen Mother of the West. Although he considered drinking it, by doing so he would be immortal and his mortal wife, Chang’e, would be doomed to die. However, Chang’e stole the elixir and drank it, fleeing to the moon where she became the moon goddess.

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