Contents

Foreword by Davide Latini

Publisher’s Note

Chinese Mythology: Introduction

The Creation Myths

Introduction

Pan Gu and the Creation of the Universe

Nu Wa Peoples the Earth

The War Between the Gods of Fire and Water

Nu Wa Repairs the Sky

The Tradition of the Tea-Plant

Tales of the Five Emperors

Introduction

The Yellow Emperor’s Earthly Kingdom

The Fiery Emperor and the First Grain

The Bird and the Sea

Tai Hou, the Green Emperor

Shao Hao, Son of the Morning Star

Zhuan Xu, Emperor of the North

Chiyou Challenges the Yellow Emperor

The Yellow Emperor Returns to the Heavens

Giants in Early Chinese Legend

Introduction

Xing Tian, the Headless Giant

Kua Fu Chases the Sun

Myths of the Yin Nation

Introduction

The Ten Suns of Dijun and Xihe

Yi, the Archer, is Summoned

Chang E’s Betrayal

Hou-Ji, the Ice-Child

Gun Battles the Great Flood

Yu Controls the Flood

The Marriage of Yu

Myths of the Stars

Introduction

The Herdsman and the Weaver Girl

The Steep Summit

Shen I, the Divine Archer

Shen I Becomes Immortal

A Victim of Ta Chi

Legend of T’ai Sui

The Morning and the Evening Star

Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind & Rain

Introduction

Wen Chung, Minister of Thunder

Lei Kung, Duke of Thunder

Lei Chen-tzu, Son of Thunder

The Spirit of Lightning

Feng Po, God of the Wind

Yu Shih, Master of Rain

The One-Legged Bird

Ma Yuan-shuai, Generalissimo of the West

Myths of the Waters

Introduction

The Foolish Dragon

An Unauthorized Portrait

The Shipwrecked Servant

The Spirits of the Well

The Dragon King’s Daughter

The Old Mother of the Waters

Hsu Sun, the Dragon Slayer

The Building of Peking

Kwang-Jui and the God of the River

Sam-Chung and the Water Demon

The Queen of Heaven

The Dragon Princess

Help in Need

The Disowned Princess

How the River-God’s Wedding was Broken Off

The Spirits of the Yellow River

Myths of Fire

Introduction

Lo Hsuan and the Ministry of Fire

The Legend of Ch’ih Ching-tzu

The Red Emperor

Hui Lu, God of Fire

Shen Nung, the Fire Emperor

The Fire God

Myths of Epidemics & Exorcism

Introduction

The Five Spirits of the Plague

The Legend of Lu Yueh

The Five Graduates

The Exorcism of Emptiness and Devastation

Tales of the Goddess of Mercy

Introduction

The Birth of Miao Shan

Miao Shan’s Ambition

The Nunnery of The White Bird

The Execution of Miao Shan

Miao Shan Attains Perfection

‘Brother and Sister’

The King’s Punishment

The King’s Repentance

Miao Shan Becomes a Buddha

The Gods of China

Introduction

Mr. Redcoat, the God of Good Luck

Kuan Ti, the God of War

The Diamond Kings of Heaven

The Three Pure Ones

The Three Causes

The First Cause

Yu Huang, the Jade Emperor

The Legend of T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu

The Immortals

The Eight Immortals

Chang Tao-ling, the Heavenly Teacher

T’ai I, the Great One

Tou Mu, Goddess of the North Star

Snorter and Blower

Blue Dragon and White Tiger

The City God

The City God of Yen Ch’eng

The Kitchen God

The God of Happiness

The God of Riches

The God of Longevity

The Door Gods

Yang Oerlang

Notscha

The Halos of the Saints

Laotsze

Legends of Foxes and Other Animals

Introduction

Friendship with Foxes

The Marriage Lottery

The Magnanimous Girl

The Boon-Companion

Chia Tzu-lung Finds the Stone

The Fox And The Tiger

Fox-Fire

The Talking Silver Foxes

The Ape Sun Wu Kung

The Frog Princess

The Cave of Beasts

The Golden Beetle, or Why the Dog Hates the Cat

The Strange Tale of Doctor Dog

How Footbinding Started

The Talking Fish

The Nodding Tiger

Ghostly Tales

Introduction

The Haunted Pavilion

The Phantom Vessel

The Soul of The Great Bell

The Story of Ming-Y

The Legend of Tchi-Niu

The Return of Yen-Tchin-King

The Tale of The Porcelain-God

The Beautiful Daughter of Liu-Kung

The Tragedy of The Yin Family

The Ghost Who Was Foiled

The Punishment of Greed

The Night on the Battlefield

The Constable

The Dangerous Reward

His Father’s Ghost

The Resuscitated Corpse

A Supernatural Wife

The Dead Priest

The Disembodied Friend

Parables & Fairy Tales

Introduction

Bamboo and the Turtle

The Mad Goose and the Tiger Forest

The Princess Kwan-Yin

The Two Jugglers

The Wooden Tablet

The Golden Nugget

The Man Who Would Not Scold

Lu-San, Daughter of Heaven

The Fairy Bronze

The Mysterious Buddhist Robe

The Vengeance of the Goddess

The Wonderful Man

The God of the City

The Reward of a Benevolent Life

Women’s Words Part Flesh and Blood

How Greed for a Trifling Thing Led a Man to Lose a Great One

Who Was the Sinner?

The Magic Cask

The Bird with Nine Heads

The Panther

Sky O’Dawn

The Lady of the Moon

The Ancient Man

The Miserly Farmer

King Mu of Dschou

The King of Huai Nan

Old Dschang

The Kindly Magician

The Flower Elves

The Spirit of the Wu-Lian Mountain

The King of Ants

The Little Hunting Dog

The Dragon After His Winter Sleep

The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge

The Three Evils

How Three Heroes Came by their Deaths because of Two Peaches

Dschang Liang

Old Dragonbeard

How Molo Stole the Lovely Rose Red

The Golden Canister

The Monk of the Yangtze-Kiang

Miss A-Pao, or Perseverance Rewarded

Giauna the Beautiful

Rose of Evening

The Flying Ogre

Retribution

The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away

Black Arts

Yang Gui Fe

The Kingdom of the Ogres

How Monkey Became Immortal

The Pair of Fools

The Silkworm

The Crane Maiden

The Cuckoo

The Wooden Bridge Inn

The Three Precious Packets

The Dragon’s Pearl

The Foolish Old Man and the Mountains

The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven

A Battle of the Gods

The Cursed Temple

The Maniac’s Mite

The Painted Skin

The Unnatural People

Introduction

The Pygmies

The Giants

The Headless People

The Armless People

The Long-Armed and Long-Legged People

The One-Eyed People and Others

The Feathered People and Others

The People of the Punctured Bodies

The Women’s Kingdom

The Land of the Flying Cart

The Expectant Wife

The Wild Men

The Jung Tribe

Biographies & Sources

Foreword

If there is one element noticeably absent from the rich and varied early Chinese literary tradition, that is epos. Differently from other contemporary civilizations, ancient China seems to have never produced, in written form, a lengthy mythological narrative to which was attributed preeminent cultural importance. Instead, myths survived in fragments, quoted in philosophical works, alluded to in political treatises, commemorated in historical chronicles. This dearth, however, should not lead us to believe that myths were disregarded or relegated to marginal positions. On the contrary, the ubiquitous presence of splintered myths in texts of disparate genres attests to the extent to which the stories were ingrained in the social and cultural fabric. They mattered on so many different levels, in fact, that they transcended the ideological divergences between the doctrines they were summoned by, and their figurations crept deep into the crevices of artistic expression leaving indelible marks in the creative production of later centuries.

Through their narratives, myths explored existential themes like the origin of the world – when a primeval unwrought mass divided itself into two, generating Heaven and Earth – or the birth of humankind – shaped from clay by an ancestral goddess. More than in the material coming into being of things, though, the stories engaged in the shift from an untamed to an orderly world. The discoveries and inventions attributed to mythical heroes – fire, agriculture, calendrical arts, writing – played a major role in this civilizational process, together with rituals and rules of conduct, which constituted the ultimate gift from the sage rulers of old. The values embodied by these personages and their deeds nurtured the self-image of the Chinese world, providing a sense of belonging and a cultural identity. For this reason, the attainments granted by the intervention of mythical figures needed to be preserved and safeguarded, lest the cosmos plunge into chaos. Scores of unruly and rebellious figures – who threatened this system of values and embodied its diametric opposite – punctuate Chinese mythology. The most infamous specimen of this ilk is Chiyou, the belligerent and seditious inventor of weapons. His tremendous clash with the Yellow Emperor – archetype of the just sovereign – has been retold countless times as the typification of the triumph over evil. But the menace could even have the impersonal form of a cataclysm of massive proportions. The myth about the cosmic flood that plagued the reign of the emperors Yao and Shun is a conspicuous example. To prevent the inundation from engulfing everything and turn the world into an inhabitable swamp, Yu was appointed to quell the overflowing waters and guide them to the sea, an enterprise that required a complete reconfiguration of the morphology of the Chinese territory. Similarly, the mythical archer Yi is celebrated for having faced ten suns rising at once and scorching the earth. He shot down nine of them, reestablishing the normal activity of the remaining one. The defence against such antagonistic forces represented the need to periodically restore, confirm and ratify cultural values as well as conceptions about the nature of existence; in other words, to uphold a whole worldview.

Indeed, all these extraordinary feats performed by extraordinary characters adumbrate a profoundly human perspective. The motifs in these myths allude to the everlasting issues of the placement of humanity in the world and the preservation of the fragile relational balance with the environment humanity finds itself in. Dealing with these matters through myths and narratives allowed the ancient Chinese to carve out a niche for themselves in the world. This is true also for those tales that are not strictly linked to mythology, like the stories relating encounters with oddities, be they animal spirits, immortals, demons or ghosts. Causing contact with the anomalous and the supernatural constituted a way of defining what it meant to be human and what was the role of humans in these interactions. Ultimately, the fact that fundamental beliefs and ideas were filtered through the medium of stories gives us a hint of the potency of narration. It is that same potency that we feel whenever we read these stories, which have the capacity to entertain us, entice us, and maybe to let us catch a glimpse of the contemplations weaved within them.

Davide Latini

Publisher’s Note

Chinese myths, legends and fairy tales have been told and passed down over several thousand years, naturally evolving and mutating in the same way as those of any other culture. They will have originally been written down in one of many Chinese languages, and in fact up to around 220 ad this will have been in the form of Classical Chinese, a written form of Old Chinese, which then evolved into another traditional style known as Literary Chinese. All of these of course used a logographic (as opposed to a phonetic) script, and thus, when translating, in order for names and places to be rendered legible to Western readers they needed to be Romanized. There have been many systems for Romanizing Chinese throughout history, from Wade-Giles to Hanyu Pinyin, which tend to use accent marks with certain letters to clarify the pronunciation of individual sounds. However, the correct pronunciation of words can be hard to achieve even with some written explanation, as this needs to go hand in hand with proper appreciation of the mutual modifications of tone and rhythm, and so can only be properly acquired through oral instruction. Thus, due to this and the innate variation and inconsistency between the various sources used to compile this book, and the fact that some texts are direct translations from Chinese sources while others are inspired by traditional tales and written more simply, we have removed most of the accents in order for the reader to have an uncluttered and more accessible experience.

Chinese Mythology

Introduction

china is a vast, sprawling nation, as geographically diverse as Europe and comparable to the European continent in size, containing at least one third of the world’s population. It has always retained a mysterious and captivating appeal, and remains a country of rich contrasts and diverse cultural influences drawn from many different sources over the centuries.

Origins of Chinese Civilization

The origins of the Chinese civilization are to be found in the ancient cultures that arose along the fertile banks of the Yellow River in northern China where millet, hemp and mulberry trees were grown, and on the temperate flood plains of the Yangtze River in southern China that were conducive to fishing and the cultivation of rice and beans. These two societies which developed in Neolithic times were not the only ones to emerge in China but perhaps many of the enduring myths were first conceived there. In fact, archaeologists and social historians trace the origin of Chinese civilization back to the twelfth century bc, which is roughly the same date that Greek civilization emerged. Some of the earliest objects uncovered from excavated sites support the existence of a race of simple agriculturalists, known as the Shang, occupying the basin of the Yellow River in the north of the country at about this time.

Again, like their Greek counterparts, the Chinese evolved quickly into a sophisticated and efficient people, so that by the fourth century bc, they were able to boast a relatively civilized, structured society.

Unlike other European nations, China was not conquered by foreign invaders, with the result that she remained largely isolated from the West, and was able to preserve her own unique culture and traditions. That is not to say, however, that China remained immune to outside influences or that she was unduly possessive of her own traditions. More often than not, those invaders who landed on Chinese shores were surprised to encounter a society more developed than their own, and instead of wishing to subjugate it, ended up appropriating the country’s values and practices. China, for her part, took what she considered worthwhile from foreign cultures and modified and assimilated it into her own. In this way, a mutually beneficial exchange was enacted.

The most significant external impact on the development of Chinese society was not made by would-be conquerors, however, but by tradesmen travelling the Rome-China Silk Road which was in commercial use by about 100 bc. At this time, India had cultivated an equally advanced society and the trade route allowed the two civilizations to meet without hostility. This encounter brought Buddhism to China, which of any other alien influence, had perhaps the most dramatic, long-term effect on her culture and literary heritage.

Origins of Chinese Myths

Chinese myths are as ancient as the culture itself: thousands of years in age and as varied as the people who contributed to the development of Chinese society. By the time they were put down in writing, many of them were already fragmentary and their significance half forgotten.

In common with many other nations, both Western and Eastern, the earliest mythology of the Chinese was in the oral tradition. Myths were very rare before 800 bc when fragments of tales with an astrological theme began to gain popularity. Subsequent Chinese myths and legends fall into several distinct groups. Though writing was developed by the Shang Dynasty (1520–1030 bc) in North China and further refined by the later Zhou Dynasty (1030–771 bc), myths were never used by the Chinese as the basis for great literary works, unlike in Indian or Mediterranean cultures. There are only enigmatic allusions to them in a few philosophical works, and by the time any serious attempt was made to record the myths, it is clear that many writers no longer believed in them or even understood them in full.

For many centuries after the introduction of writing, the Chinese took surprisingly little interest in their heritage of myths. The first work that includes any myths, and then only in passing, is the Zhou Dynasty Classic of Poetry, dating from around the sixth century bc. Two later works are far more important compilations of myths, the Classic of Mountains and Seas (third century bc) with its numerous accounts of over 200 mythical characters, and a chapter in the Songs of Zhu (fourth century bc) which records the sacred history of the Zhu polity in central China. Mention should be made of a few works written with philosophical intentions, the Daoist Zhuangzi text from 340 bc and the Confucian Classic of History, which was composed around the same time but restricts itself to myths concerning the origins of government and kingship. Apart from what can be gleaned from the tantalizing information given by these works, it was not until the compilation of the great medieval Imperial encyclopedias that any serious attempts were made to record the wealth of Chinese myths but by then many must have been lost forever.

Early Myths and Legends

The myths presented in the first two chapters of this book are all based on ancient tales arising from a highly fertile mythical period, up to and including the overthrow of the Yin dynasty and the establishment of the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc. The later chapters offer a selection of popular fables spanning a number of later eras. It should be noted, however, that the period of antiquity in which these legends and fables are set is no indication of when they were actually first transcribed. The earliest myths, as we know them today, for example, the Creation Myths, have to be recognized as the reconstructions of a later, post-Confucian culture. These early tales, collected in different ancient books, such as the great historical annals, give only the most frugal biographical account of characters and events. In time, these tales were embellished with more detail, appearing in works like the Taoist Shanghaijing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas), where a deeper sense of mystery and fantasy is woven around an existing historical record.

There are numerous Creation Myths, but several of these are worthy of note, each perhaps originating with one of the many different ethnic groups within ancient China. One of the best known concerns Nu Wa, a strange reptilian goddess who came to earth after it had been separated from the heavens. Some myths say that she created all things, including living beings, by going through seventy transformations. Others relate that although the natural world existed at that time, there were no humans in it. Feeling lonely, she saw a reflection of herself and took some mud and made a small copy of herself. When it came to life, she was delighted and began to create many thousands more, who populated the world while she remained as their teacher and protector.

Another well-known creation myth concerns Pan Gu (Coiled Antiquity), who was viewed as a primal deity or semi-divine human being. He was born from a primordial egg and when the egg split, the hard, opaque parts sank to become the earth while the soft, transparent parts became the heavens. Like Atlas, the Titan from Greek mythology, Pan Gu stood up and held the heaven and earth apart until they solidified in their present state. Exhausted by his labour, Pan Gu lay down and died. Each part of his body then became something in the natural world: his breath the wind and clouds; his eyes the sun and moon; his hair the stars; his bones and teeth the rocks and minerals; and so on. The very insects crawling on his dead body became human beings.

Other myths tell of the origin of the universe out of chaos, such as that of Hundun (Dense Chaos), who produced the world after he died after a misguided act of kindness, in which some fellow gods tried to carve him a face in return for his hospitality. The interplay of impersonal forces, such as the cosmic forces of the passive, dark, heavy feminine Yin and the active, sunny, light and masculine Yang, are also believed to have given rise to various elements in creation associated with their respective qualities.

Religious Schools of Thought

The imaginative minds of the ancient Chinese were crowded with Gods, giants, fairies, mortal heroes and devils, all of which ultimately appeared in their literature. Before Buddhism, Chinese religious practices were similar to those of the ancient Greeks, incorporating a huge number of deities who represented every aspect of nature, and a whole system of beliefs which attempted to explain the complexities of the universe in simple, human terms. The most important school of thought dominating China for thousands of years, was Confucianism, which devoted itself principally to the regulation of human relationships with a view to creating a practical social structure which would enable people to live in greater harmony together. Confucius favoured a more rational approach to life than that which he saw around him and discouraged the belief in the supernatural.

Co-existing with this methodical outlook, however, was the school of thought known as Taoism, seeking out the essential laws of nature which govern our lives, and in the age of Lao Tzu, the reputed founder of the Taoist religion, fresh myths began to appear. The period of the Warring States, 500 to 100 bc, again brought new impetus and greater emotional depth to mythological creation.

This era was followed by the advent of Buddhism which introduced to China many tales adapted from Indian mythology. To combat this foreign influence, Taoists invented newer characters and legends, mixing fact and fiction to a degree where the worlds of myth and reality become indistinguishable.

Broadly speaking, the diverse influences of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism resulted in a literature which was firmly rooted in the concept that everything on earth was in some way subject to divine authority. Order and peace exist on earth when Heaven’s authority is acknowledged, but when it is ignored, natural calamities, such as floods and drought, are set to occur. According to the Taoist view, the supreme power of Heaven is administered by celestial government officials. Compared to the other splendours of creation, the mountains and streams, the forests and flowers, man’s importance is diminished. Never before, in any other culture or early literature, was the emphasis on nature and humanity’s communion with it, so crucial. Man’s good fortune depended on his ability to behave in accordance with the dictates of Heaven. From ancient times onwards, the highest ambition he could aspire to was to determine the natural law of things and to behave in sympathy with it.

The Gods of the Cosmos

Unlike the mythologies of Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean and elsewhere, there is no structured pantheon of Chinese gods: literally hundreds are mentioned by name with brief myths associated with them in texts like the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Moreover, unlike other cultures, there are very few goddesses, perhaps reflecting the privileged status accorded to men in orthodox Chinese society.

The sun, moon and other heavenly bodies were of great significance to the ancient Chinese and their descendants and there are thus many gods associated with them. One of the best-known cycles of myths associated with the sun concerns the divine archer, Yi – originally a stellar god. Two goddesses are associated with the moon: Chang Xi (Constant Breath) and Chang E (Constant Sublime). Chang Xi gave birth to 12 moons, one for each month, while she dwelt in the wilderness of the west. It is said that she cared for her progeny by bathing them each night after their journey across the sky. Chang E, on the other hand, was the wife of the celestial archer Yi. Tales of these gods are found in the fourth and fifth chapters of this book, along with those of many others associated with the sun, moon and stars.

Gender in Chinese Myths

Many scholars believe that the earliest human societies worldwide were matriarchal in organization, but with the advent of the Bronze and Iron Ages, if not earlier, a shift seems to have occurred in many cultures to a patriarchal system that down-graded the female status. There are a few goddesses mentioned in Chinese mythology that hint at the former importance of women in society, such as Nu Wa, Chang Xi and Chang E, but the later male writers who compiled collections of myths seem to have done their best to undervalue the significance of the female in tune with the orthodox Confucian views of society. Nevertheless, apart from those mentioned above, other goddesses were important in ancient times as founders of early dynasties. Jian Di (Bamboo-slip Maiden) is mentioned as the progenitor of the first person of the Shang Dynasty, while Jiang the Originator was said to have been the mother of the first of the Zhou people. Like Hariti and other goddesses in India, disease and disaster is sometimes attributed to a female source in Chinese myth in the form of the Queen Mother of the West, a fierce and cruel being with tangled hair, tiger’s fangs and a panther’s tail, who was accompanied by other ferocious felines.

Catastrophe Myths

It is inevitable that a vast country like China should repeatedly witness natural disaster – droughts in the north and floods in the south. As with many other mythologies throughout the world, the Chinese have a range of catastrophe myths that tell of these events, perhaps distant memories of particularly devastating occasions when human survival itself may have seemed in doubt.

Four important flood myths, sometimes interlinked, have been preserved in early Chinese mythology, perhaps concerning different floods in various parts of the country or else the same event recorded by different people. One brief account relates how the world was saved from a combination of overwhelming floods and raging fires by the goddess Nu Wa who after restoring the sky then cuts the legs off a giant turtle and places them at the four corners of the earth to prop up the sky.

A second story tells of an ugly, misshapen god, Gong Gong, sometimes seen as the water god. Dissatisfied with his lesser status in the natural order of things, he challenged the fire god, the benevolent and wise ruler of the universe, and churned up the waters of the earth so that they crashed against the bulwarks of the sky. This resulted in catastrophic floods throughout the world. In some versions of this myth, this was the flood that Nu Wa averted.

A third myth speaks of a time when there was a world-threatening deluge. In order to deal with the situation, the gods nominated Gun (Giant Fish) to control the water. Two assistants were appointed to help him in this task: a divine eagle which knew the secrets of the sky and a divine turtle which knew the secrets of the waters, but their help is insufficient. Gun has to steal a magical ‘breathing-earth’ (a special type of earth of divine origin that had vitality) from the supreme god to control the flood waters and repair the world. Gun is punished for his theft and condemned to die on a mountain, but once dead his body does not rot and his son, Yu, is born from it.

Another important myth is known from two variants, involving the semi-divine Yu (Reptile Footprint), the son of Gun. In one version, Yu – unlike his father – was allowed to use the ‘breathing earth’ to repair the world and quell the floods; another version relates how Yu was commanded to deal with a devastating flood that had left everybody throughout China homeless by digging drainage channels.

Myths which deal with droughts are perhaps linked to the North China environment. One myth relates that when a drought afflicted the Shang lands for seven years, one of the mythical Shang kings, Tang, volunteered himself instead of the human sacrifices his people wanted to offer to the gods. Just as he was about to be burnt alive, a great downpour of rain fell in response to his selflessness.

Cultural Gods and Heroes

In contrast to many other mythologies, Chinese mythology is quite rich in accounts of beings who introduced cultural innovations into the world. These beings are often ambivalent in nature, either being semi-divine humans or gods. This ambivalence between the divine and the mortal realms was to become characteristic of later Chinese concepts of sages and emperors. Whether they were deified humans or gods demoted to human status, the mythical ancestors of various dynasties and tribes in China are said to have played a key role in introducing cultural innovations into the world.

A series of ten divine or semi-divine kings are associated with the earliest phase of the Zhou people, according to their accounts. The first of these was Fu Xi, sometimes associated with the goddess Nu Wa, who appears in a number of myths but who is particularly associated with the invention of writing. According to this myth, Fu Xi was the ruler of the universe and observed the markings and patterns found on various creatures. Based on his observations, he devised the Eight Trigrams that form the basis of the divinatory manual, the Yi-jing (this is also known as I Ching, and means Book of Changes). He is credited with the invention of music and also, after watching spiders at work, made fishing nets for humans. His successor, Shen Nung, was the farmer god who invented the plough and taught humans the art of agriculture. He also discovered the medicinal qualities of plants by pounding them with his whip and evaluating them by their smell and taste.

A later divine king was the famous Yellow Emperor, Huang Ti, who had over twenty sons, each of whom went on to sire important families of the Zhou dynasty. To him goes the credit for many innovations, such as the invention of the fire drill, by means of which he was able to clear forests and drive away wild animals using fire. Though he sometimes was viewed as a warrior god he was generally seen as peace-loving and had an ancient connection with healing; the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine, which still forms the basis of traditional Chinese medical treatment, was attributed to him. One of Huang Ti’s successors was Di Ku, who was married to the goddess Jiang Yuan. She became pregnant after accidentally treading on a footprint and gave birth to Hou-Ji. Thinking the child was unlucky, she tried on three occasions to rid herself of him by having him exposed to the elements, but each time he was saved. When the child grew up he made agricultural tools for the people and imparted the knowledge of crop cultivation, thereby guaranteeing the Chinese people a constant supply of food.

Hou-Ji was followed by the celebrated Yao, who was to be adopted in later times by the Confucians as the archetypal model of the sage – intelligent, accomplished, courteous and reverent. It was during his reign that the world was devastated by the catastrophic series of floods which required the intervention of Gun, as already mentioned. Yao wanted to appoint his chief minister as his successor but the latter refused so Yao turned his attention to Shun (Hibiscus), the low-class son of Gu Sou (Blind Man). Shun had come to the attention of Yao because Gu Sou was an obstinate reprobate who tried to kill Shun on three occasions. Shun had miraculously escaped each time. Through his filial piety, a virtue always esteemed by the Chinese, Shun eventually reforms his father’s behaviour. After having put Shun through various tests, Yao retired and passed the throne to Shun. Shun, in his turn, was eventually replaced by Yu, the son of Gun.

The Chinese have always been fascinated by divination and in ancient times several techniques were of central importance to the rulers of the early dynasties. The Shang people made use of turtle shells and the shoulder blades of sheep and oxen in their divination. The question being put to the gods was written on the bone and heat was then applied with a heated rod to form cracks. It was from the pattern of these cracks that the will of the gods and the outcome of the question were known. The tens of thousands of these inscribed pieces of bone and shell which have been found date from the middle of the second millennium bc, providing the earliest examples of Chinese writing. Apart from these scratched questions, little else has survived from that period and scholars believe that writing was restricted to a handful of imperial diviners. An entirely different form of divination is associated with the agrarian Zhou dynasty, the use of the Book of Changes (Yi-jing) based on the sixty-four combinations that may be derived from the basic set of eight trigrams – patterns formed from three solid and broken lines. Though the Shang method of divination fell into disuse with the Shang people’s demise, the Yi-jing is still widely consulted for divinatory purposes by many people.

The Chinese mythological tradition has furnished us with an extensive catalogue of ancient tales, several thousand in number. This volume is intended to provide an enjoyable and entertaining introduction to the most popular of those myths and fables and is in no way a comprehensive study of its subject. Nonetheless, it is hoped that the stories included will encourage the reader to explore further the fascinating world of Chinese mythology.

The Creation Myths

Introduction

The earliest Chinese myths, believed to have evolved in the primitive society of what is now northern China, are very old indeed, some of them dating back to the eighth century bc. They were passed on by word of mouth, by a simple people attempting to explain the origins of the cosmos and other astronomical phenomena beyond their comprehension.

The story of Pan Gu, although generally considered one of China’s earliest legends, is actually from a much later period. Some scholars of Chinese mythology suggest that this myth was imported from Indo-China shortly before the advent of Buddhism in the first century bc. Other scholars attribute the tale specifically to the fourth century Taoist philosopher Ko Hung, author of the Shen Hsien Chuan (Biographies of the Gods).

But whatever his precise origins, the tale of how Pan Gu fashioned the universe is now very firmly established in Chinese folklore and a great number of Chinese people still trace their ancestry back to this particular god and his successor, the goddess Nu Wa. Ancient Chinese tales which centre on these two characters are commonly known as ‘Creation Myths’.

Nu Wa and her consort, Fu Xi, were created to embellish the mythological notion of the origin of things. Again, the concept of Nu Wa is a very ancient one, first mentioned by Lieh Tzu in the fifth century bc. Nu Wa and Fu Xi are the great gentle protectors of humanity, while the God of Water, Gong Gong, is depicted as the destroyer of the earth. In these stories an interesting tension is introduced between the opposing forces of creativity and destruction.

Pan Gu and the Creation of the Universe

At the very beginning of time, when only darkness and chaos existed and the heavens and the earth had not yet been properly divided up, the universe resembled the shape of a large egg. And at the centre of this egg, the first living creature one day came into being. After many thousands of years, when he had gathered sufficient strength and energy and had grown to the size of a giant, the creature, who gave himself the name of Pan Gu, awoke fully refreshed from his long rest and stood upright within his shell. He began to yawn very loudly and to stretch his enormous limbs, and as he did so, the walls of the egg were cracked open and separated into two even portions. The lighter, more fragile, part of the egg floated delicately upwards to form the white silken sheet of the sky, while the heavier, more substantial part, dropped downwards to form the earth’s crusty surface.

Now when Pan Gu observed this, he was happy and proud to have created some light in place of the darkness and chaos out of which he had emerged. But at the same time, he began to fear that the skies and the earth might fuse once more, and he stood and scratched his huge head, pondering a solution to the problem. And after he had thought things through for quite a while, he decided that the only way to keep the two elements at a safe distance from each other was to place his own great bulk between them. So he took up his position, heaving and pushing upwards against the sky with his hands and pressing downwards into the earth with all the weight of his massive feet until a reasonable gap had been formed.

For the next eighteen thousand years, Pan Gu continued to push the earth and the sky apart, growing taller and taller every day until the gap measured some thirty thousand miles. And when this distance between them had been established, the sky grew firm and solid and the earth became securely fixed far beneath it. Pan Gu then looked around him and seeing that there was no longer any danger of darkness returning to the universe, he felt at last that he could lay down and rest, for his bones ached and he had grown old and frail over the years. Breathing a heavy sigh, he fell into an exhausted sleep from which he never awoke. But as he lay dying, the various parts of his vast body were miraculously transformed to create the world as we mortals know it today.

Pan Gu’s head became the mountain ranges; his blood became the rivers and streams; the hairs on his head were changed into colourful and fragrant blossoms and his flesh was restored to become the trees and soil. His left eye was transformed into the sun and his right eye became the moon; his breath was revived in the winds and the clouds and his voice resounded anew as thunder and lightning. Even his sweat and tears were put to good use and were transformed into delicate droplets of rain and sweet-smelling morning dew.

And when people later came to inhabit the earth, they worshipped Pan Gu as a great creator and displayed the utmost respect for all the natural elements, believing them to be his sacred body spread out like a carpet before them beneath the blue arch of the heavens.

Nu Wa Peoples the Earth

When the universe first emerged from chaos, mankind had not yet been created and the firmament and all the territories beneath it were inhabited by Gods or giants who had sprung forth from the body of Pan Gu. At that time, one particularly powerful Goddess appeared on earth in the company of her chosen heavenly companion. The Goddess’s name was Nu Wa and her companion’s name was Fu Xi. Together these deities set out to bring an even greater sense of order and regulation to the world.

And of all the other Gods residing in the heavens, Nu Wa was the strangest and most unusual in appearance, for the upper half of her body was shaped like a human being, while the lower part took the form of a snake. Nu Wa also possessed the unique ability to change her shape up to seventy times a day and she frequently appeared on earth in several different guises.

Although Nu Wa took great pleasure in the wondrous beauty of the new-born world she occupied, deep within she felt it to be a little too silent and she yearned to create something that would fill the empty stillness. One day shortly afterwards, as she walked along the banks of the great Yellow River, she began to imagine spending time in the company of other beings not unlike herself, animated creatures who might talk and laugh with her and with whom she could share her thoughts and feelings. Sitting herself down on the earth, she allowed her fingers to explore its sandy texture and without quite realizing it, began to mould the surrounding clay into tiny figures. But instead of giving them the lower bodies of reptiles, the Goddess furnished her creatures with little legs so they would stand upright. Pleased with the result, she placed the first of them beside her on the earth and was most surprised and overjoyed to see it suddenly come to life, dancing around her and laughing excitedly. She placed another beside it and again the same thing happened. Nu Wa was delighted with herself and with her own bare hands she continued to make more and more of her little people as she rested by the river bank.

But as the day wore on, the Goddess grew tired and it was then that she decided to make use of her supernatural powers to complete the task she had begun. So breaking off a length of wood from a nearby mulberry tree, she dredged it through the water until it was coated in mud. Then she shook the branch furiously until several hundred drops of mud landed on the ground and as each drop landed it was instantly transformed into a human being. Then Nu Wa pronounced that the beings she had shaped with her own hands should live to become the rich and fortunate people of the world, while those created out of the drops of mud should lead ordinary and humble lives. And realizing that her little creatures should themselves be masters of their own survival, Nu Wa separated them into sons and daughters and declared that they should marry and multiply until the whole wide world had become their home and they were free once and for all from the threat of extinction.

The War Between the Gods of Fire and Water

For a great many years after Nu Wa had created human beings, the earth remained a peaceful and joyous place and it was not until the final years of the Goddess’s reign that mankind first encountered pain and suffering. For Nu Wa was extremely protective of the race she had created and considered it her supreme duty to shelter it from all harm and evil. People depended on Nu Wa for her guardianship and she, in turn, enabled them to live in comfort and security.

One day, however, two of the Gods who dwelt in the heavens, known as Gong Gong and Zhurong, became entangled in a fierce and bitter dispute. No one knew precisely why the two Gods began to shout and threaten one another, but before long they were resolved to do battle against each other and to remain fighting to the bitter end. Gong Gong, who was the God of Water, was well known as a violent and ambitious character and his bright red wavy hair perfectly mirrored his fiery and riotous spirit. Zhurong, the God of Fire, was equally belligerent when provoked and his great height and bulk rendered him no less terrifying in appearance.

Several days of fierce fighting ensued between the two of them during which the skies buckled and shifted under the strain of the combat. An end to this savage battle seemed to be nowhere in sight, as each God thrust and lunged with increasing fury and rage, determined to prove himself more powerful than the other. But on the fourth day, Gong Gong began to weary and Zhurong gained the upper hand, felling his opponent to the ground and causing him to tumble right out of the heavens.

Crashing to the earth with a loud bang, Gong Gong soon became acutely aware of the shame and disgrace of his defeat and decided that he would never again have the courage to face any of his fellow Gods. He was now resolved to end his own life and looked around him for some means by which he might perform this task honourably and successfully. And seeing a large mountain range in the distance rising in the shape of a giant pillar to the skies, Gong Gong ran towards it with all the speed he could muster and rammed his head violently against its base.

As soon as he had done this, a terrifying noise erupted from within the mountain, and gazing upwards, Gong Gong saw that a great wedge of rock had broken away from the peak, leaving behind a large gaping hole in the sky. Without the support of the mountain, the sky began to collapse and plummet towards the earth’s surface, causing great crevasses to appear on impact. Many of these crevasses released intensely hot flames which instantly engulfed the earth’s vegetation, while others spouted streams of filthy water which merged to form a great ocean. And as the flood and destruction spread throughout the entire world, Nu Wa’s people no longer knew where to turn to for help. Thousands of them drowned, while others wandered the earth in terror and fear, their homes consumed by the raging flames and their crops destroyed by the swift-flowing water.

Nu Wa witnessed all of this in great distress and could not bear to see the race she had created suffer such appalling misery and deprivation. Though she was now old and looking forward to her time of rest, she decided that she must quickly take action to save her people, and it seemed that the only way for her to do this was to repair the heavens as soon as she possibly could with her very own hands.

Nu Wa Repairs the Sky

Nu Wa rapidly set about gathering the materials she needed to mend the great hole in the sky. One of the first places she visited in her search was the river Yangtze where she stooped down and gathered up as many pebbles as she could hold in both arms. These were carefully chosen in a variety of colours and carried to a forge in the heavens where they were melted down into a thick, gravel-like paste. Once she had returned to earth, Nu Wa began to repair the damage, anxiously filling the gaping hole with the paste and smoothing whatever remained of it into the surrounding cracks in the firmament. Then she hurried once more to the river bank and, collecting together the tallest reeds, she built a large, smouldering fire and burnt the reeds until they formed a huge mound of ashes. With these ashes Nu Wa sealed the crevasses of the earth, so that water no longer gushed out from beneath its surface and the swollen rivers gradually began to subside.

After she had done this, Nu Wa surveyed her work, yet she was still not convinced that she had done enough to prevent the heavens collapsing again in the future. So she went out and captured one of the giant immortal tortoises which were known to swim among the jagged rocks at the deepest point of the ocean and brought it ashore to slaughter it. And when she had killed the creature, she chopped off its four sturdy legs and stood them upright at the four points of the compass as extra support for the heavens. Only now was the Goddess satisfied and she began to gather round her some of her frightened people in an attempt to reassure them that order had finally been restored.

To help them forget the terrible experiences they had been put through, Nu Wa made a flute for them out of thirteen sticks of bamboo and with it she began to play the sweetest, most soothing music. All who heard it grew calmer almost at once and the earth slowly began to emerge from the chaos and destruction to which it had been subjected. From that day forth, Nu Wa’s people honoured her by calling her ‘Goddess of music’ and many among them took great pride in learning the instrument she had introduced them to.

But even though the heavens had been repaired, the earth was never quite the same again. Gong Gong’s damage to the mountain had caused the skies to tilt permanently towards the north-west so that the Pole Star, around which the heavens revolved, was dislodged from its position directly overhead. The sun and the moon were also tilted, this time in the direction of the west, leaving a great depression in the south-east. And not only that, but the peak of the mountain which had crashed to the earth had left a huge hollow where it landed in the east into which the rivers and streams of the world flowed incessantly.

Nu Wa had done all she could to salvage the earth and shortly afterwards, she died. Her body was transformed into a thousand fairies who watched over the human race on her behalf. Her people believe that the reason China’s rivers flow eastwards was because of Gong Gong’s foolish collision with the mountain, a belief that is still shared by their ancestors today.

The Tradition of the Tea-Plant

"Good is the continence of the eye; Good is the continence of the ear; Good is the continence of the nostrils; Good is the continence of the tongue; Good is the continence of the body; Good is the continence of speech; Good is all...."

Again the Vulture of Temptation soared to the highest heaven of his contemplation, bringing his soul down, down, reeling and fluttering, back to the World of Illusion. Again the memory made dizzy his thought, like the perfume of some venomous flower. Yet he had seen the bayadere for an instant only, when passing through Kasi upon his way to China – to the vast empire of souls that thirsted after the refreshment of Buddha’s law, as sun-parched fields thirst for the life-giving rain. When she called him, and dropped her little gift into his mendicant’s bowl, he had indeed lifted his fan before his face, yet not quickly enough; and the penally of that fault had followed him a thousand leagues – pursued after him even into the strange land to which he had come to hear the words of the Universal Teacher. Accursed beauty! surely framed by the Tempter of tempters, by Mara himself, for the perdition of the just! Wisely had Bhagavat warned his disciples: O ye Cramanas, women are not to be looked upon! And if ye chance to meet women, ye must not suffer your eyes to dwell upon them; but, maintaining holy reserve, speak not to them at all. Then fail not to whisper unto your own hearts, ‘Lo, we are Cramanas, whose duty it is to remain uncontaminated by the corruptions of this world, even as the Lotos, which suffereth no vileness to cling unto its leaves, though it blossom amid the refuse of the wayside ditch.’ Then also came to his memory, but with a new and terrible meaning, the words of the Twentieth-and-Third of the Admonitions:

Of all attachments unto objects of desire, the strongest indeed is the attachment to form. Happily, this passion is unique; for were there any other like unto it, then to enter the Perfect Way were impossible.

How, indeed, thus haunted by the illusion of form, was he to fulfil the vow that he had made to pass a night and a day in perfect and unbroken meditation? Already the night was beginning! Assuredly, for sickness of the soul, for fever of the spirit, there was no physic save prayer. The sunset was swiftly fading out. He strove to pray:

"O the Jewel in the Lotos!

"Even as the tortoise withdraweth its extremities into its shell, let me, O Blessed One, withdraw my senses wholly into meditation!

"O the Jewel in the Lotos!

"For even as rain penetrateth the broken roof of a dwelling long uninhabited, so may passion enter the soul uninhabited by meditation.

"O the Jewel in the Lotos!

"Even as still water that hath deposited all its slime, so let my soul, O Tathâgata, be made pure! Give me strong power to rise above the world, O Master, even as the wild bird rises from its marsh to follow the pathway of the Sun!

"O the Jewel in the Lotos!

"By day shineth the sun, by night shineth the moon; shineth also the warrior in harness of war; shineth likewise in meditations the Cramana. But the Buddha at all times, by night or by day, shineth ever the same, illuminating the world.

"O the Jewel in the Lotos!

"Let me cease, O thou Perfectly Awakened, to remain as an Ape in the World-forest, forever ascending and descending in search of the fruits of folly. Swift as the twining of serpents, vast as the growth of lianas in a forest, are the all-encircling growths of the Plant of Desire.

O the Jewel in the Lotos!

Vain his prayer, alas! vain also his invocation! The mystic meaning of the holy text – the sense of the Lotos, the sense of the Jewel – had evaporated from the words, and their monotonous utterance now served only to lend more dangerous definition to the memory that tempted and tortured him. O the jewel in her ear! What lotos-bud more dainty than the folded flower of flesh, with its dripping of diamond-fire! Again he saw it, and the curve of the cheek beyond, luscious to look upon as beautiful brown fruit. How true the Two Hundred and Eighty-Fourth verse of the Admonitions! – So long as a man shall not have torn from his heart even the smallest rootlet of that liana of desire which draweth his thought toward women, even so long shall his soul remain fettered. And there came to his mind also the Three Hundred and Forty-Fifth verse of the same blessed book, regarding fetters:

In bonds of rope, wise teachers have said, there is no strength; nor in fetters of wood, nor yet in fetters of iron. Much stronger than any of these is the fetter of concern for the jewelled earrings of women.

Omniscient Gotama! he cried, all-seeing Tathagata! How multiform the Consolation of Thy Word! how marvellous Thy understanding of the human heart! Was this also one of Thy temptations? – one of the myriad illusions marshalled before Thee by Mara in that night when the earth rocked as a chariot, and the sacred trembling passed from sun to sun, from system to system, from universe to universe, from eternity to eternity?

O the jewel in her ear! The vision would not go! Nay, each time it hovered before his thought it seemed to take a warmer life, a fonder look, a fairer form; to develop with his weakness; to gain force from his enervation. He saw the eyes, large, limpid, soft, and black as a deer’s; the pearls in the dark hair, and the pearls in the pink mouth; the lips curling to a kiss, a flower-kiss; and a fragrance seemed to float to his senses, sweet, strange, soporific – a perfume of youth, an odor of woman. Rising to his feet, with strong resolve he pronounced again the sacred invocation; and he recited the holy words of the Chapter of Impermanency:

Gazing upon the heavens and upon the earth ye must say, These are not permanent. Gazing upon the mountains and the rivers, ye must say, These are not permanent. Gazing upon the forms and upon the faces of exterior beings, and beholding their growth and their development, ye must say, These are not permanent.

And nevertheless! how sweet illusion! The illusion of the great sun; the illusion of the shadow-casting hills; the illusion of waters, formless and multiform; the illusion of – Nay, nay I what impious fancy! Accursed girl! yet, yet! why should he curse her? Had she ever done aught to merit the malediction of an ascetic? Never, never! Only her form, the memory of her, the beautiful phantom of her, the accursed phantom of her! What was she? An illusion creating illusions, a mockery, a dream, a shadow, a vanity, a vexation of spirit! The fault, the sin, was in himself, in his rebellious thought, in his untamed memory. Though mobile as water, intangible as vapor, Thought, nevertheless, may be tamed by the Will, may be harnessed to the chariot of Wisdom – must be! – that happiness be found. And he recited the blessed verses of the Book of the Way of the Law:

All forms are only temporary. When this great truth is fully comprehended by any one, then is he delivered from all pain. This is the Way of Purification.

All forms are subject unto pain. When this great truth is fully comprehended by any one, then is he delivered from all pain. This is the Way of Purification.

All forms are without substantial reality. When this great truth is fully comprehended by any one, then is he delivered from all pain. This is the way of ...

Her form, too, unsubstantial, unreal, an illusion only, though comeliest of illusions? She had given him alms! Was the merit of the giver illusive also, illusive like the grace of the supple fingers that gave? Assuredly there were mysteries in the Abhidharma impenetrable, incomprehensible!... It was a golden coin, stamped with the symbol of an elephant – not more of an illusion, indeed, than the gifts of Kings to the Buddha! Gold upon her bosom also, less fine than the gold of her skin. Naked between the silken sash and the narrow breast-corslet, her young waist curved glossy and pliant as a bow. Richer the silver in her voice than in the hollow pagals that made a moonlight about her ankles! But her smile! – the little teeth like flower-stamens in the perfumed blossom of her mouth!

O weakness! O shame! How had the strong Charioteer of Resolve thus lost his control over the wild team of fancy! Was this languor of the Will a signal of coming peril, the peril of slumber? So strangely vivid those fancies were, so brightly definite, as about to take visible form, to move with factitious life, to play some unholy drama upon the stage of dreams! O Thou Fully Awakened! he cried aloud, help now thy humble disciple to obtain the blessed wakefulness of perfect contemplation! let him find force to fulfil his vow! suffer not Mara to prevail against him! And he recited the eternal verses of the Chapter of Wakefulness:

"Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama! Unceasingly, by day and night, their thoughts are fixed upon the Law.

"Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama! Unceasingly, by day and night, their thoughts are fixed upon the Community.

"Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama! Unceasingly, by day and night, their thoughts are fixed upon the Body.

"Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama! Unceasingly, by day and night, their minds know the sweetness of perfect peace.

Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama! Unceasingly, by day and night, their minds enjoy the deep peace of meditation.

There came a murmur to his ears; a murmuring of many voices, smothering the utterances of his own, like a tumult of waters. The stars went out before his sight; the heavens darkened their infinities: all things became viewless, became blackness; and the great murmur deepened, like the murmur of a rising tide; and the earth seemed to sink from beneath him. His feet no longer touched the ground; a sense of supernatural buoyancy pervaded every fibre of his body: he felt himself floating in obscurity; then sinking softly, slowly, like a feather dropped from the pinnacle of a temple. Was this death? Nay, for all suddenly, as transported by the Sixth Supernatural Power, he stood again in light – a perfumed, sleepy light, vapory, beautiful – that bathed the marvellous streets of some Indian city. Now the nature of the murmur became manifest to him; for he moved with a mighty throng, a people of pilgrims, a nation of worshippers. But these were not