The Mythical Tale of Pangu and Nuwa - Part III

... And here is the third, and last, installment of the charming tale of Pangu and Nuwa. Have a great read.

Incidentally I'd like to apologize for not blogging as much as I liked lately - it's because I've come down with the flu! It's really nothing serious (it's not synonymous with a particular oinking animal), but as flus are wont to be it debilitates one's body to such a level that all I want to do is just hide under my duvet and sleep. I feel much better today, and thus this blog post. Enjoy!

With the creations of humankind by the mother goddess Nuwa and the life lessons by her partner Fushi, people were equipped to lead a civilized existence. For some time they lived in relative comfort and enjoyed security.

But one day, there came an unexpected arrival of the god of water Gonggong and the god of fire Zhurong into the realm of the universe.

Both gods came and, as suddenly as their arrival, they began to commence a bitter fight. Not one soul knew the reason behind the fight nor when it began, but before long the battle turned fiercer than ever, with a rage that consumed the boundaries of heaven and spilt into the world of humans.

The battle was endless and spanned more than a few days. Finally, victory was achieved by Zhurong, the god of fire. Gonggong was defeated and, as the loser, felt extreme shame. He refused to face his other god-comrades and instead decided to end his life by suicide.

Gonggong chose a most unfortunate way to end his life, by butting his head forcefully into a mountain, or one of the ‘pillars’ that supported the universe. He did little harm to his head (he was a god, after all) but his head-butt caused a great deal of damage to the mountain, or pillar of the universe. A huge piece of jagged rock crashed downwards to crush a corner of the earth whereas the heavens supported by the ‘pillar’ came tumbling down, leaving a gaping hole in the blue arch of the sky.

Huge crevasses gaped in the shattered earth, some releasing leaping flames, others gushing with water from unknown depths which flooded vast areas of land and turned them into a sea. Thousands of people drowned, and thousands more could do nothing more than to look on desperately as the tongues of flame burned their houses and crops.

Nuwa, the creator and mother goddess, could hardly keep still and see the terrible devastation of the earth as well as the endangerment of her children. Therefore as fast s she could, Nuwa began repairing all the damages caused by the god-fight.

To do so, she carefully selected many pebbles colored with the five primary colors out of the riverbeds of the Yellow River and the Yangzte River. She gathered these pebbles together and melted them together in a heavenly forge. With this mass of melted rock Nuwa mended the sky so that it remained once more as a whole.

As a precautionary step to ensure that the heavens would not topple again Nuwa made use of an immortal tortoise. With a tortoise’s blessing, she used its four legs as a means of support within the four points of the compass. Nuwa also burned reeds from beside the river, and used the ashes to stuff up great gaping crevasses. This forced back the flooding water and the rivers and seas gained equilibrium.

The goddess mother was not one to forsake her children’s bereaved emotions, and to help them forget the terrible argument and heal the emotional wounds, Nuwa created an instrument from reeds.

She chose thirteen different lengths of reed, bound them together and arranged them in the shape of a bird’s tail. When one blows upon this instrument, the reed pipes would give off a clear, melodious sound. The songs from the instrument calmed everyone’s hearts and gave peace at a time of turmoil.

Nuwa may be all-powerful, but unfortunately she could not do anything about the fallen mountain pillar. As it landed on the northeast corner of the land, this accident caused this particular area to remain much lower in level than the rest.

That is why all the rivers and streams in China tend to flow eastwards, pouring their waters into the great ocean that formed in the hollow east of the land. If you look at a map of China, you will see that all the major rivers still to this day flow eastwards to the sea.

Blessings and all the best, Corey