China's Creation and Origin Myths: Cross-cultural Explorations in Oral and Written Traditions (Religion in Chinese Societies) [Illustrated] 9004194851, 9789004194854

Citation preview

China’s Creation and Origin Myths

Religion in Chinese Societies Edited by

Kenneth Dean, McGill University Richard Madsen, University of California, San Diego David Palmer, University of Hong Kong

VOLUME 2

China’s Creation and Origin Myths Cross-cultural Explorations in Oral and Written Traditions

Edited by

Mineke Schipper, Ye Shuxian and Yin Hubin

LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011

This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data China’s creation and origin myths : cross-cultural explorations in oral and written traditions / edited by Mineke Schipper, Ye Shuxian, and Yin Hubin. p. cm. — (Religion in Chinese societies ; v. 2) Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index. ISBN 978-90-04-19485-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Creation—Mythology— China. 2. Mythology, Chinese. I. Schipper, Mineke. II. Ye, Shuxian, 1954– III. Yin, Hubin. IV. Title. V. Series. BL1812.C74C55 2011 202’.40951—dc22

2011005125

ISSN 1877-6264 ISBN 978 90 04 19485 4 © Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change.

CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................ ix List of Figures and Tables ......................................................... xvii List of Color Plates .................................................................... xxi List of Contributors ................................................................... xxiii Ethnolinguistic Map of China ................................................... xxvii Dynasties and Periods of China ................................................ xxix

PART I

COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES Humanity’s Beginnings in Creation and Origin Myths from Around the World ........................................................ Mineke Schipper The World of Chinese Mythology: An Introduction ............... Yang Lihui and An Deming

3 25

From Frog to Nüwa and Back Again: The Religious Roots of Creation Myths ................................................................. Ye Shuxian

55

Water-of-Immortality Myths in Altaic and Japanese Cultures .................................................................................. G. Namjila

79

Myths of Giant Corpse Transformation ................................... Jung Jaeseo

99

vi

contents PART II

REDISCOVERING THE BEGINNING IN TEXTS Sacred Order: Cosmogonic Myth in the Chu Silk Manuscript ............................................................................. Kao Lifeng The Wholeness of Chaos: Laozi on the Beginning .................. Kristofer Schipper Gun and Yu: Revisiting the Chinese “Earth-Diver” Hypothesis .............................................................................. Chen Lianshan Pangu and the Origin of the Universe ..................................... Wu Xiaodong

117 135

153 163

PART III

ORAL TRADITION AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY Chinese Creation Myths: A Great Discovery ........................... Wu Bing’an

179

Minority Creation Myths: An Approach to Classification ....... Wang Xianzhao

197

Humanism as a Paradigm for Creation Myths ........................ Liu Yahu

219

Performing Myths Today: A Field Study of the Renzu Temple Festival ...................................................................... Yang Lihui

239

Perspectives on the Environment in Miao and Yi Creation Narratives ............................................................................... Mark Bender

261

contents

vii

PART IV

ANTHOLOGY OF CREATION AND ORIGIN MYTHS Creation Myths in Chinese Minority Cultures .........................

279

Oroqen Origin ........................................................................... Oroqen

281

Dangun ...................................................................................... Korean

283

All Creatures Made out of Clay ............................................... Ewenki

285

Bear Origin ................................................................................ Ewenki

287

God’s Creation of the World .................................................... Manchu

289

The First Man: Son of Celestial Maiden Fukulun ................... Manchu

291

Creation of the World by Goddess Mai Deer .......................... Mongolian

293

Khudai Blows to Create the Heaven and the Earth ................ Salar

295

Creation of the Mortal World ................................................... Tu

297

Beauty Ai Sema ......................................................................... Uyghur

299

Zhe Pama and Zhe Mima ........................................................ Achang

301

Origin of all Living Creatures ................................................... Bai

305

viii

contents

Bu Sanggai and Ya Sanggai ...................................................... Dai

307

How Heaven Came to Be Separated from Earth .................... Derung

309

Muq pung gyeu ......................................................................... Derung

311

Four Generations of Man ......................................................... Gelao

313

Creation of Man, Heaven and Earth ....................................... Hani

315

Heaven and Earth Created by Frog .......................................... Hani

319

Heaven and Earth Created by E Ya and Sha Ya .................... Lahu

323

Bibliography ............................................................................... Index .......................................................................................... Color Plates ................................................................................

325 335 347

PREFACE In China academic interest in mythology emerged at the beginning of the 20th century after the concept of myth and the subject of mythology had been introduced into China through Japan. Over the past hundred years researchers in this field were individual scholars with rather personal motivations, who mainly worked on their own, in different parts of the country. In the relatively brief history of Chinese myth research, scholars first wondered whether Chinese creation and origin myths existed at all, and if so, how to define and classify them. Chinese scholars concentrated on ancient Chinese written texts and on three major themes: Chaos (Hun Dun Jun in Zhuangzi), Pangu and Nüwa, since Huang Shi (1927:13–23) first interpreted the fixed stanza hundun chukai, qiankun shi dian (“the chaos clears, and heaven and earth separate”) as a world creation myth. Yuan Ke’s influential monograph Zhongguo Gudai Shenhua (Ancient Chinese Myths), published in 1960, gave prominence to the diversity and complexity of Han people’s view on the world’s creation. Later folklorists, such as Tao Yang and Zhong Xiu (1989) and Ye Shuxian (1992) extended Yuan Ke’s classifications to the myths of other Chinese ethnicities. The idea that China had no creation myths has been widespread among Western sinologists, an idea pushed to the extreme by the American scholar Derk Bodde: “What draws people’s attention is that except for this single myth [i.e. the Pangu myth] China is possibly the only one nation without creation myths among the world’s ancient civilizations. This is also the case in Chinese philosophy, which tried from the first hand to inquire the interpersonal relationship and human being’s adaptation to a material world, rather than the origin of the universe.” (Bodde 1981:81) The prevailing and misleading idea among scholars home and abroad that there is no creation myth in ancient China has had such an impact that, in spite of their huge efforts to correct it, scholars both in China and abroad seem to have swallowed it. In his Zhongguo Shenhua Yanjiu ABC (The ABC of the Studies of Chinese Myths) which dates back to the 1920s, Mao Dun (reprinted 1981:137–9) pointed out that no traces of creation myths could be found in ancient literatures earlier than the Han dynasty.

x

preface

Nonetheless, those who look for various types of world creation myths, will find them in ancient Chinese traditions, including the creation idea of Dao. The myth of Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor)’s creation of the universe, if not preserved in its original story form, existed in philosophical and historical variations that became the startingpoint for an ancient Chinese ideology, from which the belief in the unique pedigree of Chinese emperors and the concept of the creation of the universe in the I Ching (The Book of Changes) originated. Chinese ancient myths can even be dated back prior to the Zhou dynasty. From the central plains of northern China colorful creation myths were handed down and, around the Western Zhou dynasty, these myths were transformed into a pedigree of emperors. In another well-known myth it is Pangu who cracks open the egg and thus creates the universe. There is no evidence of the cosmic-egg Pangu myth in Chinese classics, and the dead-body Pangu myth did not show up in written documents until Records of Three Kingdoms, but the idea of the universe in which all creatures are created from a primitive organism has existed in China since ancient times. And Nüwa is the prominent and popular creator who makes the first human beings from yellow clay, but “who has made the body of Nüwa?” as the poet Qu Yuan wondered in his poem Tianwen (Questions of Heaven). Nüwa must have been believed to have made an important contribution to the emergence of the world and the beginning of humanity, since various written texts mention her: e.g. in Feng Su Tong Yi (Comprehensive Meaning of Customs and Habits), Ying Shao of the Eastern Han dynasty wrote: “Nüwa moulded yellow earth and made man.” And according to Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters), “Nüwa, the ancient holy Goddess, is the creator of the universe.” Both refer to familiar vestiges of a cosmogony emergence myth in the Eastern Han dynasty. “Pangu’s incarnation” in Records of Three Kingdoms is a more fully developed version of this kind of myths (Zhang Guangzhi 267). Below, essays of the second section provide more details and variants. If we want to re-classify Chinese creation and origin myths, it is important to connect Chinese myths with other myths worldwide. Let’s take the entry of “Creation Myth and Mythology” in The New Encyclopedia Britannica as an example of classifying creation myths into five structural types: 1) Creation by a supreme being. 2) Creation through emergence. 3) Creation by world parents. 4) Creation from a cosmic egg. 5) Creation by earth divers. In this classification, myths about

preface

xi

creation from corpse transformation have apparently been included in section 4 as a special sub-category of creation from a cosmic egg, and not been listed as an independent type (the Pangu myth might be a case in point), whereas Dao, the Chinese idea of creation has not been taken into consideration at all. Given the important cultural characteristics of both, why not list corpse transformation as the sixth and Dao as the seventh type of the creation myth? The original mythical answers to questions about the origin of the universe and human beings must have played a latent restrictive role on the gradual differentiation and development of human thought and philosophical thinking. For instance, the idea of creation by a supreme being, as strengthened and propagated in the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity, has been a core concept in western culture. Even though there is no myth of creation by a supreme being in Chinese literatures, it does not mean that there is no relationship between such myths and Chinese civilization. As a matter of fact, the Huangdi creation myth could well be included in the first creation myth type (creation by a supreme being): in the myth, the creator keeps the identity of the Sun God, who in the course of history has been modified into a terrestrial emperor whose godship gradually weakened. In the yin-yang system of Laozi’s philosophy, the originator of heaven and earth is Dao, the mother of all things. Laozi describes her in a metaphorical way as xuan pin to underline the maternity of the original Dao, while connecting the ways in which the universe is created and a baby is born. Furthermore, Laozi resorts to the simple state of primal nothingness out of which the universe comes into being. His is the statement: “Acknowledge the male / But retain the female: /Be a drain-way for the world below the sky. / As a drain-way for the world below the sky, your constant power will never depart, Will lead back home to infancy” (Dao De Jing, Stanza 28). One could interpret it as an example of the second type of the classification above. Creation by world parents, the third type of creation myth, can be found in Huainanzi (see Kao Lifeng’s contribution in this book): “Before heaven and earth are being created in ancient times, no concrete forms exist, only the state of nothingness. Infinity being inconceivable and indescribable at that time, two gods come into being from chaos and create heaven and earth. So heaven and earth, yin and yang are separated. Emanating in all directions and to the outmost, yin and yang function cooperatively, out of which all things emerge in different forms” (“Jingshen Xun,” Huainanzi).

xii

preface

Although this record bears the nature of philosophical reflection, the two gods emerge no less mythically from chaos as the world parents united as one, as the origin of heaven and earth, yin and yang, and the Grand Original Cause of all other creatures, just like other myths of creation by world parents. Such myths are relatively pervasive in East Asian cultures (e.g. the myth of the gods Izanagi and Izanami in the ancient Japanese Classic Kojiki). The creation myths by brothers and sisters in many ethnic minorities in Southwest China have close parallels to such East Asian myths. In the pre-Qin philosophy, primitive parents have been abstracted as two categories: yin and yang. In I Ching (The Book of Changes), there is the most abstract expression of such creational ideas: all creatures result from the combination of yin and yang. Dao as the grand original cause of the creation of the universe, as in Laozi’s theory about the beginning (see also Kristofer Schipper’s contribution in this book) Heaven, earth and nature are the direct manifestation of the Dao of the universe, inspired by the way of nature, as the Dao (Way) of the universe. Rereading the first chapter of Dao De Jing, one finds the motif of creation myths reiterated by means of abstract vocabulary: “Something looked for but not seen, or listened for, not heard, or reached for, not found… Hold fast to the Way of ancient days to guide us through our present world… The number one of the Way was born. A duad from this monad formed. The duad next a triad made; the triad bred the myriad, Each holding yang. And held by yin, Whose powers’ balanced interaction” (Stanzas 14 and 42). Those who had been used to looking into Chinese myths from a narrow perspective based on a few ancient written texts, ignored the relevance of creation and origin myths (and of references made to those myths) as traditional cultural codes. However, in the 1990s the study of Han texts referring to origin and creation issues gradually developed into two new directions: the study of oral Han myths and the various creation and origin myths told in Chinese minority cultures. In order to bring to the fore the rich diversity and variety of myths in China’s various cultures, the contributors to the present book have concentrated on these relatively new developments from a comparative perspective. Their papers provide convincing evidence of the wealth of creation and origin myths in China’s oral and written story-telling traditions. Academic activities on a larger scale did not start before the founding of the Chinese Mythology Association in 1985. This association has

preface

xiii

organized or engaged in several mythology conferences over the past 25 years. One of the most remarkable of those conferences was the International Symposium on Creation Myths (Beijing, October 2008), sponsored by the Institute of Ethnic Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). This small scale and high level event was the first to concentrate exclusively on creation myths in China’s Han and Minority Cultures in the context of and with a comparative perspective on creation myths worldwide. Discussed topics included 1) The inventory and study of creation mythologies in a large variety of cultures in China; 2) Intercultural perspectives on the historical and typological convergences of forms and themes in the myths concerned, and 3) The question as to how myths in China are related to creation myths globally. The participants came from mainland China, Taipei, South Korea, the Netherlands and the United States. The symposium provided an opportunity for the critical assessment of achievements in the field of Chinese mythology so far; it also reflected a vivid awareness of the existing gaps in China’s mythology materials; it strongly emphasized the importance of further systematic study of the numerous newly discovered oral and written text materials and interdisciplinary approaches. Most contributors to this volume participated in the symposium of 2008. As editors we have worked on translating, polishing and editing the original papers, and were happy to include three insightful and erudite essays: Kristofer Schipper and Wu Bing’an, were not there at the time, but their work perfectly fits the aims of the symposium, and contributes to making this book into an unusual and unique collection. And we added a general paper co-authored by Yang Lihui and An Deming on the history of Chinese mythology, since we felt such a contribution would suit readers unfamiliar with the topic. In this volume the editors and contributors have worked hard to widen the field in several ways, first, by paying more attention to a surprising wealth of contemporary oral traditions and, second, by their interest in interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches including philosophy, religious studies, anthropology and archeology, to break away from the previous limited conception of mythology which concentrated mainly on the philological study of texts from the past. As Robert Ellwood stated in his Myth: Key Concepts in Religion:

xiv

preface The special significance of a myth lies in the way such as traditional story represents in narrative form the basic oral tellings and retellings. It encodes in the story the fundamental principles: its social organization and way of life; its essential rituals, taboos and other institutions, its dreams and its fears. We need to remember always that a myth is not just a story; it is also architecture, music, ritual, art, people’s names, the organization of society. More than “ordinary” stories, however good or profound, real myth sets up a whole network of associations that may deeply dye many areas of one’s life (Ellwood 2008:8).

Acknowledging the multifarious aspects and functions of myths, we took interdisciplinarity as the very starting-point for our rethinking of the study of Chinese creation myths. As conference organizers and editors of this volume we have tried first of all to avoid narrow, and mono-cultural viewpoints by opting for comparative views and by exploring cross-cultural meanings; second, to avoid the traditional Han-centeredness and the repetitious idea that China has little mythology; and, third, to strive for the academic appreciation of orally transmitted myths told in China’s minority cultures. Those three aims are reflected in the division of this volume. In Part I several comparative perspectives come to the fore. In her paper “Humanity’s Beginning in Creation and Origin Myths,” Mineke Schipper first explores the how and the why of humanity’s beginnings, two basic questions commonly asked and answered in creation and origin myths from around the world, and then discusses some basically shared aspects of myths, such as specific references to time, space, and sets of characters, which she illustrates with examples from Chinese and other myths. Her paper connects Chinese myths with myths originating from other cultures. Yang Lihui and An Deming then focus directly on Han and other Chinese myths and on what Chinese mythology for the people who live or lived by their creation and origin myths. Ye Shuxian’s “From Frog to Nüwa and Back Again” has been inspired by newly discovered archeological materials. He solidly combines the comprehensive narrative functions of icons, mythical stories and performances to argue that the frog/toad goddess, as a widespread object of worship in the Neolithic religious belief in the Eurasian continent, serves as the prehistoric archetype for the Chinese first mythic goddess Nüwa. His comparative study of the functions of frog myths in ethnic minorities presents a new perspective on the development from the original frog deity as an object to the frog myth as a narrative. Namjila’s “Water-of-Immortality Myths” presents a comparative area

preface

xv

study connecting Chinese, Japanese, and Indo-European cultures. Jaeseo Jung’s “Myths of Giant Corpse Transformation” provides a comparative reflection on the function of his topic in different cultures. The four papers in this section contribute new elements to the topic of comparison in various ways. Part II focuses on the creation myths recorded in Chinese ancient texts. In her paper, Kao Lifeng discusses the myth narrated in the Chu silk manuscript discovered in Changsha, Hunan province, a relatively recently discovered text. It is unknown when it was unearthed for the first time, it was stolen and ended up in the US, and is now exhibited in Washington DC’s Smithsonian as one of its most treasured collections. Its first scholarly attention dates back to the 1940s. Kao gives a scholarly review of the Chu silk manuscript research and analyses the motifs of its creation myth by textual reading, and her paper presents a structural analysis of the same text. Wu Xiaodong’s “Pangu and the Origin of the Universe” stresses one special characteristic of Chinese cosmogony, namely the link of creation myth with the divine history of the earliest Kings. Chen Lianshan’s “Gun and Yu: Revisiting the Chinese ‘Earth-Diver’ Hypothesis” focuses on the issue of myth classification in contemporary Chinese academic circles, arguing that there is a difference between the EarthDiver type of creation myth, and the so-called second creation, as in the story of Gun and Yu, where the flood is controlled and the cosmic order restored. Part III concentrates on the ethnic diversity of creation myths in the oral storytelling tradition. Wu Bing’an’s “Chinese Creation Myth: a Great Discovery” maps out the many mythical materials in Chinese minorities found and transcribed over the last three decades and how large the variety is among the different genesis stories told by priests and singers in the north and south areas. Wang Xianzhao’s “Minority Creation Myths: an Approach to Classification” makes an inventory of oral myths originating from minority cultures in terms of standard classification. Liu Yahu’s “Humanism as a Paradigm of Creation Myths” argues that there are philosophical and moral teachings hidden in Chinese myths. Yang Lihui’s “Performing Myths Today” deals with the cultural function of living myth in a temple festival in terms of a performing theory. Mark Bender’s paper gives an analysis to the environmental meaning in Miao and Yi creation stories, stressing the ecological lesson from a native point of view.

xvi

preface

In Part IV we are happy to present a small collection of creation and origin myths that have never been published in English.1 We want to acknowledge the support of Professor Chao Gejin, Director of the Institute of Ethnic Literature of CASS, and thank him for his great enthusiasm in the follow up of Professor Mineke Schipper’s initial comparative mythology project proposal. We also thank all contributors for their joint efforts in this project, and their patience in dealing with our editorial questions. And we say xie xie to Dr. Song Ying at the Institute of Ethnic Literature of CASS for her assistance to the first translation and paper editing. We are grateful to the Director and Staff of the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in Leiden for their warm welcome and hospitality to Professor Ye Shuxian and Dr. Yin Hubin during their stay in The Netherlands in the spring of 2010. Without their help and support our editorial work would hardly have been possible. We also express our deep-felt thanks to Mr. Chen Min, PhD student at Leiden University, for his indefatigable help and admirable patience as our editorial assistant. And, last but not least, we gratefully acknowledge the unflagging support of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, for their material contribution to this project, without which this book would never have been born. The Editors

1 As for the transliteration of Chinese names and words, throughout the text we followed the currently more widely accepted Pinyin system, so the term dao and its derivatives (daoism/daoist) are not spelt as “tao,” “taoism” and “taoist” in the WadeGiles romanization system. There are a few exceptions, however, e.g., the names of Confucius and Mencius, as well as the classic I Ching, are already familiar enough to many Western readers, so that a changed spelling of those names according to the rules of Pinyin orthography would only lead to unnecessary confusion.

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES*1 Figures Figure 1. Ethnolinguistic Map of China ................................... xxvii Figure 2. Fuxi (left) and Nüwa (right), 20th century, Yellow River Park, Lanzhou, Gansu province ..................................... 13 Figure 4. “Nüwa mends the broken sky,” drawing by Xiao Yuncong, 17th century ........................................................... 32 Figure 5. Statue of Fuxi, Renzu Temple, Huaiyang, Henan province. (Photo by Yang Lihui) ............................................ 39 Figure 6. A tour guide in Renzu Temple tells Renzu myths to tourists and ethnographers, Huaiyang, Henan province. (Photo by Yang Lihui) ............................................................ 41 Figure 7. Yi shamans (beima) chant the brother-sister-marriage myth in a ritual of offering sacrifice to a sacred tree ............ 47 Figure 8. Waren (half frog half human) pattern on Machang pottery, Majiayao culture, c. 3000 BC, Liuwan Pottery Museum, Qinghai province .................................................... 56 Figure 9. Waren (half frog half human) pattern on Machang pottery, Majiayao culture, c. 2500 BC, Liuwan Pottery Museum, Qinghai province .................................................... 58 Figure 11. Naxi cosmic chart (bage tu) with a divine frog, 20th century, Yunnan province .............................................. 61 Figure 12. Stone goddess figure, Xinglongwa culture, c. 6000 BC, Inner Mongolia ............................................................... 66 Figure 13. Stone frog, Xinglongwa culture, c. 6000 BC, Inner Mongolia ................................................................................. 68 Figure 14. Frog totem pole, 20th century, World Horticulture Expo Garden, Kunming ......................................................... 70 Figure 15. Frogs bronze drum, Han dynasty, c. 200 BC, Guangxi Provincial Museum, Nanning ................................. 73 Figure 17. Jade bear-dragon (symbol of immortality), tomb of Lady Fu Hao, Anyang, late Shang dynasty, c. 1300 BC, Capital Museum, Beijing ........................................................ 81 * Unless otherwise indicated, all images courtesy of CASS.

xviii

list of figures and tables

Figure 18. Creator goddess of Hongshan culture, jade wall, World Horticulture Expo Garden, Kunming ........................ Figure 19. Map of Tubo (Tibet) in the shape of a lying demoness, modern reproduction, Tibet Museum, Lhasa ...... Figure 20. Giant guard painted on a Tibetan Buddhist temple gate, 20th century, Xiahe county, Gansu province .............. Figure 22. Chu Silk Manuscript, ink and color on silk, Warring States period, Changsha, Hunan province, currently exhibited in the Freer and Sackler Galleries, U.S. Figure 24. “The Anatomy of Laozi,” map of the inner world of the human body as a guide for the meditation practice of liandu (sublimating) the body as a means of salvation. Daoist manuscript, 1697, Jiangxi province. Private collection, Biejing .................................................................... Figure 26. Statue of Fuxi, Fuxi Temple, Qing dynasty, Tianshui, Gansu province ...................................................... Figure 27. Pumi religious painting of the reincarnation of human beings, Ninglang, Yunnan province .......................... Figure 28. “Pangu the Creator,” modern wall painting, shrine of Duke of Zhou, Qishan county, Shaanxi province ............ Figure 29. Puppet “Chaos” used for shadow plays, Qing dynasty, Sichuan Museum, Chengdu .................................... Figure 30. “Nüwa Creates Human Beings,” modern wall painting, shrine of Duke of Zhou, Qishan county, Shaanxi province ................................................................................... Figure 31. Mural of the Tibetan myth “Raksasi and Monkey,” Potala Palace, Lhasa ............................................. Figure 32. Eagle with two pig (or bear) heads as wings, jade, Lingjiatan culture, c. 3300 BC, Anhui province ................... Figure 33. Mural of the Tibetan myth “Minister Lo-ngam rebels against King Drigum Tsenpo,” Potala Palace, Lhasa Figure 34. Statue of Jiangyuan (ancestress in the Zhou dynasty), Jiangyuan Temple, Qishan county, Shaanxi province ................................................................................... Figure 35. A group of pilgrims were dancing Danjingtiao and chanting Jingge at the same time to praise the ancestors during the festival in 2006. (Photo by Yang Lihui) ............... Figure 36. Renzu Temple Festival in 2005. (Photo by Tong Yunli) .......................................................................................

94 101 107 130

149 161 167 171 181 194 204 217 229 237 241 246

list of figures and tables Figure 37. Nuosu priest (bimo) from the Liangshan Mountains in southern Sichuan province doctoring a patient (far right) with a chicken sacrifice. Note the “ghost” effigy made of grass and the boar’s teeth around the neck of the younger ritualist. (Photo by Mark Bender) .......................................................................... Figure 38. A young Miao girl carries a paper lantern shaped like a turtle during the Sister’s Rice Festival, Taijiang county, southeast Guizhou province, May 2007. (Photo by Mark Bender) .....................................................................

xix

264

271

Tables Jung Jaeseo Table 1. The homology of microcosmology .............................

105

Wu Bing’an Table 1. Creation epics .............................................................. Table 2. Creation myths involving several gods ....................... Table 3. Creation myths involving a pair of gods as creator gods ......................................................................................... Table 4. Creation myths involving a sole creator god ............. Table 5. Pangu creation myths .................................................

182 184 186 187 191

Wang Xianzhao Table 1. Type system of the creation myths of Chinese minorities ................................................................................

211

LIST OF COLOR PLATES Figure 3. “Nüwa Creates Human Beings,” statue, Nüwa Temple, She county, Hebei province ..................................... Figure 10. The Tibetan monkey ancestor in a thangka painting, Potala Palace, Lhasa ................................................ Figure 16. Nyatri Tsenpo, the first tsenpo (king) of the Tubo Kingdom (Tibet today), mural, Qing dynasty, Potala Palace, Lhasa .......................................................................... Figure 21. Fuxi and Nüwa diagram, a silk painting from the unearthed Astana Graves (Tang dynasty), Xinjiang ............. Figure 23. Religious drawing of the origin of the world by an anonymous Mosuo daba (priest), Ninglang, Yunnan province ................................................................................... Figure 25. “Yu the Great Conquers the Flood,” modern mural, Yu Mausoleum, Shaoxing, Zhejiang province ..........

349 350 351 352 353 354

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS An Deming is Professor of Folklore at the Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing. His research interests include folk belief, proverb, legend, and ethnography. His published works include Handbook of Chinese Mythology (co-author; ABC-CLIO 2005, Rpt. Oxford University Press 2008), Going Back to Hometown: A Folklorist’s Field Experiences in Familiar Place (2004), Averting Natural Disaster: A Study of Agricultural Rituals from Farming Villages in Tianshui, Gansu Province (2003). He has won some of the most prestigious Chinese research awards in his discipline. Mark Bender is Associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Ohio State University. He specializes in traditional Chinese performance and performance related literature, as well as in certain Chinese ethnic minority cultures. He teaches Chinese and East Asian culture courses and a course in Traditional Performance in Contemporary East Asia. Bender has published on a wide variety of subjects, including Suzhou pingtan (professional storytelling) and the literature of Chinese minority cultures. Chen Lianshan is Associate Professor of Chinese Literature at Peking University. His research interest is folklore and mythology, and recent publications include Chinese Myths and Legends (2009), A General Introduction to the Duanwu Festival (2008), Game (2000) and Levi-Straus and Questions of Mythology (1999). Jung Jaeseo graduated from Seoul National University, gained his professional experience at Harvard Yenching Institute and International Center for Japanese Culture Studies, and now teaches at Ehwa Woman’s University. His research interests includ mythology and Daoism, and recent publications are The Immortality of Myths and Thoughts, Daoist Culture and It’s Dynamic Imagination, and Stories of Professor Jung: Oriental Myths, For the Purpose of Communication with Disappearing Deities. Kao Lifeng is Professor of Chinese Literature at National Cheng-Chi University of Taiwan. Her research interests are Mythology, Chinese

xxiv

list of contributors

Classical Literature and Literary Theory, and her recent publications include The Research of Yuan Jia Poets Applied on Literary Allusions, The Peak of Poetic Perfection: Anthropology in the Songs and Poetry of the Han Dynasty, and Penglai Myth. She was the co-author of Review of Chinese Literary Criticism in Taiwan for the Past Fifty Years (1949–2001). Her research projects have been funded and awarded by the National Science Council many times. Liu Yahu is Professor at the Institute of Ethnic Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). His research field is mainly epics and literary relationships between ethnic groups in southern China. His recent publications include On Southern Epics (1999), A History of Cross-Ethnic Literary Relationship in China (1997), and An Aesthetic Study of Legends about Guangxi Landscapes (1994). G. Namjila is Professor of Literature at Minzu University, China. His research field is classic Mongolian literature, Mongolian-Altaic Mythology, and his recent publications include Comparative Mythology of China’s Altaic Ethnic Minorities (2010), and Study of Old Mongolian Literature (2010), Wolf Totem: Origin Seeking for the Animal Ancestor Myths of Altaic Peoples (2009), A Comparative Study of Mongolian Myths (2006), and Kinghis khan and Jsag and Bilig (1989). Kristofer Schipper is Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands, emeritus professor of Chinese religion and history of the universities of Paris and Leiden, and now specially appointed professor of Fuzhou University, Senior Consultant of the Confucius Institutes and founder of the Library of the Western Belvedere in Fuzhou. Among other works he published The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2004 (3 vols.; in collaboration with Franciscus Verellen). Mineke Schipper is Professor of Intercultural Literary Studies at Leiden University in The Netherlands. She is the author of numerous books including Imagining Creation (with Markham J. Geller, 2008), Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet: Women in Proverbs from Around the World (2004), Imagining Insiders: Africa and the Question of Belonging (1999). She also published three novels. Wang Xianzhao recently completed his post-doctoral research in the field of mythology and ethnic oral traditions in China at the Institute of

list of contributors

xxv

Ethnic Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His academic publications include Statistical Data of Typical Motifs in Myths of Chinese Minorities (2007). Wu Bing’an, folklorist, is Professor at Liaoning University, Fellow of the Folklore Fellow Society (FF), Honorary Chairman of the China Folklore Society. His main publications include The Mysterious World of Shamans (1989), China Folkloristics (1985), Essays on Folkloristics (1983), and An Introduction to Folk Literature (1957, 1980). Wu Xiaodong is Associate Researcher at the Institute of Ethnic Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He specializes in ethnic mythology and Shan Hai Jing and his publications include A Survey of Yi’s Tiaogong Ritual in Dala (2009), Miao Ancient Song of Ritual Songzhu (2007), Miao Totems and Myths (2002), Pangu Myth: A War between the Chu and the Lurong (2000). Yang Lihui is Professor of Folklore and Mythology at the College of Chinese Language and Literature at Beijing Normal University. Her research interests include mythology, folkloristics, ethnography, and tourism. Her publications include Handbook of Chinese Mythology (co-author; ABC-CLIO 2005, Rpt. Oxford University Press 2008), Myths Orally Transmitted in Contemporary China: An Ethnographic Study of Four Communities of Han People (in press), Myths and Mythology (2009), The Cult of Nüwa: Myths and Beliefs in China (1997). She has won some of the most prestigious research and teaching awards in her discipline in China. Ye Shuxian is Chair Professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Professor of Literature and Director of the Centre for Comparative Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Chairman of the Chinese Association of Literary Anthropology, Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Society of Mythology. He specializes in folklore, mythology, and comparative literature, and his many publications include Laozi and Mythology (2005) and A Goddess with a Thousand Faces (2004). Yin Hubin is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnic Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His special field is folklore and ethnic minority literatures. He co-edited Epics and Heroes in Chinese Minority Cultures (2004) and Ancient Classics and Oral Tradition (2002).

Figure 1. Ethnolinguistic Map of China.

DYNASTIES AND PERIODS OF CHINA Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors Xia Shang (or Yin) Zhou Western Zhou Eastern Zhou Spring and Autumn period Warring States period Qin Han Western Han Xin (Wang Mang interregnum) Eastern Han Six dynasties period Three Kingdoms Western Jin Eastern Jin Northern and Southern dynasties Sui Tang Five dynasties period Song Northern Song Southern Song Liao Western Xia Jin Yuan Ming Qing

?–? c. 2070–1600 BC c. 1600–1046 BC c. 1046–256 BC c. 1045–771 BC 770–256 BC 770–476 BC 475–221 BC 221–206 BC 206 BC–220 AD 206 BC–9 AD 9–23 25–220 220–589 220–280 265–317 317–420 420–589 581–618 618–907 907–960 960–1279 960–1127 1127–1279 907–1125 1038–1227 1115–1234 1271–1368 1368–1644 1616–1911

PART I

COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES

HUMANITY’S BEGINNINGS IN CREATION AND ORIGIN MYTHS FROM AROUND THE WORLD Mineke Schipper Leiden University Abstract Today extensive collections of myths exist in all continents, and creation mythologies are being studied in various disciplines, from comparative religion studies to comparative literature. So far the number of translated Chinese myths available is very limited, and especially the rich legacy of oral stories told in minority cultures has hardly been taken into account by crosscultural studies.1 One of the tasks of comparative literature is to look for formal and thematic similarities and differences in historically related and historically unrelated cultural traditions. Cross-cultural approaches to literature allow researchers to find out what we do or do not share as human beings, by focusing on a specific unit in oral narratives or written texts originating from different cultures, belonging to a specific genre or theme, or a combination of both, as I intend to do here. The uniting threads of the paper will be a common genre, stories all set “at the beginning,” and a common topic—the origin of the first humans, with examples from Chinese and other cultural traditions. Why and how creation and origin myths set the stage, and why and how the first people began their eventful life on planet earth, will be the central question, a puzzling question asked and answered in origin myths from around the world. Keywords: intercultural comparison, distant reading, oral traditions, thematics

Comparing Myths from Around the World The word “myth” originates from the Greek muthos which has many meanings, such as 1) spoken word; 2) message; 3) rumour or story; 4) proposal; 5) request, order, threat; 6) thought, plan, design (as against doing the work). Here I define myths simply as “stories of the 1 There is of course Yuan Ke’s introduction to Chinese mythology: Dragons and Dynasties (1993), and more recently Yang Lihui and An Deming’s Handbook of Chinese Mythology (2005), but the number of translated stories is still limited.

4

mineke schipper

beginning,” be it a special kind of stories in which, “as a result of the intervention of Supernatural Beings man himself is what he is today, a mortal, sexed, and cultural being,” in Mircea Eliade’s (1963:5–6) words. A number of those stories may still consider such stories to be sacred, but wherever that claim has got lost people no less cherish their “own” myths as part of their cultural legacy. Origin myths vary from short and simple stories (in some cases of no more than five or six lines) to texts of more than a thousand lines; from crystal clear to extremely cryptic texts; philosophically or historically oriented texts; pious, sceptical, solemn and even hilarious texts. Can such myths originating from different languages and cultures be compared at all? In literary studies there is a difference between close reading and distant reading. Close reading has the advantage of looking closely at one particular text in the context of a particular culture. Distant reading, on the contrary, allows focusing on specific units in several or even a large number of texts. There are losses and gains both ways: a local in-depth study misses the comparative dimension, whereas a comparative study misses the local in-depth information. Of course both approaches need not be in competition at all; on the contrary, they greatly profit from each other’s insights and results (Moretti 57). Origin stories provide answers to puzzling questions explaining and justifying the ways in which human society has been functioning. Those answers relate to specific local situations as well as to general human conditions. Story-telling is a way to transmit norms and values, and creation stories are no exception. Myths are a powerful genre, and in a number of cases the dogmas and statements they have given birth to are not supposed to be questioned by believers. Myths pay attention to the three stages of creation which are—not always in that order and not always to be found in each of them: the making of the gods, also called theogony; the making of the universe, or cosmogony; and the making of mankind: anthropogony. But then: a fundamental question is whether creation stories are exclusively related thanks to cross-cultural contacts. Or did similar stories, or similar elements in stories, such as characters or themes, develop independently across cultures? There are examples of both. On the one hand stories travel along with people who exchange stories, and cultures influence each other. On the other, humans around the world are puzzled by the same questions about the how and why of humanity’s beginnings

humanity’s beginnings in creation and origin myths

5

and develop strikingly similar answers in spite of people’s living far away from each other. How is this possible? As human beings we share a number of things. We belong to the human species living thus far on the same planet, and we are products of genetics, culture, and society. Our commonalities have to do with the shape and functions of the human body. What we have in common with our ancestors, and with our contemporary fellow humans are basic drives and needs such as food, shelter, safety, and procreation, and we share basic emotions and experiences. Primary drives, dictated by the needs of the body, determine human behavior and induce at least a number of comparable reactions in societies all over the globe. To some extent, anatomical and physiological features underlie social structures and cultural institutions. If creation myths resemble each other formally or thematically across cultures without any demonstrable contact, such similarities have to do with basic features shared by human beings. Humanity’s Mythical Beginnings Over the past years, the central topic of my creation myth research has been the origin of the human race, as imagined in stories about humanity’s primordial times. Examining several hundreds of myths I have been looking for the why and the how of people’s coming into being. Why this topic? From my previous research on proverbs worldwide2 I learnt that the ways in which humans address and solve fundamental problems are rather limited in scope. Equipped with the experience and insights gained from that earlier research, I started looking for patterns in creation and origin myths, a genre no less influential and

2 My book Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet: Proverbs about Women from Around the World concentrated on women’s representations in the world’s smallest literary genre, the proverb,—a popular and quite influential genre in many cultures. In the more than 15,000 proverbs and sayings from all continents collected for that research I studied the various themes those proverbs most frequently dealt with: women’s bodies; their various phases of life; basics of life, such as love, sex, pregnancy, childbirth, work, and so forth. In spite of the differences among cultures, those tiny texts revealed some surprisingly common patterns in ideas transmitted over the centuries in hundreds of languages across the globe.

6

mineke schipper

no less global than proverbial one-liners, even though they have different forms and functions. Here I will go into a few aspects, using examples from Chinese as well as other stories. The mythical past and the modern present are interwoven in the minds of the living, in canonical and apocryphal variants of narratives. Storytelling is a strong medium, and underlying mythic ideas about origin continue to have a powerful impact, consciously or subconsciously. In mythology research modesty should be our first guideline, since we still have had no answers to the basic questions we share with our ancestors—as an old Miao story (Werner 1922:406) reminds us: Who made heaven and earth? Who made insects? Who made men? Made male and made female? I who speak don’t know.

From Chaos to Order All creation and origin myths are set in a context of time and space, they all present events and characters. And most of the stories discuss a general process going from chaos to order, and describe, briefly or extensively, what happened before heaven and earth had taken form, and how the gods prepared the earth as a more or less bearable place where people have spent their lives ever since. 1. Time Mythical time refers to “time in the making,” the situation before the beginning of time, before the infinite became finite, before the creation of order. The end of creation coincides with the establishing of the human time order, which is the beginning of history, including birthgiving and dying which were introduced to the world of the humans sooner or later after creation, as an inevitable part of the human time order and life cycle. Time plays a special role in origin myths. Formally speaking, most stories refer literally to “the beginning” in their first sentences. In the beginning . . . At the very beginning . . .

humanity’s beginnings in creation and origin myths

7

First, they say, there was . . . Long ago there was not . . .

Evidently the infinite comes to conceive and create the finite, as a Hopi Indian emergence story puts it. How to describe the mystery of the non-existent other than in terms of the existent, how to describe the unfamiliar other than in terms of the familiar? The creation myth narrators often depict the void by taking to the device of what was not yet there in those amorphous beginnings of nothingness, as in this famous Babylonian example (Lambert 2008:18): When the heavens above did not exist, and earth beneath had not come into being, (. . .) before meadow land had coalesced and reedbed was to be found, when not one of the gods had been formed or had come into being . . . (Babylonian, Mesopotamia)

Another description of what does not yet exist, is the following Lahu example (Walker 1995:21) A long, long time ago, there was neither earth, nor sky. There was neither wind, nor rain, there was no sun, no moon and no stars. (. . .) At that time, There were no human beings on earth. (Lahu, Yunnan)

And a Hindu quotation provides another example in which there was in the beginning, or rather before the beginning, “neither nonexistence nor existence,” and there was “neither the realm of space nor the sky that is beyond;” “neither death nor immortality;” “no distinguishing sign of night nor of day” (Doniger 2008:90). 2. Space An event always takes place “somewhere.” And we should remember that in each narrative, an event always means the crossing of a border between two spaces or situations. Usually mythical events follow a “logical” order from non-existent to existent, from the chaos before creation to a liveable world. Whereas many cultures have invented detailed stories about the beginnings of the cosmos, others have taken the cosmic or worldly stage for granted and concentrated on the whereabouts of the first people: the first human ancestors needed a habitat, a planet to live on, a land to cultivate, a culture of their own.

8

mineke schipper

In a number of myths they were living either in heaven before they came down to the earth, or under the earth before they emerged from a rock, a hollow tree, marshes, a hole in the ground, a lake or some other special exit from mother earth’s dark womb. In the myths the characters move around and act in various spaces, and the spaces mark them in significant ways, as powerful gods or fragile humans, as great heroes or evil enemies. In creation stories, we can look for the various spaces described. Myths originating from a large variety of places agree that the beginning must have been an unimaginable void or at the most consisted of vast stretches of primeval water and darkness, clouds and mist. Those waters need to dry up before the earth becomes visible, or some earth needs to be dived up from beneath the watery surface and then flattened out magically. Indeed, mist and moisture, water and darkness are strikingly often mentioned as the very beginning: When God began to create the heaven and the earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. (Genesis 1: 1–3 in the Bible) In the beginning there was nothing but a vast oily sea of Chaos that contained a mix of all the elements. There were three spirits or kami in heaven who looked out over this sea and decided that a world ought to be created. ( Japanese, Harris 2) Long, long, long ago there wasn’t any land at all, only the ocean. (Marshall Islands, Sproul 334) In the beginning the world was a watery, formless Chaos that was neither sea nor land, but a marshy waste. (Yoruba, Nigeria, various sources) In the very beginning, there was nothing but water and darkness. The water sloshed around, splashing foam and spray. Some of the spray congealed and formed the sky. Kokomaht, the Creator, lived underneath the water and was two beings in one. (Yuma Indians, USA, Erdoes and Ortiz 77) In the beginning there was no earth, there were waters everywhere. (Manchu, China) In the beginning there was no earth or solid land, there was nothing but a vast ocean. (Tu, China) In time immemorial the world was filled with thick mist that seethed silently for ages until finally transforming into a vast ocean. (Hani, China) 3 3

The Chinese examples are from the anthology in this book.

humanity’s beginnings in creation and origin myths

9

The respective creators are aware that the first people need space, a planet to live on, a land to cultivate, and many stories deal with one or more gods setting of the stage. We come across the creation or existence of some extraordinary and superior spaces (one or several heavens, paradise) and the ordinary or inferior spaces (this world, the home town) with the surrounding landscape (rocks, hills, forest, the savannah, rivers and lakes). Ordinary spaces may still be presented as very special for the people concerned, because the local space has been their own home town or region “ever since the beginning.” We see characters and events move from one space to another, we are told, for example, how they move from the place where the gods live to the human space, or vice versa. In several stories gods live among or visit the humans they created, or the humans are allowed to live among or visit their god(s) in heaven. In a number of stories God seems to have been quite accessible before human times and lives have made this impossible. Ages ago the earth was adhered to the heaven. Then people set up a ninestair ladder leading to the heaven on the holy land of Mukenmudangmu, which enabled them to go up and down freely. (Drung, China)

The stories go on to explain why certain spaces, such as heaven or paradise, became inaccessible to our first ancestors, as a punishment. Ever since, humans can no longer meet or see their gods. Most stories tend to take for granted that the first humans came into existence only after the earth had been created, but if, as it happens in some cases, the order is reversed, the creator has to solve the problem of where to keep the people who have no earth yet to live on, as in the following Manchu myth: In the beginning there was no earth, there where only waters all over. It was the Lord Abukaenduli who made in his likeness a first pair of humans. He kept them in a stone jar which he put floating on the waters. (. . .) Gradually the jar became so crowded that Abukaenduli decided to create another dwelling place for the people. Out of soil he created a huge piece of land which he placed on the back of three big fishes. (Manchu, China)

3. Thematics The unifying theme is the topic of how the universe, and especially the earth, were made ready, how the first people came to live on earth in their familiar surroundings, and what happened before life became

10

mineke schipper

as the people know and experience it. In several myths the image of the universe or the earth as a living body is a magnified version of the individual human body. The birth and splitting of the universe and the “burst” into being of the first humans can be seen as parallel processes. Thus macro-cycles of creation and destruction of the universe in mythical narratives parallel the micro-cycle of people’s individual birth, growing up, ageing and dying. a) Dismemberment as Setting of the Stage In several myths cycles of creation, destruction, and renewal alternate. A special case of creating the earth or even the universe, often including the first human beings, is primordial dismemberment or decomposition of a humanlike primeval being. In the Indian Rig Veda, for example, this being’s name is Purusha which means the Man or the Male. It also occurs in the Norse creation myth, as preserved in an Icelandic text from the late tenth century (Hveberg 1969:10–11) From Ymir’s flesh the earth was shaped, And from his sweat (or blood) the sea, Mountains from his bones, trees from his hair, And from his skull the sky. And from his eye brows the friendly gods made Midgard (“Middle Earth”) for the sons of men And from his brains were all the stern clouds shaped.

In the Chinese cosmological system, Laozi’s body in one myth and Pangu’s body in another myth are also presented as the primeval being or cosmic body (see Kristofer Schipper’s contribution to this book). There are quite a few stories in which the origin of the cosmos and of life on earth is presented as a complex creation process, as discussed in Jaeseo Jung’s contribution to this book. The very dismemberment sacrifice of the primordial cosmic body also leads to a first order of things in an ancient myth from Tahiti: He took his spine for a mountain range, his ribs for mountain slopes, his vitals for broad floating clouds, his flesh for fatness of the earth, his arms and legs for strength for the earth; his fingernails and toenails for scales and shells for the officious; (. . .) and his intestines for lobsters, shrimps, and eels for the rivers and the seas; and the blood of Ta’aora got heated and drifted away for redness for the sky and for rainbows. But Ta’aora’s head remained sacred to himself, and he still lived, the same head on an indestructible body. (Henry 339)

humanity’s beginnings in creation and origin myths

11

Here the difference with the other examples is that Ta’aora keeps his body whereas the other primeval beings have to sacrifice it in order for the cosmos to come into being. In such myths about the beginning the bodily transformation produces a hierarchy right away in the newly created order of things. The decomposing being is usually presented as a he, a man’s body, but in a few cases the being is a she, from whose body first the human beings and then all and everything else originates: At first Kujum-Chantu, the earth, was like a human being; she had hair, and arms and legs, and an enormous fat belly. The original human beings lived on the surface of her belly. One day it occurred to KujumChantu that if she ever got up and walked about, everyone would fall off and be killed, so she herself died of her own accord. Her head became the snow-covered mountains; the bones of her back turned into smaller hills. Her chest was the valley where the Apa-Tanis live. From her neck came the north country of the Tagins. Her buttocks turned into the Assam plain. For like buttocks full of fat, Assam has fat rich soil. KujumChantu’s eyes became the Sun and Moon. From her mouth was born Kujum-Popi, who sent the Sun and Moon to shine in the sky. (Apa Tani, North East Frontier, India, Elwin 1958:8)

b) The How of Creation To create means to bring about something that did not exist before, out of something or out of nothing. Physicists would argue that no matter can ever be made unless there is existing material available. According to inflation theorists and physicists, the beginning of the universe is to be understood as something very small which expanded after the big bang from the size of a gumball to astronomical proportions. But even a small gumball is not immaterial. If we assume that this is how it all began, the gumball existed in a context of magnetic fields, and so forth. So far, there is still very little that theoretical physicists are able to prove about the origin of the universe, and life continues to be full of mysteries. In some respects divine creators look like human artists who creatively sculpt, saw, weave and forge. But gods are able to achieve creation from nothing, by means of words or dreams or meditation. In myths anything can happen. Earth is the most popular material; examples of people made from earth can be found in Egyptian, Hebrew, Roman, Chinese, Korean, American Indian and other cultures. In such stories we are told that the first people were made out of just earth or earth mixed with a

12

mineke schipper

little moisture: water or saliva, mist, a drop of blood, milk or sperm. Earth is variously referred to as dust, mud, clay or sand of different colours. There are, of course, many other ingredients to make people from— familiar and unfamiliar ingredients, used separately or in surprising mixes. Here are a few other recipes: iron plus the sap of a green leaf (Ashanti, Ghana); mildew mixed with the creator’s saliva (Bamana, Mali); loam covered with skin and infused with fresh blood (Efe, RD Congo); reeds in different colours, broken off by the Sky God himself (Zulu, South Africa); fleas in the creator’s hair (Han, China); flesh and bones of fowls (Oroqen, North China); blood in bamboo barrels transformed into human beings, tall and short (Papua New Guinea); pipestone (Sioux, USA); elder sticks (Salinan, USA); tree or tree trunk (e.g. Norse, Malgache, Aboriginal ), and so forth. There is no end to what human imagination came up with to explain how creators made the first men and women and how they came to life. Some myths pay attention to specific human details. An Ewe myth from Ghana and Togo tells that God used two different sorts of clay: for a good human being he used the purest material; for a bad one, the poorest. Moreover, the Ewe story insists, as soon as God had made the first man and the first woman, he waited until the two looked at each other and laughed—upon which the Creator sent them out into the world (Biernaczky 1984:261). It looks as if only their capacity to laugh turned these first creatures into real human beings, and not only in this African story. In an American Apache story, we also find God making a human being out of clay, in his own image. The man was able to move and talk, but then something was still missing. What was it? The Creator thought about it and suddenly knew what was wrong: “Laugh,” he said to the newly made man, “just laugh, laugh, laugh.” And the man began to laugh. He laughed and laughed. “That’s it,” the Creator said, “now you are able to live.” ( Jicarilla Apache, USA, Leach 1956:74)

Laughing is a typically human quality. What would humanity do without laughter, creators seem to wonder. In possibly China’s most popular creation story, laughing is also especially referred to. This is what people tell: when heaven and earth had been created, there were no human beings yet. Nüwa, the primeval goddess (Fig. 2), wandered through the quiet world and the silence filled her body with loneliness. Near a spring she found yellow soil, picked some up and began to

Figure 2. Fuxi (left) and Nüwa (right), 20th century, Yellow River Park, Lanzhou, Gansu province.

humanity’s beginnings in creation and origin myths 13

14

mineke schipper mould a creature like herself. When she put it down beside the spring the creature began to laugh. Nüwa enjoyed the sound of laughing so much that she made another one, and still another one, and many more, shaping each of them carefully and beautifully with her hands. They were different from the birds and the animals. She placed them on the earth. They all laughed and danced and enjoyed themselves, and Nüwa called them her sons and daughters. (Han, China)4

The mystery of how people come to life, begin to move and speak for the first time is presented in various ways. In the stories the first people may have been created from nothing or from all sorts of materials, but their having been fashioned does not always mean: being alive. Stories tell how people receive a soul or vital element from their maker or how the first breath is being blown into the human body, as it happens in a Dai story inserted in the anthology in this book: the creator had sent a couple of deities to the earth who got the idea that the earth, a huge place of fabulous abundance, should be ruled by a special kind of being. Thereupon they accomplished the creation of a man and a woman out of clay, and breathed life, soul and vitality into them. Purified by sunshine, moonlight, the wind and the rain, this clay couple finally came to life and began to walk about on the earth, and Bu Sanggai and Ya Sanggai gifted them with the ability to speak and to think. Their name was “man.”

c) The Why of Creation Creation myths not only look into the “how,” but also into the “why,” wondering about why the gods took the trouble to make humans at all. Yes, why would gods create human beings? No reason may be given at all: the creator just creates. Other myths provide reasons and some gods have their own agendas. There are gods who create humans out of loneliness, boredom and longing for company. Loneliness is the basic drive for creating people in an Amerindian Navajo myth where a woman creator, called Changing Woman, is yearning for “mortal company” because her days are long and lonely. People are social animals but so are gods and goddesses. It is sheer loneliness that makes the breasts, hips, and abdomen of Changing Woman swell. She starts rubbing skin from her breasts, her back, and

4 Different versions, e.g.: Yang Lihui and An Deming 2005:170–172; Yuan Ke 1993: 4; Mathieu 1989:63.

humanity’s beginnings in creation and origin myths

15

from under each arm. And from that stuff Changing Woman creates the clans which form the first people—the Navajo (Leeming and Page 95). There are many such examples from other parts of the world as well. Other gods desperately need praise and offerings; still others want slaves and servants to work for them. Of course, in order to praise their gods, humans need to be able to speak. How else could they communicate with the gods? The gods spoke. By their word they made heaven and earth, and clothed the earth with trees and grass, with all kinds of bushes and plants. They made animals to live on the earth. But the animals did not know how to praise their maker (. . .), they could not speak the name of God. (Maya, Central America, Goetz and Morley 2003:106).

Another example is provided in an observation in the Hebrew Talmud: From the beginning of the world’s formation, praise ascended to the Holy One, blessed be He, (. . .). The Holy One, blessed be He, declared: “If these, which have no mouth or speech, offer Me such praise, how much more will I be extolled when I create man!” (Hebrew, Everyman’s Talmud 68)5

And, according to Plato’s Protagoras, man, through his kinship with the gods, is the only kind of creature able to worship the gods: as soon as they have been created, people begin to “erect altars and images of the gods” (Plato 6). So far, no such myths about praising the creator seem to have been found in China’s various cultures. In some myths, a god feels motivated to make humans as a very special task to be accomplished, something totally different from fashioning mountains and rivers, trees and flowers, insects and animals— something, indeed, which looks quite like the creator himself, a sort of self-portrait. Or Gods create people not just to shower praise upon themselves, but also to make them fully enjoy the beautiful world they have just brought into being, and place that was still completely empty. In such myths the freshly created planet is presented as a generous gift, in some cases even as a marvelous paradise. Another reason provided for the creation of human beings is the need for leadership in the newly made world, and the god may feel

5

Everyman’s Talmud 68.

16

mineke schipper

the urge to create a few creatures in his own image in order to invest them with authority over the animals. This happens literally in an Amerindian Apache myth where the creator first makes animals. One of those animals, the dog, is used to going everywhere with his divine boss. The creator tells him that he will soon be leaving the earth and is going to live far away, and the dog begs him for an earthly substitute companion. The creator lies down on the ground and asks the dog to scratch an outline in the earth all around him. Thus creator then makes a man in his own image (Leach 72–74). In Genesis One in the Bible, the creation of man “in the likeness of god” is directly associated with the need for a special creature to bear authority: And God said, “Let us make a human in our image, by our likeness, to hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and the cattle and the wild beasts and all the crawling things that crawl upon the earth.” And God created the human in his image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. (Genesis 1: 27)

And among the Karanga in Zimbabwe the story goes as follows: So God took clay and water from the Earth’s belly and shaped a figure. He told himself: “This creature must be like me, because when I go it will take my place.” He made Man and gave him the power to rule, and the strength of procreation. He also gave him all that he had given to the animals. (Karanga, Zimbabwe, Aschwanden 28)

Similar stories exist in other parts of the world as well. However, quite often the creator god is believed to be (or to have become) so remote that it seems unlikely for him to take interest or interfere in human affairs, or even in people’s praise—an idea as old as Confucius and Epicurus. Many peoples believe that, sooner or later after creation, the creator god retired from earthly business. 4. Characters The unifying theme of creation and origin brings along several general characters. First of all there is a creating or modelling or otherwise producing god. Sometimes several gods accomplish this miracle together, and there are his/her creatures, the humans, men and women, children. Usually there are forces of good and evil right from or soon after the beginning, who engage in a struggle. The forces of good and evil

humanity’s beginnings in creation and origin myths

17

are sometimes represented by two primordial beings, on the one hand a good god (or number of gods) and on the other an evil character, devil, dragon or monster. Such stories exist, for example in the Middle East, Greece, Germany, in Central and Northern Asia, Indonesia, and so forth. God often resembles a male human being, but he is presented as extraordinary by his endless power or enormous size. Human ancestors in myths differ from gods in that, due to a dramatic event, their lives fatally end with death, even though death may be presented as a transition to another life. Right from the beginning a hierarchy is established among the characters. Even though the Supreme God is more powerful than all else, several myths present the first human ancestors also as special in some respects, less powerful than God but still much more powerful than later humans. Their size is often extra large, they help ordering the landscape, introducing all sorts of inventions and traditions. Finally ordinary humans appear, preceded or followed by animals and the rest of creation. Among the humans, there is often a hierarchy among different groups: the races, the classes, the sexes. Usually male gods and men take more initiatives in the positive sense, speak more, and act more on the stage of the newly created world, right from the beginnings of humanity. Among men and women, there are those who respect the established order and those who break the norms, and provoke problems or cause evil in the human community. The guilty one or ones are blamed for subsequent miseries such as illness, hunger, death etc. In the worst scenario the gods may decide to wipe out the whole of humanity by means of a collapsing sky, a world fire or a worldwide flood. But after such a world calamity the world may start all over again. Flood stories are numerous in China, especially those in which only a brother and sister survive. Thus myths divide the cosmos into heavenly and earthly spaces, and distinguish divine and human characters. A number of myths present alternation of chaos and order, followed once again by chaos and order, in cycles of destruction of the earthly space and mankind, followed by renewal, in parallel with the order of nature. More Questions than Answers Everything in existence must have originated somewhere somehow. All cultures have sought explanations for the secrets and mysteries around them in the form of origin myths. How did it all start? Who

18

mineke schipper

created the universe? Who created humanity? Where do the gods come from and why are they so far away? Why are there two sexes and various races, and how did they come about? Why do we have to die? Long ago oral storytellers in all corners of the globe provided the first answers to such questions in their creation narratives, and over the past millennia writers and scholars have continued to explore the same mysteries. But we still have very few answers. Intercultural comparison has taught us that peoples living thousands of miles away from each other may answer humanity’s universal questions about the beginning in different ways, but their genesis narratives also reflect surprisingly similar patterns. For example, in parts of the world as disparate as China, Polynesia, West Africa, Finland and Ancient Greece, origin stories exist in which all and everything emerged from a giant egg, which may also take the form of a gourd, coconut or stone. Globally stories about the origin of the universe and the gods sketch the road from shapelessness to a more or less tolerable habitat for the first humans. Creation is meant to bring order over and against darkness and the void of the inexistent. In myths metaphors of power and potency express people’s longing for safety: right from the beginning the main question is how to control the lurking chaos. Myths confirm and explain how “man” created order out of chaos, and how, by means of culture, he succeeded in imposing his own will on nature. They explain the origin of circumstances or experiences meant to shape human society as we know and experience it in present times. They gravely show why important aspects of life are and must be as they are, inexorably. Creation stories have been inspired by life as it was then, i.e., in the time when those stories were thought up. The past and the present are interwoven in the stories, and co-exist in the minds of the living. The existing order is not only explained but also justified thanks to the invention of myths, and subsequently the community involved is pressed into accepting and internalising the provided explanation. To survive, a myth requires belief, and people’s faith relies on the idea that humans do not depend upon themselves but upon something or some being outside of the self. Retelling the origin myth reminds believers of the given “facts,” and of their own myth as nothing but the truth. Indeed, mythical dogmas are not to be questioned and myths are to be taken literally, especially according to those whose privileges they defend. But then, storytelling is constantly on the move, inspiring

humanity’s beginnings in creation and origin myths

19

new variants, sometimes questioning earlier mythical messages and sometimes turning the original meanings upside down. Stories of the beginning are not necessarily “autochthonous,” they have borrowed and integrated other peoples’ intriguing themes and characters into their own narratives. As a result, myths, gods and fragments of creation stories mutually overlap in neighbouring cultures in the Middle-East, in Greek and Roman cultures, Africa or Indian America. The Biblical Genesis was inspired by older Babylonian stories and includes vestiges reminding of mythologies in Hittite, Ugaritic and other surrounding cultures. China’s Han mythology appropriated a number of stories from other cultures in China, and also the other way round, as we can see from the ways in which Pangu, Nüwa and Fuxi walk in and out in a variety of stories in China. For China holds what Wendy Doniger observed about Hindu mythology: there are different ideas about the beginning, “which no one ever tried to fit systematically into a canonical doctrine.”6 Oral and Written Versions Nowadays there are numerous examples of oral transmission existing next to texts originating from cultures with old writing traditions, for example the Middle East or China. Comparing those oral and written versions, one will always find differences between oral and written stories and the ways in which these same stories are still being told, with their many repetitions and digressions. How to decide whether the versions selected for recording by the researcher are the most central or relevant ones from the audience’s perspective? Who selected or left out what, and why, in the transcription? In fact, such questions are no less relevant for written creation myth texts. There are examples of ancient written variants of creation stories belonging to the same culture. Such variants may put different emphasis on different topics. For example, two Babylonian narratives from ancient Mesopotamia, known as Enuma Elish and Atrahasis, provide differing ideas about the ways in which the first humans came into being.

6 Graves and Patai 12–13; see Yang Lihui and An Deming; Wendy Doniger, “You can’t get there from here.” In: Imagining Creation, Mark Geller and Mineke Schipper (eds.) Leiden/Boston, 2008:90.

20

mineke schipper

We need to be critically aware of the continuous changes in myths over time, locally and cross-culturally. Myths have been manipulated, they have provoked confrontation or brought about reconciliation, they have produced new myths or variations of myths. In the debate, arguments may plead in favour of “the” original version or, on the contrary, go against that version. In different parts of the world female gods played an important role in several (often early versions of ) creation stories, but many moved to the background or seem to have disappeared in later versions.7 Nüwa, the Great Mother of human beings, was a mythical figure of first importance in ancient Chinese mythology, and still enjoys enormous popularity. In various myths she is presented as the one who repaired the collapsed sky which had caused an enormous cosmic chaos and restored the world order which had been seriously damaged after a world calamity. In other myths she is the one who made the first humans from clay (Fig. 3). Connecting the goddess Nüwa with early frog/toad characters in stories and as artefacts, in his contribution to this book, Ye Shuxian deals with older oral and visual traditions of people’s changing perspectives on the roles and appearances of female deities in Chinese creation myths. Pictures older than the oldest texts silently tell their own narratives, reflecting or expanding the meanings of verbal storytelling. Iconography may add new dimensions to local stories and teachings about creation, as not only Ye Shuxian’s paper, but also other illustrations in this book demonstrate.8 We do not know how creation stories were originally thought up, told, retold, modified and received, nor do we know how they came to be part of local cultural traditions. But we do know that humans have always been and still are puzzled by questions about how the world began, and the subject continues to fascinate people in today’s age of modernity and globalisation. Usually nothing accurate can be said about dating oral cultures, but the written texts at our disposal are younger than the stories themselves. The origin and dating of worldwide creation and origin mythologies 7 Speaking at a conference on creation mythology in Leiden in The Netherlands in 2003, Ye Shuxian talked about forgotten or repressed, distorted and refashioned traditions of goddess worship in China, traditions gradually so abstracted into a ritual sign or philosophical concept that they lost their original features. 8 See also the special issue (edited by Daniela Merolla and Mineke Schipper) of the journal Religion and the Arts on Myth in the verbal and visual arts, spring 2009. This topic would well deserves a special conference on China’s mythologies and the visual arts.

humanity’s beginnings in creation and origin myths

21

is an impossible task, and “myths do not have dates.”9 Even though an incredible diversity of materials is available, there are still enormous contradictions and baffling lacks. Myths do not follow an orderly system: they have run after or been overtaken by different cultural traditions, exchanging and appropriating favourite themes and including special flavours and characters due to local village cults or incidental contacts. Over the centuries Jews and Christians have insisted that the Biblical Genesis stories were literally the word of God and as such those stories were “true” and could not have borrowed from any other existing stories or written texts. Since Babylonian texts have been found on earlier clay tablets than the Hebrew Genesis stories, non-fundamentalist Jewish and Christian scholars have abandoned this untenable view (Graves and Patai 22). In Muslim scholarship it is still not politically correct to study deviant or apocryphal stories, but many such beautiful stories are still being told today and have also been transcribed from oral traditions (Al-Udhari 1997), from Yemen to Western China. Throughout the ages, storytellers have devised and transmitted their narratives orally long before writers began to scribble the stories down, improvising, changing and adding new elements. We can never be sure what happened to genesis stories before they appeared in print. A lack of literacy precludes a comparison of ancient written versions with transcriptions of more recent versions of oral stories in many parts of the world. If we are lucky, some ancient texts are rediscovered, e.g., the Chu silk manuscript discussed in this book. However, as far as China’s myth research is concerned, most researchers still continue to focus on ancient written mythical texts, whereas several contributors to this book rightly and convincingly plead the fascinating cause of orally transmitted myths in the country’s many cultures. In fact both approaches can be mutually enlightening. Collecting and translating are indispensable and precious first steps on the road towards intercultural comparison. In many small-scale cultures, most source material in written form is quite recent, because literacy was largely non-existent until the twentieth century. In Africa, for example, written sources were scarce before Islam introduced the

9 Wendy Doniger, in Hindu Myths 1975:16. Chronology and dating are a problem for all oral cultures: see also, for example, Hermann Baumann, Schöpfung und Urzeit des Menschen 1936:250.

22

mineke schipper

Arabic alphabet, and Christianity and the colonial rulers the Roman script. Fortunately, oral performances are more and more recorded, taped or filmed, in China as much as in other parts of the world. Legacies from the Past and Myths Told Today Humanity’s rich legacies of creation and origin myths consist of material have been recorded and transcribed in a variety of ways by people with agendas of their own: in the faraway past, for example, by priests or scribes, philosophers or historians, or, more recently, missionaries, civil servants, military officers, seamen, travellers, anthropologists, and housewives. Government officials may have omitted tricky passages. And nineteenth century missionaries who collected stories sometimes tended to write them down with a Puritan pen. On the other hand, things that shocked missionaries captivated anthropologists. But then, even though some transcribers may have been blinded by prejudices or biased by political or religious interests, we must acknowledge that many did their job with passionate dedication. And thus, over the past centuries, a worldwide community of devoted scholars and serious amateurs has concentrated on mythology and storytelling. We must be grateful for the work of all those predecessors, without whose global and local research, comparative mythology would not have been possible at all. Over the years they provided us with hundreds of texts which constitute a modestly representative corpus originating from multiple sources. One example of such efforts is the last section of the present collection, a small harvest of the combined efforts of all those who have been telling and listening, recording and collecting, and translating stories about the beginning, as a shining monument dedicated to the art of storytelling in China’s cultures. Storytellers present myths in the form of prose narratives and singers do so in the chanted verse form in village communities, with a large transitory field between telling and singing. Today quite some myths have been reduced to fireside tales. Or they have been transformed to fit the moulds of other genres believed to be more sophisticated: in China, for example, myths have often been historicised, integrated in literature and philosophy, or changed for political purposes (Yang and An 2005:12, 36). Variants of the same myth exist in oral and written form, from sketchy to prolix and full of details.

humanity’s beginnings in creation and origin myths

23

Many of the collected myths from China’s oral traditions are intrigued by the sky, possibly more than myths elsewhere: in the beginning it is not big enough to match and cover the underlying earth or it has been damaged and needs reparation, as can be seen from examples in the anthology in this book. Another interesting point would be a comparison of the roles and tasks of first humans as male and female characters. Having read myths from around the world, one may come to see the existence of human beings as a great miracle. Possibly it is even a greater miracle that humanity survived so many disasters. And there is the amazing fact that everywhere in the world people are still telling and listening to creation and origin myths, locally in the village as usual, but also in completely new contexts. Today cultures are irreversibly loosening from their geographical place of origin. I have listened to Indonesian stories being told in Amsterdam, African, in New York, Greek, in Beijing and Chinese, in Cairo. Myths, I know from my own experience, can be exchanged in local villages and international airports, and via today’s new media: film, TV, video clips, and websites. In the mean time, in China as well as in other parts of the world, amateur narrators and professionals, priests and bards, continue to tell and sing about the creation and origin of the first people in special performances, rituals and festivals, reminding their audiences of the beginning of the world and praising the ancestors, as for example in the following Chinese oral poem: Remember the beginning of the world is chaos, Without sky, without birds, without human beings. Then the deity of sky created the sun, the moon, and the stars, Then the deity of earth created the grain and grass. Having the sky and earth, and the chaos separated, Thus appeared Renzu, the brother and sister. [. . .] How wrong it is to struggle for wealth and fame, Because you can’t bring them with you when you go into the grave. I urge you to be a good person, Because a good person can be blessed by the Renzu in the earth. (Yang and An 18)

THE WORLD OF CHINESE MYTHOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION1 Yang Lihui Beijing Normal University An Deming Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Abstract So far ancient myths recorded in written documents have been the central subject of Chinese myth studies, but more and more myths orally transmitted among contemporary Han people, and myths spreading among other ethnic groups have become part of myth research. This paper provides a concise yet comprehensive survey of these three sources of Chinese mythology. It explores the primary written literature that recorded abundant ancient myths and three features the written records manifest. Second, by scrutinizing two projects as examples, the paper investigates the myths orally transmitted among contemporary Han people. Finally, it examines the rich myth legacies told among other ethnic groups in China. Keywords: myth, ancient China, contemporary China, Han people, ethnic minority

The Main Sources of Chinese Mythology By “Chinese mythology” we mean the body of myths historically recorded and currently transmitted within the present geographic boundaries of China. It should include not only myths transmitted by Han people who form more than 92% of the country’s population, but also those cherished by the other fifty-five ethnic groups living in this vast area. Since almost every ethnic group has its own mythical gods and stories about their creative actions, there is not a systematic, integrated, and homogeneous “Chinese mythology” held and transmitted 1 The present article is a re-worked version of the first chapter of our Handbook of Chinese Mythology. Santa Barbara, Denver and Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2005. Rpt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

26

yang lihui and an deming

by all the Chinese. Even among Han people, no integrated system of myths exists. The earliest records of ancient myths can be traced back to about 3,000 years ago in the form of inscriptions, designs, or paintings on shells, bones, and bronzes. In early 21st century, a bronze vessel named “Suigongxu” that was dated to ninth or eighth century BC aroused scholar’s attention and discussion. The inscription on the inside bottom of the vessel consists of 98 Chinese characters, praising the achievements of the mythic hero Yu. It tells the story that Heaven ordered Yu to scatter earth, so Yu went around all the mountains, cutting down the trees in the forests and deepening the seas and rivers to drain all the water on earth into the sea (Li Xueqin 2002). This inscription shows that the technique of recording myth in Chinese characters had become relatively mature nearly 3,000 years ago. Additionally, it illustrates that at least as late as in the middle of the Western Zhou dynasty, the myth about Yu controlling the flood had already been spread, and it had been historicized into a legend about a great hero or a great king in the upper class of society. But these inscriptions, designs, and paintings on shells, bones, and bronzes only refer to myths concisely or indirectly, sometimes even without using words. This makes the mythological stories they illustrate hard to understand. Therefore, Chinese scholars rely primarily on accounts of myths recorded in later ancient writings in and after the Zhou dynasty (between the eleventh century BC and the third century BC) to study these myths. In China, there is no sacred canon recording myths, beliefs, or sacred history like the Bible or the Koran, nor were there any literati, troubadours, or shamans who collected myths from oral tradition and compiled them into a systematic and integrated mythology, like the Greek collections attributed to Homer and Hesiod. Rather, myths in ancient China were usually spread in scattered and fragmented forms in various written material. These sources contain information about archaeology, literature, philosophy, geography, history, witchcraft, ethnography, religion, folklore, and so on. Many of them preserve only a few myths, but some of them hold a comparatively large number of myths and thus become treasures of ancient Chinese myths. Among them, Shan Hai Jing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas), Chu Ci (The Songs of Chu), and Huainanzi are thought to be the major repositories of Chinese ancient myth.

the world of chinese mythology

27

Shan Hai Jing As an important book in ancient Chinese mythology studies, Shan Hai Jing describes various mountains and seas, products of the mountains such as plants or medicines, myths, witchcraft, and religion of ancient China. It also records the geography, history, medicine, custom, and ethnicities in ancient times. Some consider the whole book as an encyclopedia of ancient China. Its eighteen chapters can be divided into two main parts: the Classic of Mountains, which consists of five chapters, and the Classic of Seas, which includes thirteen chapters. There is no widely accepted conclusion as to who wrote Shan Hai Jing and when it was written.2 But most scholars believe that Shan Hai Jing was written by many different authors in different times. As for dating Shan Hai Jing, most think this book was written in the period from the middle of the Warring States period to the beginning of the Western Han dynasty (c. fourth century BC to the early period of second century BC).3 The focus of Shan Hai Jing is also quite controversial. Some scholars qualify it as a geographic book, because there are abundant descriptions of various mountains, seas, rivers, roads, mines, and local products. Other scholars argue that Shan Hai Jing is a book about witchcraft, noting numerous descriptions in the text about gods and shamans’ activities, such as how they went up and down sky ladders and communicated between gods and humans, how they produced winds and rains, and how they rescued dead gods with the elixir of immortality. The book also describes many sacrificial products and rituals, and even many shamans’ names. Some scholars think Shan Hai Jing illustrates how primitive Chinese people in the central plain imagined the outside world (Ito 1990). Some argue that Shan Hai Jing, especially the chapters about regions beyond the seas and chapters about the great

2 There are more than twenty hypotheses about the author (or authors) and dates of this work. See Ye, Xiao, and Zheng 2004:10, vol. 1. 3 There are still disagreements about the time each chapter was written. Recently, a Chinese linguist, Wang Jianjun, re-examined the question about the time of writing of this work, especially the time of writing of each chapter. Basing his research on pragmatics, he concludes that the Classic of the Great Wilderness, the Classic of Regions within the Seas, and the Classic of Regions beyond the Seas were written perhaps in the Warring States period. He suggests that the Classic of Mountains was mostly written in the Warring States period, but most of it was supplemented by people in the Qin and Han dynasties. He argues that the last chapter Classic of Regions within the Seas was written in the Qin and Han dynasties. See Wang 2000.

28

yang lihui and an deming

wildness, is in fact meant as a description and interpretation of the ancient calendar system and calendrical rites (Liu Zongdi 2001). Nevertheless, Shan Hai Jing is commonly referred to as one of the treasures of Chinese mythology. Many well-known myths can be found in this book in their early versions, such as myths of Nüwa, Xi Wangmu (the Queen Mother of the West), Gun and Yu, Jingwei, Huang Di (or the Yellow Emperor) and Chiyou, and also myths about the sky ladders, the pillars holding up the sky, the three-legged crow carrying the suns, and many others. Usually the plots of these myths were recorded only skeletally and fragmentally. For example, as Chapter 16 describes, “There are ten gods who named Nüwa’s gut. Nüwa’s gut turned into spirits. They took different routes and settled into the wilderness Liguan.” There is no further explanation about Nüwa, the gut spirits, and the mythological event. But sometimes Shan Hai Jing contains complete stories, written in the concise and condensed style that is common in most ancient Chinese records. For instance, a text in chapter 17 states that there was a mountain called Chengdu Zaitian in the great wilderness. A god named Kua Fu lived in it. There were two yellow snakes circling his ears and another two yellow snakes in his hands. He was the grandson of Hou Tu. Kua Fu overvalued his own strength, so he wanted to chase the sun’s shadow and catch the sun at the Yu Valley. He felt very thirsty halfway there, so he decided to drink from the river. Since the river water was not enough for him, he then decided to go to the great marsh. But he died of thirst on his way. Another text in chapter 8 states a similar version in which Kua Fu competed with the sun in a race. He entered into the aureole of the sun. Being very thirsty, he went to drink in the Yellow River and the Wei River, but they were not enough for him. Then he decided to go northwards to the great marsh. He died of thirst before he arrived there. His walking stick transformed into a forest of peach trees. The story recorded in these texts is concise but complete. Besides the Kua Fu story, there are myths about the battle between Huang Di and Chiyou, the divine bird Jingwei filling up the sea, and the culture heroes4 Gun and Yu controlling the flood are also found in complete A culture hero is a deity to whom are attributed the early achievements of civilization, such as the discovery of fire, the invention of tools or writing, the origin of agriculture, fishing, and hunting, the domestication of animals, the development of medicine, the founding of ceremonies, rituals, and customs. And he also acts as the 4

the world of chinese mythology

29

forms. For this reason, it is difficult to agree with the opinionated argument that the narratives in Chinese myths are weak, and there are only few Chinese myths narrating full stories.5 Chu Ci Chu Ci is an ancient poem collection from the end of the Warring States period and the early Western Han dynasty (between the fourth century and the third century BC). It was written mainly by Qu Yuan (ca. 340–278 BC), the earliest celebrated poet in ancient China, as well as several other poets. Chu Ci literally means “the songs of Chu.” Originally it was widely used to refer to songs popular in the Chu area (now Hubei and Hunan provinces in southern China) and sung by the Chu people. Because of this collection, compiled by the Han scholar Liu Xiang (ca. 77–6 BC), Chu Ci became a title for a specific new poetry style in the Warring States period represented by Qu Yuan. Its style is characterized by strong local flavor: using the Chu dialect, being sung in Chu rhythm, and recording many Chu places and local products. Besides, differing from the folksongs of the central plain at that time, whose style followed an orderly four-character poem, the sentences in Songs of Chu had different lengths. And, a more obvious characteristic of a Chu song is that, in the middle of every sentence (and sometimes at the end), a syllable is used as the mood indicator pronounced as /xi/. Apart from the Chu folk songs, Chu Ci was also deeply influenced by Chu customs. Chu people believed in witchcraft and liked to offer sacrifices to gods and ghosts. When they offered sacrifices they often composed music and songs to amuse the gods. Born in Chu area, the poet Qu Yuan was deeply influenced by Chu culture. He not only wrote poems by learning from folk sacrificial songs, but also adopted a lot of Chu myths and legends to compose his poems. Among his poems, Tianwen (Questions of Heaven) contains the most myths. Tianwen was said to have been written by Qu Yuan after he was unjustly exiled from the capital of Chu. When he saw paintings of gods and ancestors on the walls of the ancestral temple of Chu, he wrote

mythic hero who dispels and eliminates the evil gods and monsters, clears up the chaos, as establishes the general order of social life on the earth. 5 Examples of such argument could be found in Plaks 1996:40–48.

30

yang lihui and an deming

this poem on the wall to express his indignation and doubt about reality and the universe. The poem asks 172 questions related to popularly spread myths, legends, and pieces of history. Among them are many myths, including myths about Gun and Yu restraining the great flood; Yi shooting down the surplus suns; Gong Gong destroying the mountain which supported the heavens; and myths about the Kunlun Mountain, Zhulong (literally meaning “Torch Dragon”), the eight poles supporting the sky, the toad on the moon, and the like. Tianwen sometimes provides rich details about some ancient myths, such as the Gun myth. If Gun was not able to control the flood, Why did the others recommend him? They all said: “Don’t worry! Why not let him try and then see whether he can restrain it?” When the sparrow hawk and turtle joined together (and offered strategies), Why did Gun accept their suggestions? He obeyed everyone’s plea to stop the flood, Why did the Supreme Divinity kill him? His corpse was abandoned at Yushan, Why did it not rot for three years? When his belly was opened up, his son Yu emerged, How could this miraculously happen? (. . .)

Many unique details of the Gun myth in this text are absent in other writings. For instance, it states that when Gun began to try to control the flood, the sparrow hawk and turtle appeared and joined together. Scholars infer that Gun might have accepted some strategies suggested by the sparrow hawk and turtle as he started his work (Yuan 1996 [1979]:297–8). Other plots of the Gun myth recorded in this poem are also unique, such as Gun being detained at Yushan, or Yu Mountain, after his death, and not allowed to go west. He manages, taking on the image of a yellow bear, to surmount those steep peaks to find shamans to help him come back to life. However, since this poem was written in the form of questions, stories in the poem usually appear in fragments. Therefore, it is almost impossible to derive a full myth from it. Sometimes the questions were written in such a vague and succinct way that it is difficult to understand what questions Qu Yuan was actually asking.6 This shortcoming limits the role of Tianwen in Chinese myth studies. 6 For example, in one part of this poem, Qu Yuan asks, “S/he ascended the throne to be the ruler, / Who guided and respected him/her? / Nüwa has her body, and

the world of chinese mythology

31

Huainanzi Huainanzi (ca. 139 BC) is a book written and compiled in the beginning of the Western Han dynasty by Liu An, the King of Huainan, and many of his aides. Liu An is said to have enjoyed reading books and playing music. He wanted to accomplish something beneficial to others and become a legacy. So he gathered thousands of literary scholars and alchemists to write Huainanzi, which is attributed to the Eclectics, a school of thought that combined various philosophies and flourished during the pre-Qin period. Huainanzi preserves many ancient myths, legends, and historical accounts. The myths that it contains include the following: Nüwa repairs the broken sky; Yi shoots down the extra nine suns; Chang’e steals the elixir of immortality and flees to the moon; Yu controls the flood; Gong Gong butts into Mt. Buzhou and destroys the sky pillar and the cords holding up the earth. Some of these myths are recorded only in Huainanzi and some of them provide important contrasts to other ancient writings. Therefore, many of its records are often cited in studies of Chinese myths. Generally speaking, myths in Huainanzi are usually complete. Comparing to myths recorded in Shan Hai Jing and “Tianwen”, which are usually recorded fragmentally, myths in Huainanzi are often written in a more complete form, with detailed story plots. For example, the myth of the goddess Nüwa in Huainanzi (Ch. 6) states that: In remote antiquity, the four poles supporting the sky collapsed, the land of the nine divisions of ancient China broke up. The sky could not completely cover the earth, and the earth could not totally carry the world. Fires raged fiercely and did not go out. Floodwater ran everywhere and did not subside. The fierce beasts devoured kind people, and violent birds seized the old and the weak. Nüwa then melted stones of five different colors to patch the sky; cut the legs off of a huge tortoise and set them up to support the four extremities of the sky; slaughtered the Black Dragon to save the people; and collected ashes of reeds to stop the flood. After that the sky got renewed, the four sky pillars were set up again, the flood was stopped, and the nine divisions became peaceful (Fig. 4).

This text narrates a complete event: the setting, the reasons of the goddess’ actions, the process of the solution, and the result. It presents

whoever created her?” These two questions, especially the first one, are puzzling. Scholars wonder whether the first question relates to Nüwa, and if it relates to her they still don’t know what it means.

32

yang lihui and an deming

Figure 4. “Nüwa mends the broken sky,” drawing by Xiao Yuncong, 17th century.

the world of chinese mythology

33

a precious record of an ancient Nüwa myth and thus is often cited by researchers. Three Features of the Written Records When we examine the written records of ancient myths in the Chinese language, three features seem to be obvious and often are argued by scholars: 1. Scattered and fragmented. Myths in ancient China are preserved in various written accounts and usually in a fragmented form only. They were not collected and organized into a single, systematic mythology of China. This phenomenon is usually taken as evidence of the scarcity and underdevelopment of Chinese myths. Some scholars explain that this is because Chinese people pay more attention to real life than to the supernatural world. When criticizing the false impression that China has a deficiency of myths, Yuan Ke pointed out three major reasons that caused this characteristic. The first reason comes from the lack of gifted poets like Homer and Hesiod to collect various ancient Chinese myths from oral tradition and retell them in an eloquent style. The second reason is that, in ancient times, Chinese writings are usually in “unwieldly and ideographic forms,” not yet sophisticated enough to express the complexities of Chinese myths. And the third reason is the negative attitude of ancient Chinese scholars (especially the Confucians) toward the miraculous and marvelous elements in myths (Yuan 1993:xi–xii). In contrast to the common idea that this characteristic is a disadvantage for the records of Chinese myths, Yuan Ke thinks it has some advantages. Chinese myths have not suffered what Yuan Ke describes as a complete reworking by literati and others, like Homer’s and Hesiod’s work, and thus remain in a more or less “pristine condition.” Additionally, they are “more reliable documentary evidence of a primitive and archaic oral tradition in the world of myth” (ibid. xii). 2. Historicized. This point of early myth records has been recognized by many scholars. Zhong Jingwen and Yang Lihui have examined the history of myth study in ancient China, pointing out that the historicizing or rationalizing of myths is prevalent during the 2,000 years before the fall of the Qing dynasty. In ancient China, when an intellectual discovered something strange or incredible in ancient historical or literary texts, they would remove or rationalize such findings.

34

yang lihui and an deming

An anecdote about Confucius (551 BC–479 BC) states that when he was asked whether the one-legged mythical monster Kui was really “one-legged” ( yi zu in Chinese) as it was popularly said, he replied that the popular saying was not right. According to him, Kui was actually the master of music for the sage king Shun. He adjusted the tune and harmonized the music and thus greatly contributed to the education and governance of society. So, Confucius interpreted: if an emperor had an excellent official like Kui, one was enough ( yi zu can also be explained as “one is enough”). By this way, Confucius skillfully dissolved this myth and rationalized the Kui story. He turned Kui, the one-legged mythical monster, into a virtuous and talented historical official. Another example comes from Luo Mi, a scholar in the Southern Song dynasty. When he wrote a book of history, he interpreted the myth of Nüwa repairing the broken sky as a historical event in which the ancient emperor Nüwa put down a rebellion made by one of her dukes. After this rationalization, ancient scholars would then interpret these myths to be accounts of the history of China (Zhong and Yang 1996). However, recently some Chinese scholars have put forward different ideas. They think that the historicizing of ancient Chinese myths is a presumption or hypothesis made by Chinese scholars themselves. When Chinese scholars began to build a modern discipline of Chinese mythology at the beginning of twentieth century, they were deeply influenced by Western scholarship and wanted to look for the subject of mythology in historical documents. Thus, there are arguments that these scholars changed history into myths. In the viewpoint of some scholars today, there is no such thing as the historicizing of myths. Instead, there was the mythologizing of history.7 3. Rewritten as Literature and Philosophy. Examples of this can be found in Daoist writers, especially in the book Zhuangzi. When the famous Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi (or Zhuang Zhou, ca. 369–286 BC “Zi” is an ancient respectful address for a learned man) appropriated 7 For example, Chang Jincang argues that the mythological heroes like Gun, Yu, and Yi were all heroes in ancient Chinese history. They were mythologized into semigods during the Warring States period (Chang 2000). While Liu Zongdi insists that the myth about ten suns living on a tree named Fusang in east sea and being carried by the three-legged crows is in fact a historical fact in ancient China. The Fusang tree was a sundial, the ten suns around it were actually the motion of the sun. So, he thinks, the myth was produced later by misinterpretating the real fact of ancient calendar system (Liu Zongdi 2001:33–34).

the world of chinese mythology

35

ancient myths for the convenience of his writings, he decorated them with many descriptions and filled them with his Daoist ideas. An example of this is the Hundun myth. Hundun is a god who has no openings on his body whatsoever. The gods Shu and Hu, hoping to pay a debt of gratitude to Hundun, tried to chisel openings into Hundun’s body. They chiseled one hole each day. After seven days of their work, Hundun died. Like many other myths or legends appearing in this classic Zhuangzi, the Hundun story has clearly been reshaped by Zhuangzi to illustrate his Daoist philosophy. The two meddling gods Shu and Hu are used to symbolize the artificial order (time and direction), while Hundun symbolizes the primeval chaos, which is a natural, unspecified, unified whole. In the story the artificial order destroyed the natural and harmonic whole. In this example, Zhuangzi used a very simple story to express his idea that one should respect nature and should not insist on doing something that is not natural. He stressed that politicians should let events take their own course, and they should not intervene with this natural order without understanding it completely. Myths Orally Transmitted among Contemporary Han People Textual analysis of ancient written recordings has long been the traditional method of Chinese mythologists. Though this method of literary text research is necessary and beneficial to Chinese mythology, it can be abused and cause misleading conclusions.8 Today more and more Chinese mythologists consciously use a synthetic method to study myth by combining ancient written texts with material from archeological findings and oral tradition.

8 In his article, Derk Bodde pointed out the problems in ancient records of Chinese myth, and he criticized the textual analyses approach Chinese scholars adopted: since myths were recorded in fragments, and the texts full of homophones and characters easily confused with one another, Chinese scholars have been committed themselves to seek for new identifications. The identification was based on such arguments: character X of text A seems to be character Y of text B; character Y seems to be character Z of text C, therefore, they concluded that character X of text A was equal to character Z of text C. Bodde suggested that if this approach is excessively used, “it can lead to quite startling results” (Bodde 1961:377). Yang Lihui also discusses the shortcoming of the textual research, and she further suggests the advantages of utilizing myths orally transmitted as the data (Yang 1997:225–229).

36

yang lihui and an deming

The first concern for myths collected from oral tradition can be traced back to the early ages of the twentieth century.9 But the first large-scale collection of myths orally transmitted in modern China occurred during the 1950s and 1960s.10 However, so far the largest project of myth collecting from oral tradition in modern China is the national project San Tao Jicheng or the Three Collections of Folk Literature. The San Tao Jicheng Project Formally begun in 1984, this project aims to be a general investigation of Chinese folk literature. It is managed by the Ministry of Culture, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, and the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and was carried out by the Society for the Study of Folk Literature and Art, which is now called the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Society. The goal of the project is not exclusively to collect myths, though. It consists of three collections: stories (including myths, legends, fairy tales, jokes, and numerous other forms), folk songs and rhymes, and proverbs. The participants of this project first collected and transcribed these stories, folksongs, and proverbs in villages, then compiled part of the material into a county collection.

In as early as 1920s, the eminent folklorist Zhong Jingwen gathered myths, legends, and folktales and edited them into volumes. In the 1930s Zhong wrote several articles about the myths orally transmitted in modern China. He pointed out that except for those myths that are recorded in ancient documents, most Chinese myths are preserved in later literature and in living folk traditions through oral tellings of myths in various contexts. Studying these “living myths” will greatly benefit the study of sociology, folklore, religion, ethnic studies, and cultural anthropology. Instead of relying on data from ancient written documents, Zhong used the myths he collected or that others collected from the oral tradition to study Panhu myths, floods myths, and the myths of origins of plants (Zhong 1985). 10 At that time the new government of the People’s Republic of China organized many scholars and officials to investigate the society and history of Chinese ethnic groups in order to understand their cultures, identify their ethnic distinctions, and benefit the government’s administration of these areas. The investigation of ethnic groups was widely carried out throughout the country, with researchers collecting and compiling a large amount of data about the cultures and histories of Chinese minorities. These data include population, language, economy, social organization, political system, folk custom, trade, communication, and many others. Among them were myths collected from the oral traditions of these people. Unfortunately, these rich collections have seldom been seriously used to study Chinese myth until recently. 9

the world of chinese mythology

37

These county collections were then compiled into volumes for each province.11 In the process of conducting this research, many orally transmitted myths have been collected and published. These myths were mainly gathered from the Han people, but some also spread to the vast areas inhabited by other ethnic groups living in China. For example, as a result of the project, in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, more than twenty myths, all from Han people, were selected for the district’s volume of stories. In Sichuan province, a book titled Selected Myths from Sichuan Province was published in 1992. This book contains more than 120 myths and various versions that are spread among ten ethnic groups in contemporary Sichuan province. Among them, over ninety Han myths and versions have been collected. Others have been gathered from Tibetan, Yi, Lisu, Qiang, Tujia, Miao, Hui, Naxi, and Mongol people (Hou and He 1992). Some Chinese mythologists pay much attention to these myths collected from oral tradition, especially from San Tao Jicheng collections to study Chinese myths comparatively. For example, Zhong Jingwen studied the brother-sister marriage myth using material collected for San Tao Jicheng (Zhong 1994[1990]:223–247). Using data that he and his research team collected from Han people in the central plain area,12 as well as myths from this area collected in the San Tao Jicheng project, Zhang Zhenli, compared these recently collected myths with ancient ones (Zhang Zhenli 1991). Yang Lihui used more than 500 versions of stories about Nüwa and the brother-sister marriage, mainly from the San Tao Jicheng project, but also from her own fieldwork in Han communities in modern Hebei, Henan, and Gansu provinces in her book The Cult of Nüwa: Myths and Beliefs in China (Yang 1997:82–120).

11 From 1984 to 1990, more than 2 million people have been involved in this huge national project, and over 7 million proverbs, 3 million folk songs and rhymes, and nearly 2 million stories have been collected (Liu Xicheg 2006:711). The whole project was accomplished in 2004. 12 Zhang Zhenli, a professor of Henan University, sponsored a research team in 1983 and investigated the myths in oral tradition and relevant customs in the central plain region of China (mainly Henan Province). In 1987 they compiled a source book titled “The Collection of Classical Myths Transmitting in Contemporary Central Plain” (In Chinese. Zhang and Cheng 1987). In this book, more than 100 myths were contained.

38

yang lihui and an deming

The Project of “Myths Orally Transmitted in Contemporary China” In 2010, a new research project titled “Myths Orally Transmitted in Contemporary China: An Ethnographic Study of Four Communities of Han People” was finished by Yang Lihui and her graduate students. Based on long lasting field studies in four Han communities located respectively in Chongqing City, Shaanxi, Henan and Shanxi provinces, the project aims at exploring questions rarely investigated by Chinese mythologists and sinologists before: How do myths function in specific communities in today’s China? What roles do myths play in people’s social life? How about their functions and meanings? Who tell myths and how do they perceive myth? How do myths change in situated contexts? How do the dramatic social changes in contemporary China influence the transmission of myth? The outcome of this project is fruitful. It manifests various features of myths among today’s Han people from a new perspective.13 Functions and Meanings The functions and meanings of myths orally transmitted among contemporary Han people are diverse. On one hand, those myths that are delivered in belief settings and religious ceremonies still function as sacred “sociological charter” (Malinowski 1926). On the other hand, orally transmitted myths have many other functions and meanings as well. They are widely used in people’s foundation of a worldview or as an effective source to strengthen social life. They also play a role in education and entertainment, in strengthening individual and collective identities, and in striving for political and commercial benefits. For individual myth tellers, the functions and meanings of myth seem much more situated and varied. For example, in her investigation of the two myth-telling performances in a Renzu (literally means “human ancestors”) Temple festival in Huaiyang (Fig. 5), Yang Lihui found that myth-telling becomes a crucial way for myth tellers to express themselves and to build their own social relationship (see Yang’s article in this collection). In Sigu village in the City of Chongqing, telling the myth about Yu controlling the flood is a notable medium for people to chat with each other and at the same time, to manifest their belief in Yu as a great cultural hero. In Ankang area in Shaanxi province, 13 For more details and discussions about the project, please see Yang Lihui, Zhang Xia, Li Hongwu, Xu Fang, and Tong Yunli, 2011, in press.

Figure 5. Statue of Fuxi, Renzu Temple, Huaiyang, Henan province. (Photo by Yang Lihui)

the world of chinese mythology 39

40

yang lihui and an deming

myth tellers understand and use myths differently according to their personal interests: as tools to understand history or as resources to develop local tourism; as chances to promote one’s social status or just for entertainment. In Huaiyang, the functions of Renzu myth changed historically and considerably since the 1930s. Before 1949 myths about Renzu were traditionally used to form the foundation of social and moral principles in local communities. Since the 1990s, however, for the purpose of developing local economy, Renzu myth is reinterpreted as a proof of the long history of this area and utilized by the government as a local cultural brand. Under such circumstance, myth becomes important rhetoric capital for claiming and gaining social and political resource and power. Creative Bearers, Passive Bearers of Myth Traditions and Their Conceptions of Myth Myth tellers play significant roles in maintaining myth traditions. By obtaining relevant knowledge and telling myths to others, they pass on myths from generation to generation and spread myths to many places. Myth tellers endow meaning and life to myths. Among contemporary Han people, myth tellers are not only confined to those talented storytellers, singers or shamans. Rather, this group can involve every ordinary person in a community. For instance, in Renzu Temple festival at Huaiyang, almost every pilgrim can tell brother-sister-marriage myth. However, this doesn’t mean people homogeneously grasp knowledge of myth. Those people who have richer knowledge, are willing to tell myths, and usually able to deliver myths completely and vividly can be identified as “creative bearer of myth tradition.” While those who preserve less mythological knowledge, are reluctant to tell myths, and can only tell myths in incomplete forms are “passive bearers of myth tradition” (Yang and An 2008 [2005]:61). Nevertheless, both of these people are important in transmitting and preserving myth traditions. It is noticeable that in many communities of today’s Han, tour guides more and more play active role in transmitting and reconstructing myth traditions. In Renzu temple in Huaiyang, for example, many tour guides work everyday to spread Renzu myth and related local knowledge to tourists (Fig. 6). Because they have certifications that authorized by local government, and their narratives usually contain more information stemming from both oral tradition and written literature, their storytelling are often thought more “authentic” by local people.

Figure 6. A tour guide in Renzu Temple tells Renzu myths to tourists and ethnographers, Huaiyang, Henan province. (Photo by Yang Lihui)

the world of chinese mythology 41

42

yang lihui and an deming

Myth tellers often hold different conceptions of myth. In Ankang, for instance, some myth tellers consider myth as real historical events, while some attribute it to fancy fiction to entertain people in leisure time. In Huaiyang, most pilgrims believe the brother-sister-marriage myth is true and sacred, but an old local intellectual who tells this myth extremely vivid simply concludes it as “totally nonsense.” Occasions for Myth-telling Among contemporary Han the occasions for myth-telling vary from a solemn religious ritual to a casual setting, or even an amusing context. For example, in Sigu village, the well known storyteller Wei Xiande told the myth about Yu controlling the flood when it was heavily raining. In Ankang, myths about Fuxi and Nüwa can be told in a wedding ceremony or a funeral, for New Year’s entertainment, during farming time, and so forth. In Huaiyang, the occasions changed historically in the past 70 years. In the 1930s, mythtelling was, to most extent, a natural part of everyday life. People did it whenever they wanted: in a Renzu temple, on the square outside the temple, at the dining table, in the farmland, or when chatting with friends or educating children. During the Cultural Revolution Movement (1966–1976), myth-telling disappeared from the local public space. It was denounced as “feudal superstitions,” but still persisted in some private settings. Over the past 30 years, along with the State’s more tolerant cultural policy, Renzu myth obtained a more open and wide performing space. Means of Transmitting The project reveals that, on the one hand, oral transmission is still the main mean of spreading myth in contemporary Han people. Mythtelling is primarily accomplished by a direct face-to-face communication within a group. But on the other hand, the means are becoming more and more diverse. In Ankang area, for instance, written literature and mass media are increasingly playing an important role in transmitting myths. The ethnographer Li Hongwu predicts that mass media will become a crucial way of diffusing myth in the future. Tong Yunli finds that in Huaiyang, broadcast, TV, and films work together and influenced to a large extent local people’s conceptions about Renzu belief and myth. The situation is more clearly shown by an investigation made by Yang Lihui among her young undergraduate students in Beijing Normal University in 2010. Among 103 students born after

the world of chinese mythology

43

1980s, 90% are Han. When asked “What are the main mean(s) for you to know Chinese myths?” all of them chose multiple answers. Among the various means, reading and face-to-face oral communication (including teaching in classes, narrating by parents or friends, or guided tours) are the most popular ways. Watching TV and films is the third chief means for them to become familiar with myths. Myths in Other Ethnic Groups The Richness of Myth in China’s Ethnic Groups Many Western readers think China is a single-nationality state and Chinese mythology is equally unified, integrated, and homogenous. In addition, because the Han people make up the majority of the population in China, when some Western scholars introduce Chinese myths they usually discuss only the myths of the Han people (especially the ancient written ones). But in fact, China has 56 ethnic groups including the Han. China is rich not only in numbers of myths, but also in types, themes and motifs. Almost every ethnic group has its own body of myths. There are, for example, quite a few types explaining the origins of humans. 1. Humans were made by gods. This type has many subtypes, such as: (1) Gods created humans from mud. This subtype can be found in Han, Kazak, and many other ethnic groups. (2) Humans were made from carvings on wood. This type of myth can be found in Manchu, Lahu, and others. (3) Humans were made by combining many plants together. A myth spread in Tujia people states that the goddess Yiluo created human beings, using bamboo as their bones, lotus leaf as the liver, cowpea as their gut, radish as their flesh, and a gourd as their head. Then she poked seven apertures into the head (two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and one mouth) and blew air into them, and after that the human was alive. (4) Gods created humans by cutting a rein into pieces and then scattering them everywhere; these pieces transformed into human beings. This type of myth can be found in the Baima Tibetan ethnic group in Sichuan province. 2. Humans were sown from seeds. A myth told by the Zou people in Taiwan states that a god sowed the seed of humans into the earth, and later humans grew.

44

yang lihui and an deming

3. Humans were spat out from gods’/goddess’ mouths. In Uyghur people, it is popularly said that a goddess inhaled the dust and air of the universe and then spat out the sun, the moon, the earth, stars, and humans. 4. Humans were made from sound. A myth spread among the Miao people in Yunnan province describes that after the huge flood, only a mother and her son were left. A god turned the mother into a girl to marry the son. When the son found the girl he married was none other than his mother, he ran into the wilderness and shouted. His mother followed him and also shouted. Where their voices sounded, humans emerged. 5. Humans came from the shadows of deities. Humans were made by a god and a goddess projecting their shadows onto the earth. This type of myth can be found among the Miao and other groups. 6. Humans were created by two gods touching their knees together. This myth, told by Yamei people in Taiwan, states that the first human couple was created this way. 7. Humans were transformed from animals. Among the Yao people in Guangxi province, a popular myth explains that the great goddess Miluotuo carried a beehive home and refined the bees several times a day. After nine months, the bees changed into humans. 8. Humans were transformed from plants. A creation myth of the De’ang people, Yunnan province, describes that 102 tea leaves went around and around in the air for 30,000 years and then metamorphosed into fifty-one young men and fifty-one girls. There are many other types, themes, and motifs concerning the origin of humans in various ethnic groups, such as a first human originating from a cave, a gourd or a huge stone; humans were procreated by animals or plants; humans were born after a man married a god, or after a man married an animal; humans were procreated by the sun; humans were made from a corpse of a divine creature, and so on (Ma 1996:1–3). Flood Myths Most types and themes of Chinese myths are not confined to only one or two ethnic groups. They have usually been transmitted in several ethnic groups. Flood myths widely spread in 43 ethnic groups. These myths have different formal characteristics in different ethnic groups. Based on his study of over 400 versions of flood myths, Chen Jianxian,

the world of chinese mythology

45

a modern Chinese mythologist, divided the flood myths in China into four principal subtypes (Chen 1996). 1. The sibling ancestors received miraculous omens or instructions from gods The main plot of this type states that a kind brother and his sister receive a prophecy from a god or goddess that there will be a destructive flood. Usually they are told to watch for omens of the flood (the eyes of a stone tortoise or a stone lion will turn red, a mortar will produce water, etc.). Because of the instruction or warning, the siblings survive the flood by hiding in the stomach of the stone tortoise or the stone lion. In order to recreate human beings, the siblings have to marry each other, but before that, they divine to decide whether they should do so (if they throw two pieces of millstones separately from two mountains but the two pieces still touch when they reach the bottom; or they create fires on two different mountains but the smoke twists together). After their marriage, the sister gives birth to humans, or they create humans by molding mud. Chen found that although this type of flood myth exists among the Bai, Manchu, and Hui peoples, it mainly occurs in Han myths. Therefore, he presumes that this type originated from Han people and has been transmitted primarily by Hans. 2. The Thunder God’s revenge induced the flood This subtype states that two brothers, the Thunder God and the ancestor of humans (his name differs in different texts), often quarreled with each other. One day, the human ancestor caught the Thunder God. But when he went out, his two young children (a brother and his sister; their names differ in different texts) set the god free. Before the Thunder God went back to heaven, he sent the siblings one of his teeth (or sometimes a seed of a gourd or pumpkin) and told them there would be a huge flood and they should do what they were told. When the flood came, humans were destroyed except the brother and sister who hid in a big gourd that grew from the seed sent by the Thunder God. In order to recreate humans, the siblings divined (their methods are various, and some are similar to the methods mentioned in the first subtype above) and then married. The sister later gave birth to a gourd. They cut the gourd into pieces and the pieces turned into humans. Alternately, they opened the gourd and from it came the ancestors of many ethnic groups. This type of myth can be found in fifteen ethnic groups such as the Miao, Yao, Buyei, Dong, Gelao,

46

yang lihui and an deming

Hani, Han, Maonam, Mulam, Qiang, She, Shui, Tujia, Zhuang, and Li, but it is mainly transmitted by Miao people. Chen presumed that this type might have begun in Miao regions, especially in southeast Guizhou province. From there it was diffused to other ethnic peoples in different regions. 3. The only surviving man sought the heavenly maiden According to this subtype, the human ancestor plowed fields with his siblings. But after every day of tilling, the plowed field became uncultivated again during the night. They found out that a wild boar had done this, but when the siblings wanted to kill the boar, the human ancestor stopped them. As a reward, he received a prophecy from a god (disguised as the wild boar) that there would be flood. He survived the flood by hiding into a skin-covered drum (or a wooden box). He went to heaven and wanted to marry a heavenly maiden. He passed many tests and finally married the girl. They gave birth to three sons who became the ancestors of the Tibetan, Naxi and Bai peoples. This type can be found in Yi, Naxi, Tibetan, Pumi, De’ang, Drung, Lahu, and Mongol, but is mainly told among Yi and Naxi groups. 4. The brother and sister plowed the wilderness This subtype is a combination of the above three types. A myth of this type collected from Gelao people (western Guizhou province, Southwest China) states that two brothers plowed a wild field with their sister. But every day they found the plowed field had become uncultivated during the night. They found that an old man, who in fact was a god, had done this. The god told them that there would be a flood, and the elder brother (who was unkind) should take a stone boat and the kind young brother and the sister should hide in a huge gourd. As a result, the younger brother and the sister were the only survivors of the flood. They divined to learn whether they should marry to recreate humans (by the similar ways mentioned above). After the verification, they got married and later gave birth to a son. The son married a heavenly maiden and they became the ancestors of humans. This type spread mainly among Yi (Fig. 7) and Miao peoples, so that Chen deduced that the variants had been formed from a mix of the different types of flood myths of the Yi and Miao peoples. According to Chen’s conclusions from his impressive research, flood myths in China are quite rich not only in amount but also in forms and types. The subtypes show different social lives and cultural

Figure 7. Yi shamans (beima) chant the brother-sister-marriage myth in a ritual of offering sacrifice to a sacred tree.

the world of chinese mythology 47

48

yang lihui and an deming

characteristics of different ethnic groups, they reflect ethnic identity, and illustrate the cultural communication and interfusion between ethnic groups in China (ibid.). Though his classification and denomination of the subtypes need further analysis14, Chen’s research provides a good example of how a type of myth spreads among many ethnic groups in China, how these myths relate to or differ from each other in different ethnic groups, and how they are transformed to fit the social life of different ethnicities and cultures. Occasions of Myth-telling in Ethnic Groups Similar to the occasions of myth-telling among Han people, myths in other ethnic groups are also told either in everyday life or during special ritual ceremonies. Maonan and Li ethnic groups in southern China, for example, tell myths as they tell other oral stories, and not necessarily told in specific rituals or at special occasions. Anyone can tell myths and there is no strict method for myth tellers to learn the art of professional myth-telling (Meng 1990:157–8). Nevertheless, in her inspirational book about “living myths” in Chinese ethnic groups, Meng Huiying, a folklorist who specializes in the oral tradition and folk belief of Chinese ethnic groups, points out that the typical “living myths” rely on rituals and other special occasions where myths are told in heightened performances. Meng divided the rituals in which myths are told into four types according to their different functions: rituals offering sacrifices to heaven or ancestors, funeral rites, weddings, and rituals for daily activities such as rites of passage, praying for children, or building a new house, and so forth. Examples for the first type of ritual come from the Naxi and Achang peoples. When Naxi people offer sacrifices to the sky, according to tradition, they will invite a Dongba (shaman) to preside over the ritual. In the ritual, this Dongba will chant classic texts ( jing), which tell about the origin of their ethnic group and about how this world was created by their ancestor Chongrenlien. The Achang people divide their ancestors’ souls into two types: Dajiagui (meaning “big family ghost”) and Xiaojiagui (“little family ghost”). When offering sacrifices to Dajiagui,

14 Scholar Lu Yilu admitted that Chen’s classification is the most comprehensive one up to now, but she argued that his denominations of these types are not very proper (Lu 2002:16–17).

the world of chinese mythology

49

the shaman will chant a creation epic that lasts one day and one night. The epic is Zhepama and Zhemima. Zhepama and Zhemima were the first human couple in Achang mythology and belief. The epic describes how the sky and earth were created by these two ancestors, and how they created humans and cultural artifacts in this world. By chanting the creation epic in this ritual, people ask for blessings from their divine ancestors. At the same time, this epic reminds everyone in the community that they are children of the same ancestors. Thus, the mythic epic can be used to maintain the tradition and bring together the members of this ethnic community (ibid. 159–163). Funeral rites are the second type of ritual in which myths are told. In some ethnic groups, myths are told in funeral rites. In the Achang ethnic group, for example, a person is believed to have three souls. After death, one soul will be sent into the grave and one soul will be sent to the ancestors. The third soul will remain in the home to be worshiped. The Achang believe that only a shaman can properly arrange the three souls. After someone dies, the family will invite all members of the community to attend a funeral, and will request a shaman to come and chant the classic texts. Before the shaman arranges for the souls, he will chant for an entire day. What he chants includes two parts. The first part is concerned with the telling of the creation epic Zhepama and Zhemima, the first couple, who created this world and the first humans. Thus the ritual instructs the souls and the audience who they are and who their ancestors are. In the second part of this ritual the shaman chants the history of the nomadic movement of the ancestors, which aims to tell the soul how to travel to meet the ancestors. So the creation epic chanted in funeral rites directs the dead soul toward the ancestors and reminds the living that death is not terrible, it is a way to leave this world and live in another land with the divine ancestors. In this way the creation epic consoles the dead and the living, and builds a bridge to communicate between the dead and the living (ibid. 164). A third ritual in which myths appear is the wedding. Researcher Lan Ke reported how creation myths were told in a wedding ceremony in 1974 in a Jingpo village, Yunnan province, southwest China. The ceremony continued from morning to night with feast, music, and dance. When evening came, the singing and dancing stopped, and guests went into the host’s bamboo house. In the center of the house, people gathered and sat around a fire pit, then in a very solemn atmosphere, the Jaiwa (shaman) chanted an epic named Munau

50

yang lihui and an deming

Jaiwa.15 This epic mainly consists of creation myths and flood myths. The myths tell that in remote antiquity a flood destroyed the world. Only a girl and her young brother survived by hiding in a wooden drum. They were married following the suggestions of the Mountain God. Then they gave birth to a baby which could not eat or sleep and cried all day. The Mountain God cut the baby into eight parts. Four parts became four men and the others became four women. Later they became the ancestors of some ethnic groups. Among them, the fourth one became the ancestor of the Jingpo people, who established the rule that from then on Jingpo people should not marry a sibling or a person with the same family name, but choose husbands and wives from certain other clans. This kind of myth told in rituals serves to confirm traditional history and remind people of the rules for marriage (Lan 1986). Other instances in which people tell myths include rituals such as praying for children, rituals when building a new house, rites of passage, or offering sacrifices to gods. For example, before the middle of the twentieth century, Va people in Yunnan province hunted for human heads to offer to a great god Muyiji, who created the sky and earth, and to Xi’aobu (the Corn God). Every March and April before sowing, people of the same clan went out to hunt for heads. The resulting heads would be placed on altars, and the shaman would lead everyone of the clan into worshipping them. In the ritual, the shaman would chant the creation myth Sigangli. In the remote past the great god and human ancestor Muyiji had ordered one god to create the earth and another to create the sky, the sun, and the moon. Muyiji created animals, plants, and humans. He put humans into a stone cave and led a small bird to peck the stone cave until it opened. The first human to come out belonged to the Va people, followed by Han, Lahu, Dai, and Dan. Gradually the Wa people learned to settle down, to speak, and to build houses. They asked Muyiji for seeds and Muyiji ordered Xi’aobu to be the corn god. But when the Wa people planted the seeds they did not sprout, and when the harvest time came, a flood

15 It seems that here “Munau Jaiwa” should be “Labau Jaiwa.” According to an ethnologist and expert in Jingpo language and culture, Xiao Jiacheng, “Jaiwa” could mean “poem” or “creation poem,” and also means “shaman” in the Jingpo language, “Labau” means history. Labau Jaiwa is a well known creation epic in Jingpo ethnic people, while “Munau Jaiwa” is a big sacrificial ritual in which the creation epic Labau Jaiwa is often chanted (Xiao 1992:1–25).

the world of chinese mythology

51

destroyed the village. And then Muyiji told the Va that they should offer human heads as sacrifices to the gods, and after they did this it would always rain during planting and growing, and there would be no more flood during harvest. Later the Va moved to Yunnan province where they still live today in and the custom of using heads to offer sacrifices to Muyiji and the corn god was transmitted over time (ibid.) and could still be found in the central Va area in Yunnan until the middle of the 1950s (Li Zixian 1991:197–8). Myth Tellers in Ethnic Groups When discussing myth tellers, scholars usually emphasize the importance of professional shamans. This is true to some degree, but there are others as well. Below, three kinds of myth performers in the ethnic groups will be discussed: shaman, storyteller or singer, and the common person. It should be noted that these three kinds of myth tellers also exist among the Han people. Shamans Shamans play an extremely important part in preserving and transmitting traditional knowledge. Myth-telling is often part of the shaman’s work. In many places, they are seen as most knowledgeable about myths. In the postscript of his book Mythological Stories of the Manchu People, Fu Yingren, a Manchu folklore collector and formerly a shaman himself in Heilongjiang province of northeast China, introduces the sources of the myths and sacred stories about gods that he gathered, and also the importance of the shaman in transmitting knowledge about gods. He writes that years ago, when shamanism was still popular, shamans were not allowed to tell others at will their knowledge about gods’ origins and achievements. This could only be done when a shaman was very old, and he/she then told these sacred stories to his/her favorite students. When the old shaman taught these stories, he/she and the students must burn incense, wash their hands, and gargle. The students must kneel down to listen. After the era of the Republic of China, this strict rule was gradually broken, and more and more people learned Manchu myths. Fu himself became a shaman when he was fifteen years old, but he did not succeed. However, as a former shaman, he was later able to inquire into many myths and mythological stories. He came to know so much about these stories that even older shamans often learned from him. The stories he

52

yang lihui and an deming

compiled into his book were all told by shamans who were his relatives (Fu 1985:133–4). A talented Yi folklorist Bamo Qubumo has written about the learning experience and performance development of a skilled epic performer of Nuosu people, a subgroup of the Yi ethnic people in southeast China’s Sichuan province. Qumo Yynuo was born into a professional Bimo (shaman) family in 1977. He began to learn to perform rituals from his father when he was seven years old. When he was fourteen, he achieved expert status and became a master of ceremonies by himself. At age fifteen, he formally began to study the kenre (a kind of verbal dueling) tradition and mastered the kenre skill. He attended many ceremonies where he chanted epics in the kenre form, and gradually became a famous and skilled epic performer. Among his knowledge about Yi epics, the Hnewo epic tradition is significant. Hnewo can be chanted in weddings, funerals, and soul-sending ceremonies in the specific narrative form of kenre. It has two forms: female and male. The male parts are all about heaven, and female parts are all about the earth. There are twelve acts in the female part, which are used especially in wedding ceremonies. There are seven acts in the male part, generally used in funerals and in ceremonies one or two years after a funeral to send the ghost away to the ancestors. The content of the male part is to tell how the gods were summoned by the god of heaven and how they created the sky and the earth. One of the gods called the sun and moon and they appeared. The hero Zhyge Alu shot down the surplus suns and moons. The female part explains why the gods in heaven wanted to create humans, how the snow on earth came into being and how it changed. With his extensive knowledge of Yi culture, Qumo has achieved a wide reputation. He not only inherits the shaman tradition, but inherits the epic tradition as well (Bamo 2004). Storytellers and Singers Talented singers or storytellers can also be important bearers of myth traditions. When the Dong people in southern China offer sacrifices to their ancestors, they gather to sing songs and dance to entertain the gods. The ritual can be presided over by a shaman or sometimes by a middle-aged singer. People who attend will be divided into groups according to gender. They join hands and make two circles, one inside the other. One circle is male and one is female. In these circles they sing and dance. Several people lead the singing and others follow. The

the world of chinese mythology

53

content of the songs include the creation myths of the Dong people (Meng 1990:150). In Xiuyan county, Liaoning province in Northeast China, there are many Manchu people. In the 1980s, researchers collected 115 stories from a distinguished female Manchu storyteller named Li Chengming (1914–). Among the forty-six published stories five are myths. These myths explain how humans were created by the first brother and sister couple after the cosmos was destroyed; why human lost the paradise of harvesting endless grains because they took these grains for granted; how the sun and the moon were created and why people could not look at the sun directly with their eyes; how the divine maiden Hailun repaired the broken sky; and how the ancestor of the Manchu people was born after his mother consumed a hawthorn fruit and miraculously became pregnant. Li’s repertoire of stories comes mainly from her father and grandfather. As an ordinary Chinese farmer, she often told stories to her neighbors and children during the slow seasons in farming, the occasions of working with other people, or the relaxed long winter nights on her warm kang (a brick bed that is warmed by a fire built underneath, popular in northern China) (Zhang and Dong, 1984:576–592). The two collectors of her stories state that in these contexts, the storytellers in Xiuyan county transmit the wealth of stories they inherit from previous generations (ibid. 589). Common People as Bearers of Myth Traditions The above mentioned professionals play the main roles in preserving and transmitting traditional mythical knowledge. Without being specifically connected to professional or highlighted myth-telling activities, ordinary people are also familiar with some of this knowledge, but their fragmented and scarce knowledge usually makes them reluctant to tell myths. Such people can be called “passive bearers of myth tradition.” When Yang Lihui asked some ordinary pilgrims in Renzu Temple whether they knew any story about Fuxi and Nüwa, most of them could not tell a full story, but they did know that the first humans were created by the Ancestors in the remote past. In another small village in Gansu province, northwest China, when Yang asked several old men and women chatting beside a country road about the flood myth, two of them knew only that in remote antiquity there had indeed been a flood that destroyed almost the whole world. And then they sighed deeply about the complicated development of this world and the hardship of their lives. So, though these common people are

54

yang lihui and an deming

passive bearers of myth traditions, they also use mythological material to create their own ways to express their views and attitudes about history, the world, and their lives. In the past century, a popular prejudice held among many sinologists and Chinese mythologists argued that the myth tradition in China was quite limited and incomplete in comparison with classical mythology in Greece and Rome16. This prejudice will only disappear thanks to more comprehensive knowledge of Chinese mythology by taking into consideration not only ancient myths recorded in written documents, but also oral myth traditions of contemporary Han people and other ethnic groups. China’s rich traditions of myth form a solid and fascinating foundation for future Chinese myth studies.

16 For an example of this prevailing prejudice, please see Zhong Jingwen’s article “A Response to Wolfram Eberhard’s letter about Chinese mythology.” In this article Zhong analyzed some reasons that caused the prejudice and further disproved it by advocating attentions to the rich oral traditions of myth in China (Zhong 1985: 492–7).

FROM FROG TO NÜWA AND BACK AGAIN: THE RELIGIOUS ROOTS OF CREATION MYTHS Ye Shuxian Chair Professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Abstract Frog images are strikingly frequent in China’s prehistoric art, as excavations have made clear. On the basis of those icon narrative materials handed down from ancient times, this paper argues that creation myths about female frog deities in Chinese minority cultures must be connected to frog icons as visual narratives dating back to prehistoric times, each in its own distinct way giving expression to belief in a common mythological system. Combining the study of a rich visual legacy of prehistoric frog goddess icons with the numerous narratives about frog deities in both oral and written creation mythology traditions of later ages, this integrated perspective will throw new light on both. Keywords: frog/toad figures, prehistoric pottery, totem

I. Female Frog Figures in Visual and Verbal Narratives Up to about 5,000 years ago humankind believed everything in the universe to be animated by gods and spirits. Therefore, the investigation of prehistoric times will greatly benefit from a visual approach to objects which might well give access to ancient people’s mythical worldview. The continuity of frog goddess beliefs is reflected in the Neolithic pottery culture in Northwest China, for example in frog images decorating the painted pottery of the Dadiwan Site (in Qi’an county, Gansu province, 5000 BC) and the female frog figures of the Majiayao culture (in Majiayao village, Lintao county, Gansu province, 3000 BC), with a history of several thousands of years (Fig. 8). Frog and tadpole were identified with man and spirits, and people represented divine beings in the form of half man and half beast or in geometric figures. Those patterns on painted pottery are to be perceived as objects of religious worship rather than as art or decoration. Belief in totems and witchcraft, animism, prayers, incantation

Figure 8. Waren (half frog half human) pattern on Machang pottery, Majiayao culture, c. 3000 BC, Liuwan Pottery Museum, Qinghai province.

56 ye shuxian

the religious roots of creation myths

57

practices, shamanistic trance experiences and spiritual tours, may serve as a channel giving access to the inner world of prehistoric people. II. Frog and Sun as Opponents on Neolithic Xindian Painted Pottery Frog figures with frog and human features have been called waren (frogman) by archaeologists (Fig. 9). They have been discovered in large numbers on both Banshan type and Machang type painted pottery originating from the Majiayao culture, often in combination with a solar symbol in the Xindian culture (2000–1600 BC). Would this frogsun schema contain any mythical reference? The frog or toad is such an essential element in Chinese moon myths that one may wonder if the frog and sun correspondence reflects the yin-yang philosophy of ancient sages in the Xindian culture. Unfortunately there is no written record available handing down any frog-sun myth from ancient times. However, there are folk myths about the appearance and disappearance of sun and moon in oral tradition, especially in Chinese minority cultures (Fig. 10). For instance, the frog plays the important role of messenger in Zhuang myths of Guangxi province. The story “Baeuq roxdoh and Meh Loeggyap” tells how goddess Baeuq roxdoh helped human beings challenge the Thunder God’s intention to reduce the ever-increasing population on the earth by killing the old people. She taught them how to make horsehide-drums which made them win a competition with the Thunder God’s drum thanks to their numerical superiority. The astonished Thunder God had dispatched his son, the frog, to the human world to see what happened there, but had never expected that with the help of the compassionate frog messenger people would manage to create a huge bronze-drum adorned with six frogs, the sound of which entirely drowned the voice of the powerful Thunder Drum. Finally the defeated Thunder God had no choice but to give up his original plan of killing people. The traditional Zhuang people’s Maguai (frog) Festival, celebrated in honor of frogs, lasts from the first day of the first lunar month to the second day of the second lunar month. This festival has a seasonal spring background. Within living memory the Zhuang have considered the frog as a divine animal. And the Tujia believe that the frog goddess has such magic supernatural power that she is able to intervene

Figure 9. Waren (half frog half human) pattern on Machang pottery, Majiayao culture, c. 2500 BC, Liuwan Pottery Museum, Qinghai province.

58 ye shuxian

the religious roots of creation myths

59

in the change of celestial bodies, as expressed in their myth “Creation of the world by Zhang Guolao and Li Guolao”: While engaged in the creation of heaven, Zhang Guolao discovered that the earth was flooded and made twenty-four suns to shine day and night. This annoyed a frog so much that it jumped onto the tip of the only remaining tree (coriaria sinica), and devoured twenty-two of the suns, one after another. At that moment, Guanyin (a mercy goddess borrowed from Han Buddhism) happened to see what was going on. In anger she began to beat the tree with a stick to prevent the frog from eating the last two suns. That is why today coriaria sinica is usually small in size and twisted in shape. As for the two surviving sources of light, the one that shines during the day is still called “sun,” and the other that comes out at night is named “moon.” Since the sun is a shy young lady, she complained to goddess Guanyin: “It is quite embarrassing that everybody is staring at me in daytime.” Then goddess Guanyin gave her five sewing needles, saying: “Whenever anyone tries to look at you, pitch him with these needles.” This is how the sun and the moon came about” (Bai 130). From the two above non-Han stories it can be concluded that: 1) Frog is believed to be a god, and he is the son of the Thunder God; 2) Frog eats the sun, meaning that the two are opponents. Frog and toad are often mixed up, and they share a common folk name hama in Chinese. In its role of tai yang (the sun)’s opponent, tai yin (the moon) is usually associated with the frog/toad in Chinese mythical thought, as illustrated by the story of the suns swallowed by Frog. In mythical thinking, the sun that rises at dawn and sets at dusk and the moon that hides by day and comes out by night are both considered symbols of resurrection. Frog is a creature correlated with water (rain) and the moon, and perceived as feminine. No less than the popular Chinese story about Chang’e, the moon goddess, who steals the herb of immortality from her husband Houyi, the sun god, the stories opposing frog and sun refer to the cyclical rhythm of the cosmos. Myths are attempts to explain why there are recurring changes of nature, such as alternations of sun and moon, day and night, light and darkness. In similar ways the frog-sun schema of neolithic painted pottery from the Xindian culture embodies mutual balance of yin and yang as the basic life rhythm of the universe. The Tujia myth “Creation of the world by Zhang Guolao and Li Guolao” represents the motif of natural calamity and salvation, and

60

ye shuxian

turns the abnormal state of a cosmos with twenty-four suns into a disastrous scene at the beginning of creation. The frog saves the universe and brings back a state of harmony keeping yin and yang in balance. The above Tujia creation myth reminds of the mythical frog patterns ornamenting ancient pottery, since both associate divine animals such as frogs or hop toads with the creation of the universe. In fact, the frog undertakes a mythical mission similar that of Nüwa, the principal goddess in Han creation myths, who melts down stones to repair the sky and restore the cosmic order. In the 1970s the Nüwa figure has been re-interpreted as no other than the earlier frog goddess, an idea inspired by hop toad images painted on the Yangshao culture (4000 BC) pottery of the Jiangzhai village in Lintong county, Shaanxi province. In accordance with the principle of characters being adopted to represent homophones in ancient Chinese, this conjecture has its rationality (Ye 147). But if we approve of the adoptive relationship between the two characters 蛙 (wa, frog) and 娲 (wa, goddess Nüwa), one wonders why Stone Age people would have worshipped the frog. Symbolic anthropology has helped us to find an answer, reasonable enough to help us interpret the amazing ins and outs of the frequent frog/hop toad symbol occurring ever since the Neolithic Age. The frog has a number of symbolic meanings, among which the most important one pertains to water, the major factor of the natural environment in which it lives. In ancient China people would pray for rain by imitating frogs. The image of the frog appeared on bronze drums, whose sound usually reminded people of thunder and lightning, so [people believed that] frogs croaked for rain. Sometimes the frog is mixed up with the toad, since both are associated with water and yin. It is believed that the quail, also known as firebird ( yang), would transform into an aquatic frog ( yin) in the Spring Equinox (March 20th or 21st) and the Autumn Equinox (Sept. 22nd, 23rd, or 24th), and then become a quail again in the light of the basic regular movements of Nature. In India the huge frog carrying the whole universe is regarded as the symbol of formless and undifferentiated substances, thereby sometimes it is called Mandala who is said to be the remains of some defeated Asura. Besides, in western countries it once stood for resurrection due to its amazing metamorphoses (Shijie 730). Similar models of frog-shape cosmic charts exist in symbolic patterns of Tibetan Buddhism and also in the Naxi cosmic charts called Bage picture (Fig. 11). The question whether they are indigenous or influenced by Indian culture needs further research, but the earliest

Figure 11. Naxi cosmic chart (bage tu) with a divine frog, 20th century, Yunnan province.

the religious roots of creation myths 61

62

ye shuxian

evidence in written documents comes from Sanskrit literature in ancient India. In Vedic hymns, the frog, member of the choir and priest of Mother Earth, stands for the land impregnated with spring shower. The undulating croaking serves as the chorus expressing gratitude for heaven blessing the earth with fruits and wealth. The Rig Veda hymn for the frog concludes as follows: May the frog bless, May for the one who milks, The milk constantly flow, Comparable to [the milk] of numerous cows; And may the frog bless us with prolonged lives.

In winters and dry seasons when the earth is lying veiled in dull bleakness, motionless, the burst of the croaking voices arouses the earth from its long sleeping, as a signal of the annual renewal of Nature (Shijie 731–2). The symbolic seasonal function of frogs and hop toads as explained in the context of comparative mythology is significant. Why would frog and hop toad have obtained such a widely accepted deity status in mythical thought? Their croaking voices made humans aware of the alternation of the seasons as a warning sign regulating the seasonal production activities of agriculture and husbandry. Thus frog/toad and sun became characters in a mythical reality imagined in frog-sun patterns on numerous objects unearthed in the prehistoric cemeteries of Hetao village, Minhe county in Qinghai province. Their recurrent images in mythic narratives in other parts of the world enable us to gain a more comprehensive view of the mythological implications of the numerous sacred human/frog shaped figures in prehistoric cultures. Take, for example, this reference to the story of the Baltic goddess Ragana: As a dangerous hag, Ragana continuously inflicts damage: . . . On a cosmic scale, she can cut the full moon in half or even cause an eclipse of the sun. Ragana oversees the cycles of nature: she balances the lifeenergy. She stops blossoming and growing lest plants and the moon grow forever. Ragana also controls male sexuality. She dominates men, often utterly exhausting them after a night’s orgy. She kills the life power in order to secure the cyclical renewal of life energy. She knows the magic of herbs and heals the sick, regenerates life and restores life to the dead. The main epiphany of Ragana in the function of death and regeneration is the toad, but she may also take the shape of a fish, snake, hedgehog, sow, mare, dog, magpie, swallow, quail, moth, or butterfly. Early spring,

the religious roots of creation myths

63

Ragana appears in brooks or lakes as a beautiful nude woman, combing her golden hair (Gimbutas 1999:205–6).

This story about Ragana resembles the Chinese frog-sun myth in that she mainly reveals herself in the image of a toad symbolizing death and regeneration, and that she has the magic power to cause a solar eclipse. It is through cross-reference that the mutual applicability of symbolic principles emerges from under the narrative surface differences. J.E. Cirlot, author of A Dictionary of Symbols, explains the mythical symbolic connotations of frogs and toads as follows: The frog represents the transition from the element of earth to that of water, and vice versa. This connection with natural fecundity is an attribute derived from its amphibious character, and for the same reason it is also a lunar animal. There are many legends which tell of a frog on the moon, and the frog figures in many rites invoking rainfall. In Egypt, it was an attribute of Herit, the goddess associated with Isis in her ritual resurrection of Osiris. According to Blavatsky, the frog was one of the principal beings associated with the idea of creation and resurrection, not only because it was amphibious but because of its alternation periods of appearance and disappearance (phases which likewise characterize all lunar animals). Frog gods were once placed upon mummies and the early Christians incorporated them into their symbolic system. The toad is the antithesis of the frog, as the wasp is the antithesis of the bee. Jung rounds all off this with his comment that, given its anatomy, the frog, more than any other of the coldblooded animals, anticipates Man. And Ania Teillard recalls that in the centre of his picture of The Temptation of St. Anthony, Bosch places a frog, with the head of a very aged human being, poised upon a platter held up by a Negress. Here it represents the highest stage of evolution. Hence, the frequency of the “transformation of princes into frogs in legends and folktales” (Cirlot 114–5). When and how did morphotropic animals like frogs and toads enter human’s mythical thought? Given the chronological limitations of written historical documents, the only clue to this mystery is the exploration of archaeological materials prior to written literature. The late American scholar Marija Gimbutas argued that goddesses rather than gods predominate prehistoric beliefs. Due to its largescale influence and long continuity, Goddess Civilization developed a popular symbolism throughout Eurasia on the basis of multiple archetypal images illustrating life-giving, death-wielding and regeneration.

64

ye shuxian

As a regeneratrix, the Great Goddess embodies the self-renewal function of the lunar image in five symbolic models, one of which is the regenerative uterus that takes zoomorphic or anthropomorphic shapes, the former including fish, frog, toad, hedgehog, turtle, lizard, and hare, the latter taking the shape of a fish-woman, frog-woman, and hedgehog-woman, both with a striking proportion of frog or toad shapes. The icon materials referred to in Gimbutas’ great works, such as The Language of the Goddess and The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: 6500–3500 BC, confirm that the frog-toad model is fairly general in prehistoric beliefs. This idea is now being reconfirmed in recent excavations in China, especially in the prehistoric painted pottery found in the provinces of Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai. Many scholars, including Gimbutas, hold strong opinions about the root of Goddess Civilization and its symbolism. They are united in their conclusion that, for prehistoric people, the fertility and menstruation peculiar to woman evoked their sense of wonder and mystique which developed into feelings of awe and sacredness for female. This is once again stressed in The Metamorphosis of Baubo: Myths of Woman’s Sexual Energy by contemporary comparative mythologist W.M. Lubell: The vulva is a Paleolithic symbol of female power and regenerative energy, dating from 30000 BC. It remains an image that defies repressive boundaries. William Irwin Thompson observes that “this miraculous nature of the vulva seems to have taken hold of the imagination of Paleolithic humanity. . . . But the vulva is the magical wound that bleeds and heals itself every month, and because it bleeds in sympathy with the dark of the moon, the vulva is an expression not of physiology, but of cosmology. The moon dies and is reborn; woman bleeds but does not die, and when she does not bleed for ten lunar months, she brings forth new life. It is easy to see how Paleolithic man would be in awe of woman, and how woman’s mysteries would be at the base of a religious cosmology.” This high degree of awe and commitment to an understanding of the sacredness of the female and her mysteries remained constant throughout the late Paleolithic, through the Neolithic, and into the Bronze Age (Lubell 6–7). From prehistoric times to the era of agricultural civilization the Moon Goddess ranks second behind the Earth Mother as a female divinity. Moon goddesses like Sin of Babylon, Artemis of Ancient Greece, Diana in Ancient Rome, and Mother of the West in Chinese Daoism can all be perceived as examples of ancient goddess religion in later ages. The zoomorphic images of goddesses such as the frog, toad,

the religious roots of creation myths

65

fish, turtle, snake, hare, and lizard have been passed down as original symbols with complicated and blurred symbolic connotations, which resulted in gradually vanishing flavors of religion and sorcery, and gradually increasing emphasis on artistic and ornamental qualities. III. Sources of Frog Deity Beliefs in Icons The divine frog cosmic chart of the Tibetan, the Bage cosmic picture in the Naxi culture and the Frog-Sun schema of the Xindian culture provide a direction for the further exploration of the very ancient roots of their prehistoric cultural interaction. Physical anthropological findings on human skulls show that: “Correlation of varying degrees is found between the Hetao village people and the modern Tibetan group A and B, too, with more or less similar functional values. It may facilitate our further research on ethnic roots of the Tibetans, or at least, part of them” (Qinghaisheng 292). From the Han perspective the name Tibetan in the language family of “Sino-Tibetan” is relatively recent. In ancient Han books the Tibetans were referred to as Tubo, and in times of remote antiquity they were collectively referred to as Qiang (羌), Xiqiang (西羌) or Diqiang (氐羌). It has been concluded from archaeological evidence that “residents of the Xindian culture should belong to the Qiang branch, and to be specific, they are the people of Qiang” (Qinghaisheng 292). That is to say, those frog-woman and combined frog-sun figures presented in pottery icons by the ancient Qiang people living in Qinghai and Gansu provinces three or four thousand years ago may serve as new source material supporting our search for the mythical world views of different ethnic branches within the Sino-Tibetan language family. Extending our search for the early roots of the frog deity in ancient painted pottery to stone and jade sculptures, we could find that the earliest tangible evidence dates back to a few 7800 year-old stone toad or frog sculptures, excavated among the Xinglongwa culture of Linxi county in Inner Mongolia. For instance, a stone toad with a length of 11.5 cm and a height of 25 cm was excavated in 1984: the beginning of frog/toad in China’s iconographic tradition. Two more such stone statuettes (Fig. 12) have been unearthed in Linxi county, dating from about the same period. Icons as appealing visual narratives came to the fore about 5,000 years earlier than the literary narratives about the goddess Nüwa.

66

ye shuxian

Figure 12. Stone goddess figure, Xinglongwa culture, c. 6000 BC, Inner Mongolia.

the religious roots of creation myths

67

A similar prehistoric stone object (Fig. 13), also originating from the Xinglongwa culture, was presented as a frog image by an oversea collector at the exhibition of jade excavations from the Hongshan culture (3000 BC), organized by the Provincial Museum of Gansu in December 2007. Besides, jade collectors all over the country possess a wealth of Hongshan jade frog objects in private collections, which are hardly ever represented in books and periodicals. Although it is not always easy to know the stone fake from the genuine jades in the frog/toad sculpture tradition. Whether or not the frog jades from the Fuhao (a woman general in the late Shang dynasty) of the Yin Ruins (1300 BC) originate from the sacred sculptures of the kind from the Hongshan culture is a matter to be further explored. Among those figures ornamenting painted pottery originating from the Qiang Site with a history of six millennia, there is juxtaposition of two zoomorphic symbols of the regenerative goddess: the fish and hop toad. Two other symbols represented in pairs are snake and frog who have also been combined on Chinese prehistoric pottery in color design as from the approximately five-millennia old Majiayao culture in Gansu and Qinghai provinces. According to the pedigree of images of the Neolithic Great Goddess summarized by Gimbutas, the snake was also an important incarnation of the goddess in the Stone Age. However, things have been different since the entrance of patriarchic civilization, when zoomorphic goddess symbols split up into two groups, some maintaining their feminine or maternal identities of the prehistoric era such as the frog and the hop toad, while others transformed into masculine or paternal ones with the snake and the bear as the most typical examples. Until the present day, people living in the upper reaches of the Yellow River perform sacrificial rites to honor frog and snake deities. The local people believe that on the day before the Dragon Boat Festival frogs and snakes get around, attracted by people’s arrangement of incense tables on river banks and brook sides and their sacrifices. On that day all men and women, old and young, would take a bath in the river. Seeing a frog, for a man, and a snake, for a woman, while they are bathing is considered as a good omen. On that ceremonial day, a man is allowed to have extramarital sexual intercourse by uttering, in front of a woman, the metaphorical slang words: “I will take out my snake so as to bite your toad,” if only the woman would consent by nodding in silence. This example reflects an old Chinese folk belief identifying toad with female and snake with male in a patriarchal society.

Figure 13. Stone frog, Xinglongwa culture, c. 6000 BC, Inner Mongolia.

68 ye shuxian

the religious roots of creation myths

69

Sacrificial frog and snake ceremonies are usually held in adoration of the frog’s fertility. Being pot-bellied, the frog is associated with women’s fertility, while the long erect body of the snake vividly suggests men’s mightiness. In Northeast China frog and snake are also referred to in the saying “The frog perches the moon palace, and the snake inhabits the sun chamber,” in which the moon stands for yin and the sun is an attribute of yang in ancient Chinese philosophy. Sacrificial rites worshiping frogs and snakes are emblematic of the belief that all existence depends on the intersection between yin and yang. The Dongxiang people, who have been residing in Gansu province for generations, also tell stories about frogs without any reference to creation or origin. Later totemic references, typified by Ding tripods ornamented with animal images, the frog/toad deity icons only vaguely reflect those very old mythical narrative traditions, with a conspicuous loss of female characteristics, as for example in (realistic or expressionistic) plane frog figures on the bronzes of Shang and Zhou dynasties, and in three-dimensional frogs sculpted on the bronze drums of minority cultures in South China. In Han literary narratives about frog deities similar sexual transformations seem to have taken place. IV. Frog as Va Totem and Toad in Jino Creation The evolution of the frog image from nature deity to ancestral totem shows that gradually striking changes have marked the sexual aspects of the prehistoric frog goddess. Patriarchal civilization kept only vague memories of her identity as a mother goddess and fertility goddess and of her sacred regenerative duty which had made her earlier into such a primordial sacred creature, a symbol of resurrection, or an ancestral totem, as the divine frog figures on bronze drums remind us. The frog figures on prehistoric painted pottery represent the mythical foundation by showing the very similarity between man and frog, with traces of ancient totemic belief to be found in many other cultures as well (Fig. 14). For example, the Saisiat, aboriginal inhabitants of Taiwan, tell the following story about their origin: Once upon a time, there was a man named Saivala who had been fishing for a long time on the river bank without catching anything, which threw him into great confusion. Then suddenly something rose to the bait. Happily he reeled it in, but it turned out to be a frog. With

70

ye shuxian

Figure 14. Frog totem pole, 20th century, World Horticulture Expo Garden, Kunming.

the religious roots of creation myths

71

increasing weariness he threw it away, but to his amazement the frog metamorphosed into a kid. Stunned by this amazing miracle, he took the kid home and brought it up. It is from this kid that the Taputaberasu family originated (Yin 282). People associated the frog with humankind because of its likeness to human forms and its sounds remind of human infants’ cries. That is why, meaningfully, children have hitherto been generally addressed as wa (娃) in Northwest Chinese languages, a character whose font and pronunciation closely resemble those of 蛙 (wa, frog). The Va people who live in Burma and Yunnan province in China practice a slash-and-burn cultivation. They have a myth about the origin of their headhunting traditions. In their culture the first ancestors of the Va people were a couple called Yang Taomu and Yang Dai who dwelt in a cavern in complete seclusion. At first they were tadpoles, but soon after they changed into a frog and a monster. They often came out to catch animals for food, such as deer, pig and goat. One day, they made a long journey to a village inhabited by humans, and captured a man there. After eating him up, they took his skull back to their cave. This couple was originally childless, but since the killing of that man they had borne a great many children with human appearance. Thereupon they hung that skull on a pillar as a token of pious worship. Having a hunch that death was imminent, they assembled all their descendants, apprising them of their origin and expressing as their last will that they would need human skulls as offerings after their death. Ever since the Va have respectfully carried out their ancestors’ last will (Obayashi 94–5). Among the Va the popularity of the headhunting tradition lasted until modern times. It used to take place annually at the time of spring ploughing, since the heads hunted functioned as a sign of bumper harvests. The heads were laid out meticulously in the holy drum room, a room with pairs of wooden drums in sideways, big and small, representing the primordial couple. The headhunting tradition of the Va reflects their mythological view that life is based on death and massacre, and that killing is almost indispensable to guarantee abundant crops, following the ways in which the deceased, and especially the Va progenitors had formulated their will and regulated their descendants’ action. Interestingly, this myth confirms that the first Va couple were tadpoles—frogs, that is to say, and as human beings we stem from those little aquatic creatures, as a clue to the frog totem. The idea that headhunting can ensure human generation results from a metaphorical

72

ye shuxian

projection of people’s cultivating experience: cut off millet heads used for planting reproduce themselves, a phenomenon applied to human beings through mythological analogy. The wooden drums in the sacred drum rooms symbolize the Va people’s frog ancestors, and so do the bronze drums, ornamented by frog figures, frequently used by ethnic minorities in Southwest China (Fig. 15). Possibly such common symbols reflect a kind of totemic memory originating from prehistoric times. In Chinese oral myths the frog/toad character is correlated with Nüwa, chief goddess of creation. There are widespread frog myths on upper reaches of the Yellow River on the motif of creation, and some are variants of Nüwa myths or associated with the goddess Nüwa. The most typical variant goes thus: Legend has it that one day in the third year of their marriage, Nüwa said to her husband Fuxi: “A flood is coming, for the frog is foaming.” Before long, she gave birth to a meatball in the water which was given the name Waren, meaning “frog-man.” In this story the word “frog” shares an isomorphic meaning with wa (goddess Nüwa), with the former being not only a metaphor of the latter, but also of her genitals. The peasants of Gansu province have a proverb, “When the frog foams, a storm is about to come,” which includes both the frog’s natural behavior and its mythical power. Another example is the creation myth of the Jino, a Tibeto-Burman ethnic minority living in Yunnan province, in which the frog/toad acts as the primary cosmic substance: In the beginning the world was nothing but a vast expanse of ocean dotted with tiny spots on its surface. All was in dreariness without any traces of life, except giant Mother Amo, the only inhabitant of the world. One day she saw from far away a mammoth toad with glowing eyes in the waters. When she approached this bulky monster, however, it unexpectedly opened its large, fierce-looking mouth, and trying to swallow her whole. With a flash of wit, Mother Amo jumped into its mouth, decidedly. She raised both hands up and stamped her feet in order to keep the toad’s mouth open. The crazy monster distended its huge mouth, and its colossal stomach grew bigger and bigger accordingly, until it finally burst with a tremendous crash, whereupon its fragments drifted in all directions. One eyeball spouted high into the air and turned into the sun; the other one, which floated on the face of the waters, was fished out by Mother Amo and hung up in the sky with a rope, thus becoming the moon. Since it originates from the water, it is not as scorching and glaring as the sun. As for the tiny scraps scattered on the waters and in the sky, she gathered all those to make the earth and the heaven. After

Figure 15. Frogs bronze drum, Han dynasty, c. 200 BC, Guangxi Provincial Museum, Nanning.

the religious roots of creation myths 73

74

ye shuxian that, Mother Amo placed nine toad bones upright between heaven and earth, which were then fastened by nine of its ligaments. Surprisingly, while she was busy making the earth, the sweat streaming down her body turned into showers. With everything in place, she began to make living creatures out of dirt scrubbed off her body. She first created the buffalo, and then human beings, and in succession then made various kinds of animals (Lu 879).

In spite of their extremely sparse population, there is an ancient message referred to in Jino myths: all existence in the universe derives from a kind of primordial toad. This mythical idea contributes to the understanding of the origin of the Tibetan and Nakhi frog/toad cosmic chart, using the animal’s body as a symbol of the whole universe. Besides the previously mentioned myths, there are multifarious ethnic memories of frog goddess worship, especially among the people living around the upper Yellow River who were once in possession of the most abundant and brilliant ancient painted frog figure pottery. Here are two examples: First, in Fuxi and Nüwa stories told in Gansu province, the god and goddess have been identified with the sun and the moon respectively. Moreover, the basic animal symbol for Nüwa takes the form of a jade toad. After the great flood Fuxi and Nüwa got married and humanity was their offspring, but the first people led a hard life due to lack of light. One day, a golden bird came up from the sky and a jade toad from the river, who invited the couple to ride on their backs separately. As soon as Fuxi stepped onto the back of the bird and Nüwa onto the back of the jade toad, they both raised high into the air, where Fuxi transformed into the golden sun and Nüwa metamorphosed into the jade moon. They fly and jump again and again in order to bring about the alternation of day and night. Ever since, their posterity has enjoyed brightness and warmth (Wu 1996:5). A second example comes from the Yugurs (named Guifang in ancient times), who have lived for ages in Gansu province. The Yugurs are known for their creation epic Shate (the abbreviation of Shashiteer) in which the golden toad generates eighty-eight posts on its back to maintain heaven and earth separately. The Moon Princess marries the Sun Prince, and from this couple the whole of mankind descends (Wu 1998:2). This specific detail reminds of the bulges peculiar to neolithic Majiayao painted pottery. There is a pottery style which imitates the bumps covering a toad’s body. No one knows why, but my hypothesis would be that the mythical imagination associates those bumps with

the religious roots of creation myths

75

the heavenly pillars. The Majiayao, Jino and Yugur cultures share the same prehistoric Qiang root. Yugur myth and Jino myth both associate toad and creator. According to this detail, divine life is prior to the very beginning of cosmic order, as the source of life in cosmogenesis. In the Bible we find the expression “In the beginning was the word” and those mythical narrations say: “In the beginning was the frog” or “In the beginning was the toad.” Moreover, in the Yugur mythical imagination, the toad serves as a mysterious creature associated with gold, the most precious matter in the world, which evidently shows that, as the primary animal symbol of a goddess, the toad had not been demonized by then. As conveyed by comparative mythology, goddesses do not only have dynamic identities and functions but also a variety of animal epiphanies. For example, in Slavic folktales Baba Yaga, is the ancient goddess of death and regeneration who later developed into a witch and an ogress. Baba Yaga lives in nocturnal darkness, deep in the woods, far from the world of men. Folktales inconsistently depict her as an evil old hag who eats humans, especially children, and as a wise, prophetic old woman. She is tall, bony-legged, and pestle-headed in appearance, with a long nose and disheveled hair. The bird is her primary animal image, but she can turn instantly into a frog, toad, turtle, mouse, crab, vixen, bee, mare, goat, or inanimate object (Gimbutas 1999:27). Coming from a very old mythical tradition, this Slavic goddess character probably originated from an earlier figure called Baubo. In the early 20th century, the Egyptologist Margaret Murray hypothesized that Baubo came to Europe from Egypt via Crete and Greece. Frog-women with exposed vulvas appeared in Anatolia as early as the seventh millennium. This confirms that Baubo’s origins predate even the Egyptian references. Murray, of course, did not have access to Neolithic frog-woman imagery during her lifetime, so she made her connection through myths, crafts, and other novelties imported from Egypt or the Near East. The conception of this image may even date back to the Upper Paleolithic, since bone engravings of frogwomen appear in Magdalenian times. Linguistic evidence also upholds Baubo’s local European source. Some European languages use the root bau or bo in association with names for toads, witches, or mushrooms. In Lithuania, baubas and bauba denote a frightening witch or monster. She believes these words reflect the names of the goddess of death and regeneration before she was turned into a demon figure. In

76

ye shuxian

France, the words bo (in the province of Haut Saone), bobet (in Loire), and bot mean “toad” (Gimbutas 1999:28–9). A cross-cultural perspective enables us to transcend the limitations of separate cultural disciplines and to get more insight into frog deity beliefs than predecessors were able to understand, thanks to the combined study of mythical messages latent in etymological roots and the study of large numbers of newly excavated objects (Fig. 16), including not only frog-woman images in a large variety of materials but also huge frog-shaped temples. This will effectively help people today to understand how the frog/toad goddess was enshrined in man-made sacred spaces before the appearance of temples in civilized societies governed by one or more gods. And, going a step further, we may suggest that the earlier discussed frog-goddess beliefs impart more general insight into other cultures’ mythical thought, especially fish and fish-woman figures ornamenting Neolithic Yangshao painted pottery, and Majiayao frog images in China, including the gradually clarified etymological connections between the earlier mentioned Chinese characters 蛙 and 娲, respectively referring to “frog” and “(goddess) Nüwa,” as well as between 蛙 (frog) and 娃 (child). Every year in the eleventh lunar month, the Chinese Tu who live in Tongren (Regong in Tibetan) living in Huangnan county, Qinghai province, perform the wutu (於菟, tiger), a dance ceremony in which the people of Shangwu and Xiawu villages all dress and dance like toads to ward off evil and receive the auspicious. Their toad outfit and dance indicate another type of totemic relics besides tiger totemism. Frog worship and relevant artistic forms can also be observed in other regions within the area. For instance, a frog dance popular in Huangxi village (Huangjiazhai, Datong county) reflects characteristics of a sacrificial ceremony, such as the offering of sacrifices to the ancestral insect king and prayers for abundant harvests. The ceremony is being performed by four men wearing straw hats twined by blue cloth on the head, and yellow, white, and green colored frog patterns on the face, with a camel bone tile in each hand. Now jumping like frogs, now hitting the tiles, they utter “croak, croak” sounds. As the native popular legend says: people once suffered from a plague of locusts, until a great many frogs came and ate all the locusts. To express their gratitude and for the purpose of averting further insect pests, they began to perform the frog dance, a dance usually accompanied by musical instruments. The history of this ceremony can be

the religious roots of creation myths

77

traced back to ancient sacrificial ceremonies, e.g., devoted to the god of land and the god of fire, to whom the people would address prayers for favorable weather, a prosperous country and for the people’s happiness. Those ceremonial rites are closely related to the large-scale ritual ceremonies in the Zhou dynasty. A Tu narrative tells that, in the beginning, there was no solid land in the world but only a boundless ocean. The sky god was planning to do something about it. He looked around and caught sight of a golden toad floating on the waters, and suddenly had a great idea. He snatched up a handful of soil and threw it onto the toad’s back, but the creature quickly sank into the depth and the soil was washed away by water. He waited with bow and arrow fixed and ready, and shot the toad as soon as it came up from under the water. Tumbling in great pains, it finally lay motionless on its back on the surface of the waters. The god threw another handful of soil on the toad’s body, and this time it held the mud tight without any further protest. This is how the earth came into being. The sky god inserted a fire-making rod into the toad’s body and warned: “You won’t be free until the rod sprouts.” The toad has been waiting for a long time and sometimes he is impatiently twisting around to see whether the rod is budding. That is why there are earthquakes. Here we could see the inner logical link between creation myth and origin myth. A Tu wedding song tells that at the beginning of Creation “there were altogether thirty-two heavenly realms, but no golden one among those,” so that goddess Nüwa “cut off the tongue of the golden toad to make a thirty-third heavenly realm,” a song with an obvious legendary and religious background. Conclusive Remarks Rather than the pure study paradigm of traditional Chinese academics which have focused on the written texts only, we must be brave enough to call upon a multi-resources methodology for contemporary comparative mythology. This paper has tried to establish links between the ancient Han texts and the oral tradition of China’s ethnic minorities, including as well archaeological objects as a new source of icon narrative in terms of visual anthropology. In this way, the Great Goddess Nüwa finally reconnects with one of her prehistoric animal archetypes which had been discovered thanks to 20th century Chinese

78

ye shuxian

archaeology excavations. Our new task is, then, to efficiently combine interdisciplinary perspectives in order to gain more and more mythical information from both literary and icon narrative objects, in both history and prehistory, in order to achieve a new integrated understanding of the frog culture as a whole.

WATER-OF-IMMORTALITY MYTHS IN ALTAIC AND JAPANESE CULTURES G. Namjila Minzu University of China Abstract Being immortal and forever young is one of man’s everlasting pursuits reflected in primitive religions and old myths. Some of these myths tell stories about a mysterious water: by drinking or showering in this water, people or animals are immortalized; and sprinkled on plants, this special water will turn them into evergreens. In this paper, “Water-of-Immortality” refers to such divine water in various myths from different ethnic backgrounds. Water of immortality myths prevailing in Altaic-speaking (e.g. Mongolian and Kazakh) areas, Japan and the Korean Peninsula, share certain characteristics. This essay concentrates on the analysis of such myths in Mongolian, Kazakh and Japanese, using comparative approaches in folklore studies like typological comparison and motif interpretation. The observation of similarities and differences among the Water-of-Immortality myths will help us track the development and changes in this type of myths so as to prepare for more intensive research. Keywords: Altaic, Water-of-Immortality, water-moon

I. Water-of-Immortality Myths in Mongolian and Kazakh Ethnic Groups Both the Mongolian and the Kazakh ethnic groups belong to the Altaic language family and their cultures are closely connected. Their Water-of-Immortality myths possess quite a few similar elements and can be classified into the same type. Mongolians and Kazakhs live far away from Japan, a culture so different in every way, but the three have much in common1 in terms of their Water-of-Immortality myths. I shall start my analysis with the former two.

1 Some scholars argue that the Japanese and Korean languages should be categorized as Altaic as well. However, no final conclusion has been reached.

80

g. namjila

In Mongolian mythic tradition, the Water-of-Immortality used to be called möngke usu, which means “the water of everlasting life.” After the introduction of Buddhism into this area, it was re-named arsiyan, which means “the nectar of everlasting life.” In Mongolian Waterof-Immortality myths, there are basically two types. One is that God wished human beings to become immortal, and sent birds like ravens to deliver the Water-of-Immortality. However, the bird spilled it during the journey, and the mission failed. From then on, no man can escape death, and trees like pine and cypress, thanks to the water spilled over them, turned evergreen (Fig. 17). This is the first or “bird-spilling” type of the Water-of-Immortality myths. Here are some examples. In the myth “Raven Spilled the Nectar of Life” prevailing in the area of Khalkha Mongolia, Borhon Bagši sent a raven to carry the nectar of immortality to man’s world, so that human beings could become immortal. The raven was too tired en route, so he decided to have a rest on a spruce tree. A sudden cry of an owl nearby shocked the raven, and he spilled the nectar of immortality out of his beak. Hence, human would age and ultimately die, but the spruce trees maintain their youth (Tserensodnom 81). A variation of this myth exists in the Xilin Gol League in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region in China, with Borhon Bagši replaced by a Khan (Senggerincin 140). And in a version originally called “Why are the Pine, Cypress and Chinese Ephedra Trees Evergreen?” a swallow appears as the messenger: A kind-hearted swallow wished human beings immortality, so he had several drops of nectar of immortality in his mouth and flew to the human world. During the course, he was stung by a wicked wasp, and it was so painful that he cried, spilling the nectar over the leaves of pine, cypress and Chinese ephedra trees. From then on, these plants became green and young forever (Gaadamba 745).

This variant is deviant from the motif of god dispatching birds, but there is a hidden motif in the myth’s prototype, because in the original Altai version of the Turkic language family, there is the same “god dispatching birds” motif: When the first man was created by God Uligen, he was lifeless. In order to give life to this man, God Uligen dispatched a raven to Khudai in Heaven and asked him to bestow “life” on the man. The raven received the “life” from Khudai, took it in his mouth and flew back. The journey was so long that the raven became more and more tired, hungry and thirsty. He saw corpses of horses and camels on the ground again and

Figure 17. Jade bear-dragon (symbol of immortality), tomb of Lady Fu Hao, Anyang, late Shang dynasty, c. 1300 BC, Capital Museum, Beijing.

water-of-immortality myths in altaic and japanese cultures 81

82

g. namjila again, but he restrained himself all the time. At last, he was too hungry to flap his wings any more. And at that time, he saw a freshly dead cow on the ground whose eyes were still bright. The raven could not help himself crying, “Caw, caw, what bewitching eyes!” Hardly had his voice faded away, when the “life” in his mouth dropped on to the coniferous trees, pine trees, and needle junipers on Earth. That is how these trees became evergreen (Dulam 13).

Obviously, the Altaic version of Water-of-Immortality myths has some Islamic culture flavor as a result of religious dissemination, a flavor that would not have existed in the earliest original version. In the stories God Uligen is the highest god in shamanism, the belief of the ancient Turkic-speaking peoples. In their myths he is the creator of heaven and earth, of all things as well as human beings. God Uligen is the equivalent of Borhon Bagši in the Mongolian version. And in Mongolian, “Borhon Bagši” is not a very old name, which, literally, is a respectful form of address to Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism. Before the Mongolians converted to Buddhism, Monk Tengri was the highest god in their creation myths, who was also the highest god in Mongolian shamanism as the creator of heaven, earth and human beings. Therefore, some scholars believe that, after the introduction of Buddhism, Monk Tengri in the original Mongolian myths was gradually replaced by Buddha or Bodhisattva from Buddhism (Dulema 184–5). In the Ewenki story “Divine Wolf,” there is a motif that the divine wolf forced the raven to fetch the Water-of-Immortality from heaven ( Jitgultu 144–152). In that story, the raven possesses extraordinary powers, which enables him to obtain the Water-of-Immortality from heaven and deliver it to Earth. So in Mongolian and Altaic versions, the highest god is closely connected with ancient shamanism. Furthermore, “life” in Altaic myths means “everlasting life,” as it does in Mongolian versions. Obviously “life” and the “Water-of-Immortality” in the Altaic peoples’ myths should originate from one prototype. The very motif of the Water-of-Immortality making some plants evergreen plays an important role in Mongolian myths. We call it the motif of the “evergreen type.” It appears not only in the “bird-spilling type,” but also in the “Rahu-dripping type” and other myths transcribed in Mongolian documents. This second type of Water-of-Immortality myths is orally inherited and well documented. It explains how Borhon Bagši (Buddha) refined the nectar of immortality so as to make human beings immortal, but

water-of-immortality myths in altaic and japanese cultures

83

the nectar was stolen and drunk by devil Rahu.2 Borhon Bagši cut Rahu in halves, and the nectar oozed from Rahu’s stomach and wetted pine and cypress trees. As a result, human beings grew feeble and old, and ultimately had to die, whereas these trees remain eternal. One example of the “Rahu-dripping type” of Water-of-Immortality myths is entitled “The Reason for the Evergreenness of the Pine Tree and the Chinese Ephedra”:3 A senior Lama (or Borhon Bagši) has been sitting in meditation for many years and brewed a divine nectar for the purpose of human’s immortality. But the nectar was stolen and drunk by the devil Rahu. Rahu escaped, and the Lama took his powerful weapon Wačir to chase him. With the help of the lunar and solar gods, Lama caught up with the devil in no time and threw the Wačir at him. Rahu was cut in halves, and the nectar of immortality flowed out of his body and dripped over pine and Chinese Ephedra trees. From then on, these two kinds of trees became evergreen.

There is another variant popular in Khalkha folklore, in which Borhon Bagši entrusted the nectar of immortality to the Sun God. The devil Rahu cunningly stole and drank the nectar. When he escaped, Buddha Wačirbani chased after him. With help of the solar and lunar gods, Buddha soon caught Rahu and threw the Wačir at him. Rahu was so frightened that he spat out the nectar onto Earth. From that very place, the evergreen myrobalan trees sprang up.4 The same motif of Rahu can be spotted in other ancient Indian myths. E.g., in the Mongolian edition of the Indian story collection Qucčin Hoyar Modun Humn-nu Uliger (The Story of Thirty-two Wooden Men), the motif of the giant devil Rahu steeling and drinking Buddha’s nectar of immortality is evident. This motif frequently appears in ancient Indian myths and fairytales, where, however, the motif of the Rahu is one kind of Asura in ancient Indian myths. Recorded and transcribed by Bu Menghe in Khan Tengri (in Todo Mongγol ), Vol. 1, 1988. Title added by the author. 4 The above two myths are influenced by the famous Indian myth “Churning the Sea of Milk” (Namjila 2001:2). I assume under the influence of the in-coming Buddhism, Mongolian myths adapted themselves to the written form first, followed by the oral circulation of the changed version. E.g., The name Arura, Helile in Chinese, is of Sanskrit origin. Hezi might be a short form for Helile. Hezi is an evergreen tree, mainly growing in the southern Asian countries like India and Malaysia, and part of China’s Yunnan and Guangdong provinces. There is no Hezi in North China. I think the Indian influence on Mongolian myths is also reflected in the connection between these mythic by-products and the Indian culture. 2 3

84

g. namjila

“evergreen type” seems inexistent. This proves that although the Mongolian “Rahu-dripping type” was a result of Indian influence, the motif was originally Mongolian and developed into some variations later. Moreover, the Mongolian document Sulharnai Yin Tuguji (Biography of Sulharnai), which is thought to have been translated in the 14th century, also contains the “evergreen type” as a motif: Once upon a time, there was a Khan named Sulharnai who lived in the City of Mišir in Xurasan. Longing for immortality, he began to seek möngke usu (the Water-of-Immortality). He climbed up the summit of the Sumur tag, dived into the bottom of sea, went downhill with the sun, and finally traveled through the dark world. In the dark world Sulharnai prayed so sincerely to Tengri (heavenly god) that the god fulfilled his favorite—the Water-of-Immortality. Tengri told Sulharnai, “As long as you drink the water, you will live a life as long as heaven and earth.” Then Sulharnai gathered his ministers and people and asked them whether he should drink the water. They all approved of the idea, yes, he should drink it and live forever. Only one wise Noyan (official or minister) was against. He said, “Your majesty, once you drink the water, you will live so long a time that even when heaven and earth are struck by a catastrophe you will remain alive. At that time, living will be disastrous. Since your ministers, people and family will all be gone, how could you live alone in this world!” Hearing that warning, Sulharnai gave up the pursuit of immortality, and spilled the water. Accidentally, the water fell onto the leaves of Arča,5 and from then on they became evergreen (Daobu 421–53).

In Sulharnai Yin Tuguji Sulharnai is associated with Dhu al-Qarnayn in the Islamic classics Alcoran and Zulkharnai in the Collection of Turkic Words edited by Mehmud Qeshqeri in the 11th century. Nonetheless, in the folktales about Dhu al-Qarnayn and Zulkharnai, there is no motif of “evergreen type.” Some scholars believe Sulharnai is another name for Alexander the Great (356 BC–323 BC) in Macedonia of ancient Greece. N. Poppe and F. W. Cleaves comment that Sulharnai Yin Tuguji is the Mongolian edition of the ancient Greek literary works Alexander the Great Biography (Daobu 419). Some plots and motifs in Sulharnai Yin Tuguji tally with the folktales of Alexander the Great. But still no “evergreen type” motif in any of these tales.

5 Juniper or Chinese arborvitae is called arča in Uyghur, Turkic and Jurchen (Dictionary of Mongolian Roots, 165). It is clear that the name of this tree is consanguineous among Altaic languages.

water-of-immortality myths in altaic and japanese cultures

85

In large, the motif of “evergreen type” appearing in Sulharnai Yin Tuguji at least indicates that there has been this motif in the Mongolian myths in the 14th century. By close reading the multi-cultural connotations of this work, we can tell that its original text was influenced by Arabic and Indian cultures. Hence, it can be speculated that there could have been an “evergreen type” in the Indian and Arabian myths, where, however, I have not found the motif yet. In addition, in terms of its language style and content, Sulharnai Yin Tuguji might have been translated from ancient Turkic literature. And this enhances the possibility that the motif survived in the mythic storytelling among Turkic peoples.6 In fact, in recent years, scholars have found some myths containing the motif of the “evergreen type” in the oral tradition among modern Turkic peoples. E.g., the myth “The Legend of the Spring of Immortality” widespread among Kazakh peoples in Xinjiang province of China, has such a motif. Here is its brief content: A long time ago, an old hunter shot a deer in a mountain. Wounded and bleeding, the deer ran to a spring and drank the water from it. When he licked his wound, it recovered at once, so he could escape vigorously. The hunter followed the deer, drinking the water from the spring and washing his face. In a split second, the old hunter changed into a handsome young man. When he came back home, his wife could not recognize him. After he told her everything, she wanted to become younger as well. So she traveled alone into the mountains and drank the spring water. Nonetheless, she got lost and couldn’t find her way back. Later the hunter found her by the spring—she had grown reversely to an infant. It turned out that she had drunk too much of the spring water. The hunter carried his infant wife in his arms and took along a leather bag of spring water for his fellow villagers. On their way home, they met a strange man. This man lay on his face; a big tree penetrated through his chest and back and extended into the sky, leaves waving in the wind. The old hunter asked this strange man what had happened to him. He answered with a sigh, “The water that makes you feel rejuvenated is called Water-of-Immortality. Indeed, the spring makes man young and immortal. But my wife, children, grandchildren, and all my relatives, friends and fellow villagers have passed away. Now I feel I’m the only one living in this world. There’s nothing worse than losing all your beloved ones. Death would be a better choice. So I decided to commit suicide by throwing myself onto a dead tree, letting the branches penetrate through my chest. But the result is what you see: though my body is covered with lichen, I am still alive. And the Water-of-Immortality in

6

Also see Namjila (2004:5, 2005:1).

86

g. namjila my body has moistened and revived this dried tree, making it evergreen throughout the four seasons.” Having heard these words, the hunter was so scared that he poured the Water-of-Immortality over the ground immediately, accidentally watering some cedar trees, cypress trees and a short Sabina procumbens. In a moment, those trees became luxuriantly green, and from then on, they kept green forever (Ming Jiani 1–4).

In the above Kazakh myth, the motif of the “evergreen type” stands out vividly, echoing the Water-of-Immortality myth in the Mongolian oral tradition and the relevant motif in Sulharnai Yin Tuguji. The reappearance of the same motif in different myths is not coincidental, but closely related with the common cultural, natural and social context of the Altaic-speaking peoples. Hence my assumption that the Water-of-Immortality myths in the Altaic-speaking areas are of the same type is tenable. II. Water-of-Immortality Myths in Altaic-Speaking Areas and Japan From the above comparisons, it is easy to find out that there are some similar motifs existing among the Water-of-Immortality myths in Altaic languages like Mongolian and Kazakh, and these motifs are also closely linked with the Japanese ones. In Japan, the popular myth “Sijimizu and the Water of Death” in Miyako-jima7 says: The Moon God and the Heavenly God8 wished human beings immortality, so they sent a man named Akará-zzagama to carry the elixir to man. So he shouldered a bucket of šijimizu (water of rejuvenation) and a bucket of “water of death” and walked to man’s world. Gods told him to pour the šijimizu on men, and the “water of death” on snakes. Akarázzagama had a very long journey from Heaven to human world. Too tired to go any further, he put down the two buckets of water and had a rest on a meadow. He went to the side of the road when nature calls, and a snake sneaked in then and sprinkled the šijimizu on its own body. Akará-zzagama felt so guilty and sad, but he had no other choice but to pour the “water of death” on men. After he returned to Heaven and told the gods what had happened, he was punished to hold two buckets of water on his shoulders and stand on the moon forever. By having a bath in the šijimizu, from then on, the snake sheds its skin and gets rejuvenated every year, while human beings are unable to escape the destiny of death (Nevsky 124).

7 8

The largest island of the Miyako Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. In some variations they are Sun God and Moon God, or Moon God only.

water-of-immortality myths in altaic and japanese cultures

87

The Water-of-Immortality myth also spreads in the Amami area in Japan. This version says, in the past human beings were young and immortal, for God provided them the wakamizu (water of rejuvenation). However, once man spilled the wakamizu by accident, and the wakamizu dripped on a cobra and a crape myrtle tree. Consequently, the cobra and the crape myrtle became revitalized and immortal since then, meanwhile man became mortal (Inada 1032). At first, the plots in the motifs of the Water-of-Immortality myths in Mongolia and Miyako-jima are mostly similar: in order to bestow immortality upon human beings, God sent “man” or “animal” to deliver the Water-of-Immortality to man’s world, but at some point during the journey, the water was spilled on some plants or seized by some animal, who then were immortalized, whereas human beings are destined to die since. This similarity cannot be explained by parallel occurrence. Of course, there are also differences between them, e.g., in the myth from Miyako-jima, there is no motif of the “evergreen type,” while it is evident in the Mongolian and Kazakh ones. Trees are rejuvenated in the myths from the Amami area in Japan, seemingly the same with the Mongolian and Kazakh “evergreen type,” there are yet many trifle differences, e.g., the affected plants in the latter ones are evergreen shrubs (pine and cypress) and herbs (Chinese ephedra). The crape myrtle tree in Japanese myths is a kind of deciduous arbor. The pine trees, cypress trees and Chinese ephedra are evergreen, and in myths this natural phenomenon is attributed to a water or spring of immortality. Sarusuberi, the Japanese name of crape myrtle, literally means that the tree bark is so smooth that even monkeys find it difficult to climb on it. The most significant character of sarusuberi is that its old bark peels off every summer, and the new one, smooth and beautiful, grows every winter. In this way, sarusuberi grows in an endless cycle and keeps vigorous forever. In these myths šijimizu plays an essential role. Therefore, although the plants in these myths are all affected by the magical power of the water, the metamorphic process and the way of presentation varies: one manifests youth by evergreen leaves, and the other by peeling barks. Some scholars call the latter one the motif of the “bark-peeling type.” It can be concluded that there seems to be no mutual transmission between the origins of these two mythic motifs, while they possibly appeared simultaneously. The Mongolian and Kazakh “evergreen type” motif is older than the Japanese sarusuberi motif of the “bark-peeling type.” The latter might be a variation of “snake-shedding-skin type” motif in Japanese myths. Firstly, both snake and sarusuberi peel skins annually to revive,

88

g. namjila

and the motif of “snake-shedding-skin” is considered to appear in the oldest origin myths about death. Secondly, sarusuberi is native to South China, not Japan, which means this species was introduced to Japan later in history. If the mythic motif was created after its introduction, then its history is relatively short. Therefore, the motif of the “snakeshedding-skin type” in Japanese Water-of-Immortality myths is original, while the motif of sarusuberi “bark-peeling type” is derivative. In brief, there are connections between Altaic versions and the Japanese versions of Water-of-Immortality myths. Both independent cultural evolutions and mutual interactions are involved during the course of myth creations. At the same time, differences, especially lying in the core contents, are also evident between the motif of the “evergreen type” and the motif of the “bark-peeling type.” III. Altaic and Japanese Versions: A Comparative Analysis As is stated above, a Water-of-Immortality myth exists in Kazakh tradition. This myth consists of two threads. The first half of the story tells that an old couple drank the divine spring and returned to their youth; the second half is about the strange man and the evergreen plants. The first half of the story as a separate tale resembles the content of the popular Japanese tale “Water of Rejuvenation”: In ancient days, there was an old couple. Every day the husband went to gather firewood in the mountain. One day, when he felt thirsty, he found a spring and drank water from it. He instantly turned into a handsome young man. It was actually a “spring of rejuvenation.” When he came back home, his wife hardly recognized him. He told his wife what had happened. She desired youth so much that she climbed up the mountain by herself and drank the spring water in such a hurry that she didn’t realize she had drunk too much. As a result, she became an infant. Her husband went to look for her in the mountains and finally found her as an infant by the spring, so he carried her home in his arms and brought her up later on (Inada 227).

“Water of Rejuvenation” is widely spread in Japan,9 and the plots of these stories are similar. In Iwate, Tochigi, Niigata, and other counties,

9 Places include the cities of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, Fukushima, Tochigi, Gunma, Niigata, Fukui, Nagano, Kyoto, Wakayama, Hyogo, Okayama, Ehime, Saga, Kagoshima, Okinawa, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Oita, Kumamoto, etc.

water-of-immortality myths in altaic and japanese cultures

89

it is the old wife who was rejuvenated first, and the old husband who drank too much of the rejuvenation water and transformed into an infant (Inada 422, 340, 346). In stories originating from the Prefectures of Yamagata and Fukushima, the old husband raised his infant wife and married her again when she grew up (Inada 279, 451). Apart from Japan, Korea also has variations of the “Water of Rejuvenation” story. The main plot of the Korean version is: a couple with many children often bullied a childless couple. One day, the barren couple went to gather firewood in the mountains and found a divine spring. Having drunk the spring water, they turned into a young and beautiful couple. A couple with many children was very jealous, and tried to scoop the secret and seek the spring themselves. They found the spring in the mountains, and, afraid that their attempt might fail, they drank too much of the divine water so that they turned into infants. Finally the childless couple took them home and brought them up as their own children (Choi 102–4).10 Obviously, both the Kazakh “Legend of Spring of Immortality” and the Japanese “Water of Rejuvenation” contain a similar sequence of the old husband or wife returning to their youth or becoming rejuvenated in their motifs. This defies interpretations by parallel occurrence. By comparing we also find some opposite elements. Firstly, the chances for the heroes to find the Water-of-Immortality are different. In the Kazakh story, it contains the motif of “efficaciousness” prevailing among hunting and nomadic peoples. E.g., the wounded white deer drank from the spring water and recovered, so the hunter found the Water-of-Immortality. This motif is often seen in thermal spring legends of Northern peoples. In “The Legend of Ogono11 Hot Spring” spread in the Hulun Buir area of Inner Mongolia, a male gazelle was shot by a hunter, and recovered by drinking water from the Aršiyan (the divine spring in the mountains). People later discovered the Ogono hot spring (Halqiga 24–6). In the legend of Tongnae hot spring in Korea, an old lady, too weak to walk, imitated an injured crane, bathed her feet and legs in the hot spring, and finally regained energy (Choi 33). This “efficaciousness” motif also appears in the legend of Alexander the Great written by Azerbaijan (ancient Turkic)

10 It seems the story of water of rejuvenation is not widespread in Korea, and it is perhaps a variation under the Japanese influence. 11 Ogono is a male Mongolian gazelle.

90

g. namjila

poet Nizami in the 12th century12. It can be inferred that the motif of the Water-of-Immortality in the Kazakh myths is developed within the tradition of the Altaic-speaking peoples. Differently, the “water of rejuvenation” in the Japanese story is usually found by the hero directly, occasionally with some exceptions, such as the help of fairies or mountain gods, the requital from some animals, etc. These exceptions may have been added in later periods. In short, as accessories of myths, the chances to find the Water-of-Immortality in the Kazakh and Japanese myths or folktales are mainly based on their own economic type, mode of thinking and cultural tradition. The Water-of-Immortality theme is based upon human fear of death and human longing for immortal life, reflected in people’s belief in the Water-of-Immortality and related rituals in the old times. In the Japanese story “Water of Immortality,” this belief is relatively implicit, whereas it is more explicit in satires about greed and karma, so it is often categorized as satire or humor. But we can still see traces of its associations with the old Japanese “Water-of-Immortality” belief, which has been proven by some variations of the myth in other kinds of stories. E.g., a Water-of-Immortality story prevailing in Nakagami of Okinawa county tells that, on a New Year’s Eve, an old man went to a well, and after drinking the water and washing his hands and feet, he was rejuvenated (Inada 582). In variations found in Hiroshima, an old lady returned to her youth on New Year’s Day (Inada 1032). Such stories are closely connected with the belief in “the Water-ofImmortality”. Before tap water became widely in use, the custom of “drawing the Water-of-Immortality” was widespread in Japan—at dawn on Japanese New Year’s Day, the head in each family took a new bucket and a wooden ladle to a well or spring to get wakamizu (Water-of-Immortality). People offered sacrifices, gargled with it and called it “lucky tea,” It was believed that doing so would bring back youth and keep the evil away for the whole year (Sakurai 316). Where then does wakamizu come from? In the above myth from the Island of Okinawa, God felt very sorry for human’s loss of immortality, so he made this up by bestowing longevity upon human, i.e., spreading wakamizu from skies on every New Year’s Eve (Nevsky 11–3). Therefore, on New Year’s Day, people get up early and fetch

12

E.g., dried fish fell into the spring of immortality and revived (Cendiin 480–6).

water-of-immortality myths in altaic and japanese cultures

91

the Water-of-Immortality—wakamizu. In Japan Water-of-Immortality stories are closely linked with people’s wakamizu belief. Both the Kazakh story and the Japanese story express people’s fear of death in a belief in the existence of a “divine water” granting human beings immortality or longevity. In Kazakh myths and legends, there is a kind of divine water called kaszal, and those who drank it would be rejuvenated and kept young forever (Dictionary of Religion and Myth in Chinese Ethnics 183). Even though the belief in kaszal in the Kazakh culture and the belief in arxan (nectar of immortality) in the Mongolian culture have been influenced by the Islamic and Buddhist cultures respectively, they both originated from the primeval worship of divine water in their own ethnic cultures. IV. Water-of-Immortality Myths and the Origin Myths of Death The Water-of-Immortality myths in the Altaic-speaking areas and Japan offer explanations for the universal human question why, unlike the evergreen plants, human beings must die. Water-of-Immortality myths belong to a large type of origin myths explaining how death came to the world, a very popular motif existing around the world. Many myths transmitted across various cultures, share the same or similar motifs. Some origin myths of death prevailing in African ethnic cultures resemble the Altaic and Japanese Water-of-Immortality myths. E.g., the Kara myth in eastern Africa tells that God wished man immortality, so he dispatched a dark crested bird called Horawaka (Lamb of God) to deliver the following message: “when people age, they will peel off their skins and be rejuvenated and immortalized.” Horawaka accepted this sacred mission and set off proudly. However, he saw a snake devouring rotten meat en route and was tempted. He flew down and started enjoying the meat. As an exchange, the snake got the message which should have been delivered to man. From then on, the snake started peeling its skin periodically to be rejuvenated and immortal, while human beings had to die ultimately. Horawaka was punished by God. He is haunted by a painful disease, and even today, he can be seen standing on trees and groaning like a lamb (Obayashi 134–5). In the myth from the African Khoi culture, the Moon God promised humanity immortality, so he sent a rabbit as a messenger to deliver

92

g. namjila

the message to man. His order was, “You will resurrect after death, just like me.” But the rabbit delivered the opposite message: “You will die and not resurrect like me.” Then he returned and reported back to God what he had literally said. God was so angry that he threw a stick at the rabbit and his lips split. Before the rabbit fled in a hurry to escape, he scratched the face of the moon. The scars on the surface of the moon are still visible today and rabbits are still running with their split lips (Nevsky 133–4). A South African San myth is slightly different. Here the moon dispatched a tortoise to bring human beings the message: “Just like I can revive after death, you will be able to resurrect and avoid death.” However, the tortoise had a bad memory. Though trying as hard as he could, he was unable to recite the message. So the moon decided to dispatch a rabbit to fulfill the mission. The rabbit had a good memory, and after memorizing the sentence, he swiftly ran to man’s world. Yet, he forgot the sentence on his way, and mixed the words up, telling man: “When you die, you will die forever!” At that time, the tortoise arrived, and delivered the Moon God’s order exactly as he was told. However, it was too late. Humans had already been destined to die when they grew old. Therefore people utterly abhorred the rabbit, and one furious man threw a stone at the rabbit, leaving a permanent wound in his lips (Obayashi 134). In African origin myths of death, most of the messengers sent by God to man are animals like rabbit or tortoise, or sometimes birds. Because of the carelessness or weak will of these animals, human beings have to face the destiny of death. There are many similarities in the myth motifs of the African and Altaic ethic cultures, especially the resemblance between the bird Horawaka in the Kara myth and the raven in Mongolian and Altaic myths. These birds all accept sacred missions and set off confidently, but ultimately fail, and that is why humans have to age and die. The difference between Water-of-Immortality myths in Asia and the origin of death myths in Africa is that—in the former, the medium is a matter of visible and touchable miraculous water, while in the latter it is a verbal order. Water and language were both worshipped by the ancients, but water worship seems to enjoy a much longer history. In creation myths, the dark primeval waters are often the basis for the creation of the world and life. At the beginning of the creation, there was only a boundless ocean, with neither heaven nor earth. Then God scattered mud over the ocean, and Earth was created, the basic space for everything to grow in. But then, the “water” in Water-of-

water-of-immortality myths in altaic and japanese cultures

93

Immortality myths is different from the water at the time of creation— it is the “water” that appeared when everything in the universe had already been produced. Its magical function was not about the creation of life, but about the prevention of death. It fully underlines the great reverence of the ancients for water, the origin of life. Furthermore, the gods in the Altaic Water-of-Immortality myths are mainly named after Buddha, like Borhon Bagši, whereas in the African myths referred to, it is the Moon God who sends the message. At this point, the Japanese myths coincide with the African ones. In many ethnic cultures, the moon is the symbol of immortal life, as is reflected in myths and legends. In African myths, the everlasting moon gives people immortality. This is a logical outcome of the ancient idea that the moon symbolizes eternal life. Japanese myths often combine the magical water and the moon, growing from the idea of rejuvenation and youth brought about by the Water-of-Immortality to the moon’s great power of resurrection, connecting two types of immortality and relating to human’s desire for rejuvenation and immortality. Apart from myths, legends and folk customs, to the belief in the moon and the Water-of-Immortality in Japan, have also been documented in ancient books. E.g., in a poem (or song) from the thirteenth volume of Man-Yo-Shui (Ito 76), the šijimizu on the moon could make human forever young. The author expressed the shame that the beloved one was inevitably ageing. He imagined that he would be able to go to Heaven and fetch the šijimizu from the Moon God, helping the beloved to regain her youthful appearance. It refers to the ancient Japanese belief that the reason for man’s death was the inaccessibility of the moon, and therefore of šijimizu. In Chinese culture, the moon represents the air of yin, the Moon God is in charge of yin, and yin controls water. In the chapter “Tianwen Xun” (Patterns of Heaven) of Huainanzi, there is a passage saying that “the air of yin masters water.” And in Lunheng, another Chinese classic, we read in the chapter “The Sun”: “the moon is the essence of water.” The moon is considered as the god of water. Moreover, moon and water have long been connected in China. In the Mongolian and Kazakh versions of Water-of-Immortality myths, there is no image of the Moon God. And the ancient Mongolians also believed that “when the moon waxes, it is time to attack; and when the moon wanes, it is time to defend,” and “when the new moon rises, they can do whatever they are willing to.” They considered the waxing of the moon as the resurrection of life, and the waning of the moon as a short “death” of life (Fig. 18).

Figure 18. Creator goddess of Hongshan culture, jade wall, World Horticulture Expo Garden, Kunming.

94 g. namjila

water-of-immortality myths in altaic and japanese cultures

95

The compound image of moon and rabbit representing eternity in African origin of death myths, appears in Altaic myths as well. In one of the Mongolian myths, there was one sandalwood tree on the moon, and under the tree there was a rabbit.13 In another version the only male rabbit was on the moon, and on April 15th every lunar year, the rabbits on Earth and the male rabbit on the moon would gaze at each other from afar and have a virtual copulation (Tserensodnom 46). In another myth, the rabbit was in charge of smashing herbs on the moon, and Mongolian doctors used the jaws of rabbits’ front legs to rub the mortar when processing medicinal herbs. And in a recently collected myth, Borhon Bagši was infinitely resourceful. He had thirty two Buddhist images, and one of them was a giant rabbit. It was as big and high as a mountain. Actually, Borhon Bagši changed himself into such a giant rabbit for the purpose of providing food for animals. He let all the birds and beasts in the world eat the giant rabbit. Later, Mangjirwa Borhon hung the rabbit skin on the moon, and the spots on the moon we can see now are just the skin of the giant rabbit (Tserensodnom 47). These myths may have been influenced by Indian and Han myths, and originate from a later period.14 And the compound rabbit image in Japanese myths may also be closely linked with the Chinese Han myths. On the other hand, the origin of the rabbit in Chinese myths has always been a topic for heated debate over the past two centuries, without a final conclusion. Ji Xianlin argued that the story was from “Indian origin.” He studied the rabbit myths in the Han culture in his paper “The Indian Literature in China,” and stated that even though the rabbit living on the moon had long been popular in China, “but it is not native to China, but to India” ( Ji 102). Meanwhile, some other scholars insisted on its “Chinese origin.” They believed that, although the Chinese myth of the rabbit and the moon seems similar to the Indian version, it is a hasty induction that China would have copied India. They also gave examples of of moon and rabbit images in origin of death myths in some African and American cultures to illustrate that the Chinese compound image of the moon and the rabbit was not from India.

This myth is popular in the Mongolian area. The mythic concept of the rabbit’s pregnancy by gazing at the moon and of the rabbit smashing medical herbs on the moon appears in Han myths. The motif that the spots on the moon are the skin of the giant rabbit is a topic in Indian Buddhist stories. 13 14

96

g. namjila

However, in the Altaic Water-of-Immortality myths, no moon and rabbit image has been found. There is another old motif in Water-of-Immortality myths—the motif of skin-peeling. Some scholars stated that the origin myths of death based on this motif is just the “skin-peeling type of the origin of death myth” (Obayashi 119). This kind of myth has developed many variations in Taiwan, and is also widely spread in Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, in Polynesia and South American countries. Furthermore, the “skin-peeling type of the origin myth of death” written in the Mesopotamian epic The Epic of Gilgamesh is widely accepted as the earliest written version of this kind. The hero Gilgamesh made a long adventurous journey to find the eternal life. Gilgamesh was told that there was a kind of miraculous rejuvenation herb on the bottom of the sea. So Gilgamesh tied heavy rocks on his legs and dived into the sea, trying to search for it and finally found the magical plant. However, on his way back, he had a shower in a spring, and a snake sneaked out to steal and eat the lifebringing herb. Then the snake sloughed off his skin and escaped. Ever since, snakes are able to becoming young again by peeling off their skin, but man grows old and has to die. Obviously, the origin myth of death in Mesopotamia shares similarities with the motif of skin-peeling in the Water-of-Immortality myths in Japan, both of which narrate that a snake stole and ate or used the divine object which had belonged to human beings, and then the snake was able to slough off the skin and achieve rejuvenation, while human beings had to face the destiny of death when they grew old. The similarities are evident, but further research must explore the question as to whether they appeared separately or were the result of cultural interaction. I have not yet collected enough evidence to decide whether or not the motif of skin-peeling exists in Altaic myths. Only in my hometown, in the southern areas of Hure Banner, Inner Mongolia, it is said that like the snake, man also peels off skin every year, but no one has yet witnessed the process. Anyone who sees the process will undoubtedly die soon. So no one wants to see man peel off his skin. Behind this taboo in Mongolian folk tradition lies the hidden belief of the ancients in skin peeling and related mythical concepts. Some people in the Kanto area in Japan call June 1st the “day of skin peeling.” According to a legend told in Kunohe-gun of Iwat-ken, it is the day for the snake to slough off its skin under the mulberry

water-of-immortality myths in altaic and japanese cultures

97

tree. In Shimohei-gun, on that day, called “insects skin peeling day,” certain rituals are being performed. In Higashiiwai-gun, it is believed that on June 1st man also sloughs off his skin, but whoever sees the process will die. And in the area of Yamagata the legend says that it is the day for people to peel off their skins. In order to beautify the skin, everyone drinks sweet potato soup. In the legend from Hagagun of Gunma-ken, it is said that on the morning of that day, if one immerses his hips into water and looks back, he can see human skin on the mulberry tree. However, no one has ever tried (Obayashi 125). The idea that man sloughs off his skin just like the snake and becomes rejuvenated is also widespread in the Philippines (Obayashi 107). In conclusion, the motif of snake sloughing off its skin in Japanese Water-of-Immortality myths is connected with the skin-peeling motif in the origin of death myth in ancient Mesopotamia. Moreover, in some places in Japan, the belief and related customs that echo Waterof-Immortality myths are also very popular. The purpose of the myth and the related customs and rituals reflect human’s desperate wish for rejuvenation and longevity, which identifies them with the same longing expressed in Water-of-Immortality myths. As for the similar elements in Japanese and Mongolian beliefs in skin-peeling, there are two assumptions: one is that they are parallel cultural developments emerging simultaneously; the other is that this is a result of cultural transmission. Some contents in these two types of myths seem so close that it seems most unlikely that they would have originated separately without any mutual contact. Therefore, the second assumption is more logical. After the transplantation of one cultural product into another ethnic culture, it will maintain its core structure and eventually adopt local cultural characteristics. This complex process will be the topic for my future research.

MYTHS OF GIANT CORPSE TRANSFORMATION Jung Jaeseo Ewha Woman’s University Abstract Through a comparative analysis of the implications in Chinese and IndoEuropean myths of the giant corpse transformation, this essay examines how the differences have influenced various cultures. So far as the Pangu myth is concerned, the plot of natural death is a matter of metamorphosis, or rather, abiogenesis,1 the overall alteration from one form to another evolved into a holistic mode of thought, and cannibalism into Confucianism. In IndoEuropean mythology, the act of murder or dying is transformed into dialectics, dismemberment into an analytic mode of thought, and cannibalism into Christian rituals. It is risky to arrive at such a conclusion in the sense that it might simplify and over-generalize the variations of myths, and thus it requires further thorough studies. Nevertheless, the whole process of inference is justifiable enough to identify the in-depth implications of creation myths as one of the archetypes of cultures. Keywords: abiogenesis, dialectics, cannibalism

I. Introduction Myth is a narrative genre explaining how such things came into being as the world, gods and man, animals, plants, and social institutions, etc. The creation of the world in mythic narratives distinguishes myths evidently from any other narrative. But there are some scholars who do not consent to ascribing such a distinctive characteristic to myths. G.S. Kirk, while denying the universality of myths, maintains that the “sacred stories” typical of creation and origin myths could also be found in other narratives (Kirk 57). However, even if we agree with Kirk in this regard, we still would have to see creation myths uniquely located in mythology, i.e., the narrative of creating the world 1 The author of this paper borrows this word from natural sciences to give name to a Chinese philosophical concept that everything at the beginning of the universe were self-generated.

100

jung jaeseo

in creation myths precedes other events narrated in myths. And it is for this reason that creation myths are of special significance. The creation of animals, plants, and human beings is the prerequisite for the existence of the world as we know it, and hence, creation myths provide a paradigm for all myths that are about origins (Eliade 92). Virtually, this theory in itself has some more important layer of meanings. Creation myths, in their sources, are closely linked not only with other myths, but also extend to all cultures that are based on and originate from origin myths (Fig. 19). This said, we would trace the root cause for the principal constitution of human thinking and the social institution of the posterity. Creation myths can be considered as “the myth of myths.” This essay, with a focus on myths of the giant corpse transformation, makes a comparative study of Chinese and Indo-European creation myths, and explores the variations or transformations in the cultures from the perspectives of their presumed descendants. So far comparative mythology studies have concentrated on their similarities, rather than their disparities. I am going to explore the differences in the contents of various creation myths, and the question as to how such differences contributed to disparities in the principal constitution of human thinking and the social institution of the cultures. And knowledge of these differences would be a primary prerequisite for gaining insight in East Asian mythology. II. Rudiments Review i. China The Pangu myth of China is a classic example. The theme of the giant corpse transformation can also be found in the creation myths of North American Indians who are assumed to be of Mongolian lineage (Rooth 178–9). In about the third century, Xu Zheng of the Three Kingdoms era wrote Sanwu Liji (Historical Records of the Three Sovereign Divinities and the Five Gods) and Wuyun Linianji (A Chronicle of the Five Circles of Time). Both books contained the earliest versions of the Pangu myth, but they were unfortunately lost in history. Yet relevant records can still be spotted in later classics, e.g., Yiwen Leiju (Classified Anthology of Literary Works), Taiping Yulan (Taiping Imperial Encyclopedia), Guangbo Wuzhi, Yi Shi (The Exploration of the History), etc. The following are some versions:

Figure 19. Map of Tubo (Tibet) in the shape of a lying demoness, modern reproduction, Tibet Museum, Lhasa.

myths of giant corpse transformation 101

102

jung jaeseo

The Sanwu Liji version of the Pangu myth: The heaven and the earth were as muddled as the content of an egg, and Pangu was born between them. Eighteen thousand years had passed until the heaven and the earth were divided. The clearer and lighter yang became the heaven while the more turbid and heavier yin became the earth. Pangu stood between the heaven and the earth, transforming his shape nine times a day, making himself as the god in the sky and the sage on the earth. Each day heaven rose ten feet higher, the earth grew ten feet thicker, and Pangu grew ten feet taller. This situation lasted for another eighteen thousand years. By then heaven was extremely high, the earth was extremely low, and Pangu was extremely tall (Ouyang 34, Li 89).

The Wuyun Linianji version of the Pangu myth: The primeval cosmos was in chaos and everything was just beginning. Then the heaven and the earth were divided and the universe was created. Yin and yang were generated as a result; yuan qi 2 was allocated; zhonghe3 was nurtured and a human being appeared. Pangu was the first human in the world and he transformed his body when he was dying. His breath became the wind and the cloud; his voices became the thunder; his head, arms and legs became the four poles and five mountains; his blood became the rivers; his tendons and vessels became landforms; his muscles became the earth in fields; his hair and beards became celestial bodies; his skin became grasses and woods; his teeth and bones became metals and stones; his marrow became the pearls and jade; his sweat became the rain; the parasites on his body were inspired by the wind and became the multitude (Dong 167, Ma 20).

Since both books were written by the same author, their contents can be read as different parts of the same story. A merger of the two seems rational. In this way, the narratives of the Pangu myth could be combined into one complete pattern: “chaotic formlessness—the birth of Pangu—the separation of the heaven and the earth—the growth of Pangu—the death of Pangu—the transformation of Pangu’s body”( Jung 183–5). ii. Other Cases Apart from China, there are myths narrating the transformation of giant corpses prevailing in other areas in the world, illustrated by the 2 3

元气 ( yuan qi ) means original energy in Daoism. 中和 (zhonghe) is a Daoist concept of central harmony.

myths of giant corpse transformation

103

following three examples, i.e., the Tiamat myth from Mesopotamia, the Purusha myth from India, and the Norse Ymir/Yme myth. The Tiamat myth in Enuma Elish4 says that Apsu, father of the gods, and Tiamat, mother of the gods, gave birth to a lot of gods. But those young gods came into conflict with the older ones. Tiamat flew into a fury, and plotted with Kingu the General on how to root out the young gods. Marduk was elected the head by the young gods. Finally, in the battle, Marduk beat Tiamat and killed her. He cut Tiamat’s body into halves—one formed the sky, and the other the pillars of the earth. Then he made mountains out of the soil piled up upon the head of Tiamat, pierced through her eyes and made them the sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Moreover, a mountain was piled up on her breasts, and then the mountain was excavated, which brought out the river that sprang from the mountain in the east and flowed into the Tigris River. In addition, Tiamat’s tail was curved up, lifted upward and turned into the Milky Way, while her ribs were used to prop up the sky. At last, he killed Kingu, and out of Kingu’s blood he created human beings who served the gods. The Purusha Myth in “Purusha sukta” (Rig Veda 10–90)5 says that Purusha (“man” in Sanskrit) was a huge being that could sufficiently encompass all quarters of the world. He was also a supreme being, in the past, present and future. At first, Purusha’s body was divided into parts, among which the third-fourths were transformed into immortal beings (deva), and the remaining one-fourth into the universe. Prior to this, Purusha begot a being called Viraj, the one-fourth of whose body begot the “neo-Purusha”. Deva made a sacrifice of the “neo-Purusha” in the ritual of sacrifice. And it is from such a ritual of sacrifice that the making of the universe sprang. In the poem, the following account is given of the creation: “When they divided Purusha, how many portions did they make? / What did they call his mouth and arms? What did they call his thighs and feet? / The Brahman was his mouth, and of both his arms was the Rajanya (or Kshatrya, warrior) made. / His thighs became the Vaisyara (commoner), and from his feet the Dra (servant) was produced. / The moon was gendered from his mind, and from his eye the sun had birth; / Indra and Agnika (fire) from his mouth were born, and Vayu (wind) from his breath. / Forth from his navel came the

4 5

Summarized from the translation in Bae Cheol Hyeon’s paper. Summarized from the translation in Sim Zae-Gwan’s paper.

104

jung jaeseo

atmosphere; the sky was fashioned from his head; / Earth from his feet, and from his ear the regions. Thus they formed the worlds.” And the Ymir/Yme Myth in poems Völuspá, Grímnismál, and Vafþrúðnismál: tells that a frost mighty giant Ymir (or Yme) was formed at the beginning of creation from rivers of melted ice. As he slept, the first man and woman emerged from his sweating left armpit, and another man from his feet. Ymir drank milk from a cow called Audhumla, which in turn licked blocks of ice and released a man called Buri (or Bure), whose grandsons, gods Odin, Vili and Ve eventually attacked the sleeping Ymir and killed him. The blood gushing from Ymir’s body caused a flood that drowned all the jotuns except one and his wife, who escaped in a boat and from them a new race was descended. Odin and his brothers used Ymir’s body to form the world. From his flesh they created the earth, from his bones the mountains, from his teeth and broken knuckles the boulders and rocks, from his blood the seas and lakes and rivers, and from his hair the trees and grass. They made the sky from his skull, and they threw his brains into the air to form clouds. The gods gave the maggots from Ymir’s flesh wits and human appearance and turn them into dwarfs, who served as smiths. The gods also created Man and Woman from two trees, and named them Ask and Embla, from whom are descended the mortals. Ymir’s eyebrows were used to make a great wall to surround and protect Midgard, the world of humans (Hveberg 10–3). iii. A Comparative Study Similarities To examine the similarities between these two types of myths, we would first acknowledge people’s recognition of the homology between human body and nature. After his death, Pangu’s body parts transformed into components of nature. The transformation is in the following terms: strength—winds and clouds, voice—thunder, left eye—sun, right eye—moon; limbs—the four pillars, parts of the body—the five mountains, blood—rivers, veins—roads; flesh—fertile lands, hair and moustache—stars, fur—grasses and trees, teeth and bones—metals and rocks; bone marrow—pearls and jade, sweat—rain and flood, parasites—human beings. The table below proposed by Bruce Lincoln shows the homology among Indo-European myths of the giant corpse transformation (Lincoln 21).

myths of giant corpse transformation

105

Table 1: The homology of microcosmology (micro-cosmos—macro-cosmos) flesh

bone

hair

blood

eye

heart

brain

head

breath

Grimnismal Rig Veda 10.90 “Poem on the Dove King” Skend Gumanig Wizar Metamorphoses

land – land

mountain – rock

tree – –

sea – –

– sun dawn

– moon moon

cloud – –

sky sky –

– wind wind

land

mountain

plant

–

–

–

–

sky

–

–

rock

forest

–

–

–

–

II Enoch 30.8 Code of Emisig British Museum MS. 4783 fol. 7a Discourse of Three Saints Aitreya Upanishad Greater Buddhism

land land

rock rock

rock grass

dew water

sun sun

land

rock

–

sea

the light of the world –

rock

–

–

land

mountain

– –

the summit of the universe cloud – cloud –

wind wind

sun

–

cloud

–

wind

sea

sun

–

cloud

–

wind

plant

–

sun

moon

–

–

wind

plant

sea

sun and moon

–

lotus light

sky

wind

It is clear that among the nine homologies identified by Lincoln there are six pairs resembling the corresponding items in the Pangu myth, which are “flesh—earth, bones—stones/mountains, hair—grass/ trees/woods/plants, blood—sea/dew/water, eyes—dawn/sun/moon, breath—wind.” Mary Douglas has argued that from the perspective of cosmology in the context of ancient cultures, the ancients considered the flawless body to be a symbol of ideal theocracy (Douglas 4). In other words, the flawless body is the universe. The theory of “harmony between heaven and man” is rather popular in the ancient world. Anne Birrell believes that the Chinese concept of heaven, earth and man (the three sages) derived from Dong Zhongshu of the Western Han dynasty, and suggests that the Pangu myth came into being after the Western Han dynasty (Birrell 40). Nevertheless, in spite of resemblances in some homologies, Chinese and Indo-European myths are apparently different in certain aspects, i.e., among the nine homologies in Indo-European myths, there are three pairs differing from the Pangu myth. They are “heart—moon,

–

106

jung jaeseo

brain—cloud or lotus lights, head—heaven or summit of the universe”, which generally refer to the spiritual sphere of man, which, noticeably, the Pangu myth would lack. In the Pangu myth, the three corresponding items in regard to the spiritual sphere. However, there are also such items as “limbs—the four pillars, five parts of the body (head, knees, and hands)—the five famous mountains, muscle and vessel—roads, hair and beard—stars, sweat—rain and lake water,” among which delicate organs of the body are obviously in close relation to natural phenomena. A case in point would be the correspondence between the “left eye” and the “sun,” between the “right eye” and the “moon.” Hence, one could also argue that, in comparison with Indo-European myths, there exists a closer homology between the body and nature in Chinese myths. Disparities We are to explore the following three aspects: the subject of the creation of the world, the means of the giant’s death, the transformation of the corpse (Fig. 20). Firstly, there are huge differences between Chinese and IndoEuropean systems of mythology on whether there exists the subject of the creation of the universe or an ultimate ruler. The majority of East Asian mythologists contend that there is no such a subject in the Pangu myth.6 But there is such a subject in Indo-European mythology, in which the universe is being created by the killing of giants such as Tiamat, Purusha, Ymir and so on. As for Tiamat, Marduk is the subject who creates the universe; for Purusha, the powerful gods are the subject; and for Ymir, Odin is the subject. At the initial stage of Chinese mythological studies, such differences have been misinterpreted by “Western” scholars as the primary evidence to justify the assumption that there is no creation myth in China. Secondly, there are obvious differences in the means of the giant’s death. Pangu’s death is a natural death after life has been worn out, whereas giants such as Tiamat and others were killed by other gods. In this case, the inherent characteristics of Chinese creation myths are ostensibly revealed. There is the murder plot in the myths of oriental peoples ( Japanese, northern Indians, etc.) preceding the transformation

6

Mote (2000:33), Birrell (24), Bin (71) and many others share this idea.

myths of giant corpse transformation

107

Figure 20. Giant guard painted on a Tibetan Buddhist temple gate, 20th century, Xiahe county, Gansu province.

108

jung jaeseo

of the corpse.7 It can be inferred that at the initial stage, myths of this type usually had the murder plot. It can then be assumed that in the earlier times, the prototype of the Pangu myth might have resembled other myths in the murder plot that brought about the giant’s death, though the Pangu myth had a natural death plot when it was discovered in the third century. Such an assumption can be confirmed by the evidence from Daoist literatures in the Qin dynasty. As recorded in Zhuangzi, “Ying Diwang” (“Who Should Be the Emperor”) especially depicts that the seven orifices of “Chaos” was dug out by his relatives Shu and Hu, and then he died. Such a description indicates a clue of murder in the early creation myths. It can be concluded that after being refined by the cosmology of a harmonious universe in the Han dynasty, the murder plot in the Pangu myth was concealed from the scene and replaced by a natural death plot.8 Finally, there are also some differences in the procedure of the corpse transformation. Pangu’s dead body was well preserved and then transformed into other things in the myth. Yet, in the Indo-European myths of the giant corpse transformation, after the giant had been killed, the corpse was dissected, and then transformed into other things, which is one of the main characteristics of Indo-European myths that reflects the ritual of sacrifice of Indo-European peoples (Lincoln 41). Therefore, we should bear in mind these disparities between Chinese and Indo-European myths about the theme of the giant corpse transformation, and proceed to the analysis of how these differences have had an immense impact on human thinking in different societies. III. Cultural Variations i. The Theory of Abiogenesis and Dialectics An obvious gap can be found between the natural death in the Pangu myth and the murder plot in Indo-European myths. Fredrick W. Mote states that Pangu is “a central character of the universe that was a spontaneous self-generating existence destitute of ultimate cause and will” (Mote 33). 7 In Japan, there are myths about corn growing from the murdered deity’s body ( Yasumaro 92). The intellectual world believes that the myth of corpse transformation of the North American Indians is of the Ymir mythological type (Rooth 178–9). 8 See detailed discussions in Jung’s paper (181–2, 193–4).

myths of giant corpse transformation

109

Pangu’s natural death and the subsequent transformation provide the basis for Laozi’s theory: “Dao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets all” (Laozi 42). From the perspective of the theory of abiogenesis, the driving force compelling things to develop does not lie in the conflicts between powers from without, but consists in a harmonious cooperation from within. And the proposition derives from the theory of abiogenesis that yin and yang are complementary to each other and the prosperity of yin begets yang, and vice versa. The plot of murder and transformation in Indo-European myths indicates the emergence of Indo-European dialectics assuming that the development of things derives from the contradictions and conflicts originating from the outside world. To put it another way, the driving force of development springs from the contradictory construct of two opposite items. Since, at its early stage, the Pangu myth, notably, had the same murder plot, the question may arise as to why came the myths to be different from each other in later times? The answer may have to be looked for in the isolated environment typical of ancient China, where people were inclined toward the mode of thought of self-generating and self-organizing, and the Pangu myth was accordingly modified to fit the theory of abiogenesis. By contrast, the “West,” in a relatively open environment, was bound to define its existence through contradictions and conflicts with the outside world, and throughout this process, the dialectic mode of thought predominated people’s thinking. It is true that such a comparative proposition is subject to the risk of over-generalization and environmental determinism. Although, in terms of mythological thinking, human beings have, basically, much in common, in a later phase of the cultural evolution they gradually developed cultural self-awareness and characteristics. Lincoln suggests that we should interpret myths of the giant corpse transformation not only in terms of cosmology, but also from a more profound perspective as a societal system or consciousness system (Lincoln 4–5). In this case, it is necessary to explore the societal and political implications of these two modes of thought: the theory of abiogenesis and dialectics. Comparative mythologist Jaan Puhvel believes that the Oedipus complex of murdering the father or mother in Indo-European myths is a reflection of a reality of fierce fights, banishment, and succession in the communal group (Puhvel 24).

110

jung jaeseo

We might as well interpret the battle between Tiamat and Marduk in Enuma Elish as the conflict between the new and old powers and the overlapping between generations. In China, however, the theory of abiogenesis is predominant, and thus such acute conflicts are hidden from the scene, and what is passed down to the posterity are merely stories about how in the era of mythology the sacred emperors succeeded to the throne and accomplished the task of succession in a peaceful way. But then, of course, it should be noted that in the subsequent ages, Mencius and other scholars had put forward the theory of “expulsion and crusade,” believing that the employment of violent means cannot be avoided. Nevertheless, remarkably, when the royal power was changing hands, Chinese royalties were ready for the Shanrang succession system, through which the old emperor in name willingly abdicated and handed over the royal power to the man of integrity and competence—the would-be successor. For instance, in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian to give up the throne and then he took it over in the name of Shanrang. If violence is largely silenced in myths and histories, this is in accordance with the very concept of abiogenesis. ii. The Two Modes of Thought: Holistic vs. Analytic Pangu transformed all parts of his body into everything, whereas the giants of Indo-European myths were dissected, and then transformed into everything. It can then be inferred that for ancient Chinese, the universe is an organic whole in which every individual part connected with the whole body. In the organic whole, all parts are inter-related, inter-dependent and complementary to each other, and interact with each other. Interwoven into the wholeness of Pangu’s body, every part is endowed with the power of transformation. If Pangu’s body had been severed, the fragmented pieces would have become meaningless, and thus been deprived of the power of any transformation. We would call this a holistic mode of thought. In Indo-European myths, the creators from without kill their sacrifice—the giant, dissecting the dead body, they create everything. Dissecting the body is in keeping with destroying the organic relations between things, but also presents us with a more explicit outline of things. Only after things have been clearly presented can we know how to control them and make use of them. The power of creation is thus brought into being.

myths of giant corpse transformation

111

In this sense, the emergence of “Western” analytic mode of thought is to be found in Indo-European myths of the giant corpse transformation. In ancient society, being cut off from the organic whole indicates a separation from nature, and suggests an in-depth reflection upon human existence. It is in this sense that the giant is endowed with “heart” and “head” in the metaphorical sense. The Chinese holistic mode of thought, as it can be seen, is closely related to the perception of nature as an organic whole. Nowadays, with the emergence of ecology, this mode of thought once again attracts attention. Ecological literary theories have also highlighted Chinese traditional literary theories. The theory of style is predominant in Chinese traditional literary criticism. Here, style refers to the organic beauty brought about by a harmonious union of the author’s character, the content and the form of the work of art. This is a fine example of how the holistic mode of thought exerts influence upon the aesthetics of literature and art. “Western” literary criticism, on the contrary, has a tradition of differentiating between the three. iii. The Moral Cultivation of Confucianism vs. the Sacrament of Christianity We have briefly discussed the difference between Chinese and IndoEuropean cosmology, and how such a difference brings about the disparity in modes of thought and conception. According to Lincoln mythology should be interpreted as a societal and consciousness system. He suggested that myths of the giant corpse transformation are oral legends about some kind of ritual sacrifice. In this sense, those murdered giants, according to Marie-Louise von Franz, should be defined as “the first victim” (Von Franz 96–9), in the sense that they are the first victims sacrificed for the sake of creating the universe. Lincoln suggests that by severing the body of the sacrifice, the ancient people are actually repeating the deed of creating the world. In the process when they share the body of the sacrifice, their love of companionship is strengthened, and the hierarchy is consolidated, and they also believe that the act of eating the sacrificed body is partaking of the original ambience and power of creation (Lincoln 41–4). Reay Tannahill, renowned scholar on cannibalism, asserts that cannibalism is present in the myths of giant corpse transformation such as Tiamat’s (Tannahill 2). Tannahill also contends that in later ages cannibalism has been passed down in the refined disguises of superstition, customs, religious institution and other formations.

112

jung jaeseo

It then becomes necessary for us to explore the cosmological implications of cannibalism that springs from the myths of giant corpse transformation and to reveal how these cosmological implications are transmuted into the central concepts of Chinese and Indo-European cultures that are expected to play important roles. Lu Xun, in his Kuangren Riji (Diary of a Madman), claimed the whole history of China to be the history of cannibalism, while notably in this context, cannibalism is generally interpreted in terms of the heavy burden imposed by Chinese feudal tradition that consists in Confucianism. Of course, it is simply a cultural and symbolic gesture to define Confucianism as cannibalism. Nevertheless, we should not ignore its relation to the social reality. There are numerous examples in history about cannibalism exercised by people for the sake of displaying Confucian morals such as royalty and loyalty. For instance, Yi Ya, the cook of Qi Huangong (Duke Huan of Qi), cooked his son as a sacrifice to Qi Huangong so as to display his loyalty to him. Jiezi Tui, the retainer of Jin Wengong (Duke Wen of Jin), cut off flesh from his leg, cooked and sacrificed it to the master when Jin Wengong was thirsty and hungry. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, when he fled and ran into the mountains, a hunter killed his wife, cooked the flesh, and treated Liu Bei with it. There are also countless examples about practicing cannibalism as a sign of filial piety to parents. Deeds, such as to make a sacrifice of one’s blood to the heavily sick parents or to cut off flesh from one’s leg and sacrifice it to the parents, are even regarded as the basic prerequisite for the erection of a Gate or Arch of Filial Son in rural areas. Drinking human blood and eating human flesh become a participatory involvement in the spectacular ambience of creating the universe. In this way, the cosmological implication of cannibalism is combined with the practice of Confucian moral cultivation, which helps consolidate Confucianism. As for the “West,” it would not be difficult to identify the fact that the cosmological implication of cannibalism has been internalized and institutionalized, judging from the still extant sacrament in Christianity. The blood oozing out of and the flesh torn off Jesus Christ should not be blood and flesh in the literal sense, but are transformed into a power of elixir that has the implication of immortality. In accordance with the last words of Jesus in the last supper, through the sacrament when the bread symbolic of Jesus’ body is eaten, and the wine symbolic of his blood is drunk, people are blessed and sharing

myths of giant corpse transformation

113

in the renewal of life.9 In this sense, notably, through the symbolic Christian ceremony, the cosmological implication of cannibalism is handed down to the present time that is embedded in myths of the giant corpse transformation. IV. Conclusion Through a comparative analysis of the implications of both Chinese and Indo-European myths about the giant corpse transformation, we have examined some examples of how those mythical differences have influenced both Chinese and Indo-European cultures and contributed to their particular characteristics. Even though mythology is a construct based on a common mode of thought and implications generally shared by human beings, the myths of different ethnic groups move beyond this starting point towards displaying their own particular cultural values. The world of imagination consists in its variety and it is impossible to accept a world of imagination dominated by the imagination of certain ethnic groups of certain regions. Out of that concern and understanding my ambition is to discover and map out the particulars of East Asian mythology, and to re-define its identity.

9 For the description of “Western” cannibalism implied in the Christian sacrament, see Tannahill (77–86).

PART II

REDISCOVERING THE BEGINNING IN TEXTS

SACRED ORDER: COSMOGONIC MYTH IN THE CHU SILK MANUSCRIPT Kao Lifeng National Chengchi University Abstract The Chu silk manuscript is the earliest and most complete astronomical text from ancient China. Part I of this manuscript (abbreviated as CSM-I in the paper) is a rare pre-Qin text that makes cosmological myths available in a complete version. This paper attempts to explore mythological types and symbolic structures of the cosmogonic myth in the manuscript, from the point of view of comparative mythology and motif analysis. Cosmological myths can be divided into two phases: the first phase is the creation from chaos; the second phase is the re-creation of differentiated order by the gods. Therefore, this paper also further analyzes the relationship between cosmogonic and social orders. The cosmogonic myths in the pre-Qin manuscript still have their original and symbolic power and efficacy. They explain not only the origin of the Chu people’s universe, but also the creation of the earth, the appearance of seasons, the sun and the moon, as well as other astronomical explorations. There is a rich store of observation of astronomical phenomena and of mythical imagination. The cosmogonic myth in the manuscript has some archetypical motifs known from world cosmological myths, showing some cross-cultural similarities. However, its ordering concept of sacred numbers, and its spiritual cosmogony really give it a typical and unique Warring States period Chu style. The basis for symbolic thinking in Chu culture was not only those elements of cosmogonic myth that could lead to explicit astronomical and philosophical principle, but also the overall concept of world order. Keywords: cosmogonic myth, cosmology order, sacred number

I. Back to Genesis: Chu Silk Manuscript and Cosmogonic Myths Worldwide Inadequate records of cosmogonic myths in the extant literatures of the ancient and middle ancient times of China had always been an obstacle for scholars to depict a full view of cosmogonic myths in ancient China. However, with the increase of unearthed documents in the last decades, research on Chinese cosmogonic myths has achieved

118

kao lifeng

a major breakthrough. The most important unearthed document is the Chu silk manuscript1 at Zidanku, Changsha. The manuscript was written on a square silk cloth. Experts on ancient writing all agree that the text consists of three parts. In the middle of the manuscript there are two passages written in opposite directions. The passage on the right, which contains three paragraphs amounting to eight lines, is about the origin of the universe and the four seasons, i.e., a cosmogonic myth. The passage on the left, written inversely and made up of two paragraphs totaling thirteen lines, is about astronomy and astrology. Surrounding these two passages are pictures and twelve paragraphs of characters about good or ill luck and fitness or taboo in each month, which can be taken as the third part. Rao Zongyi named them Part I, Part II, and Part III respectively and summarized each part as follows: Part I distinguishes the four seasons, Part II records the changes of astronomical phenomena, and Part III follows Part II and identifies good or ill luck in each month (Rao 125).

Li Xueqin named the passages “The Four Seasons,” “Astronomical Phenomena,” and “Monthly Taboos” respectively according to their content (Li 37). This article adopts the names and order given by Rao Zongyi and focuses on CSM-I (“The Four Seasons” according to Li Xueqin). The outer parts of the manuscript can be divided into sixteen equal sections. The four sections occupying the four corners are painted each with a tree of green, yellow, white, and black, representing “the four directions.” The rest twelve sections are painted with the twelve gods of the twelve months, every three of which make a larger group and occupy the eastern, western, southern, and northern side respectively, representing “the four seasons.” The twelve gods are put in a circle. The cosmos, the four seasons, the heavenly bodies, the monthly taboos, the four directions, the four trees, and the twelve gods of twelve months, in the form of either characters or pictures, constitute the whole content of the manuscript. Hence the manuscript should be placed on the southern side (i.e., summer) at the top. It should be read clockwise. More specifically: read Part I in the inner layer first, turn the manuscript clockwise to the opposite side and read 1 The Chu silk manuscript is now located in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington DC, USA.

sacred order

119

Part II, and then move to the outer layer for the first month of spring, which is in parallel with the inner layer; then turn the manuscript clockwise to read the twelve monthly taboos one by one. The narrative order and content indicate that the creation of the universe is the core and is taken as the beginning of the sacred narrative. As the manuscript is turned clockwise and from the inner layer to the outer layer, the narrative moves on to astronomy and astrology and finally comes to the good and ill luck for twelve months. From astronomical phenomena to human activities such as the monthly taboos, from the order of heaven to the order of man, the narrative has an organic chronological pattern. When reading the manuscript, the reader also goes through the order of the universe, of the four seasons, and of the twelve months. As a result, Feng Shi maintains that the way the characters and pictures on the manuscript are displayed, and the order of reading “parallel the rotation of the heavens” (Feng 13). And judging from the manuscript itself, Feng’s argument is convincing. As scholars of the past generations have made great achievements in interpreting the text of CSM-I and a consensus is being reached in the academic circle, this paper, based largely on Rao Zongyi and Li Ling’s annotations,2 takes the cosmogonic myth in CSM-I as the subject, discusses it from a trans-cultural perspective of comparative mythology, investigates anew the structural mode of mythological thinking of the Chu by adopting the method of motif analysis. Cosmogonic myths are mainly about the origin of the universe, and the process of the universe from chaos to order. In The Encyclopedia of Religions edited by Mircea Eliade, cosmogonic myths from around the world can be classified into six types according to their symbolic structure: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

creation from nothing creation from chaos creation from world egg from world parents from a process of emergence through the agency of an earth diver

2 Their annotations largely agree with each other. In case of disagreement, glosses by other scholars will be taken into consideration.

120

kao lifeng

Though there are 6 types altogether, very few cosmogonic myths involve merely one type. In the cosmogonic myths worldwide, it is common that several types appear in the cosmogonic narrative of one ethnic group. Judging from the perspective of motif, the texts collected under “Cosmogony and Cosmology” (600–899) in Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (1885–1976) fall into the category of cosmogony (Thompson, Vol. Twelve, 6–68). This paper relies mainly on the six types of cosmogonic myth worldwide to analyze the cosmogonic myth in CSM-I and to explore the profound meaning it possesses. Adopting a comparative perspective, this paper analyzes and discussed the types and motifs of cosmogonic myths so as to reveal the structural types of creation and cosmogony in the Chu silk manuscript. II. Creation from the Hundun (Chaos) Most of the cosmogonic myths or creation epics worldwide place the origin of the universe or the creation of heaven and earth at the beginning. In the primeval cosmos there is no distinction between heaven and earth. It is usually depicted as undistinguishable, boundless, formless, dark, chaotic, and filled with primordial water. Chaos is one of the most important components in the cosmogony of ancient myths and one of the ways in which the cosmos was created. CSM-I begins with an introduction of Paoxi (Fuxi): his origin, where he lived, and what he did for a living. It is followed by a description of the cosmos in Fuxi’s time: as if, the cosmos was still vaguely and secretly, without display. . . . as if. . . . the wind and the rain thereunto (Rao 11).

According to Rao Zongyi’s explanation, the four clauses above “probably said that the cosmos had just been created and had not taken shape” (Rao 11). The original condition of the cosmos was in chaos, and the cosmogony of chaos is symbolized by the image of water. Adjectives such as pingping yiyi (invisible and intangible), dongdong (invisible and intangible), yaoyao mingming (dim, dusky and secretly), mangwen momin (vague and indistinct) and hongmeng hongdong (vague and indistinct) have three characteristics in common: spaciousness and intangibility; dusk and darkness; vast expanses of water, which correspond to the image of chaos before creation described in CSM-I quoted above.

sacred order

121

The images of hundun (chaos) can be compared with the chaotic cosmos described in Huainanzi: “the heaven had not taken shape yet” (chapter “Tianwen Xun”); “the heaven and the earth have not yet been divided,” “yin and yang have not yet been distinguished,” “the four seasons have not yet been differentiated,” “the ten thousand things have not yet been created” (chapter “Chuzhen Xun”); and “when the heaven and the earth have not yet been created” (chapter “Jingshen Xun”). The temporal adverb wei (not yet) in Huainanzi indicates the time when the orderly cosmos is to be created, and the verbs such as pou (divide), pan (distinguish), fen (differentiate), and sheng (create) describe the actions of the orderly cosmos being created. CSM-I presents the type of “creation from chaos” in cosmogonic myths worldwide. However, in the cultural context of pre-Qin, hundun is not an exact equivalent to “chaos”; in the Western cultural context, the Greek word chaos originally refers to a disorderly state—as opposed to order—and often contrasts with cosmos, thus having a negative meaning. Hundun in the context of Chu culture in pre-Qin refers to a primeval cosmos which made no distinction between order and disorder or yin and yang; the orderly cosmos with yin and yang and the sun and moon were to be created later. The cosmogony of hundun in CSM-I can be compared with the later Pangu myth. Though relatively complete records of the Pangu myth did not appear until Xu Zheng’s Wuyun Linianji in the Three Kingdoms period and Ren Fang’s Shu Yi Ji in the Liang dynasty, the mythological thinking and primeval cosmogony present in the Pangu myth should be dated back to pre-Qin (Chen Qiyun 53). Judging from the data, the Pangu myth is a cosmogonic myth mingling the two motifs of world egg and hundun. And Pangu’s corpse turning into the cosmos belongs to the motif of “creation from the corpse of a supernatural being.” With the celestial bodies, mountains and rivers, and the universe being created from his body, Pangu became the universal creator, is the final conclusion of mythologists. Nevertheless, the data refer to the status of the cosmos before Pangu came into being: The hundun of “The heaven and the earth were as muddled as the content of an egg,” and “The primeval cosmos began from chaos, and then differentiated into the heaven and the earth.” Compared with CSM-I, the time period where Fuxi stayed, which was also chaotic, it was shapeless and without timeframe. Pangu was born in hundun, so as Fuxi which described by CSM-I.

122

kao lifeng

In terms of mythology, the myth of Fuxi in hundun in CSM-I and the cosmogony in Huainanzi, together with the later Pangu myth, reflect the same primeval cosmos in hundun before the actions of “distinguishing,” “dividing,” “differentiating,” and “creating” occurred and the orderly cosmos of yin and yang was formed. There was no difference between order and disorder in the primeval cosmos; the order of the all-inclusive cosmos came later, along with differentiation, opposition, and harmony between yin/yang, heaven/earth, sun/moon, and heaven/human, germinated from the primeval cosmos. III. World Parents Creating the Cosmos by Procreation Among the creation myths of ethnic minorities worldwide, there are quite a few myths about the creation by first ancestors in ancient China, and Fuxi was one of such a first ancestor. Baoxi in CSM-I is the same as Fuxi. In CSM-I the Chu god Fuxi, created the cosmos as a primogenitor. He lived in a time when the chaotic cosmos described above still existed. In CSM-I the orderly cosmos was created only after Fuxi married Nühuang, a name which, according to Rao Zongyi, should read as Nüwa.3 Most comments agree that in the manuscript Baoxi married Nüwa. There is no reference to their being brother and sister, and this couple of married gods gave birth to four sons. Since then, they created the universe because they knew the law of yin and yang. The cosmos in hundun was divided ever since, with the heaven and the earth distinguished and the heavenly bodies revolving or rotating. Baoxi and Nüwa, were husband and wife, and they were both creator gods. The record of their marriage shows how the mythological narrative was involved with the systems of family and marriage. Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (127) also includes motif A.614, “Universe from parts of creator’s body.” Shuowen Jiezi defined 3 CSM-I reads: 乃娶趘子之子, 曰女. In his comments Rao Zongyi cites Zheng Xuan’s “Annotations” as a proof that “Nühuang in the ‘Chu silk manuscript’ should refer to Nüwa, according to the context involving Gonggong and Nüwa.” Yan Yi-ping reads 取 (qu) as 娶 (qu, marry) and also maintains that “Nühuang was Nüwa” (Yan 18). He Linyi reads “Nühuang” as Nüjü: “it should be identified as Nüwa” (He 78). Li Ling comments that “Scholars mostly considered Nühuang as Nüwa. However, the interpretations are not perfect at all, and I am in doubt whether Nühuang was Nüwa” (Li 2000:34). Scholars have indeed given various interpretations on Nühuang.

sacred order

123

媧 (wa) as “ancient goddess who created all the living things” (Xu 623), and 化 (hua) is taken as one of the Nüwa’s sacred achievements. Those text materials emphasize Nüwa’s functions: “created the gods,” “created all living creatures,” “transformed her image seventy times a day.” Therefore, hua means “creating,” “nourishing,” and “gestating,” and can also be interpreted as “transforming”. Li Fengmao has discussed transforming in his studied of the myth in pre-Qin, “according to the pre-Qin people’s ideology, and the Western and Eastern Han dynasties reflected in Zheng Xuan’s annotations, it was clearly shown that reproduction of the alike species is called sheng or gave birth, however, the reproduction between different species is called creating or transforming” (Li Fengmao 287–318). Therefore, various creatures were created (hua) from Nüwa’s bowels whereas the “four sons” were born by Nühuang. In the myths of pre-Qin and the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, sheng (gave birth), hua (transformed), or even bian (changed) have similar meanings, i.e., generating life and reproduction (Yang Rubin 398; Li Fengmao 294), which represent different formalities of reproduction and propagation of lives in the universe. And Nühuang could gave birth to four sons, proof of her significant reproductive function. Nüwa’s powerful fecundity is also mentioned, which is not only mentioned in the records of ancient books and text materials, but also in local beliefs which continue to represent and worship her as a reproductive goddess (Yang Lihui 144–65). In terms of world mythology motifs, the marriage of Father Heaven and Mother Earth creating the cosmos is one of the important types of creation myths. In Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, under A.610 “created by a creator”, A.610.1, (126), refers to “created by a pair of gods” (spouses or brother and sister, like Fuxi marrying Nüwa giving birth to four sons) meaning narratives about the foundation of the cosmos from hundun. The myth about the marriage of the creation gods reflects the Chu cosmogony. Pictures depicting Fuxi and Nüwa’s copulation have been found in abundance in the tomb paintings or reliefs of the Han dynasty (Fig. 21). The pictures are symbolizing that heaven and earth, yin and yang, sun and moon, gui (a compass) and ju (carpenter’s square), men and women, heaven and earth constitute the cosmogony’s binary elements. Thus Fuxi and Nüwa creating the cosmos as Father Heaven and Mother Earth reflects not only the process of the Chu’s first ancestors coming into contact with the cosmos, but also as the process in which the Chu cosmogony turned from a chaotic state into a humanized and

124

kao lifeng

orderly society. In CSM-I, the separation of heaven and earth were accomplished thanks to Fuxi and Nüwa’s marriage and reproduction. IV. Measuring the Heaven and the Earth Yu and Qi administered the territory of ancient China, measured heaven and earth, and observed the astronomy and made the calendar (CSM-I 14–6).

The two gods calculated the astronomical degrees, designed the construction of jiuzhou (the territory of ancient China) and put the chaotic earth in order. In fact Yu’s regulating the flood belongs to the Earth-Diver type. Hence Yu could also be considered as a creator whose achievement was regulating the flood, placing the earth and putting jiuzhou in order. In the third paragraph we read: “After one thousand and one hundred years, Di Qun gave birth to the sun and the moon. Since then, the stability of jiuzhou was not yet achieved and the mountains inclined.” It proves that Yu established the ping (stability) of jiuzhou, and with Wan as his assistant, Yu regulated the flood and the earth and put jiuzhou in order, accomplishing the creation of the orderly cosmos. In Earth-Diver myths the creator is often assisted by a helper to dredge and reclaim earth from primeval floods to create the land for humans to dwell on (Macculloch 191–216). In CSM-I this sacred achievement is accomplished by Yu and Wan together,4 and described as yi si du rang (constructed the territory). Having regulated the floods and the earth, they measured the land and put jiuzhou in order, as it happens in other Earth-Diver myths. In the cosmogony of pre-Qin, the heaven was domed while the earth was square, and the heaven just covered the earth, fitting together perfectly. “Bu” is the unit of the degrees of the heaven and the earth.5 CSM-I recorded that Yu and Wan “jiu tian bu shu” (measured the heaven and the earth): i.e. they calculated the astronomical statistics. In other

4 Scholars have different opinions about the explanation of Wan (Cf. Li Xueqin 1994:54), which can be found in “wei yu wei wan” in CSM-I, but it is incontrovertible that Wan and Yu were partners in the manuscript and Wan was Yu’s assistant. 5 Bu (step, measuring) in CSM-I is a unit in ancient astronomy and calendar. According to Feng Shi, “bu shu means calculating tian shu, i.e. the degrees of the equator. The ancient people divided the equator into 365 and 1/4 degrees (Feng 20).”

sacred order

125

words, the perimeter and diameter of the heaven, the territory of the land, and time and space are all subject to measurement. From the perspective of mythological motifs, Yu and Wan’s measuring the heaven and the earth belongs to the type of “creator measuring the land” (motif of “the earth diver creating the cosmos”). Usually, in myths worldwide, only the creator has the authority to measure the cosmos, whether in the form of measuring the heaven or measuring the earth, and the formation of “space” is usually emphasized in the process of creation. Therefore, Yu and Wan, to both of whom the creation myth attributes the achievements of measuring the heaven and the earth, were no doubt creator gods whose task it is to order the cosmos. Besides, Yu and Wan formulated the rule of astronomical phenomena. The mastery of tian shi (heavenly time) and tian shu (the heavenly law) reflects the particular character of the Chu people’s notion of time as based on their knowledge of astronomical observation. Thus, gradually a cosmos came into being, in which human activities existed in harmony with a heaven in which the celestial bodies ran normally and the earth fit the principle. After Yu and Wan made the ascent and descent of the celestial bodies, measured the degrees of the equator, the cosmos was set in order. However, the sun and the moon were not created yet. As a result Fuxi and Nüwa’s four sons guarded the four directions respectively and measured the astronomical degrees in turn so as to establish the order of time. These four sons, i.e. four gods, were: Qinggan, Zhusidan, Liaohuangnan and Mogan; each had his own color, namely, green, red, white, and black as their symbols respectively, matching the four seasons. They were the gods of equinoxes and solstices, in charge of the Spring Equinox, the Summer Solstice, the Autumn Equinox, and the Winter Solstice respectively. Scholars agree that these fours gods, who operated the astronomy and calendar, are the same as Xi He’s four sons, who were in charge of the four seasons. So, from hundun to the divide of heaven and earth, from space to time, the sacred creation of the orderly cosmos was now accomplished. And the creation was accomplished by Fuxi, Nüwa, Yu and Wan and the four sons together, who were all the creation gods in the silk manuscript. V. Creating the Cosmos Anew However, as time went by, the originally harmonious cosmos fell into imbalance again, leading to several gods’ creating the cosmos anew.

126

kao lifeng

Yan Emperor, Zhurong, Di Qun, and Gonggong took part in the reconstruction of the cosmos. In the manuscript, the emperor of heaven made five wooden pillars in five colors to protect and support the heavenly dome in order to maintain the cosmic order. One of the pillars stood in the central part of heaven and the others in the four poles respectively. The myth of the unbalanced and destroyed cosmos is also referred to in Qu Yuan’s Chu Ci (Songs of Chu): Where to tie the rope which fastens the starts? Where to place the North Pole and the South Pole? How to fix the eight pillars which hold heaven? Why did the eastern and the southern part of the sky sink? It is said that heaven had its edges, but where did they reach and how were they connected to each other? How many corners are there in the universe and who can count them all? (“Tianwen”)

Huainanzi provides a similar myth: In the ancient times, the four giant pillars which used to hold heaven fell down and the nine main territories ( jiuzhou) were destroyed. The sky could not cover the earth and the earth could not bear all the living creatures any more. The universe became disorder. Conflagrations spread everywhere, extinguishable; floods overflowed continuously; mankind became beasts of prey and birds of prey. Therefore, Nüwa refined the stones of five colors to mend the destroyed heaven; the goddess cut the feet of a giant turtle as pillars to hold up the sky, stored ash reeds to stop floods and killed the black dragon to restore the peace of Jizhou.

The ones who founded heaven anew and constructed the four poles were the four gods mentioned in the manuscript, different from the record in Huainanzi in which the constructor was Nüwa. In the manuscript, it was the spirits of the five wooden pillars who protected and supported the heavenly dome, while in Huainanzi the foots of the gigantic turtle were used to support the four poles and wuseshi (stones of five colors) were used to patch up the broken sky. According to Li Ling, wusemu are the five wooden pillars supporting the heavenly dome. The motif of five wooden pillars used as the props of the heavenly dome can also be found in the mythological narrative in the folk epic Genesis of the Nakhi (Li 71). The cosmogony of locating five pillars of five colors in the middle, east, south, west, and north respectively to support the heavenly dome corresponds with that in the manuscript, where the “five wooden pillars of different colors supporting the heavenly dome” are also the pillars located in the middle and the four directions of north, south,

sacred order

127

west, and east to protect and support the heavenly dome, with the symbolic function of “cosmic pillar” and “cosmic axis” in cosmogonic myths. Moreover, wusemu correspond to the patterns of plants painted in the four corners of the manuscript (Li Xueqin 1994:64): green in the northeast, red in the southeast, white in the southwest, and black in the northwest. The four wooden pillars of different colors, together with the concealed yellow wooden pillar in the middle, constitute the metaphor of orderly time and space. Thus the Chu made use of both characters and pictures to construct their orderly cosmos. Besides the five wooden pillars as the heavenly props, dian (founded) santian and dian (founded) siji by the Yan Emperor, Zhurong, and the four spirits of woods also play an important role in the reconstruction of the cosmic order. Yan Emperor and Zhurong were the gods of South China. They created the cosmos anew, as a result, Di Qun made revolve sun and the moon. In Shan Hai Jing, the fact that Xi He gave birth to ten suns and Changxi gave birth to twelve moons were both Di Qun’s wives, reflect Di Qun’s intimate relationship with the astronomical calendar. According to the manuscript, it was long after the cosmos had been created that the sun and the moon were made by Di Qun and began to run normally. In the manuscript Di Qun created the motion of sun and moon whereas, in Shan Hai Jing, Di Qun’s wives gave birth to sun and moon, and the two statements confirm each other. The Chu saw Di Qun as the creator of the orderly cosmos containing the sun and the moon. What is more, in the manuscript, Gonggong must be included as one of the creators of the cosmos: the words “Gonggong calculated the calendar and made the heavenly stems and the four seasons” reveals that Gonggong had some connection with the foundation of the cosmic order. According to Shan Hai Jing, “Zhurong was relegated to live in Jiangshui and gave birth to Gonggong” (“Hai Nei Jing.” Yuan Ke 471). Gonggong was the descendant of Yan Emperor and the son of Zhurong; Yan Emperor and Zhurong were the gods who founded santian and siji. After heavenly time had been established, Gonggong measured ten days and the four seasons to create order in the humans’ world, i.e., min shi or ren shi (time for humans): having day and night, having morning and dusk. From heavenly time to human time, the Chu cosmic order was reconstructed by Yan Emperor, Zhurong, Di Qun and Gonggong. They were not the original creators of the cosmos, but the gods who destroyed before reviving the universe, though, from

128

kao lifeng

another point of view, gods who revive the cosmos are the constructors of the damaged cosmos. VI. The Creation of the Cosmos and the Numerical Order Myths are the ancient people’s explanations of nature and one of their ways to cognize the cosmos abstractly. Moreover, they also reflect the process in which human thinking goes from disorder to order. The cosmogonic myth in CSM-I went from hundun to a divided cosmos meaning an orderly cosmos. The emphasis upon “order” in mythological thoughts is also expressed by means of “numbers.” The number has its unique nature and power. In Gu Huan’s words: “Though the gods are not numbers, their intentions were shown in numbers” (Zhou Yi Zheng Yi 20b), which means that numbers are the way providence works. The principle of numbers was derived from the round and the square, which symbolize heaven and earth respectively. And the origin of numbers is related to the event that Yu, the god of creation, invented the Pythagorean Theorem and governed the world. The achievement of measuring the earth was attributed to Yu. In the manuscript, shu (numeral, number) in Yu and Wan’s jiu tian bu shu means the measurement of the round heaven and the square earth, in order to achieve cosmic order. In the manuscript, numerals are related to cosmic order and have particular significance in cosmogonic myths. As one of the symbolic signs of the cosmic creation, numbers have in essence a structure corresponding with pre-Qin’s philosophical creation myths in a different form. According to Ye Shuxian’s research on myths about the Yellow Emperor, the reason for the Yellow Emperor’s having four faces is that he established the four directions and the four seasons. Ye Shuxian then proceeds to compare the creation types with the abstract numerical order: one → two → four Yellow Emperor → yin and yang → taiji → liangyi → sixiang

the four faces

Ye Shuxian holds the idea that si (four) as a sacred number in the old saying “Huangdi Simian (the Yellow Emperor had four faces)” is related to the emergence of human’s sense of space and four directions (Ye 1992:219, 1998:60–1).

sacred order

129

However, the sanctity of si in CSM-I is more obvious than in the myth about the Yellow Emperor’s having four faces. The numeral structure in the myth about Fuxi being born from hundun, marrying Nüwa, and giving birth to four sons is another example: hundun → Fuxi marrying Nüwa → giving birth to four sons one → two → four

The above examples reveal that the abstract numerical order has a correspondent structure with the cosmic origin and the gods’ birth. The emergence and change of numerals, which cover abstract domains such as the creation of the cosmos, the order of time, and the establishment of space, are often in a crucial position in CSM-I. For example, si shen (four gods), jiu zhou (nine provinces, i.e. the territory of ancient China), san tian (three heavens), si ji (four poles) and jiu tian (nine heavens) all have numerals in them. Among all the numerals appearing in CSM-I, si (four) is the most frequent one. Si is followed either by a character denoting a god or a spirit (si zi, si shen) or by a character denoting space (si ji, si hui ), or by a character denoting time (si shi). Si used in the cosmogonic myths in CSM-I, is a sacred number expressing conceptions like gods, time, and space. Number, then, is the key to the transformation of the cosmic order of time and space. In the manuscript, the establishment of the abstract concept of “shu” reflects Chu’s manner of putting their cosmos in order and the process of the cosmos’ becoming orderly. Only when the newly created cosmos was sanctified and turned to be orderly, could it get rid of barbarity and become a world for human beings to live in (Fig. 22). VII. Creating Order and Returning to Order The pattern of the two phases of the creation in CSM-I is: hundun → creation → destruction → reconstruction, and this pattern is continuous and repetitive. In CSM-I, the creation type of the cosmos is an eternal circulation of construction and reconstruction. According to the archeological report, the manuscript was laid in eight folds in a zhusi, a bamboo container used to store clothes and books etc. in ancient China, when it was unearthed (Li Ling 1985:1– 11). The silk manuscript may have something to do with the funeral system and ceremony. The manuscript narrated cosmic myths at its very beginning; hence the cosmogony and the idea of life and death in

130

kao lifeng

Figure 22. Chu Silk Manuscript, ink and color on silk, Warring States period, Changsha, Hunan province, currently exhibited in the Freer and Sackler Galleries, U.S.

Chu’s funeral system have some links between them. In the beginning of CSM-I it said, “when we look back upon Huang Xiong and Baoxi’s deeds . . .,” with the phrase yue gu (tell the story about the past) as introduction. This usage can also be found in documents and inscriptions on ancient bronze pre-Qin objects; for instance, in Shang Shu, “when we look back upon Yao Emperor’s deeds . . .” (“Yao Dian”) and “when we look back upon Gao Tao’ deeds . . .” (“Gao Tao Mo”) Li Xueqin points out that the phrase yue gu “is commonly used when ancient people told about the past.” And in Chu Songs, there is also a similar phrase, yue sui gu zhi chu (in the very beginning of the ancient time). CSM-I employs the phrase yue gu to commence Chu’s history and their cosmogonic myths, indicating that they were going to be told. In terms of religious ceremony, cosmogonic myths and the structural patterns of time and space were often illustrated in combination with ceremonies and rituals.

sacred order

131

Myths are narrated and remembered generation by generation. The chanting and narrating of cosmogonic myths are closely related to a people’s origin, growth, and migration, and to people’s death and resurrection. The phrase yue gu was used when the Chu narrator traced the history of the creation of the cosmos or of the Chu pedigree; moreover, yue gu manifested that the cosmogonic myth was narrated in a retrospective way. The Chu cosmic order and the order of death and resurrection are recorded in language, either spoken or written, and reflect a kind of shamanistic sympathetic cosmogony. In CSM-I, the narrative commenced by yue gu, is followed by a series of gods’ names, and by the history of the cosmic creation. Thus the manuscript, a mortuary object containing characters and pictures which symbolized the orderly cosmos, may represent the archetypal meaning of leading the soul of the deceased back to the original life style, to the sacred time and space when the cosmos was just created. CSM-I is closely related to ancient astronomy and funeral systems. According to the research of archaeologists, both were closely related in ancient China, and astronomical knowledge was usually passed down in the form of cosmogonic myths. CSM-I illustrates the history of creation and the order of the four seasons and concentrates on chang (the common law) of the cosmos, while Part II of the manuscript illustrates the abnormal astronomical phenomena and concentrates on bian (the variable) of the cosmos; both chang and bian emphasize the heavenly order. Part III of the manuscript tells about the proprieties and taboos of occurrences in human lives. So the manuscript covers the whole range from heavenly order to human order. And the order of heaven, the order of earth, and the order of human beings constitute organic correspondences in the orderly cosmos. In the circulation of birth and resurrection, mastering this cosmic law is equivalent to mastering the law of human lives (Fig. 23). VIII. Orderly Cosmos and Life The “creation” is not accomplished in one move. Instead, it is a recurrent event. The cosmogonic myths in CSM-I were comprised of multiple creation types, periodical and continuous. The creation gods played different roles and bore different cultural symbols in different creation steps.

132

kao lifeng

Viewing from its beginning to its end, the cosmic creation went in this order: Fuxi → Nüwa → Yu and Wan → the four gods → Yan Emperor → Zhurong → Di Qun → Gonggong

In the silk manuscript, there are twelve gods participating in the creation, who represent different orders of time and space in the cosmos. In CSM-I, there are more numbers related to time than to space, such as si shi (the four seasons), qian you bai sui (one thousand and one hundred years), san tian (three heavens), jiu tian (nine heavens), and shi ri (ten heavenly stems), symbolizing the establishment of order from “heavenly time” to “human’s time.” And the twelve gods have close relationships with astronomy and calendar. In the creation myths of the manuscript, the process from origin to order is revealed by the appearance of a series of gods, and the gods’ names in CSM-I as memorial signs of Chu sacred history, representing different phases and different numerical orders in the cosmic creation. The cosmogonic myths in the manuscript illustrate the ancient Chu cosmogony and history, and confirm the early origin of a developed mythological system in the cosmogonic myths of pre-Qin and Han dynasties. The myths also enrich the fragmentary records of cosmogonic myths in ancient and middle ancient China with their complete structural diagram of the creation. IX. Conclusion In summary, we come to the following four points: 1) Using the mythological types and motifs of comparative mythology, and earlier research, this paper discovered that in CSM-I the cosmogonic myths include three creation types, i.e., “creation from hundun,” “creation by the reproduction of a pair of married gods,” and “Earth-Diver creation.” Researches on the creation myths in CSM-I have largely focused on two creation types, namely, “creation from hundun” and “creation by the reproduction of a pair of married gods.” However, this paper has gone further to elucidate that besides its astronomical significance, jiu tian bu shu (measure the heaven and the earth) can also be classified as “the creator measuring the land” under “creation by an earth-diver.”

sacred order

133

This discovery reveals the deep meaning of the plural structure of cosmogonic myths as illustrated by CSM-I. The structure of the text is layered and orderly, just like the process of creation. The process of creation in CSM-I can be divided into two phases: “before creation—the cosmos just created” and “the cosmos recreated—after the creation.” Creation in different phases centers on the gods who play the main roles in the narrative. Most of these gods are members of the same clan. 2) As for the concept of order, this paper elucidates that in the manuscript the created and re-created cosmic structure, and the numerical order in combination with the characters and pictures reflect the same cosmic diagram and thoughts on order. 3) Comparing the funeral ceremonies and cosmogonic myths of other nations, this paper highlights the sacred narrative of birth and rebirth in the manuscript cosmogonic myths. 4) In terms of cosmogony, Fuxi and Nüwa in CSM-I are not only the founder of the cosmos but also creator and nurturer of yin and yang and the ten thousand things in the world. And the cosmogony which maintained that the cosmos was created by the reproduction of a pair of gods, was simpler than that in the documents of pre-Qin and the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, which stated that the cosmos was developed from qi. The various gods discussed are creator gods, gods of order, and also the ancestral gods of humans in ancient narratives. Instead of concentrating on the restoration and reconstruction of myths this paper focused on mythological types and structures and the elucidation of the underlying thoughts on order. CSM-I reveals and explains the origin of the Chu cosmos and the way the earth was formed; moreover, the emergence of the four seasons and the movement of the sun and the moon manifest the Chu people’s fertile mythological imagination and rich knowledge about astronomy. The cosmogonic myths in CSM-I possess major motifs commonly shared by creation myths worldwide; however, Chu people’s ideas about “sacred numbers” and a cosmogony in which the world was created by gods of the same clan make the silk manuscript retain distinctive Chu features, typical of the Warring States Period. Thus, the above cosmogonic analysis of types of myth in CSM-I and the exploration of its profound meanings may have some value for mythological studies in China and contribute to the elucidation of the structural mode of Chinese mythological thoughts.

THE WHOLENESS OF CHAOS: LAOZI ON THE BEGINNING Kristofer Schipper Abstract In Daoism the origin of the universe is seen as a spontaneous creation without the intervention of a supreme divine being. This spontaneous creational process is however linked to the myths concerning the birth of Laozi as personifications of the Dao. In these myths many ancient elements of oral culture are preserved. Some are still orally transmitted in China today. As the creational process is seen as a form of gestation and birth, it can ultimately be considered in relationship to the union of man and woman, of complementary opposites, something that is equally fundamental in the Five Classics.1 Keywords: Laozi, yin and yang, primordial chaos, Pangu, transformation, gestation, womb, birth, mother, liturgy, Zhuangzi, Dao De Jing, Five Classics

In the Outer Chapters of the Zhuangzi (3rd century BCE), we find the following story: Kongzi (Kong Zi) went to visit Laodan (the Long-Eared Old Man, another name for Laozi). Having just bathed and let down his hair to dry, Laodan was sitting so perfectly still that he no longer seemed human. Kongzi at first stood back and waited, but after a while introduced himself, saying: “Dare I believe my eyes? A moment ago, master, your body seemed dried out as dead wood, as if you had abandoned all things and left the world of men for solitude!” Laodan replied: “I let my heart revel [in the realm] where [all] things have their beginning.” “How is that?” asked Kongzi. Laozi said: “One may harrow one’s mind, yet remain unable to understand; open one’s mouth, yet be unable to express what [this experience] means. [. . .] We shall never know where life comes from or where death leads; yet I will try to tell you something about it. The utmost yin is

1 The present article is a reworked version of the chapter “Lao Tzu, the Body of the Tao” in my book The Taoist Body. Los Angeles, The University of California Press, 1993.

136

kristofer schipper stern and cold; the utmost yang is flaming hot. The stern and cold proceed from Heaven, the flaming hot proceeds from the Earth. The two intermingle and interpenetrate, and from their union all things are born. Their action alternates through the four seasons, through night and day. [. . .] Life has its place of germination; death has its place of return. This opposition of the beginning and the end creates an endless circle whose end no one knows. And yet, if not at this here, then where should one look for “the Ancestor?”2

In this speech of Laozi to Kongzi, the references to “the realm where all things have their beginning” and to “the Ancestor” are ways of indicating the hidden and unknowable dimensions of the rhythmical rite of the universe.3 Zhuangzi shows us that Laozi was able to reach these fundamental dimensions in his own body. The same notion is explained in an ancient inscription, which says: “Laozi sometimes is one with the energy (qi ) of primordial chaos, sometimes separates himself from it; he is coeternal with the Three Luminaries (i.e.: sun, moon, and Pole star).”4 Yet another ancient text tells us that when the adepts meditated on the “body of Laozi,” they conceived this cosmic body in the following manner: He exists at the origin of the Great Beginning, he walks about in the beginning of the Great Simplicity, he floats in the Obscure Emptiness, comes and goes through the outer door of Dark Tenuity, contemplates chaos before its differentiation, the transparent (heaven) and the opaque (earth) before their separation.—Alone, without companion, he wonders in the times of yore, before there were Heaven and Earth. He comes out of his hidden state and returns there to dwell. Having vanished, he is the Primordial; being manifest, he becomes human. Elusive! Through the transformation of Heaven and Earth and of his spirit, he is made flesh in the bosom of Mother Li.5

2 Zhuangzi, ch. 21:711–712. In classical literature, Laozi is often referred to as Laodan; historians like Sima Qian treat Lao as a patronymic and consider Dan to be a first name. But here Dan certainly has an allegorical meaning: to have long ears is a sign of longevity. 3 Concerning “the ancestor,” see chapter “Lao Tzu, the Body of the Tao” in my book The Taoist Body. 4 Laozi Ming (an inscription in honor of Laozi) by Bian Chao and dated AD 165. See Seidel 1969:123. 5 Laozi bianhua jing [ Book of the Transformation of Laozi ], probably AD 165. See Seidel, the complete version of this text has been lost. An important fragmant was found in the famous medieval manuscript library in Dunhuang. See Seidel 1969:61, and Yunji qiqian, ch. 102, f. 2b. On Mother Li, Laozi’s mother, see section “birth” in chapter “Lao Tzu, the Body of the Tao” in my book The Taoist Body.

the wholeness of chaos: laozi on the beginning

137

In the mystical view of Zhuangzi, as in the theology of ancient Daoism, the cosmic body of the Old Master is the image and the model of the entire universe. These very ideas can already be found in an ancient myth, a few fragments of which have been preserved: Laozi transformed his body. His left eye became the sun; his right eye, the moon; his head became mount Kunlun; his beard, the planets and constellations; his bones, dragons; his flesh, four-footed creatures; his intestines, snakes; his stomach, the sea; his fingers, the Five Peaks; his hair, trees and grasses; his heart, the Flowery Dais; as to his two kidneys, they were united and became one, the Real and True Father and Mother.6

This same myth is also known in another version. Here the subject is not Laozi, but a primeval being called Pangu: Long ago, when Pangu died, his head became the Four Sacred Peaks; his eyes, the sun and the moon; his fluids, rivers and seas; his hair and beard, the grasses and trees. At the times of the Qin and Han, it was commonly said among the people that Pangu’s head was the Sacred Peak of the East (the Taishan), his belly that of the Center, his left arm that of the South, his right that of the North, his feet that of the West. Scholars of yore maintained that Pangu’s tears formed the rivers, that his qi was the wind and his voice the thunder, whereas the pupils of his eyes became the lightning (Shuyiji, quoted in Maspero 1981:340).

I have quoted the version of the Pangu myth together with that of Laozi, not in order to demonstrate its universal nature, but to show that, according to these tales, the world was created as the result of the death of the First Being. In other words, the differentiation of energies out of the original chaos and the birth of our universe are somehow tied to death. This concept is also illustrated by another mythological text preserved in the oldest part of the Zhuangzi: The ruler of the Southern Sea was called “Rash,” the Ruler of the Northern Sea was called “Crash” (allegorical figures of yin and yang), and the Ruler of the Center was called “Chaos.” Rash and Crash at times met on the lands of Chaos, and on these occasions Chaos treated them very well indeed. So Rash and Crash got together to decide how to repay Chaos’s goodness. They said to each other: “All humans have seven holes with which to see, hear, eat, and breathe; he alone has none of them! Let’s try to pierce him some!”

6 Xiaodaolun, quoted in Maspero 1981:340. Note the similarities between this myth and the symbolic vision of the body, especially regarding the two kidneys.

138

kristofer schipper They pierced one hole a day, and on the seventh day Chaos died (Zhuangzi, ch. 7:309).

In other words, when yin and yang procreate, the result is the death of the Wholeness of Chaos and the birth of man. What was in a diffused state becomes something distinct. With the bursting of the primordial matrix, the energies are divided and thus we perceive things as separate. Conversely, when the fragmented perception is abolished and is unified, one becomes like dead wood and returns to the beginning of things. About this beginning, the Zhuangzi says: “That which causes things to be things is [ in itself ] not a thing” (chap. 11). This alteration between creation and chaos, between life and death, is only a rhythmic beat which rouses its own echoes, just phases in the work of the Dao. The Zhuangzi tells of a sage of ancient times, who in regard to this exclaimed: Oh my Master (the Dao)! My Master! You who harmonize the Ten Thousand Things without the idea of Rightness, Who benefits the Ten Thousand Generations without moral principle! Older than the most remote antiquity and yet not ‘aged’; Embracing Heaven and Earth, fashioning endless shapes, and yet not ‘skilled,’ This is the joy of nature and thus it is said that: ‘for those who know the joy of nature, life is spontaneous action and dead the transformation of things.’ (Zhuangzi, chap. 13:462)

The statement that “death is the transformation of things” explains not only death; it also helps to define the passage between different states of consciousness, such as the two states in which Kongzi found Laozi: first, in meditation, “dried out as dead wood” and then, awakened, as a reasoning individual. The well-known anecdote of Zhuangzi dreaming he is a butterfly actually explains the same thing: Once upon a time I dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering about most happy and content as a butterfly would and unaware that it was me. Suddenly it woke up, surprised to find it was me. Who knows now if it is I who dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who dreams it is me? However, between the butterfly, and me there is necessarily a distinction, and it is this kind of separation that is called “the transformation of things.”

This concept of change (hua or bianhua; also: mutation, transformation, and flux), is one of the very basic ideas of Daoism, and one of the keys for understanding it. It finds its natural expression in the ways Laozi’s

the wholeness of chaos: laozi on the beginning

139

body is envisaged and also constitutes the principal theme of the myths and legends concerning Laozi. This is illustrated by the fact that books concerning the story of the Old Master bear titles such as “Book of Laozi’s Transformation,” “Book of the Endless Mutations of Laojun,” and so forth.7 In one of the oldest of these texts, the Old Master says: “I transform my body, passing through death to live again. [. . .] I die and am reborn, and each time I have a [new] body.”8 These continuous mutations, this joyful changing according to time’s cycle and the nature of things, constitutes in fact, according to the Daoist texts, a subtle mingling of alternating phases which are not easily understood. When Laozi died, his body was transformed into a landscape, the same landscape we find within ourselves as the domain of the infant, source of life as well as fruit of the union of the elements that make up this inner landscape. The child is again Laozi himself, the immortal child in his mother’s breast. According to an ancient hagiography, before he was born, Laozi went through nine transformations, following a nine-phase cycle. The number nine corresponds to the accomplishment of cosmic creation: Laozi is the body of the Dao. There is an inner as well as an outer body, the difference being the result of different circumstances to which the body is responding. The names we can give to the inner body are: “Ultimate One, True One, Mysterious One, August One, Primordial One, Ancestral One, Most High One, Natural One, Right One.” . . . While having different names, these nine concepts have a common origin and refer to the same mysterious driving force. Therefore they are all called “One.”9

Another ancient text gives the following nine names: Primordial yang, Ancestral yang, Light of the ancestor, Light of the child, Sign of the child, Growth of me child, Beginning of the child,

7 Laozi bianhua jing (Seidel, 1969:61) and Laozi bianhua wuji jing, a work of the third century AD preserved in the Daozang. 8 Laozi bianhua jing. See Seidel 1969:69. See also the “Hsiang’er” commentary on the Dao De Jing in Rao 1956:11. 9 Yin Wenchao (biographical author from the seventh century), quoted in Hunyuan shengji. Ch. 2, f. 37a.–37b.

140

kristofer schipper Birth of the child, Sign of the ancestor.10

The ancient philosophers of China also discuss the phases of the embryo’s transformation: The One gives birth to the Two, the Two to the Three, the Three to the Ten Thousand Beings. The beings turn their back on yin and embrace yang, and it is this harmony of energies ( qi ) that realizes their union.

It was this very famous passage of the Dao De Jing (chap. 42) that was explained in the second century BC by the prince of Huainan in the following way: At the first (lunar) month, it is like an ointment; At the second, like a tendon; By the third, the embryo is formed; By the fourth, it develops flesh; The fifth, muscles; The sixth, bones; By the seventh, the child is fully formed; In the eighth, it moves; The ninth, it turns upside-down; And in the tenth, it is born.11

Gestation and birth is thus the paradigm for the creation of the universe. In nine stages the passage from the invisible to the visible, between the undifferentiated and the differentiated “things,” from non-being to being is accomplished. The non-being of the incipit cannot be expressed in ordinary words, only through repeated sounds without any other meaning than that of confusion and turmoil. In the Dao De Jing (chap. 21), the words used to describe the process of creation from chaos to distinct beings are: “Huang! Hu! (Vague! Ungraspable!) Huang! Hu! In the center, there

10 This is my personal interpretation of the nine names of Laozi as they are given in Laozi bianhua jing (see Seidel, 1969, p. 65) and, with some variations, elsewhere as well. In general these names are not translated. The word bo, which today means paternal uncle and which I translate here as “ancestor,” once had the meaning of “leader” or “elder.” bo is thus the opposite of zi (child) in the same way that “senior” is opposed to “junior.” But, I must admit that my translation is hypothetical. For similar lists of the names of Laozi used in mediation, see Kaltenmark 1974:151–169. 11 Huainanzi, chap. 7. Liu An, Prince of Huainan (179–122 BC) assembled at his court a great number of sages and asked them to write a philosophical summa of Daoism. The texts that survive from this collective enterprise have been collected into a book under the name of the prince. See Fung. 1952, vol. I:395.

the wholeness of chaos: laozi on the beginning

141

are things. Miao! Ming! (Profound! Mysterious!) In the center, there are essences, most true essences.” In the legends of the birth of Laozi, as given in the above-mentioned Book of the Transformation of Laozi, the gestation of the Old Child is described with the help of similar terms: “Huang! Hu! By the transformation of Heaven and Earth he is incarnated in the womb of Mother Li” (Laozi bianhua jing, Seidel 1969:61). Cosmogony, the creation of the universe, and the pregnancy of Laozi’s mother do here coincide. Among the many other descriptions of Laozi’s birth, here is one that is both concise and typical: The Most High Old Lord (Laozi) is the Sovereign Ancestor of the Origin of the Chaos. He was born of the Without-beginning; he emerged from the With-out-cause; he existed before the Ten Thousand Ways; he is the ancestor of the Original Energy (qi). Without light, without image, without sound, without noise, without ancestors, without descendants. Yu! Yu! (Dark! Dark!); Ming! Ming! (Mystery! Mystery!) In the center, there are essences, most true essences. So vast is he that there is nothing outside of him; hence his name of Great Dao. The Dao is the Ultimate Sovereign of that which is thus-by-itself [the spontaneous]. At the center of the dark Non-being was created the Empty Cavern. This Empty Cavern is the True One. It is neither Non-being nor Being. From this one energy (qi ) proceed the Three Energies.12

The Three Energies, which appear here at the very end of the process of mutation, are the same as those that play such an important role in the ritual of the Great Master. As we have seen, he invokes these when he consecrates the incense burner, saying: “Old Lord Most High of the Three Energies, Mysterious, Original, and Primordial, of the supreme Three Heavens [. . .]” While pronouncing these words, he must visualize the three qi as three colors: blue-black, yellow, and white. These three energies form three spheres, three stages, and also three hypostases of the Dao as purely abstract and spiritual aspects. Together they express the essence of the Daoist pantheon since they correspond to the Three Pure Ones (sanqing), also called the Three Heavenly Worthies (the Chinese word tian, “heavenly” here has the connotation of “natural.” But again, this triad merely represents three major aspects of the Dao, given that the Dao, which can never be

12 Hunyuan huangdi shengji, in Yunji qiqian (“no light no image . . .”) incorporated into this text. The name of Old Lord (Laojun) corresponds to the original aspect of the Old Master, “before” his birth into this world.

142

kristofer schipper

wholly expressed or defined, has innumerable aspects. In fact, each idea is a “Heavenly Worthy,” a god. This inner, and hence “pure,” pantheon is therefore always defined as groups and categories of different numbers, each time as a different totality: first 3, then 7, 9, 12, 24, 120, 1,200, 3,600, and so forth. Here we also see the great difference between these gods and the gods worshipped by the people. The latter are essentially orphan spirits, first propitiated and then made powerful through the worship they receive. The “pure” pantheon of the Dao, on the contrary, is made up of abstract gods whose common characteristic is that they have no power whatsoever. The Heavenly Worthies are not the gods of this world; they come forth from the chaotic confusion of Anterior Heaven (xiantian), that is, from the times of origin and of the matrix. In Daoist liturgy, properly speaking, we encounter solely these abstract hypostases, which appear in groups and function as rhythmic, structuring elements of ritual time. The “popular” gods are excluded from this inner universe. In the meditation of the Long-Eared Old Man as described in the Zhuangzi (see above) as well as in the earlier mentioned visualization of the Heavenly Worthies as three different colors, we encounter the notion of ephemeral, cyclical concentrations of qi, a form of spontaneous conception of “being,” of “me” and of “the old child.”13 As described by the earlier quoted Book of the Transformation of Laozi: I was born before things received their form, I contemplated the chaos before its differentiation, the transparent and opaque before their separation. . . . As I exhale I become [diffuse] qi as I inhale, a human being (Laozi bianhua jing; see Seidel 1969:61).

The phases of this transformation are so many knots or markers in the nine stages of the embryo, as well as other time cycles along the endless thread of time. They mean to give a form to its eternal progress so as to offset this eternal becoming from its opposite, the return, that is: the dizzying plunge back into the chaos of the matrix, the womb of the mother. A person’s conception is considered his birth, a point confirmed by the Chinese custom of determining a child’s age not from the date of 13 Compare the images related to Embryonic Breathing in the section titled “The Return” in chapter 8 of in my book The Taoist Body.

the wholeness of chaos: laozi on the beginning

143

parturition, but from the beginning of gestation. Pregnancy lasts ten moons, and these ten lunar periods are considered equivalent to one complete year cycle. Hence, a child at birth is said to be one year old. Inner life in the womb is taken to be proportionately equivalent to the subsequent outside existence. The gestational cycle is, moreover, considered to be a perfect model of time; its length determines a person’s life span in the world. The normal gestation is of course ten lunar periods, but exceptional beings have a longer inner existence. Divine heroes are carried for twelve months, great sages for eighteen. Laozi, the Old Child, had an inner life (in his mother’s womb) that lasted nine times nine, that is eighty-one years. In other words, his life span was equal to that of the Nine Heavens! As an inner being in the womb, Laozi is the body of the Dao and, in his oneness, he alone represents the pantheon of the Dao in its totality. The “nine inner names” mentioned above, as well as the nine stages of pregnancy, are but one way of perceiving this theophany. They are comparable not only to the Three Pure Ones and other Heavenly Worthies but also to the twenty-four energy nodes of the calendar, the 1,200 functionaries, the gods of the Great Master’s register, and so forth. The Daoist pantheon is derived entirely from the True One, from the immortal embryo in its inner land, because, in Daoism, the inner precedes and determines the outer. This axiom, repeated many times in the Zhuangzi, is illustrated in the myth of Laozi’s birth. In Daoist books there are many versions of the story of his early life, but they always end with the same myth of the Mother, Mother Plum Tree (Mother Li), Jade Maiden of the Obscure Mystery.14 The narrative of the Old Child’s birth is both scandalous story and initiatory tale. It belongs to oral tradition, and masters today still tell it to their disciples. Here is one version that I have been able to record: There was once an old woman who belonged to the clan of the Pure Ones. The Old Lord15 did not have a name. One might say that originally he was an incarnation. He was born in (the womb of ) a chaste

Li, Laozi’s family name, means “plum tree.” Jade Maiden of Obscure Mystery or Obscure Brightness is the theological name of Laozi’s mother in Daoist text from the fourth century on. 15 Laojun, that is, Laozi before conception. 14

144

kristofer schipper woman.16 She had no husband, but had become pregnant after absorbing a drop of “sweet dew.”17 Her belly grew bigger, that is to say, during the day she was pregnant; but she was not pregnant at night, for then the Old Lord would leave her body to go study the Dao, and so he was not there. This Old Lord was not just anyone! Having taken the form of an embryo in his mother’s belly, he wished to delay his birth to the day when there would be neither birth nor death in the world. Thus he waited for more than eighty years, unable to appear. The God of the Underworld and the God of Heaven spoke to each other, saying: “This here is the incarnation of the Constellation of Destiny.18 How can we not let him be born? Let us choose a day when we allow neither birth nor death so that he may be born on that day.” It was the fifteenth day of the second moon. On that day the Old Lord was born. He came into the world through his mother’s armpit.19 At that very moment, oh! his hair and beard were all white. Since he knew how to walk, he set off right away. His mother said to him: “You! My old child! Why are you leaving without letting me have a look at you? Why are you going off as soon as you’re born? I won’t even know how to recognize you later!” So he turned around abruptly, his beard and hair flying. . . . Seeing him, his mother took a fright. She fainted and died on the spot. He (the Old Lord) continued to walk straight ahead, without stopping until he reached a plum orchard. There he leaned against a tree and said to himself: “I know neither my name nor my family. I am leaning against this plum tree [Chinese: It]. Why not take Li as my family name? And what should be my personal name? My mother called me ‘old child!’ So, my name will be ‘Laozi’ [Chinese for “old child”].” “Old Lord” is a tide of respect. In fact, his name is “Old Child.”20

This myth, preserved in the purest of oral traditions, is equally attested in literary sources since antiquity, though rarely in any explicit way.

16 The storyteller’s little phrase “one might say that” introduces a simplification of the myth for the audience. In reality, it is not an incantation but a transformation. 17 Ganlu, “sweet dew,” is the Chinese name for ambrosia. Compare Dao De Jing ch. 32: “When Heaven and Earth unite, sweet dew will fall.” 18 The Northern Bushel, that is, the Big Dipper and the Pole Star, the One. See the beginning of chapter 5 of my book The Taoist Body. 19 This detail in the story recalls the birth of Buddha who was born from his mother’s right side. But ancient China was already familiar with this mythological theme regarding the birth of heroes. 20 “Laozi,” here the storyteller repeated the name twice, the first time with a classical pronunciation, the second time, with the vernacular pronunciation, to emphasize the meaning of child. This tale was recorded in August of 1979, at Taibei. The storyteller, a Daoist Master whose family came from the Anqi district (in south Fujian province), was then twenty-four years old.

the wholeness of chaos: laozi on the beginning

145

For example, the theme of Laozi leaving his mother’s body to go “study the Dao” may be compared to Zhuangzi’s tale of the “LongEared Old Man” who leaves his body behind to go and “revel [in the realm] where [all] things had their beginning.” It should be noted, in this context, the Zhuangzi has a tendency to present mythical themes in anecdotal settings. By contrast, historiography, even Confucian historiography with its tendency to rationalize myth, has preserved many more exact elements of sacred thought. Take, for example, the biography of Laozi in Shi Ji (Historical Records) of Sima Qian (145–86 BC). This first great historiographer of China attempted to rewrite the sacred story of the Old Master and reduce it to a historical source so as to make Laozi appear as an ordinary philosopher. His “biography” reveals nonetheless that Laozi’s family name was Li, “plum tree,” a detail that comes straight from mythology. Indeed, no clan of this name ever existed in ancient China21 and the very appearance of the family name Li late in antiquity is apparently linked to the story of Laozi and early Daoism, as the Old Master was the first to have borne this name. It would be possible to see traces here to a cult of the plum tree, and indications of such a religious custom do exist.22 But this, in my opinion, is not what matters most. If Laozi is called Li, and if he is the first to carry that name, the implication is that he had no father. The Shiji does not dwell on the circumstances of his conception, but makes no secret of the fact that Laozi had no ancestors. After reviewing various aspects of the legends related to the Old Master, Sima Qian concludes by saying: “Li-the-Ear [ i.e., “the Long-Eared Old Man”] is the spontaneous transformation by Non-Action, spontaneous rectitude by purity and silence (Shiji, ch. 63).” Laozi has no father, and mythology has him adopting the identity of the plum tree, or taking his mother’s family name Li, “Mother Li.” Commentators discussing this mythical theme often quote Zhuangzi as saying that “in the oldest times, people did not know their father,

21 The name Li, meaning “plum tree,” used for Laozi, is found for the first time in Sima Qian ch. 63. As the modem scholar Gao Heng remarks (Gao 1933:351–353), this family name did not exist before the end of the period of the Warring States. 22 See, for example, the tale of the plum tree and the hollow mulberry tree in Soushenji, ch. l. Kongzi was said to have been born from a hollow mulberry tree. See Granet 1926:428f.

146

kristofer schipper

only their mother.”23 There is no need to take this statement out of its mythical context in order to prove that ancient China was a matriarchy and thus conforms to the theories of Engels. Zhuangzi only wants to say that in the beginning there was no father creator, only a mother to accomplish within herself the Work of the Dao. Here is what the Daoists themselves have to say: In the matrix, he [ Laozi] sang sacred texts for eighty-one years. Thereupon he was born out of the left armpit of mother Li. At birth he had white hair, which is why he was called the “old child.” . . . As to his reincarnation in the womb of mother Li, one must know that it was he himself who transformed his body from nothingness into the shape of mother Li, so as to return into his own matrix; there was never any other mother Li. People today are not aware of this fact and say that the Old Lord came [from the outside] to place himself in mother Li’s womb. In fact, it was not at all like that!24

Even if we did not have this text to tell us explicitly that Laozi was his own mother, the consubstantiality between the two would have been clear from the description of the creation of the cosmos presented in several ancient documents. According to these scriptures it was the above-mentioned Three Energies that originally gathered together to produce the Old Lord. He then transformed himself into the Jade Maiden of Obscure Mystery (that is: the Mother); the Three Energies joined spontaneously within her to form a pearl. She then reabsorbed this pearl and this was the conception of Laozi (Hunyuan huangdi shengji, ch. 2a). Laozi is his own mother, but this point requires further commentary. We see that the body of the Dao goes through successive and alternating transformations. First, there are repeated mutations between concentration and dispersion. Next, a form, a physical body, is shaped at each stage. Between these distinct bodies: Old Lord, Mother, Old Child, there exists a continuity that also constitutes a transubstantiality. This is conveyed in this myth by the fact that, when Laozi is born, the Mother dies. In the oral tradition, the mother’s death is brought on by the sight of her offspring. In the literary sources of Daoism, her death is described in more pleasant terms: heavenly spirits come to meet 23 Hunyuan Shengji, ch. I, f. 4a., quoting a Houtu Daixing Ji that is lost today. Chapter 29 of the Zhuangzi (p. 995) says: “People of antiquity knew their mother, but not their father.” 24 Santian Neijie Jing, ch. I, ff. 3b–4a. This work probably dates from the fifth century. Following his birth, says the text, Laozi created the world and men.

the wholeness of chaos: laozi on the beginning

147

her as she climbs into a chariot of colorful clouds and flies off to the sound of divine music. But all written sources mention another meaningful detail: during the brief moment between birth and apotheosis, the Mother reveals to her child the secrets of the art of immortality, of that “Long Life” which the Old Child has just experienced in his mother’s womb (Huanyuan shengji, ch. 2. ff. 39b–44a). Indeed, there, where there was “neither birth nor death,” a complete cycle of the cosmos was accomplished. What else could the Mother’s revelations be but the very secrets of her woman’s body and an initiation into her creative power (de)? A scandalous tale, the myth of the Old Child’s birth is also an initiatory narrative. It contains some of the most important themes of Daoist thought: a) the anterior existence in the womb, with the accompanying permutations of the One and the Self; b) the transubstantiality of the Mother and child, also expressed by the transmission of the body’s secrets; c) the feminine nature of the Daoist body in its exterior form in this world. Let us take a closer look at these themes one at a time. The real Daoist pantheon, that of the true gods, belongs to “Anterior Heaven” (xiantian, the universe before creation). This true pantheon reveals itself to us as the One and its different permutations, and also as different manifestations of the original cosmic energy. This point is essential to Daoist thought: “Huang! Hu! (Vague! Ungraspable!) In the center, there are things. Miao! Ming! (Profound! Mysterious!). In the center, there are essences, most true essences.” This passage from chapter 21 of the Dao De Jing on the birth of the cosmos closes with this question: “—How do I know that here are to be found the seeds of all beings? —By this!” “This” is the immediate, the present, immediate which is the closest to us—that is, our essential body, the womb, the embryo, “whose name never leaves it (Dao De Jing chap. 21),” (in other words, “the permanent name”). The first chapter of the Dao De Jing tells us that “the permanent name” is in fact “the Unnameable.” This Unnameable stands for the original cosmic energy ( yuanqi ) which is said “to give birth to the gods.” The manifold aspects of the One are conceived by the Daoist theologians as so many “Heavenly Worthies” (hypostases of the Dao in the Anterior Heaven) and as “Ancestors,”25 and alternately as numerological categories corresponding to the body’s functions. Thus we discover 25 Here, I use “ancestor” for the Chinese di, which originally meant deified royal ancestor in ancient China, but which has since taken on the meaning of “emperor.” Aside from the Heavenly Worthies, those impersonal aspects of the Dao, theology is

148

kristofer schipper

that the true Daoist pantheon exists within us, created by our vital energies. It is this pantheon—ungraspable vision of the eternal forces of nature—that constitutes the initiatory framework of Daoism. It situates the disciple, as well as all of Daoism, beyond the ordinary gods, the shenming of the people. The gods of the people are only human souls, born without fulfilling their destiny, dead without returning to the undifferentiated, outside the cycle of transformations and by definition dangerous. This is what separates the Daoist from the communities of the faithful of popular religion. The Daoist carries his gods within himself; he can give them an external appearance, a certain form, at will and then make them return to the origin, to the undifferentiated. He may, like the Old Master (body of the Dao), appear or disappear, reside in the world or cross the pass to return to Kunlun mountain,26 to primordial chaos. According to the daoshi, the followers of the vulgar cults are forever fascinated by symbols they take at face value and engage in disastrous transactions with “old things.” They are blocked, held back, and sink ever “deeper into” debt to their “gods” in exchange for the latter’s protection.27 Their situation resembles that of Kafka’s story, Before the Law, where the hero ruins himself in trying to bribe the Keeper of the Gate of Law. For Daoism, these baleful gods must be overcome. As a rule, however, the Daoist keeps his initiatory knowledge to himself and avoids any open conflict with those who worship the popular gods. He acts discretely in order to counter the unlucky effects of these cults on the communities who call upon him. When he accepts the invitation from the elders of the temple to lead the festivals, which the elders consider to be in honor of “their gods,” he does not attempt to rectify this misunderstanding. He secretly neutralizes the influence of these gods through the workings of the liturgy, whereby he can reintegrate them into the energies of his own body and thus purify and “convert” (du) them (Fig. 24).

familiar with the di; emperor or divine ancestors which correspond to specific roles in the pantheon. 26 See the legend on the Sage’s departure from this world. 27 This theme on the indebtedness to the vulgar gods, seen above in the context of the daily religion, is found repeatedly in the ancient texts denouncing the perverse, “lascivious” ( yinsi ) cults of the shaman masters (wushi).

the wholeness of chaos: laozi on the beginning

Figure 24. “The Anatomy of Laozi,” map of the inner world of the human body as a guide for the meditation practice of liandu (sublimating) the body as a means of salvation. Daoist manuscript, 1697, Jiangxi province. Private collection, Beijing.

149

150

kristofer schipper

As we have seen, these energies of his body, distilled from the Great One, are related to the true inner pantheon, not only of the Heaven Worthies and the “officers and generals” of the master’s register, but also to those other categories of bodily qi: the five viscera and six receptacles, the joints and arteries, and even the energetic nodes of acupuncture (see chap. 3). There are too many areas of overlap between the ancient medical theories and the inner pantheon of Daoism not to see that they are related. It may well be the mystical vision of the body in Daoism that has served as a model of reference for Chinese medicine.28 Let us first consider the second theme: the body of the Dao is first a woman, then a child, whereas the father is entirely absent from this genesis. Some texts do say that the mother is the product of the transformation of the Old Lord (Laojun), but this does not necessarily imply the presence of a masculine element. The word jun, which is usually translated as “lord,” can designate a woman as well as a man. The etymology of the written character is uncertain. The generally accepted meaning of the word in ancient texts is “venerable chief and is applied indiscriminately to elders of both sexes—to the father or the mother, husband or wife, king or queen.” In mythology, however, the word jun is preferably reserved (ox female deities. Nothing allows us, therefore, to consider Laojun as a “father.” Daoist theology understands the Old Lord as the divine aspect and the hypostasis of the Dao. In other words, Laojun is Laozi before his birth and thus simply one of the ways of apprehending the divinity of Anterior Heaven. This is precisely how today’s masters still understand the matter: Laojun is the body of the Dao before birth; Laozi is the Old Child and the Old Master of this world. We discover here once more the multiple aspects of the One as it passes from the invisible to the visible. It is the Mother in whom and through whom this transformation is accomplished. The Dao has taken form in her. Through her the Dao has been revealed. The instructions she gives to her newborn have to do precisely with this action of the Dao.

The Huangdi neijing suwen introduces the Yellow Emperor’s instructor in the medical arts, Ji Bo, saying that he is the Heavenly Master (Tianshi). The book begins with a long passage recalling that the perfect body can only be realized by those who practice the Am of Long life. 28

the wholeness of chaos: laozi on the beginning

151

There are many texts that tell us about the revelations that took place when the Jade Maiden of Dark Brilliance took leave of her Old Child. These scriptures can be compared, to a certain degree, to the True Writs revealed at the moment of the birth of the universe: Heavenly treasures in vermilion writing were born before the original beginning, in the middle of the void cavern. The universe had not yet taken root, sun and moon did not yet shed their radiance. Obscure! Dark! No originator! No lineage! Now marvelous writs appeared, they gathered and mingled. [. . .] When heaven and earth obtained these writs, they became permanent.29

Thus does the marvelous essence of creation manifest itself. This is the Canon of writings that appeared in the brief instant between the bursting matrix, the death of primordial chaos, and the constitution of the universe of the Ten Thousand Things. Chaos projects its archetypes; the Mother reveals the body’s secrets. On the one hand there are cosmological theories, on the other mythological themes. The writings revealed at the opening of the cosmic womb are symbols that prefigure the “ten-thousand things.” The primacy of the female role in the creation process, does it point to a possible matriarchy in ancient China? Not necessarily so. As Granet was wont to point out, ancient Chinese society was characterized by the complementary opposition—a dialectical relationship—of men and women. Yin and yang are emblems of this relationship, and yin comes first. There are a great many proofs that in ancient China sexuality was the domain in which women were the initiators. But perhaps it is also important to note that the world is not a creation “ex-nihilo” but that it is born in the same way that human beings are born. This belief is not limited to Daoism, but is fundamental in Chinese culture in general and is also present in a certain way already in the Five Classics (Wu Jing). As known, the Odes (Shi), the Documents (Shu), the Rites (Li), the Changes (Yi) and the Annals (Chunqiu) can be seen as the very foundational texts of Chinese culture and as such they can be compared to the Five Books of Moses (Pentateuch) that are approximately from the same time period and are in many places comparable in content. But whereas the Pentateuch book of Genesis begins with the

29

Jinlu suqi keyi. Liturgical manuscript, dated 1890 (author’s collection).

152

kristofer schipper

story of the creation of heaven and earth, the first book of the Classics, the Odes, begins with the wedding song “Guanju”: Love calls of the water birds Echo from the banks, As this charming girl Becomes the young sir’s mate.

As many ancient commentaries tell us, is the true beginning of everything, another way to tell the story of the origin of everything.

GUN AND YU: REVISITING THE CHINESE “EARTH-DIVER” HYPOTHESIS Chen Lianshan Peking University Abstract Flood-taming is always seen as the main plot of the Gun and Yu myth in Chinese classics. A recent argument treats the archetype of this floodtaming myth cycle cosmogonic, i.e., the “earth-diver” or “earth-scooper” myth. However, this hypothesis is not well grounded. Although it finds solutions to some questions, its limitations are yet obvious. Keywords: Gun, Yu, earth-diver, earth-scooper, cosmogonic myth

As an important part of Chinese ancient myth cycle, flood-taming stories of Gun and Yu were well documented in numerous classics. While some episodes are regarded as supernatural myths, some are categorized as historical legends. In terms of historiography, the former type with supernatural elements is generally thought to occur earlier than the latter. That is to say, the image of Gun and Yu as kings derives from their initial image as deities. This perspective, valid or not, nevertheless, does not change the fact that these stories primarily center on flood-taming, seemingly irrelevant to earth creation. However, some mythologists hold that the archetype of this floodtaming myth cycle is a cosmogonic myth, namely the so-called “earthdiver” myth. For example, Ye Shuxian asserts that “the flood-taming myth is actually the second earth creation, i.e., the transformed endless-mud-based ‘earth-diver’ myth, whose protagonists are Gun, Yu and the Supreme God” (Ye 338). To avoid ambiguity of the term “earth-diver” in Chinese, Hu Wanchuan, a chief advocator of the “earth-diver” hypothesis, renamed it the “earth-scooper” myth. Either way, the aforementioned hypothesis has in recent years greatly influenced mythological studies, whereas some of its premises do call for further analyses.

154

chen lianshan

I. The Scholarship of “Earth-Diver” in the Study of the Gun and Yu Myth In 1965, based on the “earth-diver” mythic materials prevailing in East Europe, North Asia, Southeast Asia, India and North America, Japanese Scholar Obayashi Taryo employs methodologies of comparative mythology to reach the assumption that the plot of Gun stealing the endless mud from the Supreme God was a former hunting peoples’ “earth-diver” myth, which was influenced by the agricultural peoples’ motif: disobeying the will of God and stealing valuable things for human beings” (Obayashi 51–2). Obayashi gives the following example as an Altaic “earth-diver” myth: At the birth of the earth, there was no ground, but water. God and the first man (or the devil ) hovered over the primeval ocean in the forms of two wild geese. Then, God asked the man to fetch some soil from the bottom of the ocean. After he had done that, God scattered the soil on the surface of water and commanded: “The Earth! You should have the shape!” And then, God asked the man to fetch some more soil. However, this time, to save some soil to create his own world, the man handed in only one handful of soil and swallowed the rest. In the meantime, the soil scattered by God became larger and harder on the surface of water. Along with the growth of the Cosmo, the size of the earth lump in the man’s mouth was dramatically increasing as well, almost making him suffocate. So he had to turn to God for help. God interrogated him, and the first man confessed his sin and threw up the soil, which was the origin of the marsh. (Obayashi 51)

At first glance, the above “earth-diver” myth is rather different from the flood-taming myth of Gun and Yu. Nevertheless, Obayashi tries to bring out the connection between them by providing two evidences. First, geographically, the “earth-diver” myth prevails in most of China’s neighboring areas, which makes it highly probable that China shares the same kind of myth; second, the soil scooped from the water multiplied itself and became the earth, exactly the same as the endless mud in the Gun and Yu myth cycle. Thus, according to Obayashi, the Gun and Yu flood-taming myth is a Chinese conversion or variation of the “earth-diver” myth (Fig. 25). Moreover, inspired by the Native Americans’ “earth-diver” myths, Ye claims that the flood-taming myth and the “earth-diver” myth share the same external structure. In his opinion, although there

revisiting the chinese “earth-diver” hypothesis

155

is a thematic dissimilarity between these two myth cycles (i.e., the “earth-diver” myth refers to earth creation, while the Gun and Yu myth refers to flood-taming), in terms of Northrop Frye’s archetypal theory, the Gun and Yu flood-taming myth is a transformed version of its lost predecessor, the Chinese “earth-diver” myth. Still, Ye’s assertion is ambiguous. Hu Wanchuan was the first to reconstruct flood-taming myths of Gun and Yu under the rubric of “earth-diver” myth cycle. He uses typology to manifest the archetype of this myth cycle: Yu is the Supreme God, and Gun is earth-diver, who is executed in the North for hiding soil. After creating the earth, Yu asks people to measure the length and width of the land, etc. During historicization, the relation between Gun and Yu gradually evolved to be father and son (Hu 38–40). Hu’s attempt is a representative viewpoint regarding the archetype of the Gun and Yu myth as the ancient Chinese cosmogonic myth. In addition, Lü Wei provides two modern “earth-diver” myths of Chinese Han people to support this hypothesis and ameliorate Hu’s archetype, but he also suggests a reconsideration of the hypothesis’ “validity and limitation” (Lü 59). To sum up, the hypothesis that the archetype of the Gun and Yu flood-taming myth is China’s “earth-diver” myth, which was first proposed by Obayashi and continuously improved by Ye Shuxian, Li Daohe, B. L. Riftin, Hu Wanchuan and Lü Wei, by and large has influenced the Chinese mythological studies in recent years, and gradually becomes a watershed of the Gun and Yu myth study. II. The Validity of the “Earth-Diver” Hypothesis The “earth-diver” hypothesis has been elaborated so as to provide answers to some complicated questions in previous studies of the Gun and Yu myth. For example, phrases like futu and butu1 frequently appear in Yu’s flood-taming myth, and they were always annotated as demarcation of lands by ancient scholiasts:

1 敷土 ( futu) and 布土 (butu) can be seen in the following excerpts from Chinese classics.

156

chen lianshan He (Ta-Yu)2 divided the country into nine provinces, partitioning the land and fixing the boundaries by the high hills and great rivers. (“The Toils of Ta-Yu,” Book of History) (Gorn-Old 27) 禹敷土, 随山刊木, 奠高山大川。（《尚书•禹贡》）

Futu here is annotated as demarcating the land, i.e., demarcating the boundaries of nine provinces. Seeing the deluge rise, / He helped Yu stem the current strong, / Extend the state’s frontier, / And domain far and wide. (“Hymns of Shang,” Book of Poetry) (Xu 751) 洪水芒芒, 禹敷下土方。外大国是疆, 幅陨既长。《诗经•商颂•长 发》） Yu and Gun were first to divide the land and to fix the nine states . . . God then ordered Yu to finish dividing the land to fix the nine states. (“Hainei Jing,” Shan Hai Jing)3 禹、鲧是始布土, 均定九州。. . . . . . 帝乃命禹卒布土以定九州。《山海 经•海内经》）

In fact, both fu and bu usually mean “to spread or scatter,” which, except for the usages in the above excerpts, defies the interpretation as “demarcating.” The misunderstandings and misinterpretations are largely caused by the mythical historicization. Under the “earth-diver” hypothesis, futu and butu precisely depict that God spreads the endless mud on the surface of water to create the earth. The chapter “Forms of Earth” in The Huainanzi provides quite a few traces of Yu the Great creating the earth with the endless mud. For instance, Yu asked Tai Zhang and Shu Hai to measure the land, and they discovered: “There are nine abysses deeper than 300 ren4 on the land. Yu then filled these abysses with the endless mud, and turned them into famous mountains.” This plot can be seen as a miniature cosmogonic myth, but, as it happens after Yu’s flood-taming, it is not convincing enough to be Yu’s cosmogonic myth. In short, the “earth-diver” hypothesis offers some solutions to previous problems.

2 3 4

Or Yu the Great. Translated by the author of this paper. About 800 meters.

revisiting the chinese “earth-diver” hypothesis

157

III. Further Analyses of the “Earth-Diver” Hypothesis I hereby employ Hu’s two key assertions as an example to re-analyze his “earth-diver” hypothesis. i. The Premise of the “Earth-Diver” Hypothesis Hu criticizes the distortion of the Gun and Yu myth in historical literatures, and claims that, due to the scarcity of reliable documents, previous studies were prevented from unveiling the truth of the myth. As he notes, “during the long traditionalization and historicization, most of the mythic materials among Chinese classics have been segmented and twisted.” So he suggests, “to reveal the truth, it is better to start with comparative mythology, apply historic-geographic methods, and compare types and motifs.” The “truth” he has mentioned, is the “archetype” (Hu 6). The typological method recommended by Hu is actually the same as that of Lü, although the latter calls his approach “motif structure— type interpretation” (Lü 58). This method basically consists of two steps: first, identifying the archetype of one certain myth cycle (e.g., the “earth-diver” myth) based on the myths of the target group’s adjoining ethnic groups; second, proving that the myths of Gun and Yu matches this constructed archetype, and then identifying the archetype of the Gun and Yu myths under the umbrella of the same myth cycle. Methodologically, Hu is obviously a follower of Obayashi, whose theory is based on two principle hypotheses. Hu acknowledges these two hypotheses and go on to construct his own model. The first hypothesis is: based on sufficient quantity and wide geographic distribution of variants with relatively high density, the archetype constructed out of this myth cycle is eligible to be used as a reference to evaluate other flawed variants in the same area. However, in my view, the validity of this hypothesis is shaky, even if all variants including the to-be-evaluated come from the same region, let alone versions of neighboring areas. Therefore, although “earthdiver” myths have been found in areas surrounding China (apart from Obayashi’s examples, Hu provides variants of Middle Asia and West Asia) and Chinese minorities (variants offered by Lü), it is not safe to suggest the existence of this myth cycle in Chinese Han people. As a matter of fact, there is a considerable gap between the hypothesis and reality.

158

chen lianshan

Firstly, the spatial gap. The Japanese variant mentioned by Obayashi is: God commanded Izanagi and Izanami to create Japan by sea water. This myth is not precisely an “earth-diver” myth, for the soil is replaced by sea water. That is to say, the “earth-diver” myth is probably lacking in Japan, the eastern neighbor of China. Hence, this disables the hypothesis confirming the existence of this myth cycle in China. Secondly, the chronic gap. Hu admits that variants of the “earthdiver” myth are mostly “documented in modern fieldwork archives. The only convincing ancient version of this myth cycle or its variant comes from India, according to former scholars” (Hu 10). As linguists simulate ancient phonetic systems by studying modern dialects, Hu attempts to reconstruct the ancient version with help of contemporary materials. However, the impossible time span would make his conclusion ultimately vulnerable. In addition, the two modern variants5 of Chinese Han people discovered by Lü are apparently the products of the Buddhist transplantation, which cannot prove the existence of the “earth-diver” myth in ancient China. Aware of the chronic gap between modern fieldwork records and ancient myths, Lü uses the comparative archaeological hypothesis of the China-Maya civilization continuity to solve this problem. He claims the “earth-diver” myth cycle is found in both the Euro-Asian continent and North America, while the latter’s was imported by Native Americans when they migrated from Asia, so the birth of this myth cycle can be traced back to prehistoric times. Nevertheless, two problems arising from the deduction remain unsolved: 1) there is no Mayan version of the “earth-diver” myth, implying that the modern American Indians’ “earth-diver” myth cycle loses its origin; 2) the monogenesis of a certain tale type proposed by the Finnish School is rejected by many respectable folklorists. For instance, Professor Liu Kuili, a famous folklore specialist, advocates poly-, rather than mono-, genesis, of folktales. Hence, Lü’s assertion is not credible. Thirdly, Hu’s article mentions the geographic distribution of the “earth-diver” myth only, neglecting the density of the variants in the same broad area. It is a common sense that one variant discovered in

5 The two discoveries refer to “Buddha Creates the Earth” (Hebei province) and “Origin of the Earth” ( Jiangsu province). The Buddha, in both myths, asks the shark or the deity of the local land to scoop the soil.

revisiting the chinese “earth-diver” hypothesis

159

part of a country does not certify its popularity in the whole country; similarly, several variants found in one ethnic group of a nation cannot tell their popularity in other groups in this country, either. Based on my reading, the “earth-diver” myth cycle is rare in China. As Hu notes in the preface of his Zhenshi yu xiangxiang: Shenhua chuanshuo tanwei,6 he is not sure about his own assertion: “indeed, it is not certain to say that the ‘earth-diver’ myth is the archetype of the floodtaming myth of Gun and Yu” (Hu X). His hesitation is reasonable. Therefore, while a lot of scholars advocate this “earth-diver” hypothesis and regard it as a truth, I attempt to encourage researchers to reconsider the limitations of such typological studies. ii. The Textual Incompletion of the “Earth-Diver” Archetype The following is the “earth-diver” archetype created by Hu, including eight motifs: 1) At the birth of the Earth, there is no land, but primeval water. 2) To create the land, the Creator asks animals to fetch some soil from the water. 3) Animals fail one by one, until at last one successfully brings some soil back with its beak or claws. 4–a) The Creator scatters the soil, the self-duplicated endless mud, on the surface of water, which becomes the earth today. 4–b) The Creator puts this soil on the back of turtle, which becomes the earth today carried by the turtle. 5) The earth-diver gives the Creator only part of the soil and attempts to save some for himself. Due to the multiplication of the soil, the secret is revealed and the Creator commands the earth-diver to hand in the soil. 6) The left soil is spread on to the created land, which becomes the bumpy valleys and marshes. 7) For his greed and arrogance, the earth-diver is expelled to the Tartarus by the Creator.

6 The book title is translated “Reality and Imagination: An Exploration of Myth and Legend.”

160

chen lianshan

8) Since the created land is beyond his vision, the Creator appoints a man or an animal to measure the land by his or its feet; sometimes, the Creator measures the land by himself (Hu 19–31). Since the flood-taming myth of Gun and Yu shares some motifs with the “archetype” mentioned above, it is thought to be an “earth-diver” myth. These motifs are: first, Yu spreads the soil to tame the flood, which is close to the action of the Creator in the “earth-diver” myth (as I have discussed, it is unreasonable to interpret those verbs as former scholiasts did); second, Yu asks his follower to measure the newlycreated land, which also matches the activity of the Creator in motif 8, so in this way, Hu regards Yu as the Creator, and the endless mud a kind of self-duplicated soil; third, as for Gun, who steals the endless mud from God and is executed in the Yu Valley or Yu Mountain (motif 7). However, because the land of the “earth-diver” myth derives from a “primeval water” environment, motif 1 should be the premise, or, the most fundamental factor to the others. Clearly, the Chinese Gun and Yu flood-taming myth does not contain this key motif, in which the flood happens after the creation of land. Furthermore, in Chinese classics, “primeval water” is not the beginning stage of cosmologic evolution, but chaos. To interpret this textual incompletion, Hu attributes the reasons to the distortion of Chinese classics, in which the “primeval water” becomes “the great flood.” If this explanation is acceptable, the reason for the shortage of the “primeval water” in the Pangu myth, which is usually seen undistorted throughout the history, is still unsolved. In this sense, Hu’s claim is not solidly grounded. I propose an alternative to the explanation of the absence of “primeval water,” i.e., the Chinese traditional yin-yang concept, rather than the historicization. The Sky and the Earth are seen in Chinese philosophy as a yin-yang binary pair, as are the Sun and the Moon. Similarly, Water is considered as yin, contrary to but inseparable with the yang Fire, so Water is unable to give birth to the Earth ( yin). Even if the thought of yin and yang occurred later than the birth of the Gun and Yu myth, it at least enables an interpretation of the absence of the “earth-diver” myth in a 2000-year long period in ancient China. As a new approach to investigate the Gun and Yu flood-taming myth, the “earth-diver” hypothesis does provide some insights to previous studies, but further evidence and reconsiderations are required to revisit this hypothesis (Fig. 26).

revisiting the chinese “earth-diver” hypothesis

161

Figure 26. Statue of Fuxi, Fuxi Temple, Qing dynasty, Tianshui, Gansu province.

PANGU AND THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE Wu Xiaodong Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Abstract The Pangu Myth presented in the classics Sanwu Liji and Wuyun Linianji was about the origin of the Three Sovereigns (or Sanhuang, i.e., the Heavenly Sovereign, the Earthly Sovereign, and the Human Sovereign), later misinterpreted as creation of the universe. The prototype of Sanhuang could be tracked back to the Daoist classic Laozi, an ancient work written in the Spring and Autumn Period. Thus, the comparison between Pangu and any other myths about universe creation by human or supernatural beings is groundless. The misinterpretation of Pangu as the universe creator evolved into three varied forms.

Keywords: Pangu, creation myth, Sanhuang (the Three Sovereigns) The well-known Chinese idiom “Pangu created Heaven and Earth, and time marches on from Sanhuang (Three Sovereigns) and Wudi (Five Emperors) till today” states that Pangu created Heaven and Earth. Throughout history Pangu is widely regarded as a great creator god by people inside and outside of the academic and folklorist incrowd. As a result scholars explore the origin of the Pangu myth by comparing it with Brahma creation myths in India and ethnic minority creation myths in southern China. However, Pangu was not a creator god in the earliest Chinese records. The Pangu myth was first recorded in Sanwu Liji and Wuyun Linianji by Xu Zheng. Unfortunately neither of the texts survived, and we only know about their content from quotations found in other ancient literatures. Comprehensive analyses of the findings reveal that the Pangu myth has two main parts: the first part is about the transformation of Pangu, while the other part tells the origin of Heaven and Earth, and Pangu’s birth. In the second part, Pangu stands out as the first Human, not a creator god himself. The aforementioned idiom actually means “the birth of Pangu and the creation of the universe.” Pangu was the king of human beings, not the creator as implied in the current idiom verse. In order to clarify

164

wu xiaodong

the misunderstanding, we must refer to the original text. There are only two records about the origin of Heaven and Earth and Pangu’s birth. One is a citation from Sanwu Liji in Volume I of Yiwen Leiju:1 In the beginning, Heaven and Earth were one boundary-blurred entity, like an egg, carrying Pangu inside itself. After eighteen thousand years, Heaven and Earth formed; yang was pure, and became Heaven; yin was murky, and became Earth. Pangu stayed between them, undergoing nine transformations every day. Pangu was holier than either Heaven or Earth; while Heaven rose ten feet higher every day and Earth grew ten feet thicker, Pangu grew ten feet taller every day. Another eighteen thousand years passed, and Heaven was extremely high, Earth extremely thick, while Pangu became extremely tall. Then Sanhuang came into being. Numerals start from one, erect at three, become established at five, prosperous at seven, and stablized at nine, so it is ninety thousand li between Heaven and Earth.

This excerpt itself is not that difficult to comprehend, but the concept of Pangu as creator god is so deeply rooted in the Chinese culture that even scholars are sometimes misled to a false interpretation of the Pangu myth. People tend to read this simple text as a creation myth, not as the original description of the creation of Heaven and Earth and Pangu’s birth. Wang Liqun quotes the above text and explains in his paper: “It is Pangu’s fast growth that made the formation of Heaven and Earth possible. He transformed nine times each day in the chaos. It can be said that it was Pangu who created Heaven and Earth, an environment we live in” (Wang 67). Obviously, Pangu’s growing was misread as the behavior of separating Heaven and Earth. Zhao Tingguang interprets the text similarly in his paper: “Heaven and Earth were separated, and Pangu sighed emotionally. He thought that it was not easy to create Heaven and Earth. Thus he stood on Earth and supported Heaven. While heaven rose ten feet everyday and earth grew ten feet taller, eighteen thousand years passed, the soft heaven and earth finally solidified, heaven no longer rose and earth no longer sank, and Pangu no longer grew” (Zhao 49). Zhong Nian interprets the phrase “like a hen’s egg” as “was a hen’s egg,” and further elaborates from this perspective: “Pangu hit the egg shell, and the egg white and yolk streamed out. The egg white was light, floating on the top and turned into Heaven; the yolk was heavy, sinking and became Earth. And the egg shell had been broken into pieces by Pangu, mixed with the egg white and yolk” (Zhong 82). It is crystal 1

Pages are not numbered in the old edition of the classics.

pangu and the origin of the universe

165

clear that many scholars have fully adopted the concept that Pangu was a great god of creation. By contrast, Wang Luchang demonstrates his insights on this subject by arguing that the commonly quoted simple text does not have the meaning of Pangu creating Heaven and Earth (Wang 92). Firstly, Earth was separated from Heaven naturally, and Pangu just stayed in chaos. In the sentence “Heaven and Earth formed; yang was pure, and became Heaven; yin was murky, and became Earth,” there is no reference to Pangu’s creating Heaven and Earth. Heaven and Earth as the subject of the sentence proves that Heaven and Earth were formed naturally rather that as a result of outside force. Yang was pure so it was light and went up to be Heaven; yin was murky so it was heavy and went down becoming Earth. This is consistent with another description found in Huainanzi: “the clear yang is light and became Heaven; the murky yin is heavy and formed Earth.” Secondly, Pangu did not support Heaven by his body to separate Heaven from Earth. The phrase “Heaven rose ten feet every day and Earth grew ten feet thicker” appears before “Pangu grew ten feet taller.” So, Heaven and Earth separated first, and Pangu grew subsequently. Discussing the myth of Pangu’s birth and the creation of Heaven and Earth, Xu Zheng’s Wuyun Linianji, has this to say in the following passage: The primeval cosmos was in chaos and everything was just beginning. Then Heaven and Earth were divided and the universe was created. Yin and yang were generated as a result; yuanqi was allocated; zhonghe was nurtured and a human being appeared. Pangu was the first human in the world and he transformed his body into various things when he was dying.

This text can be seen as a variant of the Pangu myth recorded in Sanwu Liji and does no more mention Pangu’s act of creating Heaven and Earth than the previous texts did. It rather says that Pangu was born from the mixture of yin and yang and only after the formation of the universe. If one denies the Pangu myth as a story about the creation of Heaven and Earth by Pangu, what then is the nature of this myth? The answer is simple: this myth is merely about the origin of Sanhuang. There have been different explanations about Sanhuang in the course of history, but for those who carefully read the texts, it is obvious that it means that Sanhuang, i.e., “Heaven, Earth and human” in Sanwu Liji, emerged simutaneously. At the beginning, these three sovereigns were mixed together, like an egg (not a real egg), pure yang became Heaven,

166

wu xiaodong

which was called Tianhuang (Heavenly Sovereign); murky yin became Earth, which was called Dihuang (Earthly Sovereign); along with the separation process, Pangu grew taller and became Renhuang (Human Sovereign). The key to a reasonable interpretation of the Pangu myth lies in the sentence “then the three sovereigns came into being.” It undeniably conveys that the nature of the Pangu myth is about the origin of Sanhuang. In contrast with Sanwu Liji, the text recorded in Wuyun Linianji is even clearer in describing the formation of Heaven and Earth, and the birth of Pangu. It states that Heaven and Earth hail from the earliest qi. The sentence “at the beginning, Heaven and Earth were one boundary-blurred entity, like an egg” in Sanwu Liji was changed into “the earliest qi is chaos” in Wuyun Linianji, which reflects people’s knowledge of the formation of Heaven and Earth then, and the emergence of human beings—all three stemming from yin and yang. Here Pangu is a julin (gigantic divinity) as referred to in some ancient anecdote books. Volume III of Lu Shi quotes the book Dunjia Kaishan Tu: “julin was born from yuanqi, and is the true mother of all other qi’s.” Volume I of the Taiping Yulan also quotes: “julin obtained the magic power of the very first god (Fig. 27). Along with the yuanqi, it gave birth to Chaos.” Who (or what) exactly are Sanhuang? Different definitions can be found in different history books. Gu Jiegang, author of The Study of Sanhuang, is the best known scholar on this issue. He said he did not know for sure what it means: “There is one type of Sanhuang of which we do not know yet the meaning. Not only we, but also Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor), needed help from others about this question” (Gu 331). This kind of Sanhuang was recorded in Yinfu Jing. There is a conversation among Huangdi, Guangchengzi, and Tianzhenhuangren: “What was the Heavenly Sovereign?” asked the Yellow Emperor. “The Heavenly Sovereign, who existed before the cosmos, at the beginning of chaos. The ten thousand things in the world all derived from qi of the Emperor of the Heaven, which was the earliest qi and the ruler of the holy land,” replied Guangchengzi. “What was the Earthly Sovereign?” asked the Yellow Emperor. “The Earthly Sovereign was the ancestor of the god in the cave land,” replied Guangchengzi. “What was the Human Sovereign?” asked the Yellow Emperor. “The Human Sovereign, who originated from the mixture of the qi of both Heaven and Earth, was between these two, and constituted the earliest qi of human beings,” replied Guangchengzi.

Figure 27. Pumi religious painting of the reincarnation of human beings, Ninglang, Yunnan province.

pangu and the origin of the universe 167

168

wu xiaodong

The meaning of this conversation may not seem clear at first sight, but the enigma will dissolve if one compares it with the above mentioned classic texts. The Pangu myth was about the relationship between Sanhuang and yin/yang, and this holds also for the content in this conversation. In Wuyun Linianji, yang formed Heaven, and yin formed Earth, and Pangu came into being while yin and yang mixed. In the conversation, Renhuang hailed from the mixture of Tianhuang and Dihuang. And according to the description, Renhuang was staying between Heaven and Earth, which is almost identical to the description presented in Sanwu Liji. Another paragraph about Sanhuang recorded in Sanwu Liji was quoted in volume 78 of Taiping Yulan: The primeval cosmos was just taking shape; chronology commenced from the Sheti star and in the meantime yuanqi initiated. There was a god with thirteen heads called Tianhuang; there was a god with twelve heads called Dihuang and there was another god with nine heads called Renhuang. The three sovereigns constituted the primeval.

That Sanhuang emerged at the very beginning contrasts with the Pangu myth in which the only things emerging at the beginning were Heaven, Earth and Pangu. So one can conclude that Sanhuang was the counterpart of Heaven, Earth, and Pangu. Ancient people explained the Pangu myth as the appearance of Sanhuang, Heaven, Earth, and human beings. Chen Jianxian suggested that the Pangu myth is a cosmic egg motif, which could then be traced to the doctrine of Taiji (Chen 33). Zhang Wen’an also argued that this myth goes back at least to I Ching: “Yi contains Taiji, which Liangyi came from” (Zhang 186). Taiji is a substitute for the phrase “like an egg” in Pangu myth, and Liangyi means yin and yang. The Pangu myth already reveals the root of this doctrine. Some scholars argued that only the first part of the Pangu myth kept the original elements, the last sentence was the result of the influence of I Ching (He 246). In fact, the text of the Pangu myth recorded in Sanwu Liji must be considered as a single entity which reflects the doctrine of yin and yang in ancient China. This doctrine argued that Heaven, Earth, and human stemmed from yuanqi, as referred to in the phrase “numerals start from one.” In the phrase “erect at three,” “three” means Heaven, Earth and human, as in Sanwu Liji, although the narrative is much more indistinct. The so-called “Chaos is like an egg” is like the image of Taiji. It is a circle, the earliest qi. This circle contained yin and yang, the

pangu and the origin of the universe

169

source of Heaven, Earth and human. Although the two classics were lost, we can still tell that they were about the yi from their titles. Shi Ji recorded: “The people who want to study astronomy must know san (three) and wu (five).” Here, san is the basis of the world, and wu means the operational mechanisms of the world, representing five different ways of movement. The concept represented in the Pangu myth emerged very early; it dates at least back to the Spring and Autumn period. Indeed, the ancient works of Laozi, written in the same era, contain a similar description about the origin of the Pangu myth: There was a combined entity emerging before the formation of Heaven and Earth. It was tranquil and empty, alone and consistent, traveling circularly and never exhausted, therefore it was the origin of Heaven and Earth. I have no idea about its name, hence the only alternative is to narrowly call it “dao” and name it “da.” It was gigantic, mobile, remote and able to turn back. Hence dao, Heaven, Earth and human were four kinds of immensities in the cosmos, and human beings were one of them.

The dao in this text is a substitute for the boundary-blurred entity narrated in the Pangu myth. It was said to be the origin of Heaven and Earth. In contrast, in the Pangu myth, Heaven and Earth stem from the mixture of yin and yang. In this text, dao is mentioned along with Heaven, Earth and human, but dao must be much older than the three of them, because it was the origin of all the things in the world. Subsequently, Heaven, Earth and human were called Sanhuang, splitting off from the dao. The text of the Pangu myth recorded in Sanwu Liji should be considered as a form of the same theme developed from the text quoted upon. In the Western Han dynasty, a text recorded in Huainanzi is much closer to the Pangu myth in Sanwu Liji. The chapter called “Tianwen Xun” states: “The original condition of dao was in tranquility, purity and nihility. And the tranquility, purity and nihility evolved into the cosmos, which generated yuanqi later. This kind of yuanqi had its own edge and shape. The clearer and lighter part of yuanqi diffused and became Heaven while the more turbid and heavier part descended and became Earth.” In the chapter “Jingshen Xun”, another passage reads very similar to the Pangu myth: In the ancient times, when Heaven and Earth were not created, there was only one condition in which everything was invisible and indistinct.

170

wu xiaodong This condition was dusky and dim, and no one knew what it was really like. Then two gods of yin and yang appeared, and they created the universe together. The universe was so boundless and vast. From then on, Heaven and Earth were divided, yin and yang were distinguished and therefore the four directions and the eight poles were generated. Yin and yang interact with each other to create the one thousand things in the universe. The impure qi generated herds and insects; the pure qi, human beings.

The Pangu myth in Wuyun Linianji almost inherited this text completely, and the one in Sanwu Liji is a slight variation. Pangu existed in the blurry entity in the beginning, which means that he was not born from the pure qi (Fig. 28). From all the texts quoted here we can easily grab the doctrine why ancient people thought that all things were hailed from yin and yang, even though varying in their details in many ways. Humans emerged after the forming of Heaven and Earth, or originated with Heaven and Earth at the same time. The doctrine of yin and yang can be traced back at least to the Spring and Autumn period. The most important work in this period was I Ching. Obviously, this doctrine was a result of people’s continuous effort in exploring the universe. To the people who lived at that time, it was the soundest and best reading of things, not a myth at all. In a sense, myth is the once ancient “science” or “philosophy” denied later by the development of science. Ancient people certainly explored the universe and gave an explanation based on all the knowledge they had. The explanation they presented was the most developed and well accepted doctrine at that time, to be falsified and rejected in years to come. There were three theories developed in the course of the exploration of the universe in ancient China, i.e., the theory of Canopy-Heavens, the theory of Sphere-Heavens, and the theory of Xuanye. The theory of Xuanye initially emerged in the Shang dynasty. It proposed that Heaven is amorphous, infinite and not solid. Although this theory was brilliant in itself, it was just limited to a group of astronomers and not made known to common people. The theory of Sphere-Heavens emerged in the Warring States period. Was that the basis of the Pangu myth? Zhang Heng’s The Illustration of the Armillary Sphere provided a detailed explanation about the theory of Sphere-Heavens: the sphereHeaven can be compared to an egg, with its sky as round as a bullet and its Earth being solely covered inside, just like the yolk inside the eggshell. The sky is larger and Earth, smaller. Water is allocated both

Figure 28. “Pangu the Creator,” modern wall painting, shrine of Duke of Zhou, Qishan county, Shaanxi province.

pangu and the origin of the universe 171

172

wu xiaodong

outside and inside the sky, which contains Earth in the middle as the shell covering the yolk. The sky and Earth, floating in the water, are held up by qi. The idea developed was similar to the Pangu myth referring to the universe as an egg, but there was a critical difference between the two. This theory claimed that Heaven envelopes Earth, just as a yolk stays inside its eggshell. Heaven is held up by air, and filled with water on which Earth floats. By contrast, the theory of the Canopy-Heavens claimed Earth to be flat and square, covered with Heaven, like a canopy. This theory firstly emerged in the Zhou dynasty, and was commonly known in that period. Its claim was identical with what the Pangu myth reflected. Of course, the theory of Canopy-Heavens was one about the shape of Heaven and Earth, not about their being formed. Some scholars tend to quote Qu Yuan’s poem “Tian Wen” to argue that the Pangu myth emerged in a very late period in history. In the poem, there is a question about the universe asked by Qu Yuan as below: “Who created Heaven which has nine levels?” According to some scholars, if Qu Yuan had been familiar with the Pangu myth at the time, he would not have asked that question, because the myth had already answered that question. In fact, the question merely proved that we misread the Pangu myth, and Qu Yuan did not think it was Pangu, or any other people who created Heaven. It was just because he recognized that Heaven was formed by a natural process that he really wanted to know what that process was, a similar effort as Newton wanted to find the First Cause. What Qu Yuan knew and held was consistent with the Pangu myth. The question “what became after yin and yang mixed?” reflected the doctrine of yin and yang which was well adopted at the time. He had another question, “It was blanketed with atmosphere and blurred at the beginning. How then to identify what it was?” The situation about the beginning of universe narrated here echoes what the text recorded in Huainanzi and Wuyun Linianji described. The idea which Heaven has nine levels is also consistent with the sentence “It is ninety thousand kilometers between Heaven and Earth” in Sanwu Liji. Current arguments about the origin of the Pangu myth differ not only in areas where the Pangu myth originated, but also in various ethnic groups. From Ma Huan in the Ming dynasty to Tu Kaoxian in the Republic period, many scholars traced the myth back to India. Some famous scholars, such as Xu Songshi, Lü Simian, Takaki Toshio and He Xin accepted this idea. Jiang Guanyun proposed in his paper

pangu and the origin of the universe

173

that the name Pangu came from the Chaldaic language and traced the myth to Babylon. Mao Dun was a famous scholar who insisted that the Pangu myth originated in southern China. Various scholars attribute the Pangu myth to different ethnic groups. E.g., Su Shixue, Xia Zenyou, Gu Jiegang, Yuan Ke and Fan Wenlan claim that the Pangu myth belongs to the peoples of the Miao-Yao language family, while Hu Zhongshi, Lan Hong’en and Qin Cailuan insist that it belongs to the peoples of the Zhuang-Dong language family. Other scholars, such as Ma Huixin, Zhang Zhengli, and Wang Hui, insist that the Pangu myth emerged in central China. Before we can conclude that the Pangu myth deals with the origin of Sanhuang, rather than with Pangu’s creation of Heaven and Earth, we must explore its root in the culture which contains the concept of Sanhuang. As previously stated, this concept has to be traced back to the doctrine of yin and yang, so that it is impossible that the Pangu myth was borrowed from India via Buddhism, because Buddhism was first brought to China in 2BC, much later than the Spring and Autumn period. Scholars who insist the Pangu myth was borrowed from India argue that the Pangu myth stems from the creation myth of Brahma. For example, the myth that He Xin compared with the Pangu myth came from the Code of Manu: At the beginning, the universe was in the darkness . . . being completely in sleep. (Section 6) Then, god Atman appears. It is determined to create top-five and all things in order to remove the darkness, and reveal the mysteries of nature. (Section 17) First, he created the water, in which he planted a seed. (Section 8) The seed transformed into a golden egg, shining out, so the holy Atman revealed his true figure as the great Brahma. (Section 9) He stayed in that egg for 12 Brahma months, and then separated the egg into two halves. (Section 12) Thus, one half rose up and became Heaven, another one dropped down and became Earth. Between Heaven and Earth, there were gas and eight characters, surrounded by water. (Section 13) With his wisdom, he created divinity, humanity and animality, pancavijnana of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and five faculties of mouth, hand, foot, anus, and private parts (Section 15) (He 240–1).

From the above quotations we can easily see that in this Indian myth Brahma created Heaven and Earth. By contrast, there is no element referring to the beginning as described in the Pangu myth.

174

wu xiaodong

Is it then possible that the Pangu myth was borrowed from ethnic minorities in southern China? Some ethnic minorities in the region do have some similar origin myths. For example, the Zhuang people tell the following story entitled “Baeuq roxdoh and Meh Loeggyap”: In the time of chaos, there was a mass of rotating gas in the universe, which rotated faster and faster, and at last formed an egg-like thing. Later, it burst and divided into three, one flew up and became Heaven, one flew down and became water, the one staying in the middle became Earth. All of a sudden, a flower grew on Earth, with a woman inside. She is the ancestor Meh Loeggyap (Lu 603–4).

This myth is quite similar to the description of the Pangu myth in Sanwu Liji, but it is hard to determine where this idea initially came from. Was it the yin-yang theory or were there already other culture concepts? If we want to prove that the source of the Pangu myth originates from there, we should at least provide further evidence that the concept of Sanhuang existed in the ancient Zhuang culture. So far, among all different versions of the Pangu myth collected from minority cultures, including those from southern China, most are creation myths. For example, in the book The God Pangu edited by Ma Huixin, there are eight versions of Pangu myths in Section I of Chapter IV “The Universe Formation,” and there are seventeen versions of Pangu myth in Section II. All these versions tell in different ways about Pangu’s creation. If we know the early Pangu myth contained no elements about the creation, it is easy to understand all these versions emerged after the raw version was misread. Then, how did the Pangu myth change into a creation myth by misreading? In Volume I of the Shuyi Ji, an ancient work written in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420~589), Pangu had already changed into a creator: Yuan is the root of all the things in the universe. Shi is the commencement of time as well as the primeval qi before the universe. This kind of qi transformed into the creator of the cosmos, i.e., Pangu; and it transformed into the governor of Heaven, i.e., Yuanshi.

There are three variations of the Pangu myth: first, “Heaven and Earth formed” was misread into “created Heaven and Earth.” This is the most crucial variation which directly made the origin myth of Sanhuang into a Pangu creation myth, the phenomenon of Heaven and Earth being formed naturally was described as being created by Pangu. Second, Pangu’s coming into being with Heaven and Earth at the same

pangu and the origin of the universe

175

time was misread as Pangu holding up Heaven. Third, the phrase “like a chicken egg” was directly interpreted as “a chicken egg.” In the Song dynasty, in Yunji Qiqian, Pangu was considered as an immortal or a person who created Heaven and Earth: At that time, Pangu was summoned to Heaven on account of his enormous contributions. Pangu kowtowed to Yuanshi Xuhuang Daojun, asking for Lingbao Neijing, a 375-volume scripture. However, he was offered another 36-volume scripture called Sanhuang Neijing. Pangu created Heaven and Earth as well as the ten thousand things in the world according to this scripture.

Clearly described in the text, following Daoist principles in Lingbao Neijing, Pangu created Heaven and Earth. Once Pangu had become the creator, his creation has been a gradual process of refinement. In the Ming dynasty, Kaipi Yanyi recorded: “All closed for a long time, as if it could not be opened. With a chisel in his left hand and an axe in his right hand, Pangu divided chaos into two halves, as if cutting a melon. The upper portion ascended gradually and became Heaven which contains green, yellow, red, white, black five-color auspicious clouds, while the under part descended gradually and became Earth which contains green, yellow, red, white, black five-color stones and muds.” Here one finds the beginning of Pangu’s creation being described as “With a chisel in his left hand and an axe in his right hand.” In the Qing dynasty, Lidai Shenxian Tongjian has inherited this description, and added the plot that Pangu held up Heaven with his body: “Pangu stretched himself and then Heaven ascended gradually, while Earth descended. With a chisel in his left hand and an axe in his right hand, Pangu separated Heaven and Earth. The book Hei’an Zhuan (A Biography of Darkness) written in the Qing dynasty also inherited this description but with some variation: “Pangu came to the top of the hill, split the hunyuan shi (chaotic stone) open with an axe, pure air moved up, while murky air fell down, then Heaven and Earth formed” (Hu 75). As we have seen, in Sanwu Liji and Wuyun Linianji, the Pangu myth involves only two aspects: the origin of Sanhuang and the transformation. With the Pangu myth spreading throughout history, other story elements came in. But these attachments usually have some connection with the idea that Pangu was regarded as Renhuang, the first human being. Liu Junqi pointed out that the so-called Pangu myths

176

wu xiaodong

circulating in the Pangushan area of Biyang county actually belong to flood myths. They have no relationship with the Pangu myth concerning the origin of Heaven and Earth. The book Special Material on Central Plain Myths, edited by the myth collection group of Henan University, collected 20 so-called Pangu myths. In fact, 13 of those myths should be categorized as brother-sister marriage myth, and only one is associated with the creation of Heaven and Earth. The Pangu brother-sister marriage myths came from the typical brother-sister marriage myth by changing the name of the brother into “Pangu”. “Lu Ya Mei,” a brother-sister marriage myth collected from local people by Ma Huixin, still has the original characters’ names, Leisheng and Leihua. The local residents of Biyang considered Pangu as a human ancestor rather than a creator god when they accepted the Pangu myth (Liu 31). Yan Deliang also pointed out that the core content of the Pangu myth in Tongbaishan area is Pangu’s marriage, so these versions are actually a mixture of Nüwa-Fuxi myths and the Pangu myth (Yan 145). Reviewing and reflecting on the history of the Pangu myth study, I conclude that scholars have over-emphasized on the first appearance of the term “Pangu” itself and the question as to when the Pangu myth came into being. This practice does not conform to the general evolution principle of oral literature well. To determine when a story arises, we should focus more on the time when the tale type arises rather than when certain characters’ names appear in the story. However, the history of the Pangu myth and its various versions and interpretations reflect interesting aspects of the development mythical thinking in China.

PART III

ORAL TRADITION AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY

CHINESE CREATION MYTHS: A GREAT DISCOVERY Wu Bing’an Liaoning University Abstract There is a large variety of artistic genres in the oral traditions of China’s minority cultures. Northern peoples, such as Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, Kazakh and Kirgiz, are well known for their long heroic epics, whereas southern peoples, such as Dai, Yi, Nakhi, Hani, Miao, Zhuang, are distinguished for their performance of ancient creation epic songs, of medium or short length. Creation epics depict the origins of heaven and earth, nature, animals, humans, the beginnings of culture and society. This genre, also referred to as “mythical epic” has mainly been found in southern China. Such creation and origin myths have been and still being transmitted orally among ethnic groups such as Yi, Hani, Nakhi, Bai, Lahu, Lisu, Qiang, Pumi, Jingpo, Achang, De’ang, Dai, Buyei, Shui, Miao, Yao, Dong, Tujia, Zhuang. The narrative structure of creation epics reflects the specific views of ancestors of the respective ethnic groups in a specific historical period. Their migration songs reflect the eventful social life and fate of migrating ethnic groups in magnificent pictures. Most of China’s ethnic minority creation epics have not been discovered before the 1950s, and only since the last three decades a spectacular academic movement has opened up the field of collecting, recording, translating, sorting out, and printing oral traditions. And it took until the mid-1980s before Chinese ethnic minority creation epics were studied more systematically, thanks to anthropologists who emphasized the social and cultural significance of creation epics. Since the mid-1990s, researchers have introduced and applied the idea of “living tradition” to ethnic minority creation epics in song form as a special category of oral performance. Keywords: creation epic, ethnic minority, Chinese mythology, living tradition

In China’s oral traditions the countless thriving myths and legends of farmers, foresters and fisherwomen have too long been ignored. This is the more astonishing since the myths and legends recorded in voluminous ancient Chinese documents happen to be fragmentary,

180

wu bing’an

sketchy and incomplete.1 Only recently researchers have gradually become aware of the indispensable contributions and substantial wealth of those oral traditions for the study of Chinese mythology. Zhong Jingwen was right when he pointed out the great relevance of myths originating from people’s oral traditions. He was among the first to explore the world of narrative beyond those rudimentary classical myth documents. As a result of his and other scholarly efforts deployed over the past generations, we can harvest a wealth of fruits today.2 Ancient myths are mainly creation and origin myths including cosmogonic myths, anthropogonic myths and cultural origin myths. Why would China have had no or hardly any creation myths? The sole creation myth in which Pangu created the world is to be found in a sketchy narrative in Xu Zheng (the Three Kingdoms period)’s Sanwu Liji quoted in Yiwen Leiju (the Tang dynasty). The myth about Nüwa’s repairing the damaged sky was first referred to in the chapter “Lanming Xun” of Huainanzi, as a fragmentary story about “re-creation.” And the myth about Nüwa’s fashioning of the first human beings out of mud was first presented in Feng Su Tong in a few scattered sentences. Thus, it is an urgent and crucial task for researchers to collect, record and study creation myths from the oral traditions still performed today among the fifty-five minority ethnic groups living all over China. Since the seventies and eighties of the last century mythologists have begun to repair China’s mythological corpus by filling up the gaps of Chinese myth resources. A “general theory of mythology” was raised and in the mean time legends, stories about supernatural beings and stories about fox spirits were collected, as a national project. An impressive team emerged, consisting of tens of thousands of workers dedicated to the editing and publishing of the Ten Collections of Folk Arts and Literature. Endeavoring to collect oral songs and narratives, they explored mountain villages all over the country, and carried out arduous work with anthropological, folkloristic and ethnological methods resulting in remarkable achievements. Major achievements were that, 1 As argued by scholars such as the German-born American folklorist Eberhard. Disputed by Zhong Jingwen in his paper (65–72). 2 See for an example Zhong Jingwen’s “The Research on the Myth of Panhu” (35–34). See also Rui Yifu’s anthropological researches on Miao flood myths and myths about Fuxi and Nüwa (1938:371), and Wen Yiduo’s “Researches on Fuxi” in the early 1940s, a comprehensive comparison of the anthropological researches on myths shared by more than one ethnic group (230).

chinese creation myths: a great discovery

181

on the one hand, various epics in prose and poetic form were discovered; on the other, numerous oral mythical narratives were brought to light during the various collecting and recording activities. So what was new? Previous scholars who had earlier intended to study and edit Chinese myths and legends had completely overlooked the oral tradition. They had merely concentrated on a couple of ancient documents and squawked about the absence or the lack of Chinese myths and legends (Fig. 29). Zhong Jingwen’s critical comments and suggestions paved the way for new directions. Instead of repeating once again the old belief that China had hardly any or no myths at all, he and his colleagues fruitfully did what had to be done: save the legacy of people’s oral performance traditions for future generations. Since about half a century, mythologists have harvested some success in the study of myths about Pangu, Fuxi and Nüwa which had been hesitantly begun since the 1930s.

Figure 29. Puppet “Chaos” used for shadow plays, Qing dynasty, Sichuan Museum, Chengdu.

182

wu bing’an

As from the 1980s until the present this steady research has resulted in the gradual discovery of a dazzling wealth of creation myths originating from the oral performances of China’s ethnic cultures, as can be seen from the first and other tables included in this essay. The fantastic number of full-length creation epic texts listed in Table 1 have mostly been transmitted throughout history in the style of long narrative sung poems which show that those genres are no less popular in Chinese minority cultures than in other world mythologies. And the artistic charms of Chinese myths surely match those of similar genres worldwide. Table 1: Creation epics3 Ethnic group Yi

Miao

Title

Main god (Gods)

Length

Miggo

Vo mu ge nzy creates Over 4,600 lines heaven and earth with the help of his sons and daughters.

Chamu

Nienongluozuopo creates heaven and earth with the assistance of his sons and daughters.

Over 2,100 lines

Shy mu yy zo nbyl God named Vo mu ci (The Overgge nzy sends a flood flowing Flood) destroying all people in the world and creates new human beings.

Over 3,000 lines

Hxak Lul hxak Ghot (Old Miao Songs)

A giant bird named Over 7,000 lines Kob Dit creates heaven and earth, and then gives birth to giant gods to rule the world.

3 All the myths referred to in this table have been transcribed, edited and published in Tao and Zhong’s book (102–38).

chinese creation myths: a great discovery

183

Table 1 (cont.) Ethnic group

Title

Main god (Gods)

Length

Build Sky, Build Earth

After the world has Over 3,600 lines been created, Angx Vangb and his sister bring forth human off.

Nakhi

Coq pper tv (Genesis)

Bai

Kelheil-rdjit (Creating Heaven and Earth)

God Dong and Over 3,000 lines goddess Se create the ten thousand things in the world, and give birth to the god Shan and the cosmic egg. Pangu and Pansheng Over 400 lines transform into heaven and earth.

Hani

Aoq seq mil seq

God kills the dragon- Over 2,000 lines ox to create the world.

Lahu

Mud te mil te

God named Xeul Sha orders Cal lawd to create the heaven and Nal lawd to create the earth.

Mud phal mil phal

Xeul Sha creates the Over 1,000 lines world, the sun and the moon.

De’ang

Da Gu Da Leng Ge Lai Biao

God named Padaran Over 1,200 lines orders tea-leaves to transform into heaven, earth, sun and moon.

Achang

Zhepama and Zhemima

Zhepama creates Over 2,000 lines heaven and Zhemima creates earth.

Tu

The Song of the End of Chaos Circle

Pangu creates heaven and earth.

Dong

Kgal Mangh Mangs Daol Xie Jav

Goddess Sax Tiip Bas orders some gods to create the world, sun and moon.

184

wu bing’an

Table 1 (cont.) Ethnic group

Title

Main god (Gods)

Length

Shui

Zihdeecqben (Creating the Heaven and the Earth)

Goddess Yaxwuc Over 600 lines creates the world as well as sun and moon.

Va

Sigangli

Li, god of heaven and Lun, goddess of earth, create the heaven and earth and everything in the world.

Jingpo

Manau Jaiwa

Neng Wamla and Ningpan create the world as well as the sun and the moon.

Yao

Miloto

Miloto creates heaven, Over 2,000 lines earth, mountains, and rivers, then orders other gods to create everything in the world.

Han

Hei’an Zhuan (A Biography of Darkness)

Several generations Over 3,000 lines of gods are born from hundun, and Pangu creates heaven and earth.

Table 2: Creation myths involving several gods4 Ethnic group Blang

Main gods Gumiya and his twelve sons

Motifs They use different parts of a rhinoceros’ body to create heaven and earth; moreover, they shoot eight suns and nine moons down.

4 All published in Zhongguo Shenhua Gushi; Zhongguo Geminzu Zongjiao yu Shenhua Dacidian. Beijing: Xue Yuan Publishing House, 1990.

chinese creation myths: a great discovery

185

Table 2 (cont.) Ethnic group

Main gods

Motifs

Dong

Dinl Guangl, Wangc They create heaven and earth; Nyih, Siik Kuangp, Lagx day and night; valleys and Yiuc, Baol Heeuk, Lox plains. Xenx

Yi

(1) Vo mu ge nzy and his Vo mu ge nzy gives birth to his sons and daughters sons from the golden-silver fruit and has them create heaven; he gives birth to his daughters from the golden-silver fruit and has them create the earth; he makes animals from the goldensilver fruit to sustain the heaven and the earth. (2) Zhyge Alu and his sons and daughters

Zhyge Alu gives birth to five sons and orders them to create heaven; he gives birth to one daughter and orders her to create the earth. The daughter makes the sun and the moon from her eyes. Zhyge Alu transforms his body into the ten thousand things in the world.

(3) Heavenly God Nge ti gu nzy

He leads nine goddesses and nine gods in the creation of heaven and earth.

Jingpo

Hpyining-Hpala, Myining Ma Majan and the gods of six generations

They create heaven, earth, light, darkness, human beings, ghosts, music and sports.

Maonan

Five generations of gods, They create heaven, earth and including Kundun, King the ten thousand things in the of Han and Emperor of world. Heaven

Mongolian

Doloon Odon and ninety-nine heavenly gods

The lighter part of qi forms heaven and the heavier part, earth. These gods bring forth human beings and other things in the world.

186

wu bing’an Table 3: Creation myths involving a pair of gods as creator gods5

Ethnic group

Main gods

Motifs

Achang

Zhepama, god of heaven and Zhemima, earth goddess

They create heaven, weave the earth, sculpt the sun, sow stars, erupt clouds and make mountains and rivers.

Dai

Hunh sangh, Langz goz liz

They create lotuses which transform into four continents, and two thousand birds.

Derung

The heavenly god Muq pung gyeu and the heavenly goddess Meu nye kyeng

This god and goddess of snow mountains classify the ten thousand things in the world and give birth to men, women and herds.

Gelao

Daluan, Daliji

They create heaven and earth.

Nakhi

Dong and Se

They are god and goddess of yin and yang, and creators of world, sun and moon, and give birth to men, women and the ten thousand things in the world.

Va

Dax luan, Dax lig

They create heaven and earth.

Bai

Laotguf, Laoteil

They create seawater, sun, moon, stars and the ten thousand things in the world. A golden dragon spits out a meaty kernel which transforms into two gods. The two gods then give birth to several children.

De’ang

Father of heaven and Mother of earth

They make human beings out of leaves.

Lisu

Liexiliesha, Liexishasha They are brothers and sisters who produce the first human beings.

Nu

Brother Lapu and Sister Yaniu

They give birth to human beings.

5 Cf. Tao and Zhong (102–38), Ma Changyi (1996:76–126), and Zhonguo Geminzu Zongjiao yu Shenhua Dacidian (158–756).

chinese creation myths: a great discovery

187

Table 3 (cont.) Ethnic group

Main gods

Motifs

Gaoshan

Maswan, Mariap

They create the ten thousand things in the world.

Tujia

Zhanggulao, Ligulao

They create heaven and earth, and human beings.

Miao

Bos Chik, Yeuf Congt

They make the nine-storey heaven and the twelve-storey earth. The heaven is wider than the earth.

Table 4: Creation myths involving a sole creator god6 Ethnic groups Zhuang

Main gods (1) Meh Loeggyap

Motifs The Goddess arranges the heaven and the earth.

(2) Bouxluegduz (male) He creates the world, shoots the sun down and teaches people how to use fire. Dong

Goddess Sax Tiinp Bas Mother of heaven and earth, gives birth to gods and goddesses, and creates human beings with her birthmark.

Lahu

Xeul Sha

She is the spider web goddess, and creates the heavenly beam, the heavenly rafter, the heavenly web as well as the sun and the moon.

Miao

Lof Dik

She gives birth to heaven and earth.

Buyei

(1) Buxlingz

He creates the heaven and the earth from yin and yang; creates the sun and the moon from rocks; creates the galaxy from water; gives birth to wind, thunder, and rain; and makes human beings, mountains and other things from his down.

6

Ibid.

188

wu bing’an

Table 4 (cont.) Ethnic groups

Main gods

Motifs

(2) Legjax

He holds the sky, and his eyes turn into the sun and the moon; his teeth transform into the heavenly nails, heavenly pillars and the forests.

Dai

Inpayap

He is born from a mixture of water, smoke and air. He creates heaven and earth and gives birth to divine offspring.

Gaoshan

Raparao

She creates the world, creates human beings and passes down the fire.

Hani

Miqwul aqxil aqma

The goddess of goldfish creates the world, sun, moon and other things.

Jino

Amoyaobai

She separates heaven and earth, creates human beings and the ten thousand things in the world.

Lisu

Mupupha

He separates heaven and earth, creates mountains, rivers, herbs and herds.

Li

The god of strength

He separates heaven and earth, shoots the sun and the moon, creates mountains, rivers and forests. His giant palm turns into Mt. Five-fingers.

Lhoba

The earth mother called Sijin

Heaven and earth form by themselves and she transforms into the ten thousand things in the world.

Maonan

Kuntun

He separates heaven and earth, collects stones to make mountains, collects mud to make the earth and collects water to make seas.

chinese creation myths: a great discovery

189

Table 4 (cont.) Ethnic groups

Main gods

Motifs

Pumi

Jisaimi

He uses the dog-deer to create heaven and earth, and transforms the teeth of deer into the ten thousand things in the world. He breaks off the heaven and the earth with his hands, and creates the sun, the moon and human beings.

Shui

Yaxwuc

Va

Moik

He creates the god of heaven and the goddess of earth as well as the ten thousand things in the world.

Yao

Miloto (female)

He creates heaven, earth, sun, moon, and the twelve male gods and twelve female goddesses who then create human beings and the ten thousand things in the world.

Yi

(1) Yisa

He creates the world as well as the ten thousand things in the world.

(2) Heiaiboluosai

He lays an egg which transforms into heaven, earth, sun, moon, and stars. And instructs gods how to rule the world.

(3) Adi

He creates four pillars to hold heaven and earth.

Kazakh

Jasağan

He uses pebbles to make fire. The floating steam becomes the sky while the descending steam becomes the earth. He creates sun, moon and celestial bodies.

Uyghur

Tangri (female)

She creates heaven, earth and the ten thousand things in the world.

190

wu bing’an

Table 4 (cont.) Ethnic groups

Main gods

Motifs

Kirgiz

The god of cosmos

He makes the moon and puts it in the sky. He creates the earth and the ten thousand things in the world.

Manchu

Aabkai hehe

Ewenki

Bolhong bagshi

This goddess creates heaven, earth and the ten thousand things in the world. From mud he makes the ten thousand things in the world from mud.

Oroqen

Unduri

This Goddess gives birth to men and women and let them produce human offspring.

Daur

Tengeri barkan

This god of heaven creates human beings from mud.

Tables 2, 3 and 4 demonstrate the rich variety of creation myths found in minority cultures, a variety that can easily compete with varieties of myths in other cultures worldwide. The creation gods in China can generally be classified into four types: the first is the sole creator god who creates the world himself/herself; the second type represents a divine couple, or a divine brother and sister pair, or in some cases, a pair of gods who are brothers; the third type is a group of gods one of whom is the main god while numerous myths are interdependent. The sharing of myths or parts of myths across different ethnic groups is extremely obvious. No less than in other parts of the world there has been a long-standing cross-cultural exchange between Chinese ethnic minority groups and the Han culture. The origin and development of such myths cannot always be traced back, but various elements such as the names of gods, heroes and other characters or certain themes are mutually borrowed or exchanged and woven into other stories. The story of Pangu is a clear case in point as Table 5 demonstrates:

chinese creation myths: a great discovery

191

Table 5: Pangu creation myths7 Ethnic group

Main gods

Motifs and their variations

Han

Pangu

He divides heaven and earth, and transforms into the sun, the moon, mountains, rivers, grasses and woods.

Miao

(1) Pangu

He is born from an egg, and divides heaven and earth, then transforms into the ten thousand things in the world.

(2) Pangu, Nanhuo

Pangu creates heaven whereas Nanhuo creates the earth.

(3) Pangu, Qinghao

They create the world and transform into the ten thousand things in the world.

She

Pangu

He creates the world and the ten thousand things, including thunders, winds, clouds, sun, moon, mountains, rivers, landscapes, fields, stones, jades, human beings, emperors, people, and family names.

Yao

Pangu

He uses harrows to create mountains, rivers, plateaus, heaven and earth; and gives birth to ten thousand people as well.

Bai

Elder brother Pangu and younger brother Pansheng

They cooperate in creating heaven and earth, and transform into the ten thousand things in the world.

Tu

Pangu

Huntun lays a stone egg and the egg gives birth to Pangu. Pangu creates a two-storey sky with an extra golden layer for the sky.

Lisu

Pangu

He creates heaven and earth. He plants a pumpkin giving birth to a brother and a sister. The two people then generate human offspring.

7

Cf. Tao and Zhong (102–38) and Ma Changyi (1996:34–530).

192

wu bing’an

Table 5 (cont.) Ethnic group

Main gods

Motifs and their variations

Maonan

Brother Pan and sister They give birth to human beings. Gu

Dong

Pangu, Gulao

Gulao creates heaven and earth and Pangu creates the ten thousand things in the world. The two gods give birth to twelve gods of heaven and twelve gods of the earth, who create nine human emperors and bring forth human beings.

The Pangu creation myth has been enriched during its circulation among a large number of ethnic groups, restoring the sketchy and simple records of the myth in ancient documents into vivid stories, showing the charming unadorned style that are typical of ancient myths. And endless variations demonstrate the tremendous vitality inherent to the legacy of myths. As we know now, mythical narratives and origin stories from various ethnic groups exist in considerable quantity. They have been transcribed, edited, and published. In China’s remote villages, oral myths are still intact. They have been preserved thanks to continuous performance over thousands of years, a real miracle discovered over the past decades of anthropological and folkloristic research. So, what to conclude from the great discovery of the wealth of creation myths originating from China’s minorities? 1. Ancient myths were often adapted to and inserted in epics by strolling minstrels. They were transmitted from one generation to the other and moved from one culture to the other, as it happened long ago in Greek and Hindu myths and epics. At present, this ancient experience of myths and epics is still prevailing in various ethnic groups in China. Even though, in the early 1980s, the international epic research community acknowledged the three major epics in China (i.e., the Tibetan “Gesar”, the Kirgiz “Manas”, and the Mongolian “Janger”), many continue to repeat the old mantra that Chinese creation myths, epics, and origin stories do not exist. The international origin of this error dates back to Hegel’s Aesthetics written about 150 years ago,

chinese creation myths: a great discovery

193

in which he argued that the Chinese do not have epics of their own, because ever since the beginnings of history they rather viewed the world in prose and conceived historic reality in a prose arrangement. Moreover, their religious views were not suitable to artistic expression either, and got in the way of the development of the genre of epic (170). Apparently, Hegel’s opinion was exclusively based on the dominating Han culture. He was unaware of the large number of minority cultures in China in his time, and of their rich legacy of myths and epics. However, Hegel’s inference has such a profound international impact that part of the international community of mythology specialists still clings to this opinion in our time. As for the domestic academic circles, over the past decade they have gradually begun to appreciate the great discovery of the creation and origin myths. This happened mainly after the major media in China had officially stated to the world that a Han myth, was now discovered The Legend of Darkness in Shennongjia, Wushan Mountain, where the ancient cultures of Ba and Chu live together. 2. Among the various mythological epics, those from minority cultures, especially in the southwestern part of China, are quite outstanding from the perspective of the richness of their content and the perfection of their art. The myths in all those cultures have their own creation gods, pedigrees of divine generations and often even a legacy of more than one series of creation myths within one and the same culture; in the meantime, there are several creation myths shared by both Han and minority cultures. Ever since the early twentieth century, the Chinese research community had ignored the ethnic characteristics of Chinese mythology for nearly half a century and erroneously concentrated on Han culture as the sole orthodox culture, while denying the convergence and overlapping of marginalized minority cultures and Han culture. They kept repeating that Chinese myths are scattered and fragmentary, merely on the basis of Han’s ancient books or records. They not only excluded the oral myths and epics of minority ethnic groups from their research, but also failed to take oral Han myths and epics into account. Those parochial ideas came to an end after The Legend of Darkness and a batch of myths prevailing in the central plains of China had been collected from Shennongjia, Mt. Pangu, Mt. Kuafu and Nüwa city in Henan province, and successfully published (Fig. 30). The great

Figure 30. “Nüwa Creates Human Beings,” modern wall painting, shrine of Duke of Zhou, Qishan county, Shaanxi province.

194 wu bing’an

chinese creation myths: a great discovery

195

discovery of Chinese creation myths remedied the errors and patched up academic biases and deficiencies within China and abroad which had dominated the academic scene for nearly one century. In recent years, Ito Seiji (1997) a famous Japanese mythologist specializing on Chinese myths, expressed in his articles the hope that thanks to this discovery of innumerable myths originating from different minority cultures and of the Han creation epic The Legend of Darkness in Shennongjia and The Myths in the Central Plains of China in Henan province, Chinese mythological researches will move in to enlightened new directions. This hope continues to inspire new expectations for Chinese mythology cherished by scholars both at home and abroad. 3. The various myths referred to are inextricably woven into the local reality of people’s lives, and connected with the current customs, cultural activities, beliefs and moralities of the cultures concerned. Anthropologists and folklorists primarily focus on the historical, social and cultural functions of those “living myths” as expressed in the local performances which are still of immense significance for the development of those cultures. In his German Ideology Karl Marx said that initially the emergence of thoughts, ideas and consciousness were directly interwoven with human beings’ material activities, their exchange of products, and their everyday life and language (30). And this is the very nature what the Chinese creation myths have reflected exactly. Bronislaw Malinowski (73), anthropologist and initiator of the functionalist school stated that the continuance of myth does not merely rely on its literary interest, but they also offer a picture of primitive society and they still have an impact on current social institutions. The function of myths is to justify the structures of contemporary society by means of past events and precedents, by connecting current customs and hierarchical relations with the origin of moral values, social arrangements and wizard beliefs from the past. At present, various ethnic groups in China are undergoing a transformation from traditional society into modern society; hence the myths and the comprehensive ideologies they reflect are to be treasured as a crucial cultural legacy. 4. The great discovery of Chinese creation myths offers overwhelmingly new material for mythology research as such, but also opens the doors of many treasure houses for research in philosophy and other disciplines in the humanities. The magnificent cosmogonies unfolded in these myths provide philosophical studies undoubtedly with a most precious insight in mythical thinking. Numerous myths about human

196

wu bing’an

origin provide archeological studies with their numerous observations about the foundations of ancient societies. Their creation myths are the philosophical bases for peoples’ religions. Multitudinous “unearthed” imaginary images in myths remain to be appreciated, explored, interpreted, and re-created by estheticians, artists and scholars of literature and arts. The great discovery of Chinese creation myths in large quantities is bound to wield profound influences upon the prosperity of contemporary humanities. In his Religions of Capital Paul Lafargue (5) ingeniously called myths “the treasure houses for preserving the recollections of the past.” Without myths, these houses of memories will be forgotten forever. Now that academic communities have cast their eyes on Chinese creation myths, we predict that in the new millennium the humanities will reveal splendid achievements in creation mythology worldwide.

MINORITY CREATION MYTHS: AN APPROACH TO CLASSIFICATION Wang Xianzhao Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Abstract Creation myths of Chinese ethnic minorities are rich in content and types, and urgently need to be classified. Firstly, according to their different creators, the creation myths of Chinese minorities can be divided into nine types: A1) creation without creator; A2) creation by gods; A3) creation by divine figures; A4) creation by religious figures; A5) creation by cultural heroes; A6) creation by ordinary people; A7) creation by animals; A8) creation by plants; A9) creation by lifeless subjects, etc. Secondly, according to the different ways of creation, creation myths can be divided into eight types, namely B1) natural birth; B2) huasheng (metamorphosis);1 B3) transformation; B4) egg-birth; B5) production; B6) marriage; B7) pregnant birth; B8) gansheng (induction), etc. These types can be further divided as well; such as “transformation” can be further divided into “complete transformation” and “part transformation,” “body transformation” and “corpse transformation,” etc. Thirdly, creation myths can be divided into four types according to different creation results: C1) the creation of Heaven and Earth; C2) the creation of all things; C3) the creation of human beings; C4) other. This paper discusses and proposes a practical classification of China’s minority cultures’ creation and origin myths. Keywords: minority myths, type, motif

I. Types of Creation Myths The origin and development of myths is a product of collective ancient wisdom and long-term social activities, and it is also an outcome of human thinking of certain phases of development. Theoretically, in parallel with the history of human development, a timeline of the 1

Editor’s note: Cf. zisheng (abiogenesis) in Jung Jaeseo’s paper in this book.

198

wang xianzhao

occurrence and evolution of creation myths can be drawn accordingly. Before analyzing the types of creation myths, it is necessary to first answer some questions about “myth,” “type,” and so on. The Contents of “Creation Myth” Undoubtedly, “creation myth” is mainly defined by its content, e.g., the “world” created in various myths. In Chinese, the “world” is shi jie. And in classics, shi means “from ancient times till now,” and jie represents “all sides including above and below.” Then afterward, shi jie became a generic term for time and space, space especially meaning Earth on which human beings are living. There are some controversies existing in the definition of creation myth. Here are some different points of view. 1) Creation myth refers to the creation of the universe, as the great background for human’s living. 2) Creation myth contains the origin of the sun, the moon, the stars and the origin of everything else. 3) Creation myth is concerned with the origin of human beings. In the words of the Russian scholar Boris Riftin: “Myths about human origin are one part of creation myth, and probably the most ancient part. Since the cosmic vision is a product of an advanced consciousness, archaic ethnics usually did not produce myths to create or explain the structure of the cosmos, but only the myths of human origin” (Riftin, 69). Quite a few Chinese scholars have similar opinions; some believe that along with the myths of universe creation, the myths of human origin occupy an important place in creation myths, and usually stand as the center of series of creation myth (Tao & Mou, 156–7). 4) Creation myth contains the origins of seed, customs, the social order and some other cultural origins. 5) Creation myth just explain nature or natural phenomena, and like some researchers have stated: “The myth of Pangu was still very popular among the She, Yao, Dong and Miao ethnic groups in the southwest of China, and taken as the myth of their own ethnic origin. Then as the myth evolved, it became the nature myth of the creation of the universe” (Yuan 436). In this paper, I will analyze various mythical narrative contents, and explore to what extent creation myth is mainly a narrative about the origin of universe and all the things, and to what extent the myth of human and cultural origins complement it.

minority creation myths: an approach to classification 199 The Concept of “Type” The classic I Ching (Book of Changes) comments on “type” as: “like attracts like, and birds of a feather flock together.” Literary critics have different views of “type.” The American scholar Stith Thompson focuses on type’s thematic function or motif. Thompson defines motif as “the smallest element in a story”, it has the ability to remain consistent in the tradition. In order to possess this ability, it must own some unique power, as a special quality (Thompson 499). In general terms, “type” refers to a complete story, and is made up of several motifs in a relatively fixed order. Some Classifications Taking into account the influence of so many geographical, cultural and historical factors it is no easy task to classify the creation myths of China’s ethnic minorities. Scholars have widely different views of typological classification: 1) Some scholars consider creation myths as “cosmogonic myths” and believe that under the umbrella of creation myths, there are cosmogonic myths, myths of re-creation of the universe, myths of integrated creation of the universe (Liu 12–24). 2) Encyclopedia Britannica classifies creation myth into six types: creation by creator, creation through emergence, creation by world parents, creation from the cosmic egg, creation by Earth divers, creation by corpse transformation. 3) Japanese mythologist Takaki Toshio (1876–1922) wrote in Comparative Mythology (1904) that myths of universe creation basically are either the oceanic type or the continental type. In the latter case, there are the corpse transformation type and the egg-birth (the separation of Heaven and Earth) type (Chen, cf. chap. 7). 4) Japanese scholar Obayashi Talou views universe creations as two types, i.e., the “creation type” and the “evolution type.” 5) Chinese scholars usually link cosmogonic myths to the birth of Heaven and Earth, and classify them into: autogenous, viviparous, oviparous, beginning, creation, and deformation (Tao, cf. chap. 4). There are problems in the above classification methods, especially when they are applied to ethnic minorities in China. E.g., in their

200

wang xianzhao

creation myths, the “Earth diver” type includes both “creator” and “world’s parent” elements, and the “cosmic egg” can be unified with the “creation through emergence.” Therefore, it is necessary to standardize the classification of creation myths. In this paper, I use motif data in order to introduce a classified inventory of minority myths. II. Basic Types of Creation Myths of China’s Ethnic Minorities Nine Types of Creators A1) Creation without a creator. A Blang myth says that Heaven and Earth were in chaos with floating clouds at first, then they separated after a volcanic eruption ( Wang Guoxiang 56–79). In a Jino myth entitled “A Mo Yao Bai” (Zhongguo 1987:297), it is said that in primeval times, there was only water. Then two pieces of ice exploded, the heavier one descended and became Earth, while the lighter one ascended and turned into Heaven. In “Past History of the Heaven, the Earth, the Sun and Stars” (Lahuzu 14), a Lahu story, the world was in chaos, and then a fireball flew into it and burned it. The air lifted up as Heaven, the ash dropped down and became Earth; and the red stones turned to be the sun and the moon. In this type, the world came usually into being by its own natural power; some outside influences may be mentioned, but the concrete main body of the creation is always ignored. A2) Creation by gods. In “Sïryïr jerdi tirelew” (The Sacred Bull Sustains the Earth) (Manduhu 57), a Kazakh origin myth, the god spent six days in creating the sky and seven days in creating Earth. And according to the Blang story “Gumiya”, the giant god Gumiya and his twelve children created Heaven and Earth. The Dai story “In payap” (Zhang 44) says that the god In payap created all things, and human beings as well. Nonetheless, in Chinese minority myths, there are more goddesses than gods, such as the goddess Weangz jax ( Wang Shiqing 51–2) in the Bouyei myth, the Miao goddess Lof Dik, the Dong goddess Sax Tiip Bas, the Shui goddess Yaxwuc (Yan 8–9), the Mongolian goddess Empress Maidar,2 and the Manchu goddess

2 Goddess Mader Opening up Heaven and Breaking up the Earth”, collectiing and processing by Yao Baoxuan. In Minjian wenxue, 3 (1986).

minority creation myths: an approach to classification 201 Enduri gege abkai hehe (Dacidian 392–4),3 and so on. These myths attach great importance to the goddess’ pregnancy and birth-giving power. A3) Creation by religious figures. The Salar story of “Khudai Blows to Create Heaven and Earth” (Manduhu 96) says that, when Heaven and Earth were in a chaos, Khudai blew into it, and Heaven and Earth were separated then. According to the Yugur story “Ahlgas” (Yang 346) Sakyamuni asked the Green Dragon and the White Elephant to erect four pillars in the four corners of the world, so that Earth appeared, and the mountains and rivers were created. In some ethnic minorities, the concepts of the religious figures and the “god” are not clearly differentiated. E.g., the Ewenki myth “Bogda shirittanzhi beywe yuuguse ning” (The Heavenly God Creates Man by Mud) (Dacidian 136) tells that Nishan Shaman shot at a sacred turtle, and then the sacred turtle’s four legs became four pillars, so that Heaven and Earth were divided. Here the Shaman was considered as a “god.” A4) Creation by cultural heroes or divine figures. In the Korean story “Chang se ki” (Dacidian 60), it is Pangu that separated Heaven and Earth. And in “The Source of the Heaven, Earth, Human and All the Things” (Dacidian 169), a Hani myth, we are told that from a giant rock a man was born. Then this man shot Heaven in order to shoot down all the things. In the Jingpo myth “Jan hkang ai ganu” (The Mother Who Drives the Sun, in Gu 468–79), the creator Nengguanwa created Heaven and Earth. And in the Lhoba myth “The Wuyou Brothers” (Dacidian 390), the Wuyou brothers churned the sun, the moon and the Big Dipper out of a cauldron, and they scattered the soil on rocks to create the plain and the prairie. The Nu story of “Cuohaiwanhai”(Tao 1985:28) says that, at the beginning, Heaven and Earth were very near, then the giant Cuohaiwanhai set up pillars to support the sky and lifted up a bonfire to make the sun. The cultural heroes and the divine figures in this type usually carry vivid national characteristics, and show evident national features. A5) Creation by ancestors. The Pumi story of “Jisaiji” (Dacidian 519) says that the ancestor Jianjian conquered the fog sea and the

3 Zhongguo Geminzu Zongjiao yu Shenhua Dacidian [ Religions and Myths of all Ethnic Minorities in China]. Beijing: Xueyuan Publishing House, 1990. Hereafter referes to as “Dacidian.”

202

wang xianzhao

fire sea, and then he created Earth and killed a deer to produce the sun, the moon, the stars and all the things. “The Apuduomo Stone” is a Yi myth imagining that, when their ancestor Apuduomo died, his hair became cloud and fog, his eyes became stars, his breathe became wind. And the Bouyei story “Xaux faanhyiangh” (The Creation of All the Things) says that, the human ancestor Buling used pure and impure air to create Heaven and sky, and he changed red and white rocks into the sun and the moon, then he asked a yellow dragon to carry the sun and the moon into the sky. In this type of myths, the creator is usually described as the ancestor. A6) Creation by common people. In the Kazakh story of “Kök oalay köterilgen” (How Did the Heaven Lift), there is a hard-working woman Malayi who lifted Heaven. And in the Yi Genesis song “How Did the Heaven and the Earth Separate,” it says that in the ancient times, Heaven and Earth connected with each other, then a couple came out of a cave. They shouted so loudly that Heaven ascended and Earth descended. And in the story of “Bausyah xailrih” (Azu Ploughed the Earth), a young man Azu ploughed out rivers, mountains, and planes by a buffalo. In this type of myth, the creator often is a common man without any special position. A7) Creation by animals. The Kirgiz story of “Mallard Lufur” tells that, in primeval times, the world was in chaos, then mallard Lufur took some feathers from its chest and built a nest. This nest floated on the water, and gradually became the land. In a Derung story, “The Great Ants Separated Heaven and Earth,” ants destroyed the nine high boards connecting Heaven and Earth, and then Heaven and Earth were separated. And in the Hani story “Yeilbei hoqbei”, a big golden fish flapped its fins, so that Heaven and Earth were created; then it wobbled scales to make the gods of Heaven, Earth, the sun, the moon and human beings. The Lisu story of “Muguaji” (Tao 2006:113) tells how monkey created the world and the first humans. In the above stories, animals are presented as creators, but the plots are quite different in the very sculptures. Some have something to do with the animal totems, some are related with the worship of animals, and others may result from analogies. A8) Creation by plants. In the Dai story “Batama punsanglok” (Universe Creation), the creator spread the seeds of bottle gourd all around Earth, so that millions of flowers, grasses and trees sprang up, and innumerous birds, animals, insects and fishes were created. In the Miao story of “Yaya Shoot the Suns and the Moons” (Tao 2006:113),

minority creation myths: an approach to classification 203 a big peach tree bore a big peach, and when it became ripe, it fell into Earth and became rotten. The peach juice changed into rivers and sea, a worm appeared and changed into dragon, tiger, horse, cow, goat, pig, dog, chicken, duck and birds. The contents in this type of myths usually are center around the plants. A9) Creation from objects. In the Bai story “Laogu and Laotai” (Dacidian 12) gigantic waves separated Heaven and Earth. In “Aoq ssol mil” (Heaven and Earth), a Hani story, we are told that, in ancient times, Heaven and Earth were in a pond. Then the water evaporated to become Heaven, and the leftovers in the pond became Earth. And Heaven went on releasing two masses of air; one became the sun, and the other one, the moon. In the Dai story of “Batama Pumsanglok” (Hubameng 15–6) millions of years ago, three kinds of air mingled to create Earth, and the remaining air, fog, and wind turned into the earliest god Yingba. The above nine types can then be divided into more sub-types by certain standards. For instance, in “creation by god,” the “god” can be subdivided into pairs of gods, such as “god of Heaven” and “god of Earth”; or into “god” and “goddess”; “a single god” and “a group of gods,” and so forth. In a Manchu story, “Tugi gege” (Princess White Cloud), the little daughter of god princess White Cloud stole the divine soul to create the mountains and the rivers; this story belongs to the creation by goddess, and could also be considered as the creation by a single god (Fig. 31). And the Miao story “The Tribulation of Creating the Sun and the Moon”—in which Grandfather Heaven and Grandmother Earth used a cauldron to produce Heaven and Earth, and Grandfather Bao, Grandfather Song and Grandfather Qiu made the sun and the moon by gold and silver—is an example of creation by a group of gods. Eight Types of Creation Procedures B1) Creation from emergence. In a Mongolian myth, the chaos separated by itself. In a Tu myth we are told that, after Heaven and Earth separated naturally, the sun and the moon appeared. And in the Yi story “The Combat of Gods”, the wind appeared first, and its blowing produced a white and a black cloud. Both the white and the black clouds exploded; the white cloud ascended to become Heaven, and the black one descended to become Earth. In the Zhuang story “Baeuq roxdoh” (Gu 68–89), a great rock split into two parts, then

204

wang xianzhao

Figure 31. Mural of the Tibetan myth “Raksasi and Monkey,” Potala Palace, Lhasa.

minority creation myths: an approach to classification 205 one part ascended to become Heaven, and the other one descended and became Earth. Myths of this type, mainly representing the motif of chaos, can be divided into three kinds: solid, liquid and vapor forms. Some myths even directly apply the two types of egg-birth and the movement of the pure and impure airs to explain the appearance of Heaven and Earth. B2) Creation by huasheng (metamorphosis). The Mongolian story of “Tengger gajar burildugsen domog” (The Creation of Heaven and Earth) tells that, in ancient times, the universe gave birth to black and white, purity and impurity. The purity became Heaven, while the impurity became Earth. In “Danglngonz riangz roonghndianl” (Dangwan and Ronglian, in Dacidian 44), a Bouyei story, a young couple sacrificed themselves to turn into the sun (Dangwan) and the moon (Ronglian). The Lahu story in which “Ana and Aluo created Heaven and Earth” (Dacidian 375) presents that a brother and a sister called “Bottle Gourds” changed into the sun and the moon. Answering the question where human beings come from (Gu 299) a Bai story tells us that a long, long time ago, two suns crashed each other, so that one fell into the water hole of the sea and created a meat ball, and then this ball changed into all things. And according to a Tu myth, a stone egg was born in chaos, and in the egg Pangu was created; Pangu then created Heaven and Earth. In this type of myth, the importance of huasheng is emphasized, no matter whether the body changed into the sun and the moon, or a stone egg gave birth to Pangu. And if this type connects itself with the above main body classification, some new extensions will be produced, such as the “huasheng of corpse” can be divided into “corpse huasheng of the god,” “corpse huasheng of human,” “corpse huasheng of animal,” and so on. B3) Creation by transformation. The Manchu story “Sun biya hada” (The Mountains of the Sun and the Moon) tells that, the god’s little daughter digged out her own eyes, and turned them into the sun and the moon. And according to the Hani story “The Bull Chaniu Mended the Heaven and the Earth”, the great god Apimeiyan killed the bull Chaniu, and turned its blood into the cloud, its breath into fog and dew, its keen sight into the thunder, its nasal mucus into the rain, its eyes into the brilliant rays of the sun and the moon, its molar teeth into the morning star and the Big Dipper, its incisors into the stars all over the sky, its large intestine into the milky way, its small intestine into the rivers, its backbone into the bean columns of Heaven

206

wang xianzhao

and the sky, its ribs into the rafter to support the sky, and its bones into the high mountains. And in the Lhoba story “Caqniuq aoq ssol mil duvq” (Three Divine Bulls) an iron ox dies, and its hair became trees and grasses, its bones became rocks and mountains, its blood became rivers, and its internal organs became animals and insects. In this type of myth, although the importance of gods is stressed, the creation process mainly depends on the similarities between the “deforming objects” and “natural phenomena,” and finally leads to huasheng. There are both connections and differences between huasheng and deformation. The two concepts are not intrinsic to myth research, but have been introduced into the study of myth narratives and plots. And some scholars wrap these two concepts up into one. The most obvious similarity between the two is that they both contain the meaning of “change.” If there is no change, then there will be no new thing appearing. Usually, “huasheng” emphasizes the fundamental processes of change between two objects; while the motif of “deformation” pays attention to the changing appearance of the object, while their nature remains unchanged. B4) Creation by birth from egg. The egg-birth type can be further divided into two sub-types: one is natural hatching from egg; and the other one is egg-birth by external force. One example for the former one is the Tibetan ancestor myth. At the beginning, a big egg was created by nature, then the eggshell became white sacred precipice, the egg white became the white-snail sea, and the egg yolk became humans and all kinds of animals. The Zhuang myth tells that there was a great mass of air, rolling more and more quickly, and then turning into an egg. The egg continued to change into Heaven, sea and Earth (Gu 68–89). The example for the latter sub-type comes from the Tajik creation myth of the first human beings. It says that Allah divided the egg into two parts, one as Heaven, and the other one as Earth (Dacidian 68). In the Yi story of “The God Heiaiboluosai” (Yizu 320) the god Heiaiboluosai gave birth to an egg, the eggshell became Heaven, the egg white became the sun, the moon and the stars, and the egg yolk became Earth. In “Kgul Laox Nyimp Banc Kgul” (Gulao and Pangu, in Yan 3), a Dong story Heaven and Earth were in chaos, which was like an egg, and Gulao separated the two from inside the egg. The “egg” in world egg stories is often related with the concept of “chaos.” And the main feature of egg-birth narratives is their placing emphasis on the egg-birth origin of the universe and all things.

minority creation myths: an approach to classification 207 B5) Creation by production. This type is the most common one among all creation myths that I know. In the 261 myths I collected so far, there are 186 stories of this type, 72% of the total. And this type can also be divided into two sub-types: creation and repair. The former one usually emphasizes the tools. In “Jasaǧan” ( Jiasagan Created the world), a Kazakh myth, the creator first created Heaven and Earth, and then the sun and the moon from his own heat and light. In the Blang story “Payaying and the Twelve Waxi” (Bulangzu 173), there were Xishuangwaxi (twelve planets) apart from Earth, and they radiated heat and light onto Earth. And the son of the great universe god Payaying gathered the heat and the light to his left eyes, then he dig out the eye and hung it in the sky to make it the sun, and he also made mountains and rivers on Earth. “The Tujia creation of Heaven and Earth” (Gu 165) presents, the Jade God asking Zhang Gulao to create Heaven and Li Gulao to create Earth, whereas a Va story entitled “Sigangli” presents the gods Liji and Lu’an as the creators of Heaven and Earth, sun and moon. A She story “Gaoxin and the Dragon King” tells that Gaoxin made the sun from pine branches and the moon from willow branches. And the type of repair stories often adds the plot of repair to the basic process of the universe creation. The Dong story, “Gkeip Menl Gkeip Dih” (The Creation of the Heaven and the Earth) (Yan 6), is an example: at first Dianguang and Zhuyi made Heaven, then Ciguang and Yuewei made Earth, at last the Giant Baohai rubbed and squeezed Earth to make mountains, valleys, flatland, and rivers. And the Miao “Song of the Universe Creation” tells that Heaven consists of white mud, and Earth of black mud. Fufang shouldered Heaven and trampled Earth, and then he made from gold and silver a pillar to support Heaven. B6) Creation by marriage. “Kawokapu Created All the Things” (Dacidian 121) is a Drung story: in ancient times, the sun mated with the moon, and thus everything was created. “Sijinjinbabanadaming and Jinnimaibao”(Dacidian 121) , a Lhoba myth, has another idea: Heaven got married with Earth, they gave birth to the sun, the moon, trees, flowers, grasses, birds, beasts, insects and fishes. And according to “Sadanglang” (Tao 2006:63), a Yao myth, the sun and the moon got married and gave birth to twelve suns and moons. This type shows human’s preliminary understanding of the concepts of yin-yang. In most of the minority cultures, creation is based on the marriage of sun and moon.

208

wang xianzhao

B7) Creation by pregnancy. In “Naqtul deivq qivq aqma” (Dacidian 168) the Hani tell that the brilliant ancestor Princess Golden Fish bore Heaven and Earth, and also bore nil, an-nil, yellow, red, green, white, black, flower, birth, death, big, small, half and so on. In the Tibetan myth “Sphrul-gri-sprul-pa” (The Creation Ancestor Turtle) (Dacidian 744–5), the giant turtles are to be divided into four kinds, which were borne by elements, temperature, pregnancy, and egg-birth. They gave birth to time, day and night. There is usually no marital relationship appearing in this type; most of the stories belong to natural pregnancy and birth. B8) Creation by gansheng (induction). Abka gurung i afan (The Fight in the Heavenly Palace) is a Manchu story telling that the goddess of fertility Duokuohuo lived in a rock at the foot of a snowy mountain; Heavenly god Abukahehe ate the rock as food, so that his abdomen melted, his eyes turned into the sun and the moon, his hair turned into forests, and his sweat turned into rivers. And the Uyghur have a story, Ajal ilahniy jartili (The Goddess Created the Universe) telling that in ancient times, there was no sun, no moon, no Earth. Then a goddess breathed and spitted out the three of them. The main bodies of creation in this type often create the universe by magic interaction with certain outside objects. Five Types of Creation Results C1) Creation of the universe. This type can be subdivided into two sub-types: one is the creation of Heaven and Earth; and the other is the creation of natural scenery. The former one is a very common type. For instance, the Nu story of “Lapu and Yani” (You 21) says that Lapu and Yani created Heaven and Earth. The Va have another story in which Heaven and Earth were tied by a cane. A god cut off the cane, and then Heaven and Earth were separated. In “Zih deecqbenl zih zenlgungz” (The Creation of the Universe and Human) the Shui tell that, when the first human was created, Heaven and Earth were in black chaos, but witch Ya came to open the sky, so that Heaven and Earth came into being, as well as the sun, moon and stars. Some examples for the sub-type of the creation of natural scenery are: a Bouyei story entitled “Xaaux faanhyiangh” (The Creation of All the Things) (Dacidian 44), in which a girl married a descendant of sun “Langqiao” and gave birth to “thunder.” A young man married Princess Moon “Langqiao” and gave birth to “lightning.” Quite a few

minority creation myths: an approach to classification 209 girls married stars and then “wind” was born. A young man married the milk way, and gave birth to “rain.” Sometimes the two sub-types are combined. For instance, “The Slaughter Song of Deer” (Pumizu 123), a Pumi story, presents the head of the red deer which turned into the blue sky, its teeth turned into the stars, its eyes turned into the sun and the moon, its body turned into Earth, its heart, lung and liver turned into mountains, its intestine turned into rivers and roads, its skeleton turned into the vein of Earth, its gall turned into rainbows, and its blood into the dragon lake and sea. And the Bouyei tell in their story “Weangz onsndonl riangz weangz banzgox” (The Kings of Chaos and Panguo, in Wang Qingshi 53), that the King of Chaos breathed out air and changed it into fog, and then fanned the air to turn it into wind. At the same time, the King of Panguo cleaved Earth into two parts by whip, the upper part changed into Heaven, and the lower part changed into Earth. In Heaven appeared the sun, the moon and the stars; on Earth, there were rivers and mountains. C2) The creation of all the things. The contents of this type are quite diverse. Some of the myths directly narrate the creation of all the things. In the Lahu story of “Xeul Sha Created the plants and the Insects” (Dacidian 176) it says, Xeul Sha created a big tree by her sweat dirt, then the tree changed into all the things. However, in some myths, the creation targets are specifically pointed out, and they can be divided into the following kinds: (a) Animals. In “Ailuopuwo” (Bulangzu 179) the Blang people tell: the human king Ailuopuwo took birds from Heaven. (b) Seeds. According to the Uyghur story, “Insanlar qatandin balap zirat teri,iqa baliran” (How Men began to plant crops), it was Heavenly god of mercies who offered the seeds of crops to human beings. And the De’ang tell in “The Bottle Gourd and the Men” (Dacidian 94), that Heavenly god took the seeds of maize, rice, bean, wheat, melon, fruit, gourd, and so on. (c) Tools. In “Xaaux xianlyiangh faanhyiangh” (The Creation of All the Things) Bouyei present ancestor Wengga as the one who created the field, mountains and rivers, she created trees and bamboos: she created plow, harrow, hatchet, and chisel, she created boiler, ladle, and bowl, she created pestle, millstone, stone roller, sieve, dustpan, table, and chair, she created clothes, dress, necklace, bracelet, and earrings, she created cotton bow, spinning wheel, and loom, and she also created the yukin, the vertical bamboo flute, and the bamboo flute, etc.

210

wang xianzhao

C3) The creation of the first humans. The number of myths about the origins of humanity or first clan ancestors is large. The human origin myths of Chinese ethnic minorities can be mainly divided into the following types: various main bodies created human; gods, plants or animals give birth to human; creation by huasheng or deformation; creation by marriage; creation by induction and pregnancy; regeneration of humanity after a great flood; human creation by nature, and so on. Among them, every type contains rich contents, such as the marriage between sun and moon, the marriage between gods and goddesses, the marriage between humans and gods or immortals, the marriage between human and animals, the marriage between animals, the marriage within blood relatives, and so on. And they can all ly at the origin of humanity’s coming into being. C4) Order. It can be divided into many sub-types as well. (a) The order of the world. “The Sun, the Moon, the Star” (Cao 16–8) is a Bouyei telling that, after the flood, king Pangu created the three realms, which included the upper one, the medium one, and the lower one, and then he continued to create the world order. (b) The order of the time. In the Bai story “Father Earth King Managed the Four Seasons” (Dacidian 22), Fuxi decided to separate a whole year into four seasons, then the brothers Pangu and Pansheng asked the five brothers Gold, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth to manage together, which means each one managed seventy and two days in turn. In the Hani story “Albol tul” (Cutting the Big Tree) (Tao 1996:54), people counted the numbers of the branches and leaves of a big tree, and as a result determined there should be twelve months and 360 days in a year. (c) The order of astronomical phenomena. The Daur myth says that the sun was a god, the moon was a goddess, and their paces were different. (d) The order of life and production. For example, according to a Derung myth the god Gemeng distributed the word and the language (Dulongzu 204), and in the Yao story “Sadanglang” (Tao 2006:63), Miluotuo asked tiger and bear to manage the mountains, and goat and river deer to manage the trees. C5) Others. Most of the myths pay attention to a comprehensive result. For instance, in “The Origin of Human Beings”, the Li tell that, in ancient times, Laoyi planted the melon, and Laoai planted the white cane and bore a big bottle gourd. In the gourd, there were man, cow, pig, chicken, birds, snake, centipede , and so on. And in the Zhuang myth we are told that in the olden days, Buluotuo cut an

minority creation myths: an approach to classification 211 iron tree to support Heaven and create Earth. He also dug the Red River, and created cow and rice. Then he taught people how to fish, feeding chickens and ducks, and how to build houses (Tao 1996:71). And in their creation story “Miloto” (Tao 1996:91) the Yao tell that millions of years ago, Miluotuo created Heaven by his master’s rain hat, and used the master’s two hands and two feet to support Heaven, and then he applied the master’s body as a pillar to support the center. In this way, he created Heaven and Earth, and finally finished creating all the things. I have made a table here to compare the above three different analytical perspectives and their relationships: Table 1: Type system of the creation myths of Chinese minorities Classification Code Creator

Means of creation

Type

A1 A2

without creator gods

A3 A4 A5

religious figures cultural heroes or divine figures ancestors

A6 A7 A8 A9 B1

common people animals plants objects nature

B2

huasheng

B3 B4

transformation egg-birth

B5

fashioning

Sub-type

god; goddess; gods.

Relations of types B1 C1–C5 C1, C2, C4

male ancestor; female ancestor.

gaseous state; liquid state; solid state. huasheng of gods; huasheng of human; huasheng of animals; huasheng of plants. with external forces; without external forces.

B2 B2, B3 B2 A1

B4

C2 B1, B2 A2, A3, A4, A5, A6

212

wang xianzhao

Table (cont.) Classification Code

Result of creation

Type

Sub-type

Relations of types

B6

marriage

A2, A4

B7 B8

pregnancy gansheng (induction)

the marriage between gods; the marriage between god and human; the marriage between human and animals; the marriage between animals; the marriage between kinsmen.

C1 C2

universe all the things

C3

human

C4

order

C5

others

gansheng of gods; gansheng of animals; gansheng of plants; gansheng of objects. Heaven; Earth. the sun, the moon and the stars; mountains and rivers; animals and plants. the male ancestor; the female ancestors. the order of the world; the order of the time; the order of astronomical phenomenon; the order of life and production.

A74 C3

A2 B1, B3, B5

A1–A9; B1–B8 A4

minority creation myths: an approach to classification 213 III. Complexity Creation myths, no matter whether they concentrate on Creator or on the process or its result, all consist of several elements, more than once in combination. We will discuss a few points: 1) In some myths, there is more than Creator. E.g., in a Zhuang myth, a kind of five-color air cooled off and turned into a sacred egg with three egg yolks; then this egg was rolled by a dung beetle and stung by a bollworm, and finally blew up into three parts—Heaven, Earth and waters (Liang 158). In some other myths, cultural heroes and animals create the universe together. In the Miao song “Hxak Lul Hxak Ghot” (The Old Songs), quite a few chapters, such as “Tid waix xit dab” (The Creation of Heaven and Earth), “Qab nix qab jenb” (Transporting Gold and Silver), “Dib nix dangt dongs” (Setting up the Pillar and Supporting the Heaven), “Liub hnaib dangt hlat” (Casting the Sun and Making the Moon), and so on, depict different scenes in which a group of giants and gigantic animals cooperate in creating the universe: the cloud and fog creating a big bird; the big bird creating Heaven and Earth; the giant Poupa separating Heaven and Earth by means of a hatchet, and the giants Grandfather Ba, Grandfather Yang, Grandfather Bao, Grandfather Xiong, Grandmother Ba, Grandmother Liao, and all members of the family cooperated in the creation. 2) There is a certain ambiguity in the various characters names. In some myths from the remote past, a few names of gods and deities may have died out, or been distorted, or altered on purpose. Especially, in the process of collection, arrangement and translation, a large number of artificial factors have played a part. Some concepts and expressions referring to “god” do not always have the same standard meaning. E.g., the “creators” in Jingpo and other minorities’ myths are totally different from those in western myths or religions; they just act as cultural heroes. And this also holds for the “gods” or “Heavenly kings” who create humans in some myths. And in other myths’ the names of gods probably bear the imprint of a certain background. For example, the Mulao “Jade King” and the Shui “goddess” are images combining ideas about deities originating from their original religions as well as from Daoism. 3) Analyzing the stories from different angles, we cannot deny certain inconsistencies and deficiencies. In the Yugur story “Ahqas” (Yang 346–7), for example, in ancient times, only Heaven and sea

214

wang xianzhao

existed, and Sakyamuni asked Green Dragon and White Elephant to transform the sea into land. However, they failed, and then Sakyamuni supported Heaven by a horse-like pillar; hence the sea became smaller and the land appeared. In this story, there is no clear description of the creation of Heaven and Earth. In the Gelao myth about “Heaven and Earth” (Tao & Zhao 324), there is Dragon King Zhang who created Heaven, and Dragon King Li created Earth, but Heaven was narrow and Earth was wide. After Heaven was torn apart, Nüwa patched the holes in the sky with stone blocks. In this story, “Dragon King Zhang” and “Dragon King Li” can be seen as gods which classifies them in the type “creation by god”, and as animals. Another example “Naqtul deivq qivq aqma” originating from the Hani culture, says that after the powerful ancestor Goddess Golden Fish had created Heaven and Earth, frog and buffalo committed themselves also to the work of the creation of Heaven and Earth. These situations are mainly related to changes in and combinations of stories in the process of handing down oral traditions. Relativity of Classifications of Types The creation of the universe is a process consisting of different main motifs. Given the complexities and inconsistencies, we may need classificatory differentiation for the same myth type or motif. For instance, when studying creation myths of the huasheng type, we can classify the stories by creators, as follows: 1) Huasheng of gods. In “The Origin of the Heaven and the Earth” (Gu 293), a Bai story tells that Pangu turned into both Heaven and Earth. Then, after he died, his left eye changed into the sun, his right eye changed into the moon, and his teeth changed into the stars and rocks. 2) Huasheng of humans. In the Dong story “Origin of Species” (Yan 71) we are told that, after Heaven and Earth appeared, the eccentric Xing Lang was born. When he died, his nose became a hound, his eyes became a bird, his mouth became a cuckoo, his teeth became a mouse, his heart became a monkey, his bone became an ox, his head became a bottle gourd, his brains became tofu, his leg became trees, his hands became melon and fruit, his excrement became soil, his urine became rain and dew, his large intestine became a finless eel, his small intestine became a loach, his ears became edible fungus, and

minority creation myths: an approach to classification 215 his hair became witch grass. And in “The Giant Youlu,” a Mulao story, all natural things on Earth originate from the body parts of giant Youlu. 3) Huasheng of animals. In the Blang story “Gumiya Created the Heaven and the Earth”, the divine giant Gumiya stripped off the hide of a rhinoceros and made the sky from it, he dug out its eyes to create the stars, and changed its flesh into Earth. Then the rhinoceros’ bones became rock, its blood became water, its hair became flowers, grass and trees, its brains became human beings, and its marrow became birds, beasts, insects and fishes. Besides, there is the huasheng of lifeless objects as well. The above examples show that no table will supply an absolutely objective classification of creation myths. Indeed, not only the storytellers and myths carry subjectivity within themselves, but also the different contexts of researchers themselves will influence the result of analysis. Intersection of Types Intersections among types are very general, given the rich contents and complexity of creation myths. Only by looking into a myth from various perspectives methods and by making a comparison, can we locate it properly. For example, in the Yi story “Heiaiboluosai Created Heaven and Earth” (Yizu 320), we are told that, after god Heiaiboluosai died, his nipples changed into mountains and hills, his toes and fingers changed into ridges, his head changed into Heaven, his heart changed into Earth, his bones changed into stone, his stomach changed into sea, his large intestine changed into big rivers, his small intestine changed into streams, his flesh changed into tiger, panther, boar, mule and fox, his hair changed into trees and grasses, and his blood changed into gold, silver, bronze, iron, and tin. Obviously, the types of “huasheng” and “deformation” are intersecting in this myth, and it will be difficult to classify all the changes in this story clearly. In particular, over the generations, simple stories about the origin of things developed into an extensive narrative content which consisted of a number of separate episodes coined together and woven into a long creation narrative, along with the expansion of human activities and cultural exchange between different ethnic groups. Those stories and elements of stories were recomposed and assembled together by some individual storytellers, ethnic chiefs or religious leaders, for aesthetic, political or religious reasons, respectively. Thus, at last they

216

wang xianzhao

formed a complex unity at last. That is how the intersection of narratives came into being. Combination of Types In the process, form and result of the creation of the universe, there are also combinations of different types, as follows: 1) The combination of egg-birth and deformation. In the Miao story “Pangu Created Heaven and Earth”, after Pangu was born from an egg which grew as long as it saw the wind, he separated Heaven and Earth. When he was too tired to live on, he fell down and his heart changed into the sun, his gall changed into the moon, and his eyes changed into the stars. 2) The combination of egg-birth and production. According to a Yi myth, in primeval times, Heaven and Earth were in chaos. And from the exploding balloon of chaos, a brother and sister pair was born. The brother created Heaven, and the sister created Earth. In the Tu “Song of the End of the Chaos Circle,” a stone egg germinated in chaos, and this egg gave birth to Pangu. And he created the universe, and set up the thirty two Heavens. Then Princess Nüwa cut off the tongue of a gold toad to patch Heaven, and completed the whole of thirty three Heavens. 3) The combination of egg-birth and huasheng. In the Nakhi story “The Human Ancestor Chongrenlien” (Gu 415–8), the green air of the universe produced the white light, and the light turned into sound, and the sound changed into god. The god gave birth to an egg, and from the egg a white chicken hatched. The chicken broke the cloud and the fog, and showed the sun, the moon and the stars. At last, this strange chicken spread its feathers on the ground and made them into grass and animals living on the grass, such as wagtail, raven, butterfly (Fig. 32). 4) The combination of huasheng and pregnancy. “Aoq mil col deivq” (The Creation of the Heaven, the Earth and Humans), a Hani story, depicts how, in ancient times, fog turned into boundless ocean, and a fish was created in the ocean. The right fin of the fish changed into Heaven, its left fin became Earth, and its back changed into Tapo (a goddess), and Tapo gave birth to tiger, eagle, and dragon, and so forth. When the dragon grew up and became the dragon king, he presented three thick bamboo tubes as a gift to Tapo. In those bamboo

Figure 32. Eagle with two pig (or bear) heads as wings, jade, Lingjiatan culture, c. 3300 BC, Anhui province.

minority creation myths: an approach to classification 217

218

wang xianzhao

tubes there was gold, silver, copper, and iron, the seeds of the five cereals (rice, two kinds of millet, wheat and beans), livestock, birds and beasts. 5) The combination of marriage and production. In the Miao story “The Creation of Heaven and Earth”, in ancient times, there were Incubation Grandma Bonipa and Incubation Grandpa Yonglipa who copulated with each other and gave birth to Zhaolizi (male) and Gaonizi (female). Finally, the brother and the sister spat silver and mixed it with mud to create Heaven and Earth. 6) The combination of production and deformation. In “Miggo,” another Yi story, Heavenly god Vo mu ge nzy changed gold and silver fruits into man and woman and asked them to create Heaven and Earth. Then he made the head of Heaven from a tiger’s head, the tail of Earth by its tail, the sun by its left eye, the moon by its right eye, the sunlight by its whiskers, the stars by its teeth, the cloud by its fat, and so on. As we have seen, an amazing wealth of creation myths exists among Chinese minority cultures, many of which have variants told by different story-tellers, or by the same storytellers on different moments. The ways in which they combine and fuse and change motives and types have an impact on the structures of the stories, which need to be taken into account for researchers working on classifications.

HUMANISM AS A PARADIGM OF CREATION MYTHS Liu Yahu Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Abstract This essay begins with the Shang oracle bone inscriptions, surveys the records of creation myths in the ancient books from Qin through Han dynasties, and concludes with three archetypes of creation myths originating from agricultural ancient China, followed by a detailed analysis of three types of narratives which I will situate in the living creation myth traditions of ethnic groups other than Han. I am going to explore the social context, the psychological drive that compels people to create these archetypes, and the humanism manifested in these paradigms. Through narrative, Chinese creation myths put forward the traditional Chinese concept of “harmony between man and nature” as a characteristic of Chinese people. Keywords: Huaxia, archetype, humanism

In ancient literatures, ancestors of the Chinese people, like in other cultures around the world, showed a strong interest in the making of the “universe” and its structure. Over two thousand years ago, poet Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BC) posed the following questions in his poem “Tian Wen” (Asking the Universe):1 “Who devised yuan (the round universe) and divided it into nine circles? And who undertook such a marvelous project?” In Chinese classics, yuan refers to the celestial body, that is, the “round heaven” in the Chinese phrase “tian yuan di fang” (round heaven and square earth), which can be seen in the entry this character has in an early 2nd century Chinese dictionary Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters). Ancient Chinese people’s interest in the origin and creation of the universe revealed in classics leads to my assumption that creation myths might have flourished during the cradle time of the civilization of China. I am now going to trace the origin of Chinese creation myths.

1 This long poem consists of 173 questions about the universe, the earth, nature, society, history and life.

220

liu yahu I. A Survey of Possible Creation Myths in Chinese Classics

Chinese creation myths, in terms of their contents, can be dated back to times immemorial. However, only the relics and ancient books can be used to outline the first written versions of Chinese creation myths. I will start with the Shang Oracle bone inscriptions, the oldest Chinese written characters ever discovered. Shang oracle bone inscriptions are the written characters carved or written into tortoise shells or animal bones, used by the royal families of the Shang dynasty to document their divination. The divination directed towards Di (Divinity) or Shangdi (Heavenly God) involves a wide range of issues such as weather, fishing and hunting, farming, punitive expedition, sacrifice, and so on. Questions asked could be: “Will Di command that it rain?”, “Will Di command no wind?” or “If I prompt a crusade against Qiong Fang, will Di consent to it and bless me?” In terms of mythology, the presence of the supreme deity “Di” or “Emperor” in the text is what Shang oracle bone inscriptions pay most attention to. Judging from the various contents of divination, it can be seen that God not only dominates nature, in command of weather and climate, but also is preoccupied with all sorts of societal services and is endowed with the diversified characteristics of a supreme deity. Nevertheless, among the unearthed oracle bones, there is no account of Di’s creation of the world. One may wonder: where did Di originate from? Or, what was the prototype of Di? In order to answer those questions, let us return to divination activities. There are records about the late ancestors of Yin (or Shang) people, who were guests inhabiting the place where Di resided, which indicates that Di was directly related to the ancestors of the Shang dynasty.2 Moreover, divination is always directly addressed to Di, and only occasionally to Forefather Qun, e.g., “prayer for help from Forefather Qun” or “prayer for crops to Forefather Qun,” which shows that Di and Shang ancestors are interrelated. For the moment we will leave the question as to whether Di and Forefather Qun are the same person. The prayers suggest at least that both Forefather Qun and Di, has the power to dominate the world.

2 According to the funeral customs of southern ethnic groups and Song Hun Jing (The Book of Sending Souls), the place where souls are sent for rest is exactly the place where the ancestors lived.

humanism as a paradigm of creation myths

221

As for Forefather Qun, the consensus in the intellectual world is that he is Emperor Jun3 as depicted in Shan Hai Jing (The Classic of Mountains and Rivers). There are two records about Jun that seem to be somehow related to the act of creation, i.e., “The wife Xi He gave birth to ten suns” in the chapter “Dahuangnan Jing” (Classic of the Great Wilderness: South) and “The wife Chang Xi gave birth to twelve moons” in the chapter “Dahuangxi Jing” (Classic of the Great Wilderness: West). Both records bear some relation to procreation in creation myths, and can be justifiably considered as one of the archetypes of Chinese creation myths. Moreover, the Yin people may have had creation myths of their own inspired by the pattern of procreation by the ancestor god. After Yin people took over the supreme power in Central China, their ancestor god was venerated either as Di or as the ruler of the world who shared the same rank and honor as Di. Shang Shu (The Book of History) and I Ching (The Book of Changes) appeared in Zhou, the dynasty following Shang. Shang Shu contains accounts of the words and deeds of the kings or sages of Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, among which the nineteen articles in the chapter “Zhou Shu” (The Book of Zhou) are considered relatively reliable. According to this book, at the very beginning, the Zhou dynasty made a sacrifice to Di (it means emperor here, different from the Shang dynasty). Later on, on more occasions, sacrifice was made to Tian (Heaven), and thus Tian became the supreme god in the place of Di. Furthermore, Tian gradually moves beyond the role of ancestor god, and is then endowed with the quality of substantive reason. Hence, the concept of de (morals) is brought forward. For instance, they held the belief that their king Wen was “virtuous himself and cautious about punishment”, and thus he was “appointed by Tian to bring Yin to destruction” (chapter “Kang Gao”). It can be seen that “Tian requires no other assistance than morals to govern the world (chapter “Cai Zhong Zhi Ming”). As we know, the Zhou dynasty brought down Yin with the support of Fang Guo (an ally of some kingdoms preceding the establishment of the Zhou dynasty). In this case, such a belief might serve to unite all powers in their battle against Yin. Or this could be a conclusive commentary on the successful practice of consolidating the

3 In Chinese, 夋 (Qun) and 俊 ( Jun) appear very close and used to be interchangeable in ancient writings.

222

liu yahu

royal power. Then as Tian gained transcendence after throwing off its role as ancestor god, the personified Heaven also disappeared, and, simultaneously, the creation myth relating the personified Di or Tian ruling the world as the creator becomes out-of-date. During the Spring and Autumn period, the Zhou royal power declined, and its affiliated states were drifting away. At the same time, in the intellectual world of ancient China that was comprised of shi (literati), variegated schools flourished. Concomitantly, the status of Tian as a ruling power was declined as well and subject to doubt. The consciousness of a personified spiritual god faded away. In their spiritual exploration, men of letters in different situations committed themselves to constructing their theories about the original of the universe. In some cases, their theories involved creation myths of all sorts that had been passed down. Towards the end of the Spring and Autumn period, the Zhou dynasty witnessed the corruption of its institution and social proprieties, and there was subsequent social unrest. Confucius, who devoted his whole life to studying the rites of the Zhou dynasty, put forward the concept of ren (benevolence) with exercising kind-heartedness towards others as its basic tenet, and built up the Confucian ideal of promoting morals and governing the country. Noticeably, in describing the human effort to practice ren, Confucius alluded to the presence of another ruling power besides human power, that is, ming or tianming (fate or destiny). According to “Xian Wen” in Analects of Confucius, Gongsun Liao attacked Confucius’ belief, which was made known to Confucius. Confucius ignored this, asserting, “If Dao is to be exercised, it would be ming; if Dao is to be abolished, it would also be ming. What can Gongsun Liao do with ming!” Ming here might carry both the meanings of shiming (fortune or luck) and tianming. Shiming is affected by the current situation, whereas tianming is determined by Tian. The meaning of Tian here seems to be more ambiguous: usually it is used to illuminate both the blessed qualities such as morals and values, and the ultimate dominant power that had been endowed ever since the Zhou dynasty. In addition to Confucianism, Daoism is another influential school in the Qin dynasty, with Laozi as its founder and dao as its core tenet. Dao literally means the road, and subsequently refers to the regularity or prescribed rules. Laozi systematically analyzed dao in terms of metaphysics. He depicted how dao begets everything:

humanism as a paradigm of creation myths

223

Dao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets all. Everything shuns yin (shades) and seeks yang (sunshine); yin and yang, the two types of qi, fight their way into coexistence, and they remain in the state of harmony. (Chapter 42, Dao De Jing)

There are three places where numbers are used for specific implications. According to words like yin, yang and qi in the last two sentences, together with other statements by Laozi, the number “one” might refer to the mess of chaos; “two” is the separation of yin and yang; “three” is then the combination of yin and yang. In this sense, this paragraph actually indicates that dao has its own form and quality, always subject to changes. This then presents a narrative outline of Chinese people’s observation of the role qi played in the making of the universe, qi being the original formation and then being transformed, taking various shapes. Hence, the narrative evolves from “Qi Origin” to “Qi Transformation.” The theory that qi is the original formation of the universe can be dated back to ancient times. The chaper “Zhou Yu” (The History of Zhou) from Guo Yu (The History of the Warring States) already has accounts of Yang Bofu’s observation about the cause of earthquakes to the effect that “qi in Heaven and Earth moves remains in order.” It implies that this concept (“Qi Origin”) had already gained influence at that time. The movement of yin and yang is a distinctive element of the theory of “Qi Transformation.” The differentiation of yin from yang initially came into being when our ancestors were observing the universe’s weather forecasts for the benefit of farming. They quite likely referred to sunset and shady places as yin, and sunrise and sunny places as yang. “Gong Liu” in Shi Jing (Book of Songs) narrates that Gong Liu, a Zhou ancestor, when migrating to a new place, observed sun shades over the hill and faced the south. Later on, yin and yang became more and more abstract in their implications. Both concepts, for instance, work their way into the belief that the driving force of heaven and earth is qi which includes yin and yang. Yang Bofu, as mentioned above, also explained the occurrence of earthquakes in detail: “yang is suppressed and cannot ascend by itself, while yin suppresses and does not release yang; hence, an earthquake happens.” In time, qi is regarded as the origin of everything, and thus the movement of yin and yang becomes part of the creation process, as illuminated in the aforesaid Dao De Jing: “Everything shuns yin (shades) and seeks yang (sunshine).”

224

liu yahu

Dao in Laozi’s theory can also be called Taiyi (chapter “Tianxia” of Zhuangzi states that the basics of Laozi’s theory is Taiyi ), and has more ramifications in the Qin dynasty. Among the bamboo slips of the Warring States period unearthed in Guodian of Hubei province in 1993, a passage entitled “Taiyi Begot Water” relates, “Taiyi begot water. Water in turn assisted Taiyi in creating the sky. Then the sky in turn assisted Taiyi in creating the earth.” Also in “Shui Di”, a chapter of Guanzi, shui (water) is considered to be “the origin of everything.” Therefore, it can be noted that in ancient China there was not only a theory of “qi-revering” but also a theory of “water-revering.” More traces of such creation myths passed down to the present era from the Qin dynasty are found in the Chu Silk Manuscript unearthed in Changsha in 1942.4 The whole manuscript can be divided into three parts, while the eight-lined passage on the right is what the scholars have called “the Mythology Chapter,” in which the origin and creation of the universe are implicitly described, together with the portrayal of some legendary figures. According to contemporary scholars Rao Zongyi, Li Ling and others’ interpretation of these ancient Chinese characters, there is an excerpt to the effect that: Before the making of heaven and earth, the world was in a state of chaos. Paoxi (Fuxi) and Nüwa married and gave birth to four sons who turned out to be the four deities representing the four seasons. Because they knew the rule of yin and yang, they created heaven and sky. Later on, Yu and Qi co-managed the earth, set up laws that enabled the world to operate in order. At that time, there were no sun and moon, and the four deities represented the four seasons in turn. More than one thousand years later, Emperor Qun brought out the sun and the moon, which helped bring peace and security to the nine regions. The four deities also made the dome of the sky and made it move. Yandi (the Yan Emperor) commanded Zhurong and the four deities to establish the four pillars. People all showed respect to heaven, dared not disregard the deity, and prayed for a peaceful life. Emperor Qun then established the rules for the sun and the moon to abide by when they moved (Rao 150).

Relying on relevant records from ancient Chinese books, scholars have come to a better understanding of the manuscript. In the Qin dynasty, the ruler governed the country, with the assistance of the thoughts of Fajia (the Legalist School ). The core of

The Chu silk manuscript is now located in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington DC, USA. 4

humanism as a paradigm of creation myths

225

Legalism is to promote a combination of law, strategy and power in ruling the country. The apt use of this combination assisted Qin in bringing the other six kingdoms to destruction and founding the first nation with centralization of state power and authority. But this theory arises from the belief about humanity that “everyone is self-interested” (chapter “Waichushuo Zuoshang” of Hanfeizi ). The emperor shared the belief in human selfishness and considered his people unreliable, which consequently intensified the tension between the emperor and his people, and between the feudal lords and common people. Finally, a war broke out and brought about the downfall of the Qin dynasty. At the beginning of the Western Han dynasty, some scholars undertook to analyze the root cause of Qin’s destruction. They concluded that the Legalist School defined human nature in terms of “preference for good and repulsion against harm” and proposed that human reason should be used to set up law and restrict human nature. In this way, man and Heaven were situated in terms of being contradictory opposites. While the Qin despotism sheds light on the limitations of man, its destruction suggests the limitation of establishing a legal system by means of human reason (Feng 193–216). In this case, the return to “Heaven,” to Dao and to conviction became a heated topic of debate in the Han dynasty, which brought out a considerable number of works with creation myths as their core plot, like Shan Hai Jing and Huainanzi. Huainanzi was compiled by Liu An (179–122 BC), King of Huainan, and his retainers at the beginning of the Western Han dynasty. The “Liu An Zhuan” (Biography of Liu An) in Han Shu (The Book of Han) claims that Liu An “desired to practice yin morals,. . . left a good name to the posterity, gathered retainers of several thousands, produced the works Nei Shu (Huainanzi ) with twenty-one articles in it,. . . essays about immortals practicing alchemy.” There are some collections of creation myths in this book, and here are some fragments of the core plots: “Tianwen Xun” (Patterns of Heaven): “The universe begot qi (atmosphere), which had its borderline. The light and limpid qi ascended and made up the sky, while the heavy and turbid descended and made up the earth.” Up to now, among all Chinese classics available to modern readers, this is the only clear picture of how the original formation of qi or atmosphere came to create the sky and the earth. “Jingshen Xun” (Seminal Breath and Spirit): “Before the making of heaven and earth, the universe was formless,. . . there were two deities coexisting, and ruling heaven and earth,. . . split apart into yin and yang, and then the eight pillars were formed. The force and tenderness

226

liu yahu

mixed and matched, bringing out everything. Turbid qi turned into animals, while limpid qi changed into human beings.” This is another example of the presence of a deity creator in the narrative of the atmospheric origin of universe. “Lanming Xun” (Peering into the Obscure): “In ancient times, the four pillars were broken, and nine regions of ancient China split apart . . . Then Nüwa refined stones of five colors to patch up the sky, broke down the feet of the sea turtle to prop up the four pillars, killed the black dragon and saved Jizhou (the central region), amassed reed ashes to stop the flood.” This story is concerned with making the earth by means of soil spread over water and setting up pillars to support Heaven. This is the main plot of the creation myth that considers the origin of the universe to be water. I see this as you the earliest form of Chinese creation myths. Different sections of Shan Hai Jing had been brought out at different times by different authors, but the whole book was finally compiled by Liu Xiu of the Western Han dynasty. The collections of this book include some creation myths, and one volume called “Hainei Jing” (Classic of Regions within the Seas) narrates how Gun “stole earth from the emperor so as to stop the flood.” This story obviously involves the plot of the creation myth about water being the origin of the universe. Wuyun Linianji (A Chronicle of the Five Circles of Time) by Xu Zheng from the Kingdom of Wu during the Three Kingdoms period, also relates in detail the creation myth about how Pangu “transformed his body into the universe”: “First, Pangu was born. When dying, he changed himself. His breath was turned into wind and clouds, voice into thunder, left eye into the sun, right eye into the moon, his body into four pillars and five mountains . . . ” Back in earlier times, the Yin creation myths appear to be simple in their plots. Let us leave them aside for the moment. But here and now we can notice that the archetype of Chinese creation myths must have come into being, when people mainly engaged in agricultural farming (while some nomadic people lived on farming and hunting). The paradigms of Chinese creation myths can be classified into the following three types:5 (a) The original form of the universe is gas (or qi ), or goes unmentioned; the gas in motion brings out the creator; the creator splits the sky and the earth apart, and governs them respectively.

5

The three archetypes are to be elaborated in part II of this paper.

humanism as a paradigm of creation myths

227

(b) The original form of the universe is either liquid or gas-liquid; the liquid or gas-liquid in motion brings out the creator; the creator makes the land out of soil, and catches animals to bear the ground. (c) The original form of the universe is gas (or qi ), or liquid, or it is not mentioned; the gas or liquid in motion brings out the creator; the creator makes everything out of its own body or some animal’s. The civilization of the Huaxia or Han people began its development in relatively earlier times, so there is only a modest legacy of rough accounts, and there are no full records of such archetypes in the ancient books of the Han dynasty. Yet they are well preserved as living stories among ethnic minorities with complex relations to Han traditions. Such records would greatly enhance our understanding of Chinese creation myths. And a combination of records from both Han and other ethnic cultures will hopefully provide a panorama of Chinese creation myths. II. Creation Myths in Other Ethnic Cultures in China Chinese traditional culture, especially its early products such as creation myths, has been passed down among various modern ethnic groups in variegated forms. Yet the stories this share a lot in their essence. According to the historical records concerned, after China stepped from ancient times into patriarchal society, there were major tribes named after Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor), Yandi (the Yan Emperor), Taihao, Shaohao and San Miao, etc. The legend relates that Huangdi conquered the country after fifty-five battles, among which he beat Yandi in Banquan, beat Taihao, Shaohao and Chi You in Jizhou and Zhuolu, and secured the power as the head of the allied tribes. Later on, Yao, Shun, and Yu in the lineage of Huangdi, after prolonged battles, beat San Miao and formed a stronger alliance in the midstream and downstream of the Yellow River and the Jianghan Plain. Hence, the tribes of Xia, Shang and Zhou came out. At the same time, some groups among these three ethnicities persisted with their own tradition and developed into ethnic minorities like Di Qiang (northwestern barbarians), Bei Di (northern barbarians), Dong Yi (eastern barbarians), Nan Man (southern barbarians) and so on. After the Zhou dynasty

228

liu yahu

came into being, there was the law of enfeoffment imposed upon feudal lords of the same or different lineages who were then called Xia or Zhuxia. Hence, the early form of Huaxia. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the interaction with the surrounding tribal groups brought more tribes into a united ethnic group called Han. Simultaneously, after suffering the complication of realignment and regrouping, those surrounding tribes who persevered in their own traditions developed into China’s current ethnic minorities. The majority of them resided in the frontier mountainous area or grasslands, and lived by farming and husbandry and other means. In comparison with the Han, these ethnic minorities preserved their wizard culture and group culture for a longer period. The shenwu (wizard) culture is the soil where mythology grows and flourishes. It began in ancient times, and gained popularity in the Shang dynasty. After the Zhou dynasty, the ruler learned from the Shang dynasty, and their consciousness of ghost and deity gradually faded, whereas the tribal groups around them were little influenced by those changes, due to different circumference and societal factors. Nevertheless, among various societal organizations, those in charge of sacrifice rituals still held important positions. For instance, according to the old Hani song “Woguocheniguo Zhipijue,” the ancient Hani society in the south operated through the institution including the chieftain, beima (priest or sorcerer), and craftsmen. The chieftain managed political affairs, beima, religious affairs, and craftsmen, techniques of production (Old Song of Hani People 253–291). Such an institution lasted for a long time until the early 1950s. Moreover, in the 1950s, though their societal clan forms diversified, the majority of the ethnic minorities maintained their group culture. Group members shared the same totem, forefather or deity, the birthplace of their civilization and destined place, tradition and culture, and constantly involved themselves in group work, such as communal sacrifice, singing, dancing, etc. These activities provide a humanistic ambience significant to the circulation of myths and other cultural elements that represent collective consciousness. Therefore, up to the 1950s, the creation myths, popular in many places especially among the southern mountainous farming people, more or less retained their original function in people’s lives. They were sung on sacred occasions such as sacrifices made to the founding forefather, and thus their vivid performances were well maintained. Amidst the variety, there is a comparatively full narrative and

humanism as a paradigm of creation myths

229

procedure of sacrifice and other events imbued with wizard implications. They are living fossils displaying the formation of ancient Chinese creation myths. This is of great significance to our understanding of the means of circulation of early creation myths, the profound psychological motivation behind the making of myths and the embedded humanism (Fig. 33). A case in point is the Woluo Festival of the Achang people in Lianghe county of Yunnan province. In the first month of the lunar New Year, they make sacrificial offerings to their founding forefathers Zhepama and Zhemima, and invite a huopao (priest) to chant “Zhepama and

Figure 33. Mural of the Tibetan myth “Minister Lo-ngam rebels against King Drigum Tsenpo,” Potala Palace, Lhasa.

230

liu yahu

Zhemima”, the ancient song referring to do own creation myth. The song narrates the story of how they weaved the sky and created the earth, shaped golden sand into the sun and silver sand into the moon, shot down the faked sun created by the demon Lahong and gave birth to nine ethnicities form gourd seeds. At the center of the Woluo square they would build up two memorial arches, with the sun portrayed on top of the left arch and the moon on the right. Colorful pictures of men and women are erected under the left and right arches, representing Zhepama and Zhemima respectively, and alluding to their effort to create the sun and moon. Between the tops of the arches they erect a huge bow and arrow called the “Magic Bow and Arrow,” implying that Zhepama used the arrow to shoot down the faked sun and raised the sun he created to illuminate the world again. The Achang people chant this myth in order to promote the spirit of their forefathers and to command weather and climate, praying for another year of adequate sunshine, and praying for the possibility of avoiding flood or draught. They believe that by relying upon the ancestor’s creative power, their prayers would work ( You 53–4). Such performances of creation myths represent the subconscious motivation behind the invention of creation myths in the agriculture society in an earlier period. The people created one or more images that unify their yearning for controlling nature and having a firm foot in the society. They expected to keep nature under control, thanks to the power of those images. In this way, out of the necessity of sacrifice and sorcery that are directly related to farming, the forefathers created a series of myths full of such images, capable of creating everything in the world (and hence, of controlling the whole of nature), their own ethnic group and the entire human race. In this sense, it would not be difficult to understand why most forefathers share the qualities with those of the chieftains in the agricultural society, or why they are directly presented as the ancestor of their ethnicity. It is easier, then, to understand Chinese creation myths of all types and the initial drive toward the making of such myths, and to have a good mastery of their narrative plot. We begin with type (a). Narrative of this archetype can be found in ancient Chinese books, e.g., the aforementioned Huainanzi excerpts. Similarly, such ethnic minority myths also begin with the self-movement of the original atmospheric formation and proceeds to the gradual formation of their founding forefather or other images. Here are some vivid examples:

humanism as a paradigm of creation myths

231

In “Baeuq roxdoh and Meh Loeggyap” of the Zhuang people, the story develops like this: in the era of chaos, the universe was surrounded with a mass of atmosphere or qi. It gradually accelerated to a rapid rhythm, and then took the shape of an egg. Later on, the egg broke up into three pieces, with one piece ascending and changing into the sky, another descending and turning into water, and the last piece, the earth. All of a sudden, out of the earth grew a flower, and out of the center of the flower, a woman was born. She was the foremother—Meh Loeggyap (Lü 603–4). “Meh Loeggyap,” a legendary Yao epic, has a similar story. Long long ago, “there was no earth below and no sky above,” “the yin wind blew year after year, and the yang air stream floated year after year,” “the wind stopped blowing, the air stream ceased floating, and there appeared a milao (granny) in the wind,” and she was the primogenitor deity—Fuhuashe Fahuafeng (Meng 12–3). People believe it is more likely that the original formation of the universe is qi. This idea has to do with the natural surroundings each ethnicity inhabits. In ancient times, the forefathers of most ethnicities chose to settle down where water and sunshine abounded. When the sun was shining, water was heated, rose upward and an air stream was formed. When the temperature dropped, the air stream descended and changed into mist or dew. When the wind blew, the air stream swerved. After the mist and dew were dissipated, the sky, the earth and human beings emerged. It then can be seen that the depiction from the myth—“the air stream quickly swerved, split apart into the sky and the earth, and brought out human beings”—found them its archetype in people’s daily lives. Simultaneously, the forefathers of these ethnicities became settled farmers, devoted themselves industriously to cultivating their land, and their beliefs helped bring out good qualities such as perseverance and simplicity. Notably, the miraculous images they created bear close relations to the land and the people, and find parallels in the movement of the original atmospheric formation of the sky and the earth. In myths of this type, the chief is the prototype of the central character, and the stories tell how hard the central characters worked on creation, instead of presenting characters freely exercising their omnipotence like a “superman.” Still, in the narrative of each ethnic group, the creators have distinctive features, each in their own way. Some scholar suggest that peoples like the Yi from the Di Qiang ethnic group in the highland valleys emphasize the “delicacy” of creation; peoples; the Zhuang from the

232

liu yahu

Bai Yue ethnic group in the uplands emphasize its “naturalness,” whereas the Miao from the Miao Man ethnic group in the mountainous region emphasize its “arduousness.” Despite their disparities, each system of creation myths shares the repeating pattern of creating the sky and the earth, stretching the sky and shortening the earth, patching up the sky and the earth, stretching the sky and the earth, creating everything, and wiping out disasters, etc. Schematically, the process can be presented as follows: Split the sky and the earth apart, and bring out the universe in its early form→make the sky larger and the earth smaller so that the sky can cover the earth→patch up the gaps and holes between the sky and the earth→use all kinds of materials to prop up the sky and the earth, and fix the shaky sky and earth→create everything and accomplish the task of creation→fight against the symbolized natural disasters of all kinds and eventually keep nature under control. This pattern is highly typical of the Yi story Miggo, and also present in the Achang narration of “Zhepama and Zhemima,” the Lahu “Mud phal mil pal” and “The Old Songs of Miao People” from the Miao Man group. The pattern described above and used in these stories illustrates the features of creation myths in different ethnic cultures: 1) Making the sky and the earth: According to “The Old Songs of Miao People,” after the sky and the earth was brought out from cloud and mist, the sky “looked like a huge dustpan,” “the earth was like a large basket mat,” and they “overlapped with each other.” Then the giant Poupa split apart the sky and the earth with an ax for us. Miggo relates that the deity Vo mu ge nzy wanted to create the sky. He laid down nine golden fruits which were transformed into nine sons, among whom five sons assisted him in creating the sky. Then Vo mu ge nzy wanted to create the earth. He laid down seven silver fruits that were changed into seven lasses, among whom four helped create the earth. The five brothers idled the days away by eating and drinking, and amusing themselves, whereas the four sisters diligently made the earth bit by bit. 2) Stretching the sky and shortening the earth: Miggo relates that moths were invited to measure the sky and dragonflies to measure the earth. The earth was then too big for the sky and they did not fit. The three sons of Afu were invited to pull the sky downward so that the sky was enlarged and became concave. Three pairs of snakes were set free to shorten the earth. They circled around the earth, carried it

humanism as a paradigm of creation myths

233

backward, and the earth appeared rugged. Three pairs of ants bit the edges of the earth, and the same amount of wild pigs and elephants wriggled through the earth. Then the sky became larger, the earth smaller, and they finally fit each other. The traditional Chinese concept of Tianyuan Difang (“Round Heaven and Square Earth”) might well have been developed from such mythical sources. 3) Patching up the sky and the earth: In Miggo, thundering was used to test the sky and earthquake to test the earth. When it thundered, the sky was split open. When the earth was shaking, it rifted. Pine needles were used as needles, cobwebs as threads, clouds as patches, and the sky was then patched up. Tiger grass was used as needle, vines as thread, leaves as patches, and the earth was then mended. 4) Proping up the sky and the earth: According to “Mupamipa,” “Xeul Sha rubbed down the sweat of feet and hands, and made it into four pillars,” “and made another four big fishes,” “the pillars were fixed upon backs of the fishes,” and “hence, the sky and the earth were separated”. 5) Creating everything: In “Zhepama and Zhemima,” “Zhepama were kneading the mass of mud in hands, using shiny silver sand to create the moon, and golden sand to make the sun.” 6) Wiping out disasters: Zhepama fought several battles with the demon Lahong who made the faked sun. They first tried the target of peach tree through incanting to see who could make the peach tree blossom and its leaves green. They then tried the item of dream, to see who could have a nice dream. Zhepama won. At last, Zhepama used poison to kill the demon, shot down the fake sun, and sent into the sky the sun made by him. There are many more examples. This type of creation narrative arises not only from various practices of primitive farming, but also from sacrifice and wizardry of all sorts, imbued with mysterious implications. The chief, as the prototype of the creator, also serves as the priest and sorcerer. The plots of creation myths are therefore simple, imaginative and mysterious, reflecting the practical and sophisticated nature of various peoples. Type (b) also appears in Chinese classics like Huainanzi and Shan Hai Jing. Narratives do not directly involve the making of the universe, but they incorporate the core plot of the creation myth that considers liquid or water to be the original form of the universe and the earth was

234

liu yahu

created out of soil. Despite the fragmented records, it is still justified to conclude that this is also one type of creation myth. In some ethnic cultures, the creation scene is directly presented in this type of myth. In the myths of southern mountainous farming people, the creator is born and simultaneously subject to change. The following is a typical example. As the Dai creation epic “Btama pumsanglok” goes, there was no sky and earth, and nothing at all. “There were only smoke and mist rolling, waves of atmosphere rising upward, strong winds raging, and floods rocking.” Strong winds stirred up smoke, mist and waves of atmosphere, and the three sorts of matter were “wrapped into each other and embracing each other” and gradually gathered together, and then “cold winds froze it,” and begot the first deity in the universe—In payap (Yan 2–6). The process of creation is also quite special. After he was born, In payap would like to make a “dirt fruit” and fixed it over the sea by pinching into the shape of fruit the foams and dregs over the sea and the dirt from his body. He “opened his hands, and with effort scrubbed the dirt off,” and “amassed the dregs and scraped the foam back and forth,” and then “held foams in his left hand, dregs in right hand, wrapped them up into ‘dirt fruit,’ and they were cemented into each other.” The fruit-shaped earth was brought out over the boundless waters. A fuller version of this narrative is presented in a good many myths of northern ethnic groups. For instance, in the Manchu myth “Tianshen Chuangshi” (Deity Creating the World), there was no earth at the very beginning, and the sky was inseparable from the water. The deity called Abuka Enduli used soil to make a large expanse of land, placed the land over waters, and ordered three big fishes to shoulder it (Tao 225–7). There are also similar narratives among Mongolian and Turkic (e.g., Kirgiz) peoples. It can be noted that the creation myth of this type is more usually present in the myths of northern ethnic groups. The reason could be that their ancestors live a nomadic life in pursuit of oasis. It also could have something to do with the tradition of the northern myths like the Nüwa myth. Type (c) was evident in books like Wuyun Linianji and Sanwu Liji (Historical Records of the Three Sovereign Divinities and the Five Gods). In the latter, it records that “the sky and the earth were in chaos like the mess in an egg, where Pangu was born.” It can be

humanism as a paradigm of creation myths

235

inferred that Pangu was simultaneously brought out as the atmosphere moved. In the myth “Amo Yao Bai” (literally, the mother who created the earth) of the Jinuo people from the south, Amo was brought out when water moved. This myth relates that there were only boundless waters, with the giant Amo in it (Lü 879). Records about animals being transformed into other beings are absent from ancient Han books, whereas they are well represented in the myths of ethnic minorities. The reason might be that in earlier times people depended much upon hunting and fishing for their daily needs. The protagonists portrayed by some ethnic groups are hunters or fishermen. For example, according to an old mythical Pumi song “Jisaiji” (song about killing the deer), long ago there were no earth and sky. With the help of Bodhisattva, a young hunter shot a red deer dead. He turned the deer into the blue sky, its teeth into stars, its eyes into the sun and moon, its body into the earth, its heart, liver and lung into the mountains and valleys, its guts into rivers and roads, its skeleton into the vein of the earth, its blood into pools, lakes and seas, its fur into grasses and trees, its skin into fascine dams, its fur spots into herds of animals, its tail into pines to be sacrificed to deities (Yang 24–6). Nevertheless, what directly influences the human making of myths of this type could be the fact that they made animal sacrifices to their deities. The Hani “Legend of the Sky, the Earth and the People” appears to confirm this. The story relates that Tapo, who was brought out from the back of the fish, rewarded deities with an ox who made the sky and the earth anew. The deities did not then have the ox killed. Instead, they changed the luster of its eyes into lightening, turned its breath into clouds, and other organs into everything else . . . In this case, the animal is used for sacrifice and endowed with divinity that then inspires human imagination about animals creating the universe. Until now, in the celebration of Kuzhazha (in June of the lunar calendar), one of the three major Hani festivals, they have mainly used oxes as sacrifice. There are stories about aquatic animals transformed into the sky and the earth in the myth of type (c). The aforementioned “Amo Yao Bai” is one example. In the ancient era, there was only a vast expanse of water, with a giant called Baobu (toad) in it. The female giant Amo jumped into the mouth of Baobu, and pulled it apart with effort. Then Baobu’s body exploded, one eyeball changing into the sun and another into the moon. Amo amassed Baobu’s remains that were floating over the water and made them into the earth. And she gathered Baobu’s remains that were floating in the air and pieced them into the sky.

236

liu yahu

The dirt scratched from the body of Amo was then turned into grasses and trees, animals and human beings. When Amo breathed, the wind came along. When she sweated, the rain poured down. The inspiration of such metamorphoses might arise from the ritual sacrifice of human bodies. But it is more likely that people are inspired in their consciousness to hold funerals for those chieftains who have made contributions. Another possibility is that the making of the myth is closely related to people’s perception of the mysteriousness of soul. The consciousness to conduct funerals for ancestors may originate from the belief that “the deceased still have souls that require consolation.” (Fig. 34) At the same time, this consciousness may call people’s attention to the whereabouts of their ancestors’ souls. They see that the bodies of their ancestors are closely attached to the earth, and might have concluded that the bodies will change into some natural elements, inhabited by the souls. With the passage of time, such thinking developed into stories about the ancestors transforming themselves into everything. Accordingly, the central characters of these stories generally are metamorphosed when dying or after death. Pangu in Wuyun Linianji “was transformed into things when he was dying.” Legjax in the Buyi (or Bouyei) tale “Legjax Stretching the Sky” accomplished the same task after death: long ago, there was only 3.33 chi (nearly 3.6 feet) of distance between the sky and the earth. The giant Legjax led people to prop up the sky and kick down the earth. However, the sky and the earth were shaky and unstable. Then Legjax pulled out his teeth to nail up the sky. His teeth turned into a sky full of stars, and the blood oozing out became rosy clouds. He scraped out his eyes that then hung over the sky. The right eye became the sun, the left one the moon. Finally, he was worn out. And the remains of his body turned into everything (Gu 653–5). Old stories about a human body being transformed into everything else find their way into the creation myths of other types, and become part of the creation process led by a creator, such as in the above mentioned Legjax myth. The heroes in these myths constantly display the quality of self-sacrifice and collective morals as highly. Some critics argued that Chinese creation myths have “some quality of creation myths, but lack systematic formation” (Plaks 37). In reality, Chinese creation myths consist of a system of imagery, narrative, and a flexible combination of sacrifice and wizardry. Hence, the myths are imbued with multiple layers of meanings. They form a precious

humanism as a paradigm of creation myths

237

Figure 34. Statue of Jiangyuan (ancestress in the Zhou dynasty), Jiangyuan Temple, Qishan county, Shaanxi province.

238

liu yahu

legacy of Chinese traditional cultures handed down to us from ancient forefathers in a farming-based society. Chinese creation myths imply a close relation between heaven, earth and human beings. Therefore, it can be concluded that from the very beginning, the Dao of heaven and that of human beings are the same, while nature and human society operate in the same way. Chinese creation myths, through the narrative, become the initial endeavor to promote the traditional Chinese concept that “human beings and the universe are in harmony.” This concept broadens the ideal scope of life, together with Zhuangzi’s idea that “Heaven, Earth and I coexist, while everything and I are one,” and the precept in Yi Zhuan: “follow Heaven and Earth in their morals, follow the sun and moon in their light, follow the four seasons in their order, and follow ghosts and deities in misfortunes and fortunes.” Chinese creation myths adequately express the remarkable qualities and ambitions of Chinese people. The creator in the myths from various ethnic cultures, especially the southern ones in farming-based societies, is the leader of their groups. And this creator brings the world into being through hard work. He is ready for hardships and sacrifice, resembling the heaven he has created in its persistence and diligence and the earth he has created in its steadiness and tolerance. The narrative of his creation presents practical, enterprising, and imaginative people, and alludes to their yearning for transcendence and their endeavor to transcend human experience. Thus the values embedded in creation myths last.

PERFORMING MYTHS TODAY: A FIELD STUDY OF THE RENZU TEMPLE FESTIVAL Yang Lihui Beijing Normal University Abstract Differing from most Chinese myth studies that focus on written myths in ancient China, this paper explores the myths orally transmitted in contemporary China. By scrutinizing two events of telling the brother-sister marriage myth in the Renzu temple festival in Huaiyang County in central China, it tries to explore the dynamic process in which mythical texts are performed and shaped, furthermore, to investigate the reasons why myth-tellers perform myth today, and what the function of myth-telling is in their social lives. In addition, it tries out a more comprehensive approach to studying orally transmitted myths in modern society. It argues that mythical texts are formed during dynamic processes of performances, in which myth-tellers practice and embody the relevant knowledge of myth tradition as they grasp it. The processes are often influenced by various complex factors, and therefore produce different versions in the process. The case study demonstrates that through performing myth, myth-tellers not only show their talents and grasp of traditional knowledge in interactions with other participants, but also express their own beliefs in human ancestors and their understanding about ethics, sciences, human origins and the nature of cosmos. As a result, performing myth becomes their own important way of expressing themselves, constructing their social relationships, and fulfilling their social lives. To comprehend these dynamic and complicated processes, we need to foster a more “synthetic approach.” Keywords: brother-sister marriage, contemporary China, performance, synthetic approach

I. Preface Ancient written myths recorded in various documents have been the core of Chinese mythology for a long time. Relying on these ancient documents, or assisted by archeological discoveries scholars (including most Chinese mythologists and sinologists who study Chinese myths)

240

yang lihui

conducted numerous textual analyses on myths of ancient China. By tracing the possible “original” forms of these myths, their transforming tracks during the long history, as well as the “original” appearances and functions of those gods and goddesses, these scholars gained remarkable achievements during the past century. Corresponding with this research interest, methods such as historical document analyses and exegetical studies of ancient texts have played the central roles in the methodology of Chinese mythology. However, as compared to the mainstream of ancient written myths study, investigations on myths still orally transmitted in contemporary China are rather insignificant, or non-existent (Yang 2009 chapters 7–8). The conventional methods such as historical document analyses and exegetical study of ancient texts are insufficient to approach oral myths. Moreover, up till the recent past, the thin studies on myths orally transmitted in contemporary China also have their insufficiencies. Most of these studies focus on textual analyses of myths that are recently collected. The materials used for comparison often cover a wide range of time and space. Thorough investigations of specific myth-tellers and the contexts of myth-telling events are seldom included. As a result, researchers rarely examine the following questions, which are important to myth studies: for instance, how are myths performed and re-constructed in myth-telling events? How about the variations when different myth-tellers tell a same type of myths? How about the dynamic processes in which myths are performed in concrete situations? How do myth-tellers and audiences as well as traditions and personal creativities interact during the process? What are the main forces that finally shape the mythical texts? Are myths transformed to adapt to contemporary societies? And so forth. Because of these deficiencies, myth studies in China often make people “perceive the woods but without seeing single trees”. Although we know the long transforming history of Nüwa myths and flood myths, as well as their wide geographical distributions within the country, we still do not comprehend the very moment when these myths are told and transformed in certain situations, nor do we understand how these myths are told by specific tellers and why they change them, and how a specific version is produced during the myth-telling process).

Figure 35. A group of pilgrims were dancing Danjingtiao and chanting Jingge at the same time to praise the ancestors during the festival in 2006. (Photo by Yang Lihui)

performing myths today 241

242

yang lihui

Considering the shortcomings mentioned above, this paper has two hopes. Firstly, by scrutinizing two events of telling the brother-sister marriage myth in the Renzu (“human ancestors”) temple festival in Huaiyang County of Henan province in central China, it tries to explore the following questions hardly discussed before in Chinese myth studies: how are mythical texts produced in the processes of performances? What kinds of forces participate in the processes and finally shape the texts? Why do myth-tellers keep retelling myths in different contexts, and how? How are myths transformed and utilized by creative myth-tellers to endow their current lives with meanings? Secondly, though this paper benefits a lot from “Performance Theory” (Bauman 1977 and 1986), it also reflects the limitations of this perspective and argues a more “synthetic approach” towards the myth studies. II. Tradition of Brother-Sister Marriage Myth in China Brother-sister marriage myths enjoy worldwide popularity and are especially abundant in East and South-east Asia. Some scholars maintain that this type of myth comprises the culture trait of the culture complex of South-east Asia (Rui 1972:1059). China also enjoys a sheer abundance of brother-sister marriage myths. However, what scholars used to focus on were mainly those versions spread in ethnic minorities in the south, especially southwest China, while those versions that orally spread among Han people, which now make up nearly 92 percent of the country’s population, were considered to be “poor in quantity” for a long time. Even though sometimes mentioned in researches, they took only a subordinate position. In recent years, because of the big progress in collecting folk culture, especially the remarkable achievement of the national project San Tao Jicheng, or the Three Collections of Folk Literature, the versions of this type transmitted among Han people began to show its richness. Among the 418 versions I have collected from various sources, 237 versions are from Han, and they are being told almost all over the country. In some areas such as Henan province, this type of myth seems especially popular. The brother-sister marriage myth has many versions. Its plots vary according to the region, ethnicity and myth-teller concerned. Nevertheless, the basic plot structure remains comparatively clear and stable.

performing myths today

243

The basic plot of this type of myth in China can be summarized as follows: (1) Because of a great disaster (usually flood, also fire mixed with oil, uncommon snow, etc.), all humans in the world were destroyed except for a brother and his sister. (2) They wanted to marry each other in order to repopulate the earth but wondered whether this was proper. (3) So they divined to decide. They agreed that if certain unimaginable things happened (for instance, separately rolling two pieces of a millstone from a mountain and the pieces recovered each other at the bottom of the mountain; lighting a fire from different places, and the two lines of smoke joining each other instead of dispersing, so on and so forth) in a test, they should get married. (4) The unimaginable things all happened perfectly, so they got married. (5) The couple gave birth to normal children or abnormal fetus (such as a spherical piece of flesh, a gourd, a knife stone, and so on), and reproduced new human beings (by opening the abnormal fetus or cutting it into pieces). This above plot structure represents the most common narrative pattern of this type of myth. As for the brother and sister in this type of myth, they usually do not have specific names, only being defined as “a brother and his sister.” Sometimes the variants can be an aunt and her nephew, a mother and her son, a father and his daughter, and so forth. In some versions, the brother and his sister do have their own names, and their names vary considerably according to regions and ethnic groups. But some names are relatively common and stable, for example, “the brother Fuxi and his sister Nüwa” among Han people, “the brother Zhadi and his sister Nadi” (Lahu), “the brother Zhepama and his sister Zhemima” (Achang), and so on (Yang 1999:15–21). Fuxi and Nüwa are both well known primeval god and goddess in Chinese mythology. According to ancient documents, Fuxi invented the Eight Diagrams and fishing net, established the marriage rule, and taught people to cook food. He is also the god of spring and the direction of East. In later traditions he is known as a human ancestor who procreated humans by marrying his sister, often said to be Nüwa, who

244

yang lihui

is the Great Mother of humans, a culture heroine, and one of the most important and powerful primeval goddesses in Chinese mythology. She repaired the broken sky and created human beings by molding them from yellow earth. In other versions she married her brother and produced humans. Many Chinese scholars maintain that Fuxi and Nüwa did not probably have any connections in the beginning, nor have any relations with brother-sister marriage myth. Not until the Han dynasty were Fuxi and Nüwa frequently associated with each other in historical books and funeral stone carvings. And their intimate connection with brother-sister marriage myth may occur even later. Until Tang dynasty, its most comprehensive records appeared in Duyizhi (A Treatise on Strange Beings and Things, by Tang dynasty writer Li Rong, c. 846–874). It stated that at the very beginning of the world, there were no other people except for Nüwa and her older brother. They lived on the mythical mountain Kunlun. They wanted to become husband and wife so as to have children and populate the earth, but they felt ashamed by the idea because of their blood relationship. They prayed to heaven from the top of the mountain: “If Thou wouldst send us two forth as man and wife, then make this smoke gather. If not, then make the smoke disperse.” The smoke gathered immediately, so they got married. However, Nüwa still felt very shy and embarrassed, so that she weaved grass into a fan to cover her face (which explains why brides often hold fans during their wedding ceremonies). Since the brother and sister reproduced (or produced for the first time) humans, they are popularly worshiped as Renzu, or Renzuye (“Grandfather of human beings”) and Renzu Nainai or Renzupo (“Grandmother of human beings”) in some areas. III. Brother-Sister Marriage Myth Performance in the Renzu Temple Festival in Huaiyang County In March and April of 1993, I went to Huaiyang and Xihua counties in Henan province and She County in Hebei province to do fieldwork in order to investigate myths and beliefs of Nüwa for my dissertation. I was accompanied by a team made up of other three folklorists (Zhang Zhenli, Chen Jiangfeng, and Wu Xiaoqun) from Henan University. Huaiyang County is located in the eastern part of Henan province, 32 kilometers (20 miles) northeast of Zhoukou city. It has an area of 1,469 square kilometers (588 square miles) and a population

performing myths today

245

of 1.24 million. Under its administration are six towns and fourteen villages. Huaiyang is said to be the legendary capital of the god Fuxi’s mythic kingdom. In the northern part of the county is the Renzu Temple complex (Temple of the Ancestors of Humans). According to a 1936 report, many temples were intact at the Renzu complex at that time, including several to Fuxi and one to Nüwa. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), many of the temples—including Nüwa’s— were destroyed because they were thought to be “feudal superstitions.” Yet in 1993, the local government was planning to reconstruct the Nüwa temple because the government now believes that the worship of human ancestors (Fuxi and Nüwa) can be a cultural resource and attract tourists and donations. This has encouraged folk beliefs and caused a folk-culture revival. During the lunar cycle from February 2 to March 3, a festival is now held at the Renzu Temple complex to celebrate Fuxi’s birthday. The festival draws tens of thousands of pilgrims daily from nearby villages, counties, and provinces. They come to Renzu for many different purposes: to make supplications to the ancestors; to thank the ancestors for fulfilling their supplications; and to pray for children, happiness, health, wealth, going into college, and many other things. Most of the pilgrims are women. Many of them travel here together in pilgrim associations usually led by women. Some stay for the full month of the celebration (Fig. 35). It is a genuine festival of the local community. Outside the temples, business stalls extend for miles, selling local snacks, local handicrafts (such as “mud dogs” and cloth tigers), farm tools, and spiritual statues (Fuxi and Nüwa, Buddha, and even Chairman Mao Zedong). In the temples, there are more lively and exciting scenes. Besides the many vendors’ stalls, the area is full of pilgrims: they may dance danjingtiao (a folk dance literally meaning “Carrying Pole Dance”), sing songs praising the ancestors, tell fortunes, and play local operas to please the ancestors. Among them, some women will bring shoes to Nüwa that they embroidered. They sacrifice the shoes to Nüwa by displaying them in the Renzu temple complex or burning them with incense, paper money, or paper buildings (intended as ancestors’ dwellings). By doing these things, they believe the ancestors will receive their tributes and be pleased, and thus will grant them what they hope for. There are many customs specific to the Renzu Festival. Some that relate to myths and beliefs are ninigou and jingge. Ninigou (“mud dog”) is a general name for toys made of mud. These toys are usually

Figure 36. Renzu Temple Festival in 2005. (Photo by Tong Yunli)

246 yang lihui

performing myths today

247

monkeys, swallows, turtles, or tigers, or a combination of monkeys riding a tiger or a horse. The craftsmen who make the mud dogs explain their origin with a myth that the sibling ancestors created humans by mud. The ancestors’ children want to imitate their ancestors’ mythical activity and thus to remember them. These kinds of festival crafts illustrate how myths exist in local communities, even as toys, therefore finding a place in nearly every level of society from ritual to play. Jingge is a type of folk song that is usually sung to express people’s folk beliefs, but sometimes people use the melodies to make fun and sing about their ordinary life. During the Renzu Festival, many pilgrims (especially women) will sing jingge to commemorate and praise the ancestors, simultaneously believing they can obtain the ancestors’ blessings by doing so (Fig. 36). As for the content, many jingge not only tell the myths about the ancestors but also often end with moral education or propagation (Yang and An Deming, Jessica Anderson 16–20). We went into the temple complex in the afternoon of March 22nd. There we inquired several pilgrims about Nüwa and Fuxi myths and beliefs. They all knew the brother-sister marriage myth but they could only tell it in a rather simple and fragmentary way. The first important myth-teller we met was Wang Donglian, a 58-year-old female peasant from Dongguan district of Huaiyang County. She was selling local snacks beside a cart when we happened to talk to her. We first asked her whether she knew something about the background of the temple. She immediately told us a legend about how Fuxi rescued an emperor in the Ming dynasty and how the emperor had this old temple rebuilt later. Soon after her storytelling, we were at once surrounded by some pilgrims, most of them standing beside us and listening. When we asked Wang some questions, some of them also joined in our conversation to answer and some even further raised doubts about Wang’s narrative skills and her understanding of the myth. All of this constructed an open, fluid and interactive situation of communication and thus exerted a significant impact on the myth-teller’s performance, her narrative strategies and the final text of brother-sister marriage myth. After she had finished telling the story, I asked her whether she knew stories about human ancestors, she told us the following story:1 1 The transcription of oral texts is a complicated issue; the forms of transcription vary according to different analyzing aims. In order to show as much as possible the dynamic process and the interactive communication of the narration of myths under certain context, the transcription of oral texts in this treatise draw on the theory and

248

yang lihui Yang Lihui (shortened as “Yang” in the following passages): Could you please tell us something about that time when “the heaven collapsed and the earth sank?” Wang Donglian [Laughs]: Well, that happened quite long ago. Chen Jiangfeng: Then, please tell us. Wang [Laughter]: I can’t tell it well. Yang: It doesn’t matter. The stories you just told us are both fine. Chen: Yes, they are both good. Zhang Zhenli: If you could tell lots of stories, we will organize a special interview for you. Wang [Laughs]: You can’t do that. I don’t receive any education and I’m not professional. You can’t do that. Zhang: We are especially looking for some uneducated one. ... Yang: It doesn’t matter. Wang: You are recording, aren’t you? Chen, Yang: Yes, we are. Wang: [Begins to narrate] This turtle [. . .] Audience A: They are videorecording. (Actually we are recording the stories with two tape recorders.) Wang: [Laughed] We are only telling stories for fun. Yang: Yes, stories for fun. Wang: And we are talking about this—turtle. The heaven collapsed [. . .] when the heaven collapsed and the earth sank, no humans existed in the world any more, right? (Yang: Right.) No humans existed, and there was a turtle. The turtle hid itself in the river. And we have river beaches here, don’t we?—But I don’t believe it myself. I don’t believe it myself. (Yang: It is only a casual chat.) Oh, yes . . . The heaven collapsed and the earth sank, and there was nothing in the world, but there were two students, and they went to school every day. This . . . these things may happen in books, right? When the heaven collapsed and the earth sank, they brought a steamed bun every day and the steamed bun—was fed to the turtle, they brought another one the second day, [and it was fed to the turtle again.] They were brother and sister and they brought steamed buns for three meals a day and they let the turtle eat them, they threw them in to the belly (=the mouth) of the turtle and let it eat the buns. They were eaten—and people said—this—had come to a certain degree—and—the heaven

practice of Ethnopoeitics, without additions, deletions or modifications of words and sentences, trying to remain the characters of colloquial languages and dialects. Some signs are adopted here for embodying characters of orality in written languages, i.e. bold: a narrator’s emphasis; { }: the content which is missing in oral narratives but should have been there according to the logic of a story; [ ]: a narrator or audiences’ expressions or actions; ---: interruptions or interposed words; =: a narrator’s modification to his/her narratives; {……}: hesitation or intermittence; ——--: the drawl; [……]: omissions in narratives; //: imposed words of several people at the same time.

performing myths today

249

collapsed and the earth sank, oh, the two, what should the two students do? No humans any more, the other students, when they go to school, the heaven collapsed and the earth sank and they no more existed. Then there came a turtle. Oh, there it was! It disappeared when it ate up the steam buns then. The brother and his sister made the turtle carry them, carry them on its back. The turtle carried them and ferried them. After they were ferried, people said [. . .] it was said that [. . .] and I heard it from other people that this turtle swallowed these steam buns into its stomach, and isn’t it impossible? (Bursts into laughter) It swallowed these steam buns into its stomach and anyway, the two students would not feel hungry. This turtle spit out one steam bun on the first day and another on the second day; it spit them out slowly and let them [the brother and his sister] eat. Oh, so that is it. There were no humans and what to do now? Several years had passed . . . and anyway, the heaven had gone; the earth had sunk; there was water [everywhere]; nothing existed. What to do with it? Nothing could be done. He said. People said that [. . .] until sometime [. . .] I heard that [. . .] this—heaven [. . .] was completely closed; there were some grass on the land, some clods on the land, and they two came [out of] the turtle’s belly. This turtle’s belly—They stayed there for three years . . . how long was not sure . . . it is not detailed. The heaven, this heaven—it was said that its northeastern corner was not completely closed, (Yang: The northeastern corner.) the northeastern corner. It was so cold—. Anyway, it could be called results, ah. (Chen and Yang: Laughed) The Northeast China, people said, the Northeast China is cold, and it is held by icicles. Nüwa, she used icicles to hold it and so the Northeast China is cold. Chen: Nüwa used icicles to hold it? Wang: Yes. //Zhang Yuzhi (another female in the audience, 82 years old at that time): When the northeastern wind is blowing, it is cold; when the northeastern wind isn’t blowing, it is not cold. //Audience C (an old lady): The northeastern wind is blowing— //Audience D (an old lady): You don’t utter a word, he is taking videos=sound records. //Audience C: Why can’t I utter a word? //Zhang Yuzhi: He is recording. //Wang: (spoke to Zhang Yuzhi) Can you tell them the story instead? [Chen and Yang: Laugh] OK? //Audience D: She tells it more detailed than you. Yang: Please finish your story first. Wang: Perhaps. She—She—could. Zhang and Yang: You speak first, please. Wang: I’m talking nonsense. Zhang: It is just fine. Yang: (Reminded her) Nüwa, er— Wang: Er—Well—It is cold when the northeastern wind is blowing, and why is it cold when the wind isn’t blowing, right?

250

yang lihui Yang: Nüwa was one of the two students? Wang: Well—, yes. //Audiences: —She and her brother. Yang: You mean Renzuye and Renzu Nainai? Wang: Well, you should call her Renzu Gu’niang (“the maiden ancestress of human beings”), not Renzu Nainai. The human ancestors never got married. //Zhang Yuzhi: They did never get married. Wu Xiaoqun (Wu for short in the following passage): Then how did humans emerge if they were not married? Wang: You listen to me. Yes. They [the brother and his sister] came to a mountain, and people said [. . .] there was nothing left, so what to do? The brother and his sister can’t get married, how can a brother and his sister get married, right? People said there was a millstone on top of the mountain, there was a millstone and they stuck a few grasses into the earth at the foot of the mountain. Yes. This millstone, well, the two [. . .] the brother and his sister can’t get married. If they two did the wedding rite [. . .] they had to stick grasses . . . . . . //Audience E (a middle-aged man): —Sticking grasses as incense. Wang: Well—, yes, sticking grasses as incense. Now, in the wedding, we don’t require something else. But in the past, we needed incense, the yellow incense, when we kowtowed in the wedding, well, their marriage lasted for a lifetime. Here, it is the same meaning [. . .] They pushed the millstone down the mountain, if the millstone still joined together [then they would get married]; if the millstone was divided to the opposite directions, then it showed the heaven’s will, the brother and his sister were still just brother and sister; if the millstone still remained as one after they were pushed down, the brother and his sister would marry each other. How could the millstone remain as one after it was pushed down? But the millstone really remained as one. (Yang: It remained as one?) Yes. //Zhang Yuzhi: —No, the millstone fell apart, and they didn’t get married. Wang: Fell apart? Not fall apart. A millstone was pushed down and it didn’t fall apart. You can’t tell it like that, can you? Yang: You finish your story first, please. We will record this old lady’s story. She has her own opinion. Wang: Why was it so? There was a tree down the hill, and (the millstone was stuck) in the tree, that was why it didn’t fall apart. //Audience C: Who knows that time of Renzuye, and the time when the heaven collapsed and the earth sank? Yang: It didn’t fall apart? Wang: No. Yang: So what happened since it didn’t fall apart? They got married? Wang: Yes, they got married. People said [. . .] this—do you know mud dogs? In the past, people said that [. . .] what did the brother and his sister say? They said: “let’s make humans by mud.” They made human by mud and then put them in the sunshine, in the sunshine

performing myths today

251

all day long. The blind—the cripples—and alike, when it rained and the mud figures got wet and their legs were broken, right? That’s why as a human, though you often take a bath and wash yourself, you still have dust on your body, haven’t you? (Yang: Yes, you are right!) Audience laughs.) Slowly, all the things were made like this. (Laughter I also heard it from others, I’m just retelling it. Yang: Oh, it is interesting. And the two got married at last? Wang: Yes, they got married. //Chen: —They made human by mud together? Wang: Yes—. You see, when you are sweaty and you rub yourself, there must be dust, dust ball. Chen: And why is she called Renzu Gu’niang? Wang: What? Chen: Why do you call her Renzu Gu’niang? Wang: You see, both the brother and the sister were too shameful to be called grandparents of humanity. (Yang: Too shameful?) Were they shameful or not? (Yang: They were shameful.) So she is still Renzu Guniang even after one million years, right?

Apparently, Wang was very willing to show her grasp of traditional knowledge to us, the “apparent intellectuals from outside.” She answered our questions and requirements quite positively. The brothersister marriage myth became the central in our conversation. This formed the main reason why she “re-contextualized” the traditional knowledge of brother-sister marriage myth. On the whole the myth she narrated was a complete version. Its plot structure accords with the common brother-sister marriage narrative pattern as it popularly spread among Han people in central China. The primary plots of this type are, for instance, the heaven collapsed, the earth sank, and thus the world was destroyed; a brother and his sister survived; they divined by throwing two pieces of a millstone down a mountain to see whether their marriage was permitted by heaven; the incredible thing happened, therefore the brother and his sister married each other and reproduced human beings, all those elements were included in her story. Comparing with the common narrative pattern of this type of myth, however, we can find some obvious differences. Firstly, the motif of “patching up the broken sky” is added. Secondly, the way of reproducing humans turns into molding mud, which is relatively common in central China (Zhang and Cheng 1987), instead of giving birth to normal children or abnormal fetus. When discussing brother-sister marriage myth, Chinese scholars particularly focus on the ways in which the sibling ancestors reproduced humans after they got married. As mentioned above, the most common way of reproduction is the couple giving birth to normal or

252

yang lihui

abnormal fetus (such as a spherical piece of flesh, a gourd, a knife stone, and so on), and reproduced new human beings (opens the abnormal fetus or cuts it into pieces, humans walks out of them or the pieces changed into humans). Nevertheless, in some Han versions, especially in the Central Plains, their offspring is sometimes the result of their molding mud figures after the blood marriage has been consummated, which is somewhat contradictory to the logic of the story itself. In these narratives, a brother and his sister committed incest because they had to reproduce humans anew after a catastrophe without other survivors. But in many versions, this motivation was seemingly forgotten after the brother married his sister, and the way of reproducing humans by molding mud is directly presented instead, with no necessary explanations and transitions—an obvious contradiction in the narrative logic of the story (Yang 1997:102). This contradiction, some scholars maintain, is attributed to the long-lasting and powerful influence of the Nüwa myth in the northern part of China. As a result, when she was adopted later as a heroine in the brother-sister marriage myth, her huge contribution of “making humans by mud” could not be ignored by storytellers and was “naturally” woven into this myth. This somehow changes the original plot structure of the story. Hence a narration in which Nüwa molded the mud to create humans after she married her brother; or even sometimes the strange combination of Nüwa giving birth to humans as well as making clay figures (Yang 102, Lu 1996:465). The myth Wang narrated about brother-sister marriage was adhered to the motif of “Nüwa patching up the sky”, which further proves the combination of the Nüwa myth and the brothersister marriage myth, and additionally, the considerable impact of this combination on the conventional narrative tradition of brother-sister marriage myth. Besides, the brother and sister’s anxieties about blood marriage reflected in divination and in their initial avoidance of sexual intercourse, even after they were married, may well have introduced the idea of making humans by molding mud instead, thus expressing “a fierce opposition to the blood marriage” (Zong 1994:229–30). Apparently, there is a strong opposition to blood marriage under the influence of moral ethics and marriage systems in later ages. Judging from Wang Donglian’s attitude towards the blood marriage in the myth, this argument seems to be confirmed. In her telling of the myth, especially in the first half of the story in which “the heaven collapsed, the earth sank”, the brother and his sister survived from the disaster, and Nüwa patched up the sky, and the storyteller expressed

performing myths today

253

strong opposition against the incest between the siblings. She as well as several other people in the audience firmly insisted that Nüwa should be called Renzu Gu’niang rather than Renzu Nainai, unequivocally believed that the human ancestors never got married. Even in the latter half of the story, when the brother-sister got married, molded mud and reproduced humans, she still insisted on calling Nüwa Renzu Gu’niang, regardless of the paradox in the narrative. Her own explanation was that, though Nüwa were married with her brother, she felt embarrassed and “shamed.” In the next myth-telling of Zhang Yuzhi, the brother-sister marriage myth still remained associated with the myth about “making humans by mud,” once again expressing a strong opposition against incest. However, the ways in which the two myth-tellers dealt with the paradox in their stories were different. We will examine Zhang’s narration below. Wang Donglian can be classified as a “creative bearer of myth tradition” (Yang 2008:61), for she had a rich knowledge and was willing to listen to and tell myths. Her good memory and keen interest in story-telling made her an adequate absorber of various sources. In her own words, “I love listening to stories, local operas, for example, I can memorize them easily after I heard them”; “I keep listening wherever I go and whatever I hear. And I remember what I hear”; “if you want me to tell you stories, I can keep telling day and night for more than three days.” Obviously, this myth-telling event was full of interactions and negotiations between the narrators, researchers and audiences. The myth-teller’s traditional knowledge of brother-sister marriage myth was crystallized in the dynamic and interactive process of communication, finally forming a “specific” oral “text” of the brother-sister marriage myth. Wang Donglian began to tell the myth about Fuxi and Nüwa’s brother-sister marriage at the researchers’ request; however, halfway through her storytelling, several elder and more authoritative listeners (e.g., Zhang Yuzhi, whose myth-telling was evaluated as “more detailed than yours” by other members of the audience. Zhang’s later narrative proved that she was a more competent narrator indeed) expressed their opposition (“when the northeastern wind is blowing, it is cold; when the northeastern wind isn’t blowing, it is not cold”) against her explanation for “Nüwa patched up the sky with icicles, so it gets cold when northeastern wind is blowing”, interrupting her train of thought and steering the topic away, hence her performance of the story seemed to stop right there. Then, not until pressed by researchers (who grasped a

254

yang lihui

large amount of mythological recourses and hence were aware of the general pattern of this type of myth) purposefully, did she continue to finish the other half of story which contained important plots, such as Nüwa and Fuxi practicing divination by rolling millstones to before they got married. Zhang Yuzhi made frequent use of an “appeal to tradition” (Bauman 21–2) (“people said in the past,” “I also heard it from others”). When her traditional view that “the millstone didn’t fall apart, so the brother and sister got married” met some opposition form the audience, she added one special explanation to her narrative to rationalize why the millstone did not fall apart: the millstone was stuck in a tree down the hill, so it did not fall apart. Apparently, Zhang Yuzhi aptly included this explanation in the story, right on the spot, to make her narration proceed satisfactorily in a “socially appropriate way” (Ibid 11). Confronted with the paradox in her own narrative about whether the brother and his sister got married or not, and encouraged by the researchers’ further questions, she sought help from everyday knowledge, and figured out a farfetched explanation, trying to justify herself: though Nüwa was married, she felt ashamed and as a result, she was still called Renzu Gu’niang instead of Renzu Nainai. In this specific performance event, then, myth-tellers, audience and researchers all participated in the narrative process with different purposes, knowledge and abilities, and positively interacted, negotiated and created, not only together shaping the moment when the myths was performed, but also jointly reconstructing a specific and new text of brother-sister marriage myth. What should be especially noted, though, is Wang Donglian’s paradoxical narrative explanation as to whether the brother married his sister in the myth. In the first half of her story, she claimed that, according to a locally prevailing view, Nüwa did not get married (some listeners also took part in the narration, asserting that Nüwa and Fuxi were not married), hence she could only be named as Renzu Gu’niang rather than Renzu Nainai; in the latter half of her story, however, she said the millstones fitted together when they were rolled for divination, so finally the brother and sister got married. Although her narration was doubted by Zhang Yuzhi, there is actually nothing wrong with her narrative, for the plot is consistent with the narrative tradition of this story. But her competence was not sufficient to provide appropriate explanations for the manifest contradictions between the blood incest reflected in the myth and the later moral ethics and marriage systems; between the brother-sister marriage and molding mud to reproduce

performing myths today

255

humans. As a result, a paradoxical situation arose. The brother-sister marriage myth and the myth about making humans out of mud, which belong to two myth types in early times, were forced into one story. Zhang Yuzhi handled these contradictions differently, she made use of interactive communication during the performing process, demonstrating how a creative individual negotiates and interplays with the conventional narration of myth, with ethics and “science” popular in modern society. Zhang Yuzhi was the second myth-teller that we interviewed afterward. A few interpositions of hers during Wang’s narration had amply demonstrated that she was an active and experienced storyteller. Therefore, we overtook her after Wang Donglian finished her story (she was preparing to leave the temple complex with a few companions of hers before Wang Donglian’s story was finished). We asked her to tell us the story about human ancestors according to her knowledge, and she told us a new version: Why didn’t a brother get married to his sister? Why didn’t they get married? It came from [the two of] them. She (Yang: “she” here refers to Wang Donglian) didn’t tell you a detailed story. Well, a brother can’t marry his sister because the sibling human ancestors first made it a custom. (Yang: Really—?) The married couple . . . . . . why? The old turtle sank into [. . .] She said it just now, the students brought steamed buns, and these buns were in the turtle’s stomach. This old turtle said, it said: “when the heaven is about to collapse and the earth is about to sink, you come to me.” It said, your steamed buns are all stored here; it said three or four days later, if you find the sky looks strange, you come to me immediately. She said the sky had collapsed. If the sky had collapsed then, the brother and his sister would have been buried inside. Actually the sky had not collapsed then. (Yang: I see.) The sky was changing, and some people shouted:” The sky is changing, hurry up!” So the brother and his sister ran out and headed to that old turtle. Then they found the turtle, and it opened its mouth—, opened its mouth as wide as a winnowing pan, just like a winnowing pan, its mouth was opened wide, so wide. I also heard it from others. Old people always heard stories from others. (Yang: [Laugheds] Yes.) Its mouth was very big, but no one saw it. Who saw it, hum? (Yang: Right.) That is it. The old turtle said: “Hurry up, go to hide in my belly soon, hurry, hurry, hurry!” They hid in its belly and found all these steamed buns were laid there. (//Yang: Not be eaten.) You see, a long period had passed—, right? (Yang: Yes.) When the time came and they saw that the sky was rising, and they hurried to hide, //An acquaintance of Zhang: Aren’t you leaving now? Zhang (gave a laugh): He is calling me. I’m telling—telling old superstitions.

256

yang lihui Yang: Not superstitions. It is interesting. Zhang: The turtle said that [. . .] it said that you two should come out; it said you have eaten up all the steamed buns, you eat steamed buns every day and this is tortured, buns are too dry without soup or something alike. Give them some water; don’t give them . . . finally, it is time to come out, for the sky is formed. “Hurry up, hurry to come out, the sky is about to form.” The sky grew a lot in a moment but the northeastern corner was not fully formed, and it was patched up by big icicles. What about them two?. . . . . . Their clothes had been totally retted when they were in the turtle’s belly—they had no clothes. They came out when the weather was getting hot, they were naked, both of them. What to do with it? Those leaves, they fetched leaves and threaded them together with something. Oh, they wore leaves all over their body. And the main parts of their bodies were covered. (When she saw Wang Donglian was also here to listen, she said) After listening to your story, they record mine, too. Yang: Please finish this story. Zhang: When they were in the turtle’s belly, the sky was about to form. The sky was forming, and what should they do? What should they two do? Naked? (Yang: Yes.) They wore leaves because he had to think about his manner, and she had to think about her manner, too. They couldn’t be naked all day long, so they wore clothes made of weeds. Well, it was all like that. Finally, the brother said, what should we do? He said, let’s deal with it like this: it was not easy. (Yang: Yes.) He complained to the heaven and complained to the earth. After complaining, he said: if we two can marry each other, well, this millstone, there was a millstone halfway up the hill, he said, if we two are allowed to marry each other, well, to tell the truth, there will be humans in the world again; if we are not allowed to marry each other, then let this millstone [. . .] be divided into two parts. He said: OK, the two of us, OK. He said, OK. The millstone was pushed down the hill, and it was divided into two parts. Because of this, from then on, people can’t marry their siblings, and this originates from him. Brothers and sisters can’t get married and it comes from the two of them. And how is it going since then? Since then, these [. . .] two people [. . .], there was a temple on the mountain; the temple was built; the mountain was big and high, no flood can sweep there. There was a temple. (A few acquaintances of hers came over and asked what she was doing.) [Laughed] I’m telling stories for fun. I’m telling superstitions. Yang: [Laughed] It is not superstition. It is interesting. Zhang: He said, there were no humans left except for us two, and what should we do? He (said) that let’s reproduce human by molding mud. So, he molded mud figures and she made them, too. And they put these mud figures outside, in the sunshine. Well, it began to rain a little and these mud figures were about to get wet; they had no time to take them back. “Look, if you could walk, it will be much better.” So they held a broom to sweep these mud figures. They swept them inside one by one. The blind and the cripples were all made by the sweep—,

performing myths today

257

and this was from him. (Yang: [Laughed] I see.) [Laughed] Then, all the clay figures grew into humans. Monkeys (Yang: Monkeys?), monkeys. They were not like humans and they looked (like) monkeys. You know, it is (said) in books that monkeys become . . . [become humans]. Where did they live? They lived in the woods in the mountain. And they changed very very slowly, and finally they became humans like us. The monkeys became humans and their furs were gone. The babies they born became more and more beautiful. The blind and the cripples were all caused by the ancestors; they swept the mud figures and made them blind; they swept and made them cripples. That is it. And finally, in the end, when two people cannot get married without a rule; they have to obey a rule, well, when they take wives; when they get married, and so on. These things all originate from him.

Zhang Yuzhi was apparently more creative than Wang Donglian. Her description was more detailed and vivid, the myth-telling is more fluent with abundant communicative means. Comparing with the common narrative pattern of the myth and the version narrated by Wang, there are at least two considerable transformations in her story. One change is that in her version, the brother and sister rolled millstones to practice divination, but the millstones fell apart; as a result, the brother and sister did not get married. Because of this, Nüwa was called Renzu Gu’niang and the sibling had to reproduce humans by molding mud. Although this transformation is not identical with the conventional narrative pattern (the divinations usually all turn out positive), it has remarkable significance to the logic of the story itself and the adaptation of ancient myth to modern society. First, it successfully resolves the contradiction between the ancestors’ blood incest and the moral ethics as well as marriage systems of later ages; therefore, Nüwa can naturally be a virgin; Second, the brother-sister ancestors did not get married at all, so they had to reproduce human beings by making clay figures. Thanks to that change, the combination of the brother-sister marriage myth and the myth of creating humans by mud seems totally reasonable in the logic of the story. The other striking change emerges in the explanatory ending of the myth. According to Zhang Yuzhi, the clay figures that the ancestors made in the beginning looked like monkeys, “And they changed very, very slowly, and finally they became humans like us. The monkeys became humans and their furs were gone. The babies they gave birth to became more and more beautiful.” Although Zhang Yuzhi claimed that she was illiterate, that she connected human origin with “monkeys” was almost certainly affected by evolutionism. The argument is clearly supported by a “metanarrative” in her narration: “you know, it is (said)

258

yang lihui

in books that monkeys become . . . [become humans].” “Metanarrative” is a term used “to refer specifically to narrative performance and discourse and to those devices which comment upon the narrator, the narrating, and the narrative both as message and as code” (Babcock 67, in Bauman 1977). In Zhang’s narration the metanarrative plays an important role: it not only announces the source of her explanation, but also connects the myth-teller with her audience (especially our scholars who are familiar with books). Moreover, her connecting human origin with “monkeys” resolves once again the contradiction between the conception that “humans were made by mud” in the myth, and that “humans evolved from apes” in “science” developed in later ages. Thus she adapted the archaic myth about brother-sister marriage to “scientific” ideas about human origin. Therefore, Zhang Yuzhi not only utilized the brother-sister marriage myth as a cultural resource to communicate with researchers and other listeners who wanted to hear it; during the performance she also showed her highly skilled narrative ability (as compared with Wang Donglian’s), and her more authoritative grasp of mythological knowledge and cultural tradition, while in the meantime expressing her own belief in the first human ancestors. IV. Conclusions The above ethnographic investigations on two performance events telling the brother-sister marriage myth, lead to the following observations: 1) The text of a myth is neither a self-sufficient or super-organic cultural item nor a solid formal system; instead, it is formed during a dynamic process of performance, in which the myth-teller practices and embodies the relevant knowledge of myth tradition that he/she grasps. This process is, however, often influenced by various complex factors, producing, in the process, different narrative texts with their own characters. The two performance events of brother-sister marriage myth in the Renzu temple festival in Huaiyang County constitute dynamic processes affected by numerous factors. Among these are the effects of some institutional elements, such as the socialist ideology and its powerful suppression of folk belief in the past, implicitly reflected, for instance, in Zhang’s “I am telling superstitions”. Other factors, such as the belief of human ancestors, the ethics against blood incest,

performing myths today

259

and the so-called “scientific” evolutionism, are more explicit. In addition, there are communications, interactions and negotiations among different participants involved in the performance events, for example, between myth-tellers and researchers, between the myth-tellers and other people in the audience, between the first myth-teller and the second myth-teller, to name just a few. Explicitly or implicitly, these social and cultural factors are woven together to exert impacts on the myth-telling and shape the performances in each specific context. As a result, two specific versions of the brother-sister marriage myth are finally being created. 2) Through a case study of myth-telling events, we can find how and why myths are narrated again and again in different contexts, and how creative individuals reconstruct myths while they transmit them, so as to make myths serve their current social lives. To both mythtellers the brother-sister marriage myths were apparently significant cultural resources to be shared with researchers from outside as well as with “insiders”. Through their performance of the myths, the two narrators not only showed their talent and grasp of traditional knowledge in interaction with a mixed audience, but also expressed their own beliefs and their insight in ethics, sciences, human origins and nature (for example, the reason why it is cold when the northeastern wind is blowing). Performing myths thus becomes an important means of self-expression, constructs social relationships, and contributes to a coherent social life. The meanings of myths, therefore, are not confined to the forms and contents they have in mythical texts; as an organic combination of forms, functions and connotations, their meanings are also embodied in the many ways society makes use of myths. In the meantime, we have discovered discrepancies in myth-tellers’ creativity; and we have seen that the level of a narrator’s creativity largely determines the resulting version. Confronted with the contradiction between the narrative traditions of this type of myth and the moral ethics as well as marriage systems in later ages, our first myth-teller did not possess enough competence to resolve the contradiction, and added a tortuous explanation to the myth. The second myth-teller’s performance, however, was apparently more flexible and creative. Her narration was not only a transmission of the ancient knowledge passed down for generations, but also included a creative modification of the narrative tradition of the ancient brother-sister marriage myth. Her transformations resolved the “unscientific” problems contained in the archaic myth,

260

yang lihui

thus adapting her version to modern society’s ethics, marriage system and “scientific” ideas about human origins. 3) The oral performance of myths in contemporary China is a complicated and dynamic process, as we have seen, interacting and negotiating between traditions and individual creativity. Taking the perspective of performance theory into account is inspiring for researchers and gives insight into the narrative process in a specific context; into how these myths are vividly presented by a specific myth-teller and why they are varied; into the constructing and shaping of communication in performance; and into the meaning of myths in people’s current social lives. Nevertheless, performance theory has also some insufficiencies: it lays stress on the emergent quality of performance and tends to overlook or neglect historical traditions. Therefore, we need to foster a more “synthetic approach,” which combines diachronic research with the perspective of studying the very moment of transmission and creation in a specific context; an approach that combines historicalgeographical perspectives with ethnographic research in specific communities; combines the static textual analysis with researches on the dynamic process of textualization; that combines the study of narrative traditions with storytellers’ individual talents. When we manage to approach myth from this synthetic perspective, we may be able to better comprehend the essence of myth (Yang 2006; 2005). This paper is only a modest initial experiment of this synthetic approach. In the near future, this approach needs to be further developed, and more comprehensive investigations of various communities are necessary. Besides, a continual and long-term ethnographic researches on myth-tellers’ life histories, characters, world views, and repertoires are also crucial for the understanding of their competences and characteristics in performances. As we can see from the case study above, although details and the combinations of motifs may vary more or less in every performance of brother-sister marriage myths, the basic plot structure and the central motifs are quite stable (Cf. Siikala 1990). This indicates that, to some degree, texts do have their own super-organic meanings. Accordingly, how to combine the studies on texts themselves with studies on performances of texts also remains a primary question for further exploration.

PERSPECTIVES ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN MIAO AND YI CREATION NARRATIVES1 Mark Bender The Ohio State University Abstract In recent decades the idea of a “green” view of written and oral literature has developed as new questions of humankind’s relation to the increasingly less “natural” environment have come to the fore as nations and peoples relentlessly pressure traditionally exploited sources of sustenance, water, and energy (Snyder, Garrard). As the natural world continues to undergo massive anthropogenic modifications and degradation, the effects have been widely felt among traditional indigenous human communities, especially those living in non-urban environments that hold energy and material resources needed by dominant urban-based societies. Both environmentally focused literary scholars and folklorists—especially in the “ethnopoetics” movement—have looked to native literatures for alternative views on relations between humans and local ecology in hopes of constructively re-discovering knowledge of the traditional “old ways” that can provide sensitive, intimate, and non-adversarial perspectives on nature in response to the onslaught of rapidly environmental change on a global scale (Snyder). In line with the rising interest in the “eco” and “ethno” dimensions of oral literature this paper presents an initial comparative look at versions of creation epics documented in local communities of the Miao and Yi—two large and diverse ethnic groups with long histories in Southwest China. It is hoped that issues raised in the paper will contribute to discussions of similar questions about other traditions of creation epics in China and elsewhere. Keywords: creation epics, Chinese myth, Miao, Yi, people and environment, folk taxonomies

Introduction Both Miao and Yi ethnic groups have significant traditions of oral and/or oral-connected epic poems that narrate the creation of heaven and earth and contain rich and detailed accounts of aspects of the 1 Funding for research on various parts of this paper was supplied in part by grants from the College of Humanities at The Ohio State University and a Fulbright award.

262

mark bender

natural world and human interaction with the local environments. Moreover, in many ways these epics parallel aspect of creation narratives from many other ethnic groups in China. The paper begins with an examination of folk categories, taxonomies, and eco-systems that are recognized in terms the cosmos, landforms and geology, water resources, flora, fauna, human populations, and supernatural beings are placed. Focus is then shifted to a discussion of the perspectives on the place of humans and other sentient beings within the narrative worlds of the poems, which reflect different lifestyles adapted to two distinct, though in some ways similar, upland environments. In a general sense the way the relations of humans, animals, plants, and the environment in both poems are characterized is similar to the kind of “perspectivism” that Arhem has described in his discussion of South American Indian cultures. De Castro calls this understanding a sort of “multi-naturalist” one, in which humans and other sentient beings share a basic oneness, though are plural in outward form. This is in contrast to familiar Western notions of so-called “multiculturist cosmologies,” that pit the human and natural world in opposition to each other. This paper suggests that in the Yi and Miao traditions of creation epic elements of both the multi-naturalist and multiculturist perspectives are at play—though are evinced differently in each tradition’s unique vision of the interactions between the multiple beings inhabiting the realms of the respective story worlds. Thus, while in some ways offering alternate “traditional” possibilities for viewing human relationships to the environment, both accounts suggest that these relations are complex, nuanced, and multi-faceted. In recent years the idea of a “green” or “eco” view of written and oral literature has developed as new questions of humankind’s relation to the increasingly less “natural” environment have come to the fore as nations and peoples relentlessly pressure traditionally exploited sources of sustenance, water, and energy. As the natural world continues to undergo massive anthropogenic modifications and degradation, the effects have been widely felt among traditional indigenous human communities, especially those living in non-urban environments that hold energy and material resources needed by dominant urban-based societies. Extreme examples of the impact of rapid and severe environmental change on traditional cultures include the Native American peoples of the Great Plains in the United States, whose lifestyles were dependent on herds of wild bison and horse husbandry as recently as the 1880s, societies of indigenous peoples in South America and Southeast Asia whose economies mix hunting and gathering and swidden agriculture in rainforests

perspectives on the environment in miao and yi creation

263

and jungles, and arctic and sub-arctic peoples whose livelihoods still rest, to some extent, on fish and marine mammals. The Ethnopoetics movement, founded in the United States in the 1960s and ‘70s was based in part on the idea that the oral literature of indigenous ethnic minority groups could lend understanding about the cultures that created it and offer spiritual and practical perspectives on living in harmony with the natural world to populations physically and spiritually removed from nature (Snyder 15). Since that time, influenced by developments in mainstream written literature about the environment, interest has grown in developing a “green” view of oral literature, increasing in intensity in recent years (Ball 277). This interest in the green aspect of folk literature and folklore has also been felt in China—one example being the recent international conference entitled “Bimo Practice, Traditional Knowledge, and Ecosystem Sustainability in the 21st Century” held in 2005 in southern Sichuan province. In a more popular vein, the construction or preservation of ethnic minority villages in Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan promoted as “ecomuseums” often include dimensions of traditional mythology and performance. Such venues include the Suoga Ecological Museum in Liuzhi (featuring the “Longhorn Miao” ethnic group) and the Dimen Dong Cultural Ecomuseum, which are among four eco-museums in Guizhou province. The former opened in 2005, conceived in 1995 by a the well-known Chinese curator Su Donghai and John Gjestrum, a Norwegian anthropologist. In line with the rising interest in the “green” dimensions of oral literature in China, this paper presents an initial comparative look at the very rich “eco” aspects of two traditions of creation myths collected in Southwest China (Fig. 37). One tradition is associated with the Miao ethnic group and another with the Yi ethnic group. These groups are among the largest and most diverse ethnic minority groups in the southwest. Each group has dozens of distinct subgroups, often with local ethnonyms. Like other cultural features, the myth traditions vary among the subgroups and particular content or transmission techniques in one area may be quite different from those in another. Thus, when speaking of a Miao or Yi myth, it is necessary to qualify any attribution within its local context. Both the myths examined herein are communicated in the form of long poems—or “epics”—that narrate the origins of the world, its features, and its inhabitants—including humans (Honko 3). Chinese researchers have documented similar creation epics among ethnic groups throughout southern China, many of the accounts sharing versions of certain motifs and themes (Yang, An, Turner 3).

Figure 37. Nuosu priest (bimo) from the Liangshan Mountains in southern Sichuan province doctoring a patient (far right) with a chicken sacrifice. Note the “ghost” effigy made of grass and the boar’s teeth around the neck of the younger ritualist. (Photo by Mark Bender)

264 mark bender

perspectives on the environment in miao and yi creation

265

The paper begins with a brief introduction to the ethnic groups and the myth-epic traditions; then turns to an examination of folk categories, taxonomies, and eco-systems that include the cosmos, landforms and geology, water resources, flora, fauna, human populations, and supernatural beings. In the final section, questions are raised concerning the viewpoints on the relations between humans and other sentient beings as portrayed in the narrative worlds of the poems. The discussion draws on de Castro’s work on South American Amerindians in which he distinguishes between native perspectives on humans and nature in contrast to the Western divide between Man and Nature. Versions of the Myths Versions of two creation myths in epic format will be the focus of the paper, though aspects of the study will have relevance to many other myth and epic traditions in China and elsewhere.2 One poem is associated with groups of Miao (Hmu, Hmong) living in the Southeast Guizhou Miao-Dong Nationalities Autonomous Prefecture in the southeastern portion of mountainous Guizhou province. The version of the “ancient songs” (hxak lul hxak ghot in the local Miao dialect, or guge in Chinese) used herein was collected in the 1950s and early 1980s by Jenb Dangk (or Jin Dan), a Miao scholar (and epic singer) long associated with the Guizhou Nationalities Publishing House. The version, collected from a number of different singers in Taijiang county, was transcribed and edited under the guidance of the late ethno-linguistic Ma Xueliang, formerly of Minzu University of China in Beijing. The version was published in 1983 in Beijing and appeared in English translation in 2006.3

2 There are parallels between elements of both these traditions in creation accounts from many parts of China. A number of living traditions are found in the south and southwest. Besides the examples in this paper, two from Yunnan province are Mvuh Hpa Mi Hpa of the Lahu ethnic group and the Si gang lih myths of the Va ethnic group (Walker 2000; Wei 1999:127–155). Both narratives involve the emergence of humans from a calabash after a great flood, aided by a number of animals. 3 Narrative poems concerning the creation are found among many subgroups of both the Miao and Yi, though there is considerable variation in form, content, and language. Among these Yi versions are Meige and Chamu from Chuxiong prefecture in northern Yunnan province (Li, Li, and Yang 2007:224–251).

266

mark bender

The other epic is a version of the Book of Origins, or Hnewo tepyy, associated with a subgroup of the Yi ethnic group called the Nuosu. The poem circulates in both oral and oral-connected written forms, the latter inscribed in Yi characters by the priests known as bimo. A number of versions have appeared in Chinese translation, and the performance context of the poem has been studied extensively by Bamo Qubumo of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2003). The version utilized in this paper is from Xide county, Sichuan, and was made available to the author with the help of the well-known Nuosu poet and scholar Luo Qingchun (also known as Aku Wuwu) (Bender 2008:12–3). Although both the Yi and Miao cultural lifestyles evolved in, or at early times, adapted to local conditions in the mountains of Southwest China, the cultures are very different. Miao in Southeast Guizhou are sedentary rice farmers who live in compact villages along rivers or on protected ridges. The Nuosu live in less concentrated settlements at higher altitudes subsisting on dry field production of buckwheat and potatoes. The histories, migrations, and social patterns of the two groups are markedly different, though some material and intangible cultural features are common to both ethnic groups—among them being some basic features of their epic myth narrative traditions (Harrell 2001; Schein 2000; Tapp 2001; Wu and Qin 2001). In terms of performance, both epics can be performed in antiphonal styles. The Miao epics are typically sung by two pairs of singers (often male vs. female), who alternate in singing portions of the narration while sitting opposite each other at a table, the shifting stimulated by questions that are posed and answered in turn. According to Bamo Qubumo, in the Nuosu epic traditions it is usual that two male singers sing parts of the epic in a call and response format while standing and turning, at social events such as weddings and funerals. In some situations, however, the singers may be seated. Stages of Creation In a general sense the Miao and Yi creation epics examined here share similar themes and motifs on the “narrative timeline” that Chinese researchers have identified in many creation myths documented in China (Yang, An, Turner 65–75). These elements include the emergence of the gods, the emergence of the cosmos, the separation of the sky and earth, the emergence of humans, and the re-creation of humans

perspectives on the environment in miao and yi creation

267

after a great disaster (in both epics discussed here, a great flood), and the consequent development of language and other cultural attributes. On the other hand, much of the content of both epics concerns the various biomes of the newly created land and non-human inhabitants of the realms of sky, earth, water, and the supernatural. Thus, although both epics are to an extent anthro-centric (human-focused), both also relate a high awareness of the people’s place within a diverse environment inhabited by a great variety of flora and fauna—some of which are capable (at least in the earlier mythic eras of the narratives) of speech and are attributed human emotions. In brief, versions of the Nuosu Book of Origins provide “genealogies” of the various physical phenomena of the cosmos, beginning with the appearance of a sky spirit who decides to create the sky and earth, aided by numerous helpers who first create the clouds and sun. In succeeding passages, parts of the earth are covered with forests, trees, grasses, and water. Mention is made of certain actions taken by various gods that foreshadow the retreat of a great flood—these include the task of opening four holes in the sky and connecting the four directions with copper and iron. At this time there are numerous suns and moons in the sky, yet the sky and earth are not fully separated. Thus a meeting is called among the gods to enact the separation. Giant copper and iron forks are used to pry apart the realms, thus releasing light, wind, and water. A number of domesticated animals try to move four giant copper and iron balls on earth. Eventually giant metal columns are constructed that hold up the sky. In part six of the epic, a bimo priest named Awop Shutbu determines the dwelling places of all living beings on earth, each in its own niche. A giant monkey hammers out suns and moon of gold and silver and sets them in the sky—causing global warming that parches the earth, and destroying nearly all living things. Next, a culture-hero named Zhyxge Axlu is born to an unmarried young woman who was impregnated by blood falling from dragon-eagles soaring in the sky. She abandons the child in the wilds and he is raised by dragons. When he grows to adulthood, he shoots down the extra suns and moons, reversing the parching effects; and later shrinks insects and other scary creatures into their present diminutive sizes. Another age of creation begins, signaled by an era of raging fires. Once the sky god has been placated, the “ge” life force falls from the sky, followed by red snow that brings the seeds of life to the devastated landscape. Life forms develop into “tribes”: the six groups “without blood,” or plants, and

268

mark bender

the six groups “with blood,” or animals. Humans are among these snow tribes, and near the end of the section, humans are separated from other creatures by gaining the ability to speak—though the actual story of how humans were given today’s languages comes later. The next section describes how humans obtain the fundamentals of civilization, though this generation is nearly wiped out by a great flood and a number of animals survive only on high peaks above the waters. The only survivor is a virtuous younger son, who with the help of several wild creatures eventually marries the sky god’s daughter. When she leaves for earth, she takes several domesticates with her—buckwheat, horses, and hemp. Later, through interactions with the sky, the present human peoples and languages of the region develop and the various groups spread across the landscape into rather clearly defined environments (Bender 2008:29–32). In the Miao epic cycle, after the creation of various gods who assist in the creation, the sky and earth are made and the pillars that hold up the sky are set up at various places on the landscape—some of which are still identifiable today. A tiny crab and Hxub Niux, a mythical unicorn (possibly a rhinoceros, Wu 2001), open the waterways to allow the personified metals, Gold and Silver, to be transported to make the suns and moons. Like other metals mentioned in the songs, Gold and Silver are born in the earth, and suckled and raised in terms similar to those of raising children. After the suns and moons are hung in the sky, the earth becomes over-heated, and an archer named Hsangb Sax shoots down all except those that remain today, thus saving life on earth in that age. The next section details the birth of various tree seeds, and describes how the seeds were dispersed with the help of mythic figures, including one named Xangb Liangx who uses agricultural techniques to raise the tree seedlings. Later one of the trees is accused of eating fish in a pond, and is sentenced to being cut down. The shattered tree changes into a myriad being, including one called Butterfly Mother (Mais Bangx) who lays eggs that hatch into various beings such as tigers, dragons, and the culture hero Jangx Vangb. Over time Jangx Vangb gets into a dispute with Thunder God over a cow, and the angry god floods the earth. Jangx and his sister are the only humans to survive—escaping within a great calabash. Having no other choice, they eventually marry, and the sister gives birth to a lump of flesh, which the enraged Jangx Vangb chops to pieces and spreads throughout the earth—thus resulting in the present day populations of southeastern Guizhou. In a scene parallel to that of the Yi

perspectives on the environment in miao and yi creation

269

epic, Jangx Vangb tricks the Thunder God into revealing the secret of human speech. The population soon grows, and the Miao people are forced to migrate into new areas in search of new lands to cultivate. Catalogues of Inhabitants: Folk Taxonomies Plants and animals, often appearing in lists and situated within specific environments, are common in the epics. In some cases the lists are an important rhetorical feature in epic performance, involving repetition, parallelism, and metonymy. The wild animals mentioned include a number of species that still inhabit the various bio-regions, as well as some that are extinct or unidentifiable. It is interesting that there are also species that have been scientifically documented within the local environments yet do not appear in the epics. Thus, the catalogues cannot be taken as comprehensive guides to the wildlife. As for plants, both epics provide rather extensive catalogues of native trees and both mention certain medical or otherwise useful plants.4 Domestic animals and plants are also mentioned, and in some cases, such as in scenes of the flood, may be mentioned alongside wild animals. Supernatural creatures, including dragons and giant eagles appear in both epics, though are conceived of somewhat differently. In the Nuosu Book of Origins the earth seems to be a somewhat less perfect version of the supernatural realm of the sky, over which the somewhat irascible sky god (Ngetit Guxnzy) rules. The earth is described as having many niches—which correspond to those found in parts of Southwest China today. These include the mountains, forest, wetlands, and grasslands. Wild animals and plants are specifically associated with the various niches, including those mentioned as being in the bifurcated folk taxonomy introduced above as the “tribes of snow” (Bender 2008:16–21). The various “tribes”—those with and those without blood—spring from a freakish red snow falling from the sky. The “without” category contains several grasses, as well as fir and cypress trees, and vines. The animals include frogs, snakes, and a variety of “winged creatures”: vultures, peacocks, swans, and several eagles and hawks. Then come bears, monkeys, and lastly, humans. The following are a few passages from the catalogue of tribes of blood: 4 See Wu and Qin (239) for comprehensive lists of the flora and fauna mentioned in the epics.

270

mark bender Of the six without blood, One group was grasses; Black-headed grass grows In the grassy places, In the three hundred grassy places . . . The fifth group was ne put grass, Black ne put grass was a snow son, Black ne put grass growing in the marshlands; The sixth group was green vines, Growing at the foot of trees and in caverns . . . The fourth group was the old bears. The black bear had one mother and two sons; They spread out into the fir forests, And the black bears became more and more . . . (Bender 2008:17–8)

As I have noted elsewhere (Bender 2008:21), several of the animals chosen in the folk taxonomy are anthropomorphic in shape—frogs, bears, and monkeys (indeed, some Yi groups in central Yunnan province have myths suggesting humans developed from monkeys). A number of plants and animals within the traditional pool of local knowledge are not included in the lists, and others are hardly or never mentioned in the epic, such as the tiger and panda, respectively. A flower not mentioned in the snow tribe lists (though it plays a major role in the acquisition of human speech) is the rhododendron flower (shuo hmat) which is almost emblematic as a symbol of beauty, wisdom, and purity in Yi folk culture. Other unlisted sentient beings, like bees, spiders, Eurasian river otters, foxes, leopards, rabbits, musk deer, roe deer, crows, magpies, pheasants, ducks, and song birds also appear at various other points in the epic, some playing active roles in the plot. (For instance, several creatures including frogs, snakes, and small birds aid in attempts at communication with the Sky.)5 The water deer (Hydropotes inermis) and muntjac in particular are frequently mentioned in the epic and are pervasive in Yi oral literature. Domesticated animals appearing in the Book of Origins are sheep and goats (providing wool and felt), pigs, small Asiatic cows, and chickens. All are eaten as feast food and may be offered in various sacrifices against the depredations of harmful ghosts. Other domesticates are horses and dogs (used for hunting and as watch dogs). Cultivants include hemp, a native turnip-like plant (vop ma), bitter and sweet buckwheat, and tobacco See Coggins (244–5) for information on local attitudes towards snakes and frogs in the mountains of Southeast China. 5

perspectives on the environment in miao and yi creation

271

(which like the maize and potatoes common in Yi diets today is a New World crop introduced into Southwest China by the 1700s). All of these creatures live on the same land as the Nuosu and in the herding and farming practices contribute to the human impact on soil resources, native plant life, and local water tables (Fig. 38).

Figure 38. A young Miao girl carries a paper lantern shaped like a turtle during the Sister’s Rice Festival, Taijiang County, southeast Guizhou province, May 2007. (Photo by Mark Bender)

272

mark bender

As for the place of humans in the landscapes of the Book of Origins, in the first half of the epic they are direct descendants of the tribes of snow; in the latter half, after the great flood, mention is made of the modern day peoples of the region: Han (Hxiegmat), Yi (Nuosu), and local Tibetan peoples (Opzzup). All migrate to different geographical realms, with the Han living in the lowlands, and the Yi and Tibetans at less fertile higher elevations. The domains of the Yi, which are described in more detail than those of the other groups, include places where goats are herded and crops that can live in marginal soil are grown. This domesticated realm features the plants and animals brought to earth by the sky god’s daughter, as well as a variety of poultry, pigs, and cows—all of which are still important in the Nuosu lifestyle today. In the Miao ancient songs the features of the landscapes and geological are often mentioned, including many references to both rocky and earthen hills, rivers, streams, and ponds, and even places in the mountains where “rusty” colored water seeps from the earth. A great number of trees, shrubs, and lesser vegetation are mentioned, sometimes in connection with their uses for humans, especially as materials for farming tools, weaving implements, and dyes. Although the fauna are not categorized as systematically as in the Yi epics, wild animals appear occasionally, especially smaller creatures such as freshwater crabs and shrimp, various fish, toads, frogs, insects (including a personified butterfly and a centipede), mosquito larvae, dragonfly nymphs, silk worms, glow worms, tubeworms, leeches, water bugs, spiders, etc.), rats, bats, and a number of small birds. Among the larger wild fauna are pangolins, otters, monkeys, bamboo rats, what seems to be a sort of wild goat (though this creature is not clearly identified), tigers, a rock eagle, and one simile utilizing the image of a lion (a creature not native to the region). In terms of interaction on a practical level, several references are made to the use of hunting technologies such as bird lime for trapping birds, bait birds for luring larger birds, hunting dogs, fishing nets, weights on fishing nets, and a simple device known as a fish gate used to keep and corner fish in the rice fields. In one passage an otter is caught by mistake such a trap: A: It was none other than Grandfather Bod and Grandfather Xongt. Several old men then discussed it: Some went to choose an auspicious day, some went to weave fishnets, and some thought up the cunning scheme of

perspectives on the environment in miao and yi creation

273

putting the fish gate at the mouth of the running water to catch Gold and Silver. They didn’t catch Gold and Silver, so who did they catch? B: They caught Otter. The adults cried out for the pelt; the children wanted the teeth; but suddenly, Otter spoke: “Don’t kill me! Let me speak. There’s a lot of Gold in the abyss; there’s a lot of Silver in the abyss. The Gold pieces are big as pigs; the Silver pieces are big as sheep, and it’s all in the abyss.” (Bender 2006: 39–40)

The passage also mentions gold and silver—metals that are personified and play a huge role in the section of the poem about making the suns and moons, echoing the fascination with metals near the beginning of the Yi Book of Origins. One of the most striking sections of the epics are descriptions of how the various metals (gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, tin, etc.) were born from their mother (the earth) and suckled at the various breasts growing all over her body, thus deriving their particular colors and traits. The metals and their features appear as an implicit catalogue in a manner somewhat paralleling the tribes of snow. Domestic creatures in the poem include water buffalos, yellow cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, horses, and there are references to raising fish in flooded rice fields. Water buffalos (though primarily draft animals), pigs, and chickens are used for food and in ritual sacrifices. Aside from the occasional giant eagles, toads, and personified insects, supernatural creatures include dragons, sheep dragons, and the jib weix bird, which came to hatch Butterfly Mother’s eggs. Many plants are mentioned incidentally, though several play major roles in the narrative. Utilitarian wild plants include indigo (for dyeing cloth), the medicinal herb moxa (Artemesia vulgaris), cogon grass (used as thatch), and an unidentified plant (possibly what the Han Chinese call yangtao; Actinidia chinensis) used in conjunction with borax to brighten silver ornaments, palm fiber for baskets, bamboo for a whole variety of utensils and wares, calabashes, and algae (that also appears in patterns of embroidery). In an early era of the epic, birch and sumac

274

mark bender

(Rhus chinensis; det pab, in Miao) trunks are used to attempt to hold up the sky. Throughout the songs there is mention of many trees and woody shrubs with very specific purposes that range from shingles to the wooden plug in a water buffalo’s nose. Other plants include duckweed, algae, pteridophytes, various grasses, vines, and water chestnuts. Many passages describe the opening of the wild lands for cultivation; cultivates include maize, green vegetables, taro, buckwheat, and rice, which is raised in irrigated terraced fields. An Alternate View? What is unique about the view of humans and nature in the two epic traditions? It seems clear from the content that both narrative traditions were created and sustained in upland environments in Southwest China at a time when local ecosystems were relatively intact. The descriptions of the landscapes mention many readily identifiable landforms and give details of how the human inhabitants draw on the resources of the earth and waters. On one hand it seems that the natural world of the mountains that surround the local villages is a source of many products for sustaining life, yet on another level the creation myths narrate that humans are directly linked into and emerge from the created worlds. At times they must radically modify the environment for survival—clearing fields and protecting their crops from raiding animals. Yet, the idea is always present that there is a connection with the primal forces behind the unfolding of the chronological ages of creation. The occurrences of animals, including insects, and plants is detailed and if not reflecting a modern “scientific” view of the environment, certainly reflects a kind of deep local knowledge of “how things work.” One example is the descriptions of various nesting habits of egg-laying creatures such as the praying mantis (with eggs like “wave foam”) and soft-shell turtles (eggs of which are warmed in the river sands). And it is this kind of specificity and familiarity with both the human-altered and the as-yet-radically-unaltered (i.e. “natural”) environment that sets these traditions apart from the typically abstract creation myths encountered in the written annals of Chinese historians (such as Shan Hai Jing, Chu Ci, etc.), which though often containing motifs and themes widely encountered in local oral traditions all over China, have been historicized and rewritten to an extent that any

perspectives on the environment in miao and yi creation

275

primary, nuanced connections to local ecosystems that once may have been noted, have been lost (Yang, An, Turner 12–4). Although space forbids it here, comparison of the Yi and Miao creation epics to primary oral or oral-connected creation myths from other cultures living in proximity to relatively intact natural environments would lend insight into the working of human imagination in environments apart from contemporary anthro-centric urban and suburban niches—whether “Western” or “Eastern” (Grim 38). As a start, in a general sense—and with an awareness of great cultural differences—the way the relations of humans, animals, plants, and the environment in both poems are characterized is in ways similar to the kind of “perspectivism” that Arhem (1993) has described in his discussion of South American Indian cultures. De Castro (1998) calls this understanding of relationships as a sort of “multi-naturalist” one, in which humans and other sentient beings share a basic oneness, though are plural in outward form (a jaguar, for instance, as a sentient being in jaguar form sharing a similar spirit with humans and other creatures). This is in contrast to familiar Western notions of so-called “multiculturist cosmologies,” that pit the human and natural world in opposition to each other, with injunctions to tame wild nature, which is often conceived of as evil, or at least removed from, and at times an impediment to, human civilization.6 Yet, while elements of the Yi and Miao traditions of creation epic do seem to recognize a sort of “oneness” with other creatures, humans are clearly differentiated from the animals in both epics by their ability to speak. At the same time, however, there is recognition that at a time in the distant past animals and humans could communicate in ways dissimilar from today. Moreover, both epics also contain significant passages dealing with clearing the land and plowing and harrowing the earth for cultivation. Indeed in the Nuosu Book of Origins, the act of plowing the earth, that involves the moral testing of several brothers, directly precedes a great flood; in the Miao ancient songs the flood comes after wrangling between two brothers over the division of property and land. These events, coupled with the imagery of clearing the lands for cultivation, suggest that in de Castro’s terms, elements of both the multi-naturalist and multiculturist perspectives are at play—though are evinced

6 As a point of clarity, the term “multiculturist” has nothing to do with the current term “multiculturalism” as used in education agendas in the U.S. and Europe today.

276

mark bender

differently in each tradition’s unique vision of the interactions between the multiple beings inhabiting the realms of the respective story worlds. Thus, while in some ways offering alternate “traditional” possibilities for viewing human relationships to the environment, both accounts suggest that these relations are complex, nuanced, and multi-faceted and deserve more sophisticated treatment involving both textual and field studies to fully understand and appreciate.

PART IV

ANTHOLOGY OF CREATION AND ORIGIN MYTHS

CREATION MYTHS IN CHINESE MINORITY CULTURES This anthology represents modest samples of creation and origin myths from China’s rich ethnic diversity cultures. The stories tell about the origins and beginnings of the universe, human beings, and natural and cultural phenomena. The texts have been collected over the past three decades. We have tried to represent various cultures and regions: Oroqen, Korean, Ewenki, Manchu, Mongolian; Tu, Kazakh, Kirgiz, Salar, Uyghur; Achang, Bai, Derung, Hani, Jingpo, Lahu, Pumi; Buyei, Dai, Gelao. Myths or mythical motifs or characters may be similarly shared by more than one ethnic group, since the stories tend to spread over different areas. And they have been transmitted in different versions by different storytellers in different times and places. In this anthology our guidelines have been: (1) In the collection the myths have been named after the specific ethnic group living in the area where the story has been collected. (2) The versions collected here are based on authoritative sources. We want to express our great appreciation, first of all to the storytellers, but also to recorders and transcribers of the stories, and to those who helped collecting, editing and translating the materials. We also gratefully acknowledge the following sources: Zhongguo Shenhua Gushi Jingxuan (Cao Wenxuan. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2004), Zhongguo A’ertai Yuxi Zhu Minzu Shenhua Gushi (Manduhu, ed. Beijing: Minzu Publishing House, 1997), Zhongguo Shaoshu Minzu Shenhua Chuanshuo (Tao Lifan, et al eds. Chengdu: Sichuan Minzu Press, 1985), Zhongguo Shenhua (Tao Yang & Zhong Xiu, eds. Shanghai: Shanghai Literature and Arts Publishing Group, 1996), Zhongguo Chuangshi Shenhua (Tao Yang & Mou Zhongxiu, eds. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2006).

OROQEN ORIGIN1 Oroqen I As the old people tell, god Enduri made the first Oroqens out of clay. He mixed some clay with flesh and then shaped the whole into human forms, but those figures could not walk. He infused into their bodies some bones which enabled them to walk. Originally they were covered with hairs all over the body. Being tall and big, they ran around naked at amazing speed. As a result they hunted and ate up all the wild animals in the mountain area. The enraged lord thus installed kneecaps in their legs and burnt up their hair leaving only belly wool and beard, so that hunting became much less easy for them than it had been before. Gradually people learned how to hunt with stones, bows and arrows, and thus became much shorter. This is how the Oroqens came into being. It is also said that in the beginning people all looked like animals except that they walked on two legs only. They were all male except one who was an old female in charge of the food in the cave. Being addressed Mama, she gained high esteem there. One day there came a male monkey on whom she had a crush. The monkey also hit it off, so he took her for his wife, and with her he had a son and a daughter, from whom all Oroqens descend. II Long long ago, there were no human beings on the earth. One day when looking down from heaven the lord thought the earth was no good without mankind, so he began to fashion ten men and ten women

1 Narrator: Meng Xingquan; Recorder: Meng Shuzhen. Elunchun Minjian Wenxue (unpublished). Harbin: Institute of Ethnic Study in Heilongjiang Province, 1986. pp. 34–37.

282

anthology of creation and origin myths

out of the flesh and bones of fowls. As soon as he began working on the women, he ran out of material, so he had to take clay instead. Since those women created had no strength to labor, the god infused strength into their bodies. However, they now became so powerful that even men were no match for them. Considering this to be unsuitable, the lord took back half of their strength. Eating raw meat like wild beasts, people did not realize that cooked meat was much more delicious until they knew how to make fire. Gradually, due to the intake of salt with their food they lost their hairiness and began to wear animal furs. That is how the Oroqen came into existence.

DANGUN1 Korean In days of yore the lord Hwanin had a son called Hwanoong who yearned to live on the earth among the people of their assistance. Hwanin relented permission and granted him Samwi-Taebaek mountain, and three cheonbuin (heavenly seals). Hwanoong descended with three thousand followers and landed under a sindansu (God altar) tree, where he founded a city called Sinsi (City of God) and entitled himself King Hwanoong. He assigned ministers of wind, rain and cloud, and so forth, and followers in charge of three hundred and sixty skills, from cultivation to medicine, from carpentry to weaving and fishing. Moreover, he not only taught his people how to distinguish good from evil but also instituted laws and moral codes for them to follow. One day a tiger and a bear living in a cave came up to King Hwanoong and prayed that they may become human. He gave them a bundle of mugwort and twenty cloves of garlic, ordering them to eat only this sacred food and remain out of the sunlight for one hundred days. The tiger gave up shortly, but the bear followed Hwanoong’s directions so strictly that she transformed into a woman after no more than twenty-one days. The bear-woman lacked a husband, so she felt sad and prayed to be blessed with a husband. Hwanoong, moved by her prayers, took her for his wife and soon she gave birth to a son, Dangun. As the founder of Gojoseon (Ancient Korea), Emperor Dangun ascended the throne in 2333 BC. After one thousand and five hundred years’ reign he abdicated to become a hermit in Mount Asada. He lived there until his death at the age of 1908.

1 The earliest version of this story was recorded by Venerable Ilyeon in his Samgukyusa (Historic Chronology of the Three Kingdoms). Cf. “Tanjun Shenhua.” Chaoxian Gudian Wenxue Xuanji, vol. 1. Beijing: Minzu Publishing House, 1988.

ALL CREATURES MADE OUT OF CLAY1 Ewenki Once upon a time, there was a deity called Baoruhenbagesi (Buddha in Ewenki) who molded all creatures out of clay, but before finishing the job he ran out of materials. He learned that there remained a hill of clay hidden under the stomach of a huge sacred turtle called Alatengyuyari whose magic power was unimaginably immense. However, Baoruhenbagesi was benign by nature and hated to hurt or even bother any living beings in the world, and the turtle was no exception. While he was struggling with this difficult dilemma Baoruhenbagesi saw a Nissan shaman coming from the east, on the back of a longmaned white horse carrying a bow and arrows. The shaman asked him: “What are you doing?” “I am making human beings out of clay, but I have run out of material,” replied the deity. “There is a lot of clay under the stomach of Alatengyuyari golden turtle. Would you be able to remove it?” “Yes, I can,” answered the shaman, “I have a divine bow and arrows that can defeat the evilest devils. I will kill the turtle if it refuses to move!” “Just remove it a bit, and please do not hurt it,” begged the kindhearted deity. The shaman agreed. He got on the horse and rushed at lightning speed to the place entrenched by the turtle who was deep in sleep. As soon as he arrived there, the shaman speeded an arrow from the bow at the turtle. The whistling arrow, which shook both earth and heaven, ripped deep into its scruff. Before realizing what had happened, the poor creature fainted onto its back. Having obtained hills of clay from there, Baoruhenbagesi engaged himself in the creation of day and night. The turtle, overawed by the shaman, lay on its back to prop up heaven with its four legs, at his

1 Narrator: Saijinsulong; Recorder: Ma Mingchao, July 1979; Place: Fenbilutu village, Chen Barag Banner, Inner Mongolia. Ewenkezu Minjian Gushi. Ed. Wang Shiyuan. Shanghai: Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, 1995, pp. 7–15.

286

anthology of creation and origin myths

command, without any protest. From then on creatures in the world have increased in both number and species. Besides, people have developed a harmonious relationship among each other. In course of time the four legs of Alatengyuyari that sustained heaven gradually became four huge pillars which brought about the separation of heaven and earth. The heavy weight of heaven becomes too much for the turtle to hold up all the time all by himself. Sometimes it feels so exhausted as to stretch itself for a moment, which brings about disasters like earthquakes, sky fires and floods. According to the old people this is exactly what happens when the earth quakes.

BEAR ORIGIN1 Ewenki In ancient times, a hunter was hunting in the mountain, and was suddenly captured by a she-bear he met on his way. The she-bear coerced him into marrying her in her cave. He had no alternative but to live with her until the birth of a baby bear several years later, when he finally took the opportunity to flee from the cave. As soon as she discovered her husband’s escape, the she-bear chased after him with the cub in her arms. She hurried to the river, only to discover that he had already escaped on a raft. Flying into a rage, she tore the poor cub in two halves right on the spot. One half she threw to the hunter, and the other half she kept. From the former half the Ewenki descended, and from the latter the bear.

1 Narrator: Alanuohai; Recorder: Ma Mingchao; Nehe county, Heilongjiang province; Translator: Daolji. Harbin: Heilongjiang Minjian Wenxue, 1983 (6): 67.

GOD’S CREATION OF THE WORLD1 Manchu I. Heaven and Earth Heaven consists of seventeen layers and the earth of nine, which are all placed under the sovereignty of Abukaenduli. The place where the gods reside is called Kingdom of Heaven, and the place for mortals is the Kingdom of Earth. In the beginning there was no earth, only waters existed everywhere. It was lord Abukaenduli who made the first human pair in his likeness. He kept them in a stone jar which he put on the waters. From this couple within the floating jar the first people descended. The jar enlarged accordingly as the population began to increase. Gradually the jar became so crowded that Abukaenduli decided to make another abode for the people. Out of soil he created a huge piece of land, which was then placed on the back of three big fishes. A small deity was assigned to keep those fishes supplied with food. Whenever the small deity was lazy in providing the three fishes with food on time, the fishes grew hungry and swayed their bodies and the earth on top was shaking accordingly. That’s what happens when there is an earthquake. Later on, when once again the earth was unable to accommodate the increasing population, Abukaenduli cut down the biggest tree of heaven and laid it on the edge of the earth. Ever since, people developed into various races along the different branches of the tree. II. High Mountains In the beginning the earth was evenly flat. Concerned about the safety of human beings on the earth, the supreme god Abukaenduli sent his oldest disciple Endulizengtu to the earth to take care of their safety. 1 Narrator: Fu Yingren; Recorder: Yu Jin; Place: Ning’an county, Heilongjiang province. Manzu Minjian Gushi Xuan. Shanghai: Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, 1983, p. 56.

290

anthology of creation and origin myths

Ye Luli, the second oldest disciple of Abukaenduli, was rather dissatisfied with this divine decision, considering himself as more qualified for the job. Thus he secretly descended to the Kingdom of Earth, where he created a gang of demons with whom he stirs trouble and harms humans causing great evil and slaughtering innocent people on purpose. When he discovered Ye Luli’s misdoings the supreme god Abukaenduli, in his wrath, assigned his youngest disciple Duolongbeizi to finish the evil one off. As a mighty god, Duolongbeizi stabbed Ye Luli to death with one blow, splitting his body apart, and the scraps turned into high mountains.

THE FIRST MAN: SON OF CELESTIAL MAIDEN FUKULUN1 Manchu Manchuria springs from a lake named Bulehuli at the foot of Mount Bukuli in the northeast of Mount Changbai. In the beginning there were three celestial maidens, namely Enkulun, Zhengkulun and Fukulun according to their order of age. They descended from heaven for a bath in the lake. Right after they had gone ashore a sacred magpie appeared, dropping a fig from its mouth onto the dress of Fukulun, the youngest one of the three. Enthusing about the fresh red little thing she was so reluctant to part with it that she put it into her mouth and kept it there. While dressing herself she swallowed the fig unwittingly and thus became pregnant. She turned to her two elder sisters: “I feel so heavy that I’m afraid I cannot go back with you to our heavenly palace. What should I do?” They comforted her: “We have taken an elixir before, and after all it would be an immaculate conception, so it definitely won’t cost your life. You can fly back to heaven after the delivery. By then your weight will have been reduced again.” The two sisters kissed her goodbye and flew back to the heaven. Soon she bore a baby boy who could speak at birth. He grew up soon after. One day, the mother said to him: “You are born from divine providence with the sacred mission of pacifying the land in rebellion. Please, go there right now.” Before they left each other she told him the story of his birth and gave him a ship in which to go with the flow. Then she suddenly disappeared, flying back to heaven. The man entered the ship and sailed down the river until he reached an inhabited place. He landed there to sit solely in a chair made of osier. At that time the residents of three family names living in the city of E Duoli in the northeast of Changbai Mountain were constantly making war on each other for leadership.

1 “Abka i sarganjui fukulun banjimbi manzhou da sekiyen mafa” [The First Man: Son of Celestial Maiden Fukulun].” In Man mong taiyaku manshyuu jitsuroku. Trans. Imanisi Shunju. Tokyo: Tousui Shyobou, 1992.

292

anthology of creation and origin myths

One day, Fukulun’s son encountered a man when fetching water from the river. Amazed at his unordinary appearance and behavior, the man returned to the place of fight, saying: “We must put an end to the fighting now, because just now, when I was fetching water from the river, I saw an unusual man, with an extraordinary appearance. Why not go and have a look at him, all of us?” At these words people all stopped fighting to go for a look. Convinced that he was no common human being, they asked him in surprise where he came from. The man replied: “I am the son of celestial maiden Fukulun. My family name is Aixinjueluo, and my first name is Bukuliyongshun. I was born from divine providence and it is my mission to pacify your rebellion.” He repeated his mother’s words literally. When they heard his message, all the people were astonished and said to each other: “How can we let go such an extraordinary man?” They fashioned a sedan to carry him back to their place of living. People stopped fighting and all agreed that he should be their king, dedicating maidens to be his wives from a hundred mile radius. The name of the kingdom became Manchuria, with Bukuliyongshun as its earliest ancestor.

CREATION OF THE WORLD BY GODDESS MAI DEER1 Mongolian Once upon a time the thriving world nearly came to an end altogether. It happened thus. At the very moment when heaven was about to form, earth to grow, and all creatures to reproduce themselves, the whole world was struck by a cruel catastrophe in the form of a torrential flood submerging and destroying all life in the universe. Ages later Goddess Mai Deer came down to the world for inspection on a snow-white sacred horse that shone brightly all over, to find on the blue waters only the top of Mount Sumeru, the highest mountain on earth leading to heaven. Then, suddenly, she caught sight of a group of people living in a cave near to the top of the mountain. Being only one chi (one third meters) in height, they were riding horses as small as rabbits. By the evening their children born in the morning would have grown mature enough to engage in fire making and fire delivery on horse back carrying their torches back and forth from the cave of Mt. Sumeru. The divine horse with Mai Deer on its back trod the blue waters back and forth, bringing about dazzling sparks that burnt the dust into ashes, which then spread over the water and gradually formed a piece of boundless land. The waters sank slowly under the weight of the land. Aware of the instability of the earth floating on the waters, she assigned a huge turtle to bear the earth on its back. As a result whenever the turtle stretches itself an earthquake takes place. Under the heat of the horse’s hooves the blue waters transformed into vapors drifting about between the earth and heaven. That is how clouds were formed. Meanwhile the flashing sparks became stars in the sky. Out of compassion for those little people Mai Deer sent two deities, one male and the other female, to bring them light. The male deity, named Sun, is on duty during daytime. He gives off both heat and red

1

Collected by Yao Yuxuan, in Beijing: Minjian Wenxue, 1986(3):81–83.

294

anthology of creation and origin myths

light. The female deity, called Moon, works during the night, giving off white light. They circle Mount Sumeru once a day in the track designed by Mai Deer. As soon as the male deity moves to the back of the mountain, the night is falling and the female deity takes over the task, and vice versa. Thus they cannot meet each other. Three times a year the incarnation of Mai Deer carries out an inspection of the earth: January 15th, April 15th and June 15th on the lunar calendar. On those days the Oyrat Mongols sacrifice cattle and sheep to Mai Deer to receive her inspection.

KHUDAI BLOWS TO CREATE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH1 Salar At the beginning of time, the universe was very dark, for heaven and earth were lying closely together. Then Khudai,2 Creator of the universe, blew his breath on to them, continuously, for six days and six nights. His breath was so strong that it forced heaven and earth apart, with the former drifting upwards and out of reach, and the latter falling downwards, until the rivers emerged. Thanks to Khudai’s breath heaven and earth have been separated and ever since they have been as they still are now. Then Khudai molded the first man, A Dan, out of clay and breathed life into the figure. Then he took out one of A Dan’s bones and made out of it a woman, Hai Wa, whom he gave to the man to be his wife. Initially they were the only couple inhabiting the world. They successively gave birth to forty twins. When their children grew up, the couple discussed who should marry whom, until they finally arrived at an agreement. They resolved this intractable issue smoothly, by matching the girl of the first pair to the boy of the second pair, the boy of the first pair to the girl of the second pair, and so forth. From those forty couples mankind originates.

1 Collected and processed by Da Mo and Ma Yingsheng, in Zhongguo A’ertai Yuxi Zhu Minzu Shenhua Gushi [Myths and Folktales of China Ethnic Minorities belonging to Altaic Language Groups]. Ed. Manduhu. Beijing: Minzu Publishing House, 1997. p. 96. 2 Khudai: Allah in Islam, used by Farsi-speaking Muslims in Iran and in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.

CREATION OF THE MORTAL WORLD1 Tu In the beginning there was no earth or solid land, nothing but a vast primeval ocean. One day the lord, looking down from heaven, could not help worrying about mankind to be created: “There is not even a spot for them to step on. What should I do? An earth should be created for them to stay on.” He looked around and suddenly caught sight of a huge golden toad floating on the water. “Ah! Wonderful!” the lord shouted in great delight, happy at the thought of a creature suitable to sustain the earth. He snatched up a handful of soil from some other place and then scattered it on the toad’s back, but to his disappointment the scared creature quickly dived into the water, which enraged him greatly: “The damned brute! The beast does not know how to appreciate favors”. He waited with the bow bent and the arrow fixed. As soon as the golden toad came up to the surface, the arrow whistled and shot it through the waist. “Ouch! Oh! Oh!” The toad tumbled in pains until it was finally lying on its back on the water. “Dare you dive into the water again?” the god scolded, throwing another handful of soil which the golden toad now caught it without protest. There was no escape any more, and this is how the earth came into being.

1 Narrator: Malongxifu; Recorder: Ma Guangxing; Place: Guanting, Minhe county, Qinghai province.

BEAUTY AI SEMA1 Uyghur Ai Sema is the most beautiful goddess living in the seventh heaven. It is from her mood changes that all the natural phenomena originate. When she opens her eyes, the sun rises slowly until shining bright; when she falls asleep her closed eyes cause nightly darkness; her weeping brings about drizzling rains; her smile brings snows; when she opens her mouth then the whole world would be raged by strong wind; her breathing turns into breeze; when she flies into a rage an earthquake takes place; when she slightly raises her brows, a beautiful rainbow bursts into the sky. Therefore, this most beautiful goddess is called Beauty Ai Sema.

1

Translated by Aisaiti Sulaiman from Silk Road Legends by Abudu Kelimu Reheman.

ZHE PAMA AND ZHE MIMA1 Achang This is a most ancient but true story telling how our earliest ancestors, Zhe Pama and Zhe Mima, created man, the heaven and the earth. The story first came directly from Zhe Pama’s own lips and was heard by a sorcerer. And ever since the God of Heaven told him the story, it has been passed down from generation to generation. In time immemorial there was neither heaven nor earth, but boundless chaos with no separation between light and dark, up and down. All was lost in the vastness of nonexistence without any external support. One day a swirl of white burst out and brought about light and dark, from which came out thirty heavenly generals and thirty heavenly soldiers. In addition, yin and yang, generated from light and dark, gave birth to the God of Heaven, Zhe Pama, and the Goddess of Earth, Zhe Mima. Zhe Pama was naked with a pair of breasts as huge as mountains and a wizardly whip around the waist. He snapped his whip to convoke a large gathering of the thirty heavenly generals, the thirty heavenly soldiers and three thousand and six hundred white cranes. He assigned the generals to fetch golden sands on the shoulder, the soldiers to fetch silver sands on the back, and the cranes to wave their white wings to make gusts of wind that would bring forth the rain. He then molded the sun out of the golden sands and rainwater, the moon out of silver sands and rainwater. The sun created was as hot and brilliant as the hearth, and the moon as clear and refreshing as spring water. Failed to find any suitable place to keep them, Zhe Pama tore off his right breast with the left hand and turned it into Taiyang Mountain that was about 108,000 miles high. Then he tore off his left breast with the right hand and converted it into Taiyin Mountain of the same height as the former. Therefore men have been without

1 Narrator: Zhao Anxian; Collector: Zhi Ke; Translator: Yang Yesheng; Achangzu Minjian Wenxue Ziliao, vol. 1, p. 7. Ed. Cultural Center of Lianghe county, 1986. Private print.

302

anthology of creation and origin myths

breasts ever since. Zhe Pama strode with the sun under the right arm and the moon under the left arm with a rainbow formed at every single pace. The path he trod formed the Milky Way. The breaths he blew out merged into clouds filling the sky. The sweats streaming down his body turned into an immense storm. Half way of the mountain he lifted up the sun and put it on top of Mount Taiyang and the moon on top of Mount Taiyin, so as to settle them down. After that he planted a Thoreau tree in between the two mountains, around which the sun and the moon move. When the sun is out it is daytime, and when the moon comes out, the night falls. Later on he created the four poles of heaven, namely Eastern Heaven, Southern Heaven, Western Heaven and Northern heaven, out of pearls, agates, jades and emeralds respectively. Then he assigned four black and white cows namely Long Hezao, La Gezao, Bo Xunzao and Mao Mizao as the gods of the four poles, respectively. That’s the way Zhe Pama created the sun, the moon and the four poles of heaven. The sun and the moon darted forth their beams, and the heaven was just like a huge spread curtain. Thus Zhe Pama’s great reputation and everlasting glory rose high. At the same time Zhe Mima, Goddess of the Earth, was busy weaving the earth. She was born with facial hairs that were eight tuo (a length unit in ancient China, referring to the length between the two hands of an adult extending his arms horizontally). It approximately equals five chi (one and two-third meters) long and a larynx even bigger than the mango. Picking out her own larynx as a shuttle she began weaving the earth with her facial hairs. That’s why women have neither larynx nor beard today. The hairs pulled off from her right cheek were knitted into the eastern part of the earth, from her left cheek, the western part, from her lower jaw the southern, and from her forehead the northern. Blood streamed down her face and gradually formed the ocean covering the whole earth. It was thanks to her blood sacrifice that Zhe Mima succeeded in the creation of an earth full of vitality. Her merits are as immense as the earth and as deep as the sea. However, there was still one problem: the earth was so large that it failed to get entirely sheltered by the heaven. When Zhe Pama held on to the eastern heaven, it bared the western earth; and when he held on to the southern heaven, it bared the northern earth. The gale agitated the ocean and waves beat against the sky. Every now and then thunders crashed Heaven, and pulled out again, while claps of thunder shook the ends of the earth dramatically. On witnessing such

anthology of creation and origin myths

303

a miserable scene Zhe Mima hastily drew out three threads from the earth, which caused a huge earthquake. In the aftermath of the earthquake some places on the earth heaved to mountains and others sank to plains. As a result, the earth shrank to such a size as to be perfectly sheltered by the heaven. Since then, the world has been in peace and harmony: The sun shining bright on the land during the day, the moon throwing its refreshing sparkles at night, the forest hiding mountains, the fish disporting in the water, and the birds singing in the sky. Zhe Pama descended to the earth from heaven and was extremely amazed at the sight of it: “From whose skilful hands comes out such a miraculous land? What kind of magic power has enabled the earth to shrink?” Followed by heavenly generals and soldiers, holding the wizardly whip in his hand, he wandered about, in search of the mysterious creator. After balling up the three threads drawn from the earth, Zhe Mima turned her gaze to the sky: the sun was warming up the earth, the moon brightening up the land and clouds were drifting about leisurely. It looked as if she had positioned herself within a large maze, so she started to run like beans to seek for the creator of heaven, keeping off hunger with wild fruit, sheltering herself in caves or hollow trees, dispelling the heat with a banana leaf on the head, and warming herself up with leaves and couch-grass. It was a sunny morning. The air was in a still. The water stopped flowing. Trees hung down their leaves and branches. All was quietly waiting for the presence of the God of Heaven and Goddess of Earth. Finally, on the top of Mount Wuliang in the center of the earth, they met each other for the first time, just like the first meeting between the sun and the moon. Glued to the earth with everlasting longing, they gazed and gazed like stars. Zhe Pama praised Zhe Mima for those steep mountains, broad prairie and fertile dams created, saying: “The heaven I created is just like a drifting cloud that goes wherever the wind blows. It was not until your creation of the earth that heaven finally fell into place.” However, Zhe Mima replied sadly: “Though the mountain is high, no one is cutting firewood there. The forest is thick, but no man is hunting in it. Although the field is fertile, no one is cultivating it. The ocean is vast, but no one is fishing there. The earth is useless unless there are human beings to dominate it.” “Since we are both capable of creation, why don’t you marry me to make mankind together?”, Zhe Pama suggested.

304

anthology of creation and origin myths

As the only pair on the earth they found neither go-between to match them together nor anybody to deal with engagement issues. Though willing to marry each other, they were afraid that it might be against the providence. Therefore, they decided to make two fires, each of them a fire on the top of one of the two mountains, far away from each other, convinced that the leaping flames would represent the providence. Zhe Mima gained the first fire through friction between two stones, and Zhe Pama lashed a string of sparks, one of which started the fire while the others transformed into stars spangling the sky. Then, at the very same moment, two clouds of dense smoke exhaled from both mountains, fusing into one, twisting and spiraling in the sky, on and on. Zhe Pama and Zhe Mima got married and settled down in the centre of the earth. Nine years later Zhe Mima bore a gourd seed which they planted in the soil. In another nine years the seed sprouted up and grew to a length of ninety nine tuo (165 meters). However, it blossomed out with only one flower which then brought forth a gourd. The gourd grew bigger and bigger day by day. Lest it should break the earth, Zhe Mima took a stick and digged a hole in the gourd, out of which there sprang nine babies. That is how the very first human beings were created. For a long period of time the first humans didn’t know how to make full use of their limbs and wisdom. They could neither cook nor make houses. Scared of the uncertainty of nature they ducked deep into caves like birds and beasts. It was Zhe Mima who taught them how to hunt, cook, build houses, keep records by notching wood, and how to expel diseases and disasters by means of divination and incantations.

ORIGIN OF ALL LIVING CREATURES1 Bai Old people tell that in the beginning, when heaven was not separated from earth yet, the whole world was veiled in pitch darkness, without form and devoid of creatures such as people or animals. Between heaven and earth there was a vast rolling ocean which was turbulently boiling, spurting up huge waves that violently shook both heaven and earth. One day an enormous tidal blow took place. The roaring breakers leaped skywards and made a big hole in the sky, from which a pair of suns, one big, the other small, bounced out as the tide ebbed away. They chased and dashed against each other like two fireballs, throwing off a shower of sparks that made the whole world shine glowing red. They attacked and attacked each other, spitting sparks that turned into stars bespangling the sky. Then suddenly the crust of the smaller sun was knocked off and transformed into the moon. As the attack grew fiercer and fiercer, the smaller one was beaten down into the ocean with a loud bang, and raised rolling mountains of waves, which lifted the sky up high and caused the land to cave in. Ever since, heaven and earth have been apart. Since the earth was uneven, seawater kept flowing toward lowlying land, forming rivers, lakes and the sea, whereas high-lying places became lofty ridges and towering mountains. At the very moment when the smaller sun dropped into the sea, a huge stone pillar emerged, towering into the sky with its feet planted on the ground, which finally put heaven and earth to a still. Because the stone pillar looked like a conch standing on its head, it is called Luofeng Mountain. At the seabed there was a huge golden dragon in deep sleep. Waken up by the boiling water, it howled and twisted in a rage, searching everywhere in the ocean for the culprit with its eyes wide open. It searched on and on, from the south to the north, from bottom to

1 Narrator: Li Jianfei; Recorder: Li Zuanxu, Zhang Hongyu, 1983; Place: Xinmin village, Chengjiao town, Heqing county, Yunnan province. Zhongguo Minjian Gushi Jicheng, Yunnan Volume, Beijing: Zhongguo Wenlian Chuban Gongsi. pp. 13–19.

306

anthology of creation and origin myths

surface. Finally, at the foot of Luofeng Mountain in the west, it found the flaming fireball rising and falling on the billows. With a terrible roar it rushed forward and opened its large, fierce-looking mouth to gulp it down. The ocean calmed down and was clothed by mist. However, the sun flamed even more furiously inside the dragon, burning its intestines as black as chestnut charcoal, its stomach was glowing as deep as the Russula lepida mushroom, his heart became as purple as the eggplant, and his liver was as shriveled as a small creasy bag. It felt as if its internal organs were being fried and a knife twisted in its heart, and the dragon could not bear it any more. With its back humped and its tail swinging, it howled with all its strength, trying to clear the sun out. However, the sun stuck in its throat so tightly that it could neither breathe nor produce a sound, which made it feel light-headed with exhaustion. That was the last it could endure, so it threw itself heavily onto Luofeng Mountain. By then changed into a meatball, the sun burst out from the dragon’s chest, blasted to countless slices, shreds and mince flying about in the air. Those spouting into the air became clouds, those suspending in mid-air were converted into birds, trees, flowers and grass; those falling on to the mountains turned into animals; those on the land, into insects, those at the bottom of the ocean into fishes and turtles, and those on the surface into seaweed. The core of the meatball, which failed to crack up, rolled into a cave half way up the mountain. At the end of the cave it split apart, with the left half that landed first transforming into a woman called Lao Tai, and the right half into a man named Lao Gu. Since then the earth has become populated with human beings.

BU SANGGAI AND YA SANGGAI1 Dai In the beginning when the heaven and the earth came into existence there was nothing in the world but bare land and vast ocean. All was in dreariness without any trace of human beings, animals, trees, flowers or grass. Then God king Yingba, the Creator, sent the saint couple Bu Sanggai and Ya Sanggai to the earth with a sacred gourd to create man and other living things because of their miraculous power and hearts of gold. They cut the sacred gourd into halves. Hardly had they scattered the seeds upwards when the sky became heavily sprinkled with stars and alight with the shining of sun and moon, and no sooner had they spread the seeds downwards than the earth flourished with luxuriant vegetation, blooming flowers and aromatic fruit. However, the world was still without man and animals, whose lives had been absent from the sacred gourd seeds. The couple thought to themselves: as a place of fabulous abundance and extraordinary vastness, the earth should be ruled by a different kind of being… Thereupon they accomplished the creation of a man and a woman out of clay, and breathed life, soul and vitality into them. Purified by sunshine, moonlight, wind and rain, this clay couple finally came into life and began to walk about on the earth, and Bu Sanggai and Ya Sanggai gifted them with the ability to speak and to think. Their name was “man”. The world has been populated with human beings ever since. Under the protection and directions of Bu Sanggai and Ya Sanggai they learned to work and to search for food, starting their life as a person in this eventful complex world. Bu Sanggai and Ya Sanggai then proceeded to the making of animals in a large variety of kinds, such as elephants, horses, cows, sheep,

1 Narrator: Bo Ruobian; Translator: Ruo Wenbian, Zheng Peng; Place: Jinghong, Yunnan province.

308

anthology of creation and origin myths

pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks, tigers, leopards, wolves, moose, deer, birds, worms and fishes, giving all of them their names and languages. Since then there have been aquatic animals like fish, shrimps, crabs and shellfish in the ocean, and thousands of species of beasts, birds and reptiles on the land. Thus the lifeless earth has become a thriving one.

HOW HEAVEN CAME TO BE SEPARATED FROM EARTH1 Derung Ages ago the earth adhered to heaven. The people set up a nine-stair ladder leading to heaven, on the holy land of Mukenmudangmu, a ladder which enabled them to go up and down freely. One day, a man named Ga Mu came across a big ant at the foot of the ladder. The ant was attracted by those brightly coloured rings on Ga Mu’s ankles, so it begged with admiration: “Would you, please, give them to me?” Ga Mu flung a scornful look at the ant’s spindly legs, and said: “Stop dreaming! Those rings are for man only.” After those words he climbed up the ladder to heaven. “I should like to see how you are going to come down!” the ant thought in annoyance and frustration. In the evening the ant nibbled the foot of the ladder into two. Then, with a loud bang, the sky was suddenly pushed high up, and the earth holed by the ladder all at once. Even today you can see the deep hole with an opening as huge as a house, from which you can hear the murmur of streams, if you listen attentively. While wandering about happily in the heaven Ga Mu suddenly heard a noise and felt being lifted high. When he looked down, he saw to his deep fear that the ladder had disappeared. He yelled for help to the giant bamboo (dendrocalamus giganteus) that he thought was the highest on land: “Please straighten up your body and help me down!” On hearing this the giant bamboo straightened itself up, but still can not reach him. So Ga Mu turned to the vine which he thought was the longest on earth: “Please stand up to take me down!” No sooner had it heard the cry than the vine up bent itself hard to Ga Mu, but in vain. Ga Mu has been staying in heaven ever since, but he is always thinking of the mortal world and watching over the crops there. People also

1 Narrator: Kong Zhiqing, Yi Liya (Derung); Recorder: Ba Zi, January 1985; Place: Dulongjiang town, Gongshan county, Yunnan province.

310

anthology of creation and origin myths

keep thinking about him. They dedicate grains to him shortly after the harvest: First they stick into furcated maize bracts a wooden stick that is then set upright on the ground. After that they tie a chicken on it, with an old man murmuring: “God misses us, and we miss god too. We are presenting grains to you, please bless us with good harvest every year…” Those rites in worship of heaven have been passed down from that time.

MUQ PUNG GYEU1 Derung In remote antiquity, all creatures, offspring of the sun and the moon, with no exception, were round-shaped with neither edge nor corner. It was Kawokapu, God of the Snow Mountain, who melted the snow into clear water which cleansed away all excrescences from their bodies and formed them into various species. First came out a man and a woman, and then birds, beasts, insects and fishes of both sexes. The two humans married each other and from them all human offspring originated, while from the others all kinds of animals came forth. Having failed to find any cereal grains on earth to support the rapidly enlarging family, the Muq pung gyeu flew into the heaven by sunshine and managed to steal some seed grains from there. However, hardly had he begun sowing in the place where he lived when the wind swept those seeds away from his hands, and scattered them all over the world, so that today we can find grains all over the world. How to light a fire remained a serious difficulty, so he sent a prayer to God Kawokapu, asking for help. While praying, he was twiddling with a vine, rubbing it on a trunk unconsciously. Becoming warmer and warmer, the vine finally sparked. This is how he learned to make fire. When, later on, his children fell ill, Muq pung gyeu flew to heaven again on the back of a bee to ask for some medicine from god of snow mountain Kawokapu. At the gate of heaven he shouted aloud: “Open the door quickly please!” Then from inside came a voice: “How did you come, man? Get away from here right now!” Muq pung gyeu pleaded and begged for a long time before he was granted the medicine. On his way home, however, he was thrown off the bee’s back and the medicine got lost in a lake which thus gained its taste from it. As a result Muq pung gyeu had to return home empty-handed. The couple blamed each other on the death of their children, but they had no alternative but to bear some more. That’s why the Drung own wine but no medicine, and have a small population. 1 Trans. by Zhu Faqing, in Dulongzu Minjian Gushixuan, Zhongguo shaoshu minzu minjian wenxue congshu, gushi daxi, vol. 15, p. 581.

FOUR GENERATIONS OF MAN1 Gelao In the beginning the whole world was desolate, then mankind came into existence, but only after several rounds of ebb and flow they finally became what they are now. People today are actually the fourth generation in history, since those previous three generations have been destroyed by gale, fire and flood, respectively. The story runs as follows: The first generation made by god out of clay melted in a heavenly gale; the second generation fashioned out of grass were burnt up in a heavenly fire; the third generation, constellations descending from heaven, all perished in a great flood, except A Yang and his younger sister. When the flood subsided, the two got married according to the directions of god Che Ge, and became the progenitors of mankind.

1 Narrator: Chen Baohe (male, 82, Gelao); Recorder: Tian Xingcai (male, 52, Gelao) July 1980; Place: Pingyong town, Zunyi county, Guizhou province.

CREATION OF MAN, HEAVEN AND EARTH1 Hani In time immemorial the whole world was filled with thick mist that seethed silently for ages until finally transforming into a vast ocean. In that ocean generated a fish so huge that neither its head nor its caudal fin could be seen. Feeling so sad at the cold and lifeless world, the fish threw its right ventral fin upwards to make the heaven, and then flung its left ventral fin to create the earth. After that it swung its back from which seven pairs of deities and a human couple came out. Since then there have been heaven, earth, deities and man in the world. Since heaven and earth were not even at all, those deities decided to mend them smooth, some of them pulling golden ploughs, and others, silver rakes. They worked on the heaven with soaring enthusiasm and great care, so that it became as smooth as jade; but when it came to the earth, they did the job slackly with little drive. As a result, some places were ploughed deep, and others shallow; some got raked, and others not. Places that had been raked over became plain dams, and those left out changed into mountains, both high and low. Furrows turned into valleys of different depths, some of which were submerged by water, thus forming various lakes and rivers. As for the human pair, the man was called Zhi Ta, and the woman, Ta Po. Ta Po became pregnant all over the body shortly after coming out of the fish’s back, and soon gave birth to twenty-one children, among whom the eldest one was a tiger, the second a hawk, the third a dragon, and the others human beings. When growing up, the dragon became King of the ocean, so it repaid its mother three thick bamboo tubes of gifts for her loving care. Ta Po opened the first tube and saw gold, silver, copper, iron, pearls and jewels, so she let them go underground. The second one was filled with grains, corn, buckwheat, cotton, trees and grass, which were all planted in the ground. The third tube was full of cattle, pigs, chickens, birds and beasts, which were all

1

Narrator: Zhu Xiaohe (Hani); Collector: Lu Chaogui, Yang Di, Zhi Xin.

316

anthology of creation and origin myths

set free into the mountains except a cow presented to the deities for their contributions to creation. The gods were quite delighted at the cow, but instead of taking it for food, they transformed its eye into lightening, its fur into thunders, its tears into dewdrops, its snivel into rainwater, its breath into clouds, its blood into rosy clouds, its left eye into the sun, its right eye into the moon, two teeth into the Venus and the Plough, and its four legs into pillars standing between heaven and earth in four directions. From then on, there have been living creatures, light, as well as day and night in the world. People began to live and work in peace and contentment and gradually thrived. Unfortunately, however, the gods quarreled in a towering rage over the leadership of the world, and nobody would give up. Then in an outburst of anger two deities, Yan Sha and Sha La, set up a heavenly stove and collected huge stones, trying to make fireballs to destroy heaven and earth. Fourty-nine days later they made nine fireballs that not only burnt heaven glowing red but also melted rocks on the earth like candles. Panic-stricken by that miserable scene, deity Mi Lu shouted out: “Oh hell! That’s too bad!” He called upon the other deities for floods to extinguish the fire. They set three streams of water during daytime and three streams of water at night, which finally extinguished the fire. However, the earth was engulfed, and nobody escaped except Zuo Luo and his sister Zuo Bei, who saved themselves in a gourd and floated about for six years until they arrived at the confluence of ten rivers. When the waters sank down they got out of the gourd and settled down in a cave to protect themselves from wind and rain. Then Zuo Luo suggested: “Let’s depart here to search for our dear ones separately!” Zuo Bei agreed: “Ok, let’s part at once and see if we can find our companions.” Zuo Luo left whistling, and Zuo Bei went away blowing the bugle made of a leaf. The sister tramped over nineteen mountains and heard nothing except echoes of her brother on top of the mountain; the brother waded ninety-nine rivers and saw nothing but his sister’s shadowy silhouette on the river bank. Having failed in their efforts to find any traces of human beings, they were greatly frustrated and worried about the extinction of man. They thought over again and again, and started making human beings out of mud by themselves, but none of those figures came into life. Then a deity named A Zhi came and said: “Hey, how can you fashion

anthology of creation and origin myths

317

man out of mud? Human beings will be extinct forever unless you two get married.” On hearing this, Zuo Luo shook his head repeatedly: “No way! How could a brother and a sister get married?” Zuo Bei, overwhelmed with shame, turned her face aside: “God forbid! How embarrassing!” Again they set off in search of human beings with the brother blowing Bawu and the sister blowing Lilu.2 Hardly had they gone through the place where ninety-nine tribes used to locate before the disaster, when the brother was carried away by the Lilu music, and the sister became enamoured by the Bawu tune. Following the melodious tunes, they walked nearer and nearer toward each other. While the sister was peeping at her brother through leaves of the tree, he suddenly pushed aside those branches, and they both blushed with shame. It was simply outrageous! They struggled again with their annoyance. At that moment A Zhi appeared once again, sowing the seeds of love in their hearts, hence they fell for each other. However, before the marriage they checked whether the marriage would be against the will of heaven by throwing leaves, woodcut and millstones. Each of them climbed up a high mountain, the brother on the eastern and the sister on the western mountain. Standing on top of the eastern and the western mountain, respectively, the two threw two leaves that came down whirling and finally glued to each other; and then they separately dropped two halves of a cut piece of wood, which flew about till they were joined together. At last they tossed two millstones that rolled about on and on, until they coincided with each other. Since it was apparently the will of the god, the pair had no choice but to get married, and from them all human beings descended.

2

Bawu and Lilu are Hani wind instruments.

HEAVEN AND EARTH CREATED BY FROG1 Hani In remote antiquity, the world was desolate and uninhabited, and there was neither heaven nor earth, but a boundless ocean in which lived millions of different kinds of animals and plants. As the months and years slipped by, the animals gradually ate up those plants, and finally they engaged in a life-and-death struggle, the big preying on the small, and those of the same species feeding on aliens. Restless with anxiety, Yimaoshemao, the Dragon King of the Ocean, sent General Spider Agulumao to search for food all around, in order to feed all those animals, but in vain. He returned with a worried frown, saying: “I couldn’t find anything to eat, your Majesty, for there was nothing but waters everywhere.” The Dragon King who suffered a headache sighed: “Oh, my dear aquatic citizens, you are courting destruction with this fratricidal attack. Without you, wouldn’t I become a general without an army?” He thought it over and over again, and finally figured out a solution, by creating heaven and earth. He called together all the ministers to talk about it, and then said to Minister Frog: “In order to save our lives, I command you to go out of the ocean to create heaven and earth.” The frog replied in great surprise: “Oh, your Majesty! How could I accomplish such a task, for I do not have the slightest idea about them. Moreover, I have never been out of water, how could I survive without?” The Dragon King comforted her: “Don’t worry. I will practise magic on you, which will not only enable you to spit foams during the delivery, but also to transform your excrements into soil and to change the bones that you gnaw into stones. All these materials will be necessary for the creation of earth. Besides, your descendants will be granted the ability to live both in the water and on the land.”

1 Narrator: Jin Kaixing (Hani); Recorder: Lan Minghong; Place: Mojiang county, Yunnan province.

320

anthology of creation and origin myths

The Frog bade the Dragon King farewell and set out on her mission. Strange to say, as soon as she spitted out gnawed bones, they changed into stones emerging from the ocean; hardly had she emptied her bowels when her faces transformed into soil that glued tightly to those stones, growing bigger and bigger and covering part of the ocean. Later on, she became pregnant and nine hundred and ninetynine days later she bore a pigeon pair, who grew immediately into huge figures at birth. The brother was named Na De and the sister A Yi. The frog became paralytic shortly after the delivery and couldn’t move at all, so her children took over her job. They first mixed together the stones, soil and foam produced by their mother during the delivery, and then shaped the whole into a ball as round as a glutinous paste, which floated about on the water like a balloon, covering a small part of the ocean. In this way the earth came into existence, but how about the heaven? They consulted the frog, who commanded: “Na De, you are going to take charge of it. Please saw off my arm, which will become a pillar to sustain the sky, and then sit down on my hand with enough food, and it will take you up high. Spread your excrements there, and the sky will be formed. As for A Yi, you go on with the creation of earth.” How could they be hard-hearted enough to hurt their beloved mother! They both burst into tears with a broken heart. The frog tried hard to console her weeping children, saying: “You don’t need to be so upset, because I am only good-for-nothing, and I think that’s exactly the will of Dragon King of the Ocean.” On hearing this, Na De and A Yi made a terrific effort to sew off their mother’s arm. As soon as Na De got seated on the hand of the old frog, the arm leaped up whizzing. Na De emptied his bowels, spreading his droppings along the old frog’s hand, and in an instant they changed into a piece of blue sky. He then fixed the sky with sticky gum coming from his saliva. Na De had been pregnant since the creation for nine hundred and ninety-nine days, during which time he ate up the food taken from the earth. Growing heavier and heavier day by day, he had to wander about in the heaven until one day he experienced labor pains. With a sudden outburst of strength he bore from his anus a full-filled bowl, which in a flash was converted into a baby girl who grew at an amazing speed without any food and finally became a huge beautiful girl, and his closest companion in heaven.

anthology of creation and origin myths

321

Feeling that he was starving Na De slipped down the pillar to the earth to look for food. Together with his frog sister A Yi, he inspected heaven and earth. On discovering that the heaven was much smaller than the earth, A Yi blamed her brother: “You can’t have worked hard at all, for your heaven is much smaller than my earth.” The brother refuted: “You just talk without thinking. Don’t you know that I just gave birth to a baby girl, and haven’t regained my strength yet? I should like to see if you female can bear children at all!” A Yi cursed: “Do you think I cannot? We will see!” Since then males have handed over the birth-giving job to females. Shortly after the curse, A Yi pushed hard and noisily to make the newly created land shrink to the size of heaven. They say that all the uneven places, such as mountains, valleys, hills, ditches and cols were formed by her sudden push. The lack of light and heat problem still remained, for everything was blurred in pitch darkness, and the brother and sister came up to the old frog and asked for advice. She explained: “To obtain light and heat, there should be day and night. The sun will shine during daytime, and the moon, surrounded by stars, will bring light at night. Moreover, there should be rainwater to make all creatures grow, but with the rain, sun, moon and all stars will go into hiding.” “How shall we manage to do this?” they asked. The old frog replied: “Please, gouge out my eyeball and inlay it in the sky as the sun; then scoop out the white of my eye and inset it in the sky as the moon; after that sprinkle my blood skywards to make stars. Large drops of blood will become big stars, and small drops will turn into small stars. At last chop me up, and fling my blood together with those fragments into the air, and they will transform into clouds, mist, wind and into the rain, which from time to time will hide the sun, the moon and stars, and sometimes turn into colorful clouds.” Na De and A Yi cried out with one voice: “No way! How could we ever do this?” Sister A Yi shouted: “Let me take your place instead!” Brother Na De demanded firmly: “You two shall remain in the world, and let me do the job.” “Stop!” said the old frog, “I am the only one qualified for the job, and neither of you could take my place.” After these words, she choked herself and died. Na De climbed carefully up the pillar with the old frog’s eyeball in his hand, and then inserted it in the east of the horizon. The sun rose

322

anthology of creation and origin myths

instantly, shining brightly. When the sun came to the west, however, the earth fell into darkness again. Being over delighted, Na De slipped down the pillar to the ground, totally regardless of his girl, and when he finally realized it, the pillar had already disappeared. He cried skywards in a pity: “Oh, Ya Mi,2 my girl! I can’t take you down here to the ground, and you have to stay there in heaven.” It is said that Ya Mi is the weaving girl sitting under the sidansu (reevesia pubescens) tree on the moon. Afterwards, the brother and the sister threw the old frog’s blood and fragments up in the air. In a moment black clouds scudded past, the wind blustered, even sweeping sea trees and sea flowers onto the ground. The whole world became gloomy above and dark below. As the gust died away, the land was covered with trees, grass and flowers in full bloom, and the mountains with luxuriant green. Unfortunately, the gust had been so violent that it had blown the land full of cracks, and newly grown trees, grass and flowers were withering. The brother and sister shouted towards the sky, instructing Ya Mi to make a huge drum and dance in a black dress. Suddenly dark clouds were hanging low, and storms poured down. Flowers, wild weeds and forests, moistened by the rainwater, returned to life. On seeing that all creatures had gained new life, Ya Mi danced happily in colourful dress. Being informed that both heaven and earth had been created, the Dragon King of the Ocean sent some animals like sea lions, seals, fur seals, sea horses, sea cows and sea dogs to move to the land. Since then, animals have been parted, some living in water and others on land. It is said that these animals have carried on from the sea their swimming skill. Although frogs Na De and A Yi have made great contributions to the Creation, Dragon King of the Ocean refused to transform them into humans. Whenever it is cloudy or rainy, they keep shouting from the pond: “Quack! Quack! Quack!” just to show their everlasting resentment.

2

Ya Mi or Ran Mi means “girl” in the Hani language.

HEAVEN AND EARTH CREATED BY E YA AND SHA YA1 Lahu In the remotest antiquity the whole world was covered in thick mist, and there was neither heaven nor earth. Only god E Ya and goddess Sha Ya2 existed. They grew at an amazing speed. Though as thin as hair, E Ya became head and shoulders taller with each single somersault. Being of the same width as soft hair on her foot, Sha Ya grew by a long length whenever stretching herself out. Growing bigger and bigger the two flew about freely in the infinite universe with their newly grown wings. As they grew up they were determined to create heaven and earth. First they molded four dragons3 out of dirt scrubbed off the hands of E Ya and the feet of Sha Ya, and then placed them in a square. After that they made pillars and laid them on the eyes of the four dragons. Next they continued to create patands, rafters and mound layers to erect on those pillars. By then heaven and earth had begun to take shape. To make heaven and earth safe, they fashioned a pair of spiders which they put in the middle of the frame. Inspired by spiders weaving a web, they managed to weave a net of heaven and a net of earth. Since heaven and earth were very soft, they planned to stuff the nets with soil, but who would be willing to accomplish this exhausting task? They thought it over and over, and finally decided to make a pair of helpers named Zha Fa and Na Fa4 to take charge of it. They ran up and down burdened with soil to fill the nets until one day E Ya and Sha Ya found the job so heavy that they made a white house and a white elephant to help them. Engaged in making soil by scrubbing dirt from their body all day long, they wanted to know how the project was going on, so they created another two helpers Zha Yi 1 Narrator: Hu Zhake (Lahu); Recorder: Lei Bo; Place: Lancang county, Yunnan province. 2 E Ya and Sha Ya are a pair of deities, one male and the other female, usually abbreviated as E Sha. 3 In some versions they are four fishes: golden, silver, copper and iron. 4 “Zha” and “Na” are articles used in Lahu before male and female names respectively.

324

anthology of creation and origin myths

and Na Yi5 to patrol around and report on the progress. On discovering that the heaven had sloped downward and the earth was uneven, they returned off the bat to tell E Sha straightforwardly who cudgeled their brains until finally figuring out why: the soil had not been evenly spread. Hence they made another pair of assistants called Zha Luo and Na Luo6 and sent them to mend heaven and earth with plenty of soil. After three days’ hard work, both heaven and earth had become smoothly level. However, Zha Fa was so crazy as to make the heaven smaller than the earth by Na Fa who had been slaving away all day long. Feeling bittersweet, E Sha asked Na Fa to draw the net of earth so as to shrink it back to the size of heaven. During the entire process of creation, E Ya and Sha Ya racked their brains day and night with other participants being on the run roundthe-clock. Old people tell that it was due to perfect co-operation among those deities that heaven and earth finally came into existence.

5 6

Yi means “inspection” in the Lahu language. Ha Luo and Na Luo mean “fill” and “add” in the Lahu language.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allan, Sarah. Gui Zhi Mi. Trans. Wang Tao. Chengdu: Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 1992. Arhern, K. “Ecosofia makuna.” In F. Corea, ed. La selva humannizada: ecologia alternative en el tropico humedo colombiano. Bogota: Bogota Instituo Coplombiano de Antropologia, Fondo FEN Colombia, Fondo Editorial CEREC, 1993. Aschwanden, Herbert. Karanga Mythology. Gweru: Mambo Press, 2004. Babcock, Babara A. “The Story in the Story: Metanarration in Folk Narrative.” In Richard Bauman, ed. Verbal Art as Performance. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press, 1977. Bae, Cheol Hyeon. “Enuma Elish: A Hymn to Marduk and Babylon Poetry.” In The Creation Myths of the World. Seoul: Dong Bang Mi Dio, 2001. Ball, Eric. “Guarding the Wild: Place, Tradition, Literature, and the Environment in the Work of a Cretan Folk Poet.” In Journal of American Folklore. 119(473): 275–300, 2006. Bamo, Qubumo. A Field Study of Epic Tradition: Nuosu Epic Hnewo as a Case. Ph.D. diss., Beijing Normal University, 2004. Barnard, Noel. The Chu Silk Manuscript: Translation and Commentary. Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1973. Bauman, Richard, ed. Verbal Art as Performance. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press, 1977. ——. Story, Performance, and Event: Contextual Studies of Oral Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Baumann, Hermann. Schöpfung und Urzeit der Afrikanischen Völker. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1936. Bender, Mark. “Tribes of Snow: Animals and Plants in the Nuosu Book of Origins.” In Asian Ethnology. 67(1): 5–42, 2008. ——. Butterfly Mother: Miao (Hmong) Creation Epics from Guizhou, China. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2006. Bin, Mi-Jeong. An Analytic Study of Ancient Chinese Origin Myths. Ph.D. diss., Seoul University, 1994. Birrell, Anne. Chinese Mythology. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Bodde, Derk. “Myths of Ancient China.” In Samuel Noah Kramer ed., Mythologies in Ancient World. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1961. Cassirer, Ernst. Shenhua Siwei (Mythical Thought). Trans. Huang Longbao and Zhou Zhen. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1992. ——. Yuyan Yu Shenhua (Language and Myth). Trans. Yu Xiao, et al. Taipei: Laureate Book Company, 1990. Castro, Eduardo Viveiros de. “Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism.” In The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Vol. 4, No. 3:469–88, 1998. Chang, Jincang. “A Basic Question of Chinese Mythology: the Historicizing of Myth or the Mythologizing of History?” In Shaanxi Normal University Journal. Vol. 29, (3)2000:5–13. Chen, Banghuai. “Zhanguo Chuboshu Wenzi Kaozheng.” In Gu Wenzi Yanjiu. Vol. 5. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1981. Chen, Jianxian. “Types and Distributions of Chinese Flood Myths” In Minjian Wenxue Luntan. Vol. 3, 1996:2–10.

326

bibliography

——. Gods and Heroes. Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Co., 1994. Chen, Jiujin. Boshu Ji Gudian Tianwen Shiliao Lunxi Yu Yanjiu. Taipei: Wanjuanlou Book Company, 2001. Chen, Qiyun. Zhonggudai Sixiang Wenhua Lunxi. Beijing: Peking UP, 2001. Choi, In-hok, ed. Korean Legends. Tokyo: Japan Broadcast Publishing Association, 1977. ——, ed. Korean Folktales. Tokyo: Miyaishoten Co., Ltd., 1980. Cirlot, J. E. A Dictionary of Symbols. New York: Philosophical Library, 1971. Coggins, Chris. The Tiger and the Pangolin: Nature, Culture, and Conservation in China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003. Damdisuren, C. One Hundred Stories in Ancient Mongolian Literature (Mongolian Edition). Vol. 1. Hohhot: Inner Mongolia People’s Publishing House, 1979. Daobu, ed. Archives of Uighur Mongolian (Mongolian Edition). Beijing: Minzu Publishing House, 1983. Dictionary of Mongolian Roots (Mongolian Edition). Hohhot: Inner Mongolia People’s Publishing House, 1988. Dictionary of Religion and Myth in Chinese Ethnics. Beijing: Xueyuan Publishing House, 1990. Dong, Chuping. “Zhongguo Shangu Chuangshi Shenhua Gouchen: Chuboshu Jiapian Jiedu Jiantan Zhongguo Shenhua De Ruogan Wenti.” In Zhongguo Shehui Kexue. Vol. 5. 2002:151–163. ——. “Chuboshu ‘Chuangshi Pian’ Shiwen Shiyi.” In Guwenzi Yanjiu. Vol. 24. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1981. Dong, Sizhang. Guangbo Wuzhi. Shanghai: Guji Chubanshe, 1987. Doniger, Wendy, ed. and trans. Hindu Myth: A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit. London: Penguin Classics, 1975. Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1988. Dulam, S. Mongol Domog Zuîn Dyŕ. Ulaanbaatar: Ulsyn Khévléliiìn Gazar, 1989. Dulema, C. Mongolian Mythical Images (Slavic Mongolian Edition). Ulaanbaatar: State Publication Bureau of Mongolia, 1989. Eliade, Mircea. Cosmos and History: The Myth of Eternal Return. New York: Harper, 1959. ——. Aspects du mythe. Paris: Gallimard, 1963. ——. The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. ——. Images and Symbol: Studies in Religious Symbolism. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991. ——. Le sacre et le profane: Heilige und das Profane. Paris: Gallimard, 2002. ——. A History of Religious Ideas. Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 2004. Elwin, Verrier. Myths of the North-East Frontier of India. Shillong: North-East Frontier Agency, 1958. Erdoes, Richard, and Alfonso Ortiz. American Indian Myths and Legends. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. Feng, Shi. “Henan Puyang Xishuipo 45 Hao Mu De Tianwenxue Yanjiu.” In Wenwu. Vol. 3. 1990:52–9. ——. “Hongshan Wenhua Sanhuan Shitan De Tianwenxue Yanjiu: Jianlun Zhongguo Zuizao De Huanqiu Yu Fangqiu.” In Beifang Wenwu. Vol. 1. 1993:9–17. ——. Zhongguo Tianwen Kaoguxue. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2001. ——. Tianwenxue Shihua. Taipei: National Publishing House, 2005. Fine, Elizabeth C. Folklore Text: From Performance to Print. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984. Franz, Marie-Louise von. Patterns of Creativity Mirrored in Creation Myth. Zurich: Spring Publications, 1972. Fu, Yingren, ed. Myths of the Manchu People. Harbin: Beifang Wenyi Chubanshe, 1985.

bibliography

327

Gaadamba, S., and D. Tserensodnom. The Essence Collection of Mongolian Folk Literature (Mongolian Edition). Hohhot: Inner Mongolia People’s Publishing House, 1984. Gao, Ming. “Chu zengshu Yanjiu.” In Guwenzi Yanjiu. Vol. 12. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1985. Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. London: Routledge, 2004. Geller, Markham J., and Mineke Schipper, eds. Imagining Creation. Leiden: Brill, 2009. Gimbutas, M. The Language of the Goddess. Sanfrancisco: Happer & Row, 1989. ——. The Living Goddesses. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Girardot, N. J. Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism: The Theme of Chaos (Hun-tun). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. Goetz, Delia, and Griswold Morley. Popol Vuh: The Book of the Ancient Maya. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2003. Gorn-Old, Walter, trans. Book of History. London: John Murray, 1906. Graves, Robert, and Rphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1964. Grim, John A. “Indigenous Traditions and Deep Ecology.” In David Landis Barnhill and Roger S. Gottleib, eds. Deep Ecology and World Religions. Albany: State University of New York Press, 35–57, 2001. Gu, Jiegang. Gushi Bian. Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 2001. Guo, Qingfan, ed. Zhuangzi Jishi. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1961. Halqiga, ed. The Legend of Hulun and Beier (Mongolian Edition). Hulunbeir: Inner Mongolia Culture Press, 1990. Harrell, Stevan. Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Harris, William Edward. Japanese Tales of All Ages. Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1937. Hayashi, Minao. “Tyousa syutto so fukusyo no jyuuni kami no yuurai.” In Touhou Gakuhou. Vol. 42, (3)1967:1–63. He, Linyi. “Changsha Kaogu Tongshi.” In Jiang Han Kaogu. (2)1986:78. He, Xin. The Origin of Gods. Beijing: Guangming Daily Press, 1996. ——. He Xin Gujing Xinjie: Yuzhou De Qiyuan. Beijing: Shishi Publishing House, 2005. Henry, Teuira. Ancient Tahiti: Based on Material Recorded by J.M. Orsmond. Museum Bulletin Series 48. Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum, 1928. Honko, Lauri. Textualisation of Oral Epics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2000. Hong, Xingzu. Chu Ci Bu Zhu. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1983. Hou, Guang, and He Xianglu, eds. Selected Myths from Sichuan Province. Chengdu: Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe, 1992. Hu, Congjun. A Biography of Darkness. Shanghai: Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House, 2002. Hu, Wanchuan. “Laoni Zaolu: Gu Yu Shenhua Xintan.”In Zhenshi Yu Xiangxiang: Shenhua Chuanshuo Tanwei. Hsinchu: National Tsing Hua University Press, 2004. Huainanzi. Taipei: World Book Company, 1955. Huang, Shi. Study of Myths. Shanghai: Kaiming Shudian, 1927. Hveberg, Harald. Trans. Pat Shaw Iversen. Of Gods and Giants: Norse Mythology. Oslo: Johan Grundt Tanum, 1962. Ikezawa, Masaru. “Shitanko fukusyo ni miru utyuu kouzou ninsiki: ‘zeiiti tentsuu’ shinwa no imi.” In Syuukyou kenkyuu. Vol. 75.4, (3)1993:210–1. ——. “Tyuugoku kodai no sousei shinwa ni okeru shisoborizumu—‘futoiti seisui’.” In Syuukyou kenkyuu. Vol. 75.4, (3)2002:1073–5. Inada, Koji, et al., ed. Encyclopedia of Ancient Japanese Folktales. Tokyo: Koubundou Publishers Inc., 1977. ——, and Toshio Ozawa, eds. Index of Japanese Folktales. Kyoto: Doshosha, 1977–1990. Ito, Bo. Annotations of Manyoshu. Vol. 7. Tokyo: Shueisha Inc., 1997.

328

bibliography

Ito, Seiji. The World of Gods and Monsters in Shan Hai Jing. Trans. Liu Yeyuan. Beijing: Zhongguo Minjian Wenyi Chubanshe, 1990. ——. Nihon shinwa to tyuugoku shinwa. Tokyo: Gakuseisha, 1979. Ji, Xianlin. Comparative Literature and Folk Literature. Beijing: Peking University Press, 1991. Jiang, Linchang. “Zidanku Boshu ‘Tuibu Guitian’ Yu Gudai Yuzhouguan.” In Jianbo Yanjiu. Vol. 3. Nanning: Guangxi Education Press, 1998. ——. Chu Ci Yu Shanggu Lishi Wenhua Yanjiu: Zhonguo Gudai Taiyang Huiquan Wenhua Jiemi. Jinan: Qilu Shushe, 1998. Jitgultu, Togtenqiqige. “Nomin Erdeni-yin Chulu.” In Wentusuten-nu heblel-yin horoo. 1999 on-nu heblel, 144–152. Jones, Lindsay, ed. Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1987. Jung, Jaeseo. “The History and Structure of Chinese Mythology with a Focus on the Pangu Myth.” In Gu bi mun hak oyeon gu. Vol. 11, 2000. Kirk, G. S. “On Defining Myths.” In Sacred Narrative. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Lambert, W. G. “Mesopotamian Creation Stories.” In Markham J. Geller and Mineke Schipper eds., Imagining Creation. Leiden: Brill, 2008. 15–60. Lan, Ke. “Using the Social Function of Creation Myths to Examine the Essential Characteristics of Myths” In Yunnan Minzu Xueyuan Xuebao. Vol. 4. 1986:29–30. Laozi. Dao De Jing. Trans. Moss Roberts. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001. Leach, Maria. The Beginning: Creation Myths Around the World. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1956. Leeming, David and Jake Page. The Mythology of Native North America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Yexing De Siwei (The Savage Mind). Trans. Li Youzheng. Taipei: Linking Books, 1989. Li, Fang, et al., eds. Taiping Yulan. Shanghai: Guji Chubanshe, 2008. Li, Fengmao. “Xianqin Bianhua Shenhua De Jiegouxing Yiyi: Yige ‘Cang Yu Feichang’ Guandian De Kaocha’.” In Zhongguo Wenzhe Yanjiu Jikan. Vol. 4. 287–318, 1994. Li, Ling. Changsha Zidanku Zhanguo Chuboshu Yanjiu. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1985. ——. Zhongguo Fangshu Kao. Beijing: Oriental Publishing House, 2000. ——. “ ‘Changsha Zidanku Zhanguo Chuboshu Yanjiu’ Buzheng.” In Guwenzi Yanjiu. Vol. 20. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2000. Li, Xueqin. “Chuboshu Zhong De Gushi Yu Yuzhouguan.” In Chushi Luncong. Ed. Zhang Zhengming. Wuhan: Hubei People’s Publishing House, 1984. ——. Jianbo Yiji Yu Xueshushi. Taipei: China Times Publishing Company, 1994. ——. “Studies on Suigongxu and Its Significance.” In Zhongguo Lishi Wenwu. (6)2002:4–13. Li, Yunfeng, and Li Zixian, Yang Fuwang, eds. Meige De Wenhuaxue Jiedu. Kunming: Yunnan University Press, 2007. Li, Zixian. Exploring A Living Mythological Kingdom. Kumming: Yunnan People’s Publishing House, 1991. Lian, Shaoming. “Changsha Chuboshu Yu Guaqishuo.” In Kaogu. (2)1991:849–54. ——. “Changsha Chuboshu Yu Zhongguo Gudai De Yuzhoulun.” In Wenwu. (2)1991:40–6. Lincoln, Bruce. Myth, Cosmos, and Society: Indo-European Themes of Creation and Destruction. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986. Liu, Dongqing. Hongshan Wenhua. Huhhot: Inner Mongolia University Press, 2002. Liu, Junqi. “Creator god or Ancestor: An Analysis of the Reconstruction of Pangu’s Divinity in South Henan.” In Seeking Roots, 2005(1).

bibliography

329

Liu, Xingfang. “Zhongguo Zuizao De Wuhou Liyue Ming: Chuboshu Ji Shenqi Yanjiu.” In Zhonghua Wenshi Luncong. Vol. 53. Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1994. ——. “Chuboshu Shigu.” In Zhongguo Wenzi. Vol. 21. Taipei: Taiwan Commercial Press, 1996. ——. Zidanku Chumu Chutu Wenwu Yanjiu. Taipei: Yiwen Press, 2002. Liu, Zongdi. A New Study of Shan Hai Jing. Ph.D. diss., Beijing Normal University, 2001. Liu, Xi. Shiming Shuzheng. Taipei: Guangwen Book Company, 1971. Liu, Xicheng. A History of Chinese Folk Literature Studies in the Twentieth Century. Zhengzhou: Henan University Press, 2006. Lü, Daji, et al. eds. Zhongguo Geminzu Yuanshi Zongjiao Ziliao Jicheng. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1996. Lü, Wei. Shenhua Hewei. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2001. ——, and An Deming, eds. Minjian Xushi de Duoyangxing. Beijing: Xueyuan Chubanshe, 2006. Lu, Yilu. “Nanfang Minzu de Hongshui Shenhua: Cong Miao Yao Yi Tanqi.” In Zhongguo Chuanshuo Yu Shenhua Xueshu Yantaohui Lunwenji. Taipei: Center for Chinese Studies, 1996. ——. Hongshui Shenhua: Yi Zhongguo Nanfang Minzu Yu Taiwan Yuanzhumin Wei Zhongxin. Taipei: Liren Shuju, 2002. Lubell, Winifred Milius. The Metamorphosis of Baubo: Myths of Woman’s Sexual Energy. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1994. Luo, Guanzhong. Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2009. Ma, Changyi. “Preface.” In Ma Changyi, ed., Myths and Mythic Stories in China. Beijing: Zhongguo Guangbo Dianshi Chubanshe, 1996. Ma, Su. Yi Shi. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2002. Ma, Xueliang, and Jin Dan. Hxak Hmub: Miaozu shishi. Beijing: Zhongguo Minjian Wenyi Chubanshe, 1983. Macculloch, J.A., ed. The Mythology of All Races. New York: Cooper Square Publisher, Inc., 1964. Malinowski, Bronislaw. “The Role of Myth in Life.” In Psyche 24(1926): 29–39. Mathieu, Rémi, ed. Anthologie des mythes et légendes de la Chine ancienne. Paris: Gallimard, 1989. Meletinsky, E.M. Shenhua De Shixue (The Poetics of Myth). Trans. Wei Qingzheng. Beijing: Commercial Press, 1990. Meng, Huiying. Living Myths: Studies of Myths in Chinese Ethnic Groups. Tianjin: Nankai University Press, 1990. Merolla, Daniela, and Mineke Schipper, eds. “Creation Myths and the Visual Arts.” Special issue of Religion and the Arts on Myth in the Verbal and Visual Arts, Volumes 13–14, 2009. Ming Jiani, Nepal Ahmat. Trans. Chang Shijie. Kazakh Folktales. Urumqi: Xinjiang People’s Publishing House, 1982. Minhe Hetaozhuang. Beijing: Science Press, 2004. Momota, Yaeko. Tyougoku No Densyou Mandara. Tokyo: Miyashi Shouten, 1990. Moretti, Franco. “Conjectures on World Literature.” In New Left Review, (1–2)2000: 54–68. Mote, Frederick W. The Intellectual Foundations of China. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 1988. ——. The Philosophical Basis of Chinese Civilization. Trans. M. Kwon. Seoul: Human Love, 2000. Namjila. “The Influence of the Indian Eclipse Myths in the Mongolian Myths and Heroic Epics.” Studies of Ethnic Literature, (2)2001.

330

bibliography

——. “Research on the Original Text of Sulharnai Yin Tuguji.” In Mongolian Language and Literature, (5)2004. ——. “Comparative Study on Evergreen Plants Myths among Mongolian Turkic Ethnics.” In Journal of Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, (1)2005. Nevsky, N., and Oka Masao, eds. Moon and Immortality. Tokyo: Heibonsha Limited, Publishers, 1976. Obayashi, Taryo, et al., eds. World Myth Encyclopedia (Japanese Edition). Tokyo: Kadokawa Group Publishing Co., Ltd., 1994. ——. Shen Huaxue Rumen. Trans. Lin Xiangtai and Jia Fushui. Beijing: Zhongguo Minjian Wenyi Chubanshe, 1989. Ouyang, Xun. Yiwen Leiju. Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1995. Plaks, Andrew H. Chinese Narrative. Beijing: Peking University Press, 1996. Puhvel, Jaan. Comparative Mythology. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. Qucčin Hoyar Modun Humn-nu Uliger. Hohhot: Inner Mongolian People’s Publishing House, 1984. Rao, Zongyi. “Chuboshu Xinzheng.” In Chuboshu. Eds. Rao Zongyi and Zeng Xiantong. Hong Kong: Zhonghua Book Company, 1985. ——. “Chuboshu Zhi Neihan Jiqi Xingzhi Shishuo.” In Chuboshu. Eds. Rao Zongyi and Zeng Xian-tong. Hong Kong: Zhonghua Book Company, 1985. ——, and Zeng Xiantong. Chudi Chutu Wenxian Sanzhong Yanjiu. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1993. Rooth, Anna Birgitta. “The Creation Myths of the North American Indians.” In Sacred Narrative. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Rui, Yifu. “Miaozu De Hongshui Gushi Yu Fu Xi Nüwa De Chuanshuo.” In Zhongguo Minzu Jiqi Wenhua Lungao. Taipei: Yiwen Publishing Co., 1972. Sakurai, Tokutarō, ed. Dictionary of Folk Belief. Tokyo: Tokyodo, 1980. Schein, Louisa. Minority Rules: The Miao and the Feminine in China’s Cultural Politics. Durham: Duke University Press, 2000. Schipper, Kristofer. The Taoist Body. Trans. Karen C. Duval. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Schipper, Mineke. Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet. Proverbs about Women from Around the World: New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. ——, and Yin Hubin, eds. Epics and Heroes in China’s Minority Cultures. Beijing: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2004. Senggerincin, D. A Collection of Mongolian Myths. Hohhot: Inner Mongolia Education Press, 1990. Shang, Chengzuo. “Zhanguo Chuboshu Shulue.” In Wenwu. (9)1964:8–20. Shijie Wenhua Xiangzheng Cidian. Changsha: Hunan Wenyi Chubanshe, 1994. Shuangfu. The Studies of the Ancient Mongolian (Mongolian Edition). Hohhot: Inner Mongolia Education Press, 1996. Siilkala, Anna-Leena. Interpreting Oral Narrative. Helsinki: FF Communications, No. 245, 1990. Sim, Zae-Gwan. “Interpreting the Creation Myths and Ritual Images of Ancient India.” In The Creation Myths of the World. Seoul: Dong Bang Mi Dio, 2001. Snyder, Gary. “The Politics of Ethnopoetics.” In The Old Ways: Six Essays. San Francisco: City Lights, 15–43, 1977. Sproul, Barbara C. Primal Myths: Creating the World. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Su, Donghai. “The Concept of Ecomuseum and its Practice in China.” In Museum International. Vol. 60, No. 1–2. UNESCO Publishing and Blackwell Publishing, Ltd., 29–39, 2008. Takaki, Toshio. Hikaku Shinwa Gaku. Tokyo: Musashino Shoin, 1924.

bibliography

331

Tannahill, Reay. Flesh and Blood: A History of Cannibal Complex. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1975. Tao, Yang, and Zhong Xiu. Zhongguo Chuangshi Shenhua. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1989. Tapp, Nicholas. The Hmong of China: Context, Agency, and the Imaginary. Leiden: Brill, 2001. Tedlock, Dennis. “Ethnopoetics.” In Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments. Ed. Richard Bauman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967. ——. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. ——. “Xingxing Zhangfu De Gushi.” In Shijie Minsuxue. Trans. Chen Jianxian and Peng Haibin. Shanghai: Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, 1990. Tomaru, Tatsu. Perpetual Youth and Longevity. Tokyo: Shunjusha, 1996. Tserensodnom, D. Mongol Ardyn Ulger. Ulaanbaatar: Ulsyn Khevleliin Gazar, 1989. ——. Mongolian Myths (Slavic Mongolian Edition). Ulaanbaatar: State Publication Bureau of Mongolia, 1989. Walker, Anthony, ed. Mvuh Hpa Mi Hpa, Creating Heaven, Creating Earth: An Epic Myth of the Lahu People in Yunnan. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999. Wang, Bi, ed. Zhuzi Jicheng. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1957. ——. Zhouyi Zhengyi. Taipei: Yiwen Press, 1982. Wang, Jianjun. “Rearguing the Time of Writing of Shanhaijing: Based on Studies of Existential Sentences.” In Journal of Nanjing Normal University. (2)2000:139–44. Wang, Liqun. “The image of life in Sino-Japanese myths.” In Journal of Guangxi University, (1)2006. Wang, Luchang. “A study on the Origin of Pangu Myth.” In Zhongzhou Journal, (3)1995. Wang, Niansun, ed. Guangya Shuzheng. Taipei: Guangwen Book Company, 1993. Wei, Deming. Wazu Lishi Yu Wenhua Yanjiu. Dehong: Dehong Minzu Chubanshe, 1999. Werner, E.T.C. Myths and Legends of China. London: S.N., 1934. Wu, Wen. Gansu Minjian Wenxue Gailun. Lanzhou: Gansu People’s Publishing House, 1996. ——. Yuguzu Wenxue Yanjiu. Lanzhou: Gansu People’s Publishing House, 1998. ——. “Dongxiangzu Wajing Gushi Tankao.” In Minzu Wenxue Yanjiu, Vol. 2. 1998. Wu, Xiaodong. “The Rhinoceros Totem and Pangu Myth: An Exploration of the Archetype of Pangu.” In Oral Tradition. 16(2): 364–80, 2001. Wu, Yiwen, and Qin Dongping. Miaozu Guge Yu Miaozu Lishi Wenhua. Guiyang: Guizhou Minzu Chubanshe, 2001. Xiao, Jiacheng, ed. Labau Jaiwa trans. The Creation Epic of the Jingpo People. Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe, 1992. Xu, Shen. Shuowen Jiezi. Taipei: Liming Culture Company, 1976. Xu, Yuanchong, trans. Book of Poetry. Changsha: Hunan Publishing House, 1993. Yan, Deliang. “Pangu Creation Myths in Central Plain Area.” In Journal of Henan Normal University, (5)2005. Yan, Yiping. “Chuzengshu Xinkao.” In Zhongguo Wenzi. Vol. 7, No. 26. Taipei: National Taiwan University, 1967. Yang, Kuan. ”Chuboshu De Siji Shenxiang Jiqi Chuangshi Shenhua.” In Wenxue Yichan. Vol. 4. 1997:4–12. ——. Yang Kuan Gushi Lunwen Xuanji. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2003. Yang, Lihui. The Cult of Nüwa: Myths and Believes in China. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1997. ——. Nüwa Suyuan: Nüwa Xinyang Qiyuan De Zai Tuice. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 1999.

332

bibliography

——. “Shengmin Zaowu De Shizu Yu Yingxiong: Tan Hou Shenhua.” In Zhongguo Minsuxue Niankan. Shanghai: Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, 1999. ——. “Cong Shenhua De Wenben Suyuan Dao Zonghe Yanjiu.” In Minjian Wenhua Luntan. (2)2005. ——. “Minjian Xushi De Chuancheng Yu Biaoyan: Yi Xiongmeihun Shenhua Weili Jiantan Minjianxushi De Zonghe Yanjiufa.” In Minjian Xushi De Duoyangxing. Lü Wei and An Deming, eds. Beijing: Xueyuan Chubanshe, 2006. ——, An Deming and Jessica Aderson Turner. Handbook of Chinese Mythology. Oxford University Press, 2008. ——. Shenhua Yu Shenhuaxue. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 2009. ——, Zhang Xia, Li Hongwu, Xu Fang, and Tong Yunli. Myths Orally Transmitted in Contemporary China: An Ethnographic Study of Four Communities of Han. Xi’an: Shaanxi Normal University Press, 2010. Yang, Rubin. “Tusheng yu houde: Tu De Yuanxing Xiangzheng.” In Zhongguo Wenzhesuo Yanjiu Jikan. (20)2002:383–446. Yasumaro, Ōno. Kojiki. Trans. No Seong-Hwan. Seoul: Jeon Oye Sa, 1991. Ye, Shuxian. Zhongguo Shenhua Zhexue. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1992. ——. Zhongguo Gudai Shenmi Shuzi. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1998. ——. Qianmian Nüshen. Shanghai: Shanghai Social Sciences Press, 2004. ——. The Cultural Explanation of Shan Hai Jing: Imaginary Geography and Contact and Mutual Influence between the East and the West. Wuhan: Hubei People’s Publishing House, 2004. ——. Laozi Yu Shenhua. Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing House, 2005. Yin, Jianzhong. Taiwan Shanbao Gezu Chuantong Shenhua Gushi Yu Chuanshuo Wenxian Bianzhuan Yanjiu. Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, 1994. Yuan, Ke. The Mythology of Ancient China: An Anthology with Annotation. Beijing: Renmin Wenxue Chubanshe, 1979. ——. Shan Hai Jing Jiaozhu. Taipei: Lern Book Company, 1982. ——. “Forward.” In Chinese Mythology: An Introduction. Anne Birrell. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. ——. Dragons and Dynasties. An Introduction to Chinese Mythology. London: Penguin Books, 1993. Yuan, Wenqing. “Chuboshu Yu Zhongguo Chuangshi Shenhua.” In Chu Wenhua Yanjiu Lunji. Vol. 4. Zhengzhou: Henan People’s Publishing House, 1998. Zeng, Xiantong. “Chuboshu Yanjiu Shuyao.” In He Xin Gujing Xinjie: Yuzhou De Qiyuan. Beijing: Shishi Publishing House, 2002. Zhang, Guangzhi. “Zhongguo Chuangshi Shenhua Zhi Fenxi Yu Gushi Yanjiu.” In Zhongyang Yanjiuyuan Minzuxue Yanjiusuo Jikan. (8)1959:47–76. ——. Zhongguo Qingtong Shidai. Vol. 2. Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1990. Zhang, Qizhuo, and Dong Ming, eds. A Story Collection of Three Manchu Storytellers. Shenyang: Chunfeng Wenyi Chubanshe, 1984. Zhang, Wen’an. “Unveiling the Truth of Pangu Myth.” In Studies on Society and Culture in Zhou and Qin Dynasties. Xi’an: Shaanxi Normal University Press, 2003. Zhang, Zhenli, and Cheng Jianjun, eds. Zhongyuan Shenhua Zhuanti Ziliao. Zhengzhou: Zhongguo Minjian Wenyijia Xiehui Henan Fenhui, 1987. ——. Studies on the Transformation of Classical Myths in the Central Plain. Shanghai: Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, 1991. Zhao, Tingguang. “A study of the True Meaning of Pangu Legend.” In Yunnan Social Sciences, (1)2001. Zhejiang Sheng Minjian Wenxue Jicheng. Hangzhou: Zhejiang Wenyi Chubanshe, 1991. Zhong, Jingwen. Essays of Zhong Jingwen’s Studies on Folk Literature. Shanghai: Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, 1985.

bibliography

333

——. “Zhongyuan Gudian Shenhua Lunkao Xu.” In Zhongyuan Gudian Shenhua Lunkao. Ed. Zhang Zhenli. Shanghai: Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, 1991. ——. Zhongjingwen Xueshu Lunzhu Zixuanji. Beijing: Capital Normal University Press, 1994. ——, and Yang Lihui. “The Rationalism in the History of Myth Study in Ancient China.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Chinese Myths and Legends. Eds. Li Yiyuan and Wang Qiugui. Taipei: Center for Chinese Studies. Vol. 1. 1996:33–59. Zhong, Nian. “Chicken Egg and Ecomic Egg: The Reproductive Image of the Creation Myth.” In Guizhou Ethnic Studies. (2)1994. Zhoubi Suanjing. Taipei: Taiwan Commercial Press, 1983.

INDEX

A Dan 295 A Yang 313 A Yi 202, 216, 320–322 A Zhi 316–317 Aabkai hehe 190 abiogenesis 99, 108–110, 197 n. 1 Abukaenduli 9, 289–290 Achang 48–49, 179, 183, 186, 229–230, 232, 243, 279 Adi 189 African 12, 23, 91–93, 95 Agnika 103 Ai Sema 299 Aitreya Upanishad 105 Akará-zzagama 86 Aku Wuwu 266 Alatengyuyari 285–286 Alcoran 84 Alexander the Great 84, 89 Allan, Sarah 325 Altai 80 Altaic 79, 82, 84 n. 5, 86, 88, 90–93, 95–96, 154, 295 n. 1 Al-Udhari 21 Amami 87 Amo 72, 74, 235–236 Amoyaobai 188 Amsterdam 23 An, Deming 14 n. 4, 19 n. 6, 247 Analects of Confucius 222 Anhui 217 Ankang 38, 42 Anyang 81 Aoq seq mil seq 183 Apa Tani 11 Apsu 103 Arabic 22, 85 Arča 84 n. 5 Arhern, K. 325 arsiyan 80 Artemis 64 arxan 91 Aschwanden, Herbert 16 Ashanti 12 Asia 17, 92, 154, 157–158, 242, 262 Ask 104 Astana Graves xxi, 352

Asura 60, 83 n. 2 Atrahasis 19 Azerbaijan 89 Baba Yaga 75 Babcock, Babara A. 258 Babylon 64, 173 Babylonian 7, 19, 21 Bae, Cheol Hyeon 103 n. 4 Baeuq Roxdoh 57, 174, 203, 231 bage 60–61, 65 Bai 45–46, 59, 132, 179, 183, 186, 191, 200, 203, 205, 210, 214, 232, 235, 279 Ball, Eric 263 Bamana 12 Bamo, Qubumo 52, 266 Banquan 227 Baobu 235 Baol Heeuk 185 Baoruhenbagesi 285 Baoxi 122, 130 Barnard, Noel 325 bau 75 bauba 75 Baubo 64, 75 Bauman, Richard 242, 254 Baumann, Hermann 21 n. 9 Bei Di 227 Beijing 23, 42, 81, 149, 184 n. 4, 201 n. 3, 265, 279, 283 n. 1, 293 n. 1, 295 n. 1, 305 n. 1 beima 47, 228 Bender, Mark 264, 266, 268–271, 273 Bible 8, 16, 26, 75 Biernaczky 12 bimo 52, 263–264, 266–267 Bin, Mi-Jeong 106 n. 6 Birrell, Anne 105, 106 n. 6 Blang 184, 200, 207, 209, 215 Blavatsky 63 bo 75–76, 140 n. 10, 307 n. 1, 323 n. 1 bobet 76 Bod 272 Bodde, Derk 35 n. 8

336

index

Bodhisattva 82, 235 Bolhong Bagshi (Borhon Bagši) 80, 82–83, 93, 95, 190 Bos Chik 187 Bosch, Jhronimus 63 bot 76 Brahma 163, 173 Brahman 103 Bronze Age 64 brother-sister marriage 37, 40, 42, 47, 176, 239, 242, 244, 247, 251–254, 257–260 Bu 124, 128, 132, 156 Bu Sanggai 14, 307 Buddha 82–83, 93, 144 n. 19, 158 n. 5, 245, 285 Buddhism 59–60, 80, 82, 83 n. 4, 105, 173 Buluotuo 210 Buri (Bure) 104 Burma 71 butu 155–156 Buxlingz 187 Buyei (Bouyei, Buyi) 45, 179, 187, 200, 202, 205, 208–210, 236, 279 Buzhou 31 Cairo 23 cannibalism 99, 111–113 Cao, Pi 110 Cassirer, Ernst 325 Castro, Eduardo Viveiros de 262, 265, 325 Chaldaic 173 Chamu 182, 265 n. 3 Chang, Jincang 34 n. 7 Chang’e 31, 59 Changsha 118, 130, 224 Chaniu 205 Chao, Gejin xvi Che Ge 313 Chen, Banghuai 325 Chen, Jianxian 44, 168 Chen, Jiujin 326 Chen, Lianshan xxiii Chen, Min xvi Chen, Qiyun 121 Chengdu 28, 181, 279 China 8–9, 12, 14–15, 17–19, 20 nn. 7–8, 21–23, 25–27, 29, 31, 33–34, 36–38, 43, 45–46, 48–49, 51–55, 60, 64–65, 69, 71–72, 76–77, 80, 83 n. 4, 85, 88, 93, 95, 100, 102, 106, 109–110, 112, 117, 122, 124, 127, 129, 131–133, 135, 140, 144

n. 19, 145–146, 147 n. 25, 151, 154–55, 157–160, 163, 168, 170, 173–174, 176, 179–182, 192–193, 195, 197–199, 201 n. 3, 219, 221–222, 224, 226–228, 239–240, 242–243, 249, 251–252, 260–263, 265–266, 269, 270 n. 5, 271, 274, 279, 295 n. 2, 302 Chinese 3, 6, 8 n. 3, 10–11, 20, 23, 25–31, 33–38, 43–45, 48, 53–55, 57, 59–60, 63–64, 67, 59, 71–72, 76–77, 80, 83, 84 n. 5, 87, 91, 93, 95, 99–100, 105–106, 108, 110–113, 117, 133, 141–142, 144, 147 n. 25, 150–151, 153–155, 157–158, 160, 163–164, 179–182, 190, 192–193, 195–200, 210–211, 218–221, 223–227, 229–230, 233, 236, 238–240, 242–244, 251, 261, 263, 265–266, 273–274 I Ching (The Book of Changes) 168, 170, 199, 221 Chiyou 28 Choi, In-hok 89 Chongqing 38 Christ 112 Christian 21, 99, 113 Christianity 22, 111–112 Chu 26, 29, 117, 119, 121–123, 125–127, 129–133, 193 Chu Ci (The Songs of Chu) 26, 29, 126, 274 Chu Silk Manuscript (Chu Boshu) 21, 117–118, 120, 122 n. 3, 130, 224 Cirlot, J. E. 63 Cleaves, F. W. 84 Code of Emisig 105 Coggins, Chris 270 n. 5 Confucianism 99, 111–112, 222 Confucius (Kongzi) 16, 34, 222 Congo 12 Coq pper tv 183 cosmogonic myth 117–121, 127–133, 153, 155–156, 180, 199 cosmology order 117 cosmos 7, 10–11, 17, 53, 59–60, 102, 105, 118, 120–129, 131–133, 146–147, 165–166, 168–169, 174, 190, 198, 239, 262, 265–267 Crete 75 Da Gu Da Leng Ge Lai Biao 183 Dai 14, 50, 71, 179, 186, 188, 200, 202–203, 234, 279 Dajiagui 48

index Daliji 186 Daluan 186 Damdisuren, C. 326 Dan 136 n. 2 Dangun 283 Dao 109, 135, 138–148, 150, 169, 222–225, 238 Dao De Jing 135, 139 n. 8, 140, 144 n. 17, 147, 223 Daobu 84 Daoism 64, 102 n. 2, 135, 137–138, 140 n. 11, 143, 145–146, 148, 150–151, 213, 222 Daoist 34–35, 102 n. 3, 108, 139, 141–143, 144 n. 20, 146–150, 163, 175 Datong 76 Daur 190, 210 Dax lig 186 Dax luan 186 De’ang 44, 46, 179, 183, 186, 209 Dhu al-Qarnayn 84 Di 147 n. 25, 148, 219–222, 224 Di Qiang 227, 231 Di Qun 124, 126–127, 132 dialectics 99, 109 Diana 64 Ding 69 Dinl Guangl 185 Discourse of Three Saints 105 distant reading 3–4 Doloon Odon 185 Dong (ethnicity) 45, 52, 53, 179, 187, 206, 207 Dong (Nakhi god) 186 Dong Yi 227 Dong, Chuping 326 Dong, Sizhang 326 Dong, Zhongshu 105 Dongba 48 Dongxiang 69 Doniger, Wendy 7, 19, 21 n. 9 Douglas, Mary 105 Dra 103 Dragon Boat Festival 67 Drung (Dulong) 9, 46, 186, 202, 207, 210, 279, 309 n. 1, 311 Dulam, S. 82 Dulema, C. 82 Duolongbeizi 290 E Ya 323–324 earth-diver 124, 132, 153–160 earth-scooper 153 Efe 12 Egypt 63, 75

337 Egyptian 11, 75 Eliade, Mircea 4, 100, 119 Ellwood, Robert xiii Elwin, Verrier 11 Embla 104 Emperor Xian 110 Enduri 201, 281 Enkulun 291 II Enoch 105 Enuma Elish 19, 103, 110 Environment 60, 109, 160, 164, 261–263, 267–269, 274–276 Epic of Gilgamesh, The 96 Epicurus 16 Erdoes, Richard 8 Euphrates, the 103 Europe 64, 75, 154, 275 n. 6 Everyman’s Talmud 15 Ewenki 82, 190, 201, 279, 285, 287 Fajia 224 Fan, Wenlan 173 Feng Su Tong Yi (Comprehensive Meaning of Customs and Habbits) x Feng, Shi 119, 124 n. 5 Fine, Elizabeth C. 326 Finland 18 folk taxonomy 269–270 France 76 Franz, Marie-Louise von 111 frog/toad 20, 55, 59, 62, 65, 67, 69, 72, 74, 76 Fu Hao 81 Fu, Yingren 51, 289 n. 1 Fukulun 291–292 Fukushima 88 n. 9, 89 futu 155–156 Fuxi 13, 19, 39, 42, 53, 72, 74, 120–125, 129, 132–133, 161, 176, 180 n. 2, 181, 210, 224, 243–247, 253–254 Ga Mu 309 Gaadamba, S. 80 gansheng 197, 208, 212 Gansu 13, 37, 53, 55, 64–65, 67, 69, 72, 74, 107, 161 Gao, Ming 327 Gaoshan 187–188 Gaoxin 207 Garrard, Greg 261 Gelao (Gelo) 45–46, 186, 279, 313 n. 1 Geller, Markham J. 19 n. 6 Germany 17

338

index

Gesar 192 gestation 135, 140–141, 143 Ghana 12 Gilgamesh 96 Gimbutas 63–64, 67, 75–76 Girardot, N. J. 327 Goetz, Delia 15 Gojoseon 283 Gong Gong 30–31 Gorn-Old, Walter 156 Graves, Robert 19 n. 6, 21 Greece 17–18, 54, 64, 75, 84 Greek 3, 19, 23, 26, 84, 121, 192 Grim, John A. 275 Grimnismal (Grímnismál) 104–105 Gu, Jiegang 166, 173 Guanbo Wuzhi 100 Guangchengzi 166 Guangxi 44, 57, 73, 263 Guanyin 59 Guanzi 224 Guifang 74 Guizhou 46, 263, 265–266, 268, 271, 313 n. 1 Gulao 192, 206–207 Gumiya 184, 200, 215 Gun 28, 30, 34 n. 7, 96–97, 153–157, 159–160, 226 Gunma-ken 97 Guo, Qingfan 327 Haga-gun 97 Halqiga 89 hama 59 Han (dynasty) 27, 29, 31, 73, 105, 108, 123, 169, 225–227, 244 Han (ethnicity) ix, xii, xiii, xiv, xxix, 12, 14, 19, 25–6, 29, 35, 37–8, 40, 42–3, 45–6, 48, 50–1, 54, 60–1, 66, 70, 74, 77, 95, 157–8, 184–5, 191, 193, 195, 219, 227–8, 235, 242–3, 272–3 Han Shu (The Book of Han) 225 Hanfeizi 225 Hani 8, 46, 179, 183, 188, 201–203, 205, 208, 210, 214, 216, 228, 235, 279, 315 n. 1, 317 n. 2, 319 n. 1, 322 n. 2 Harrell, Stevan 266 Harris, William Edward 327 Haut Saone 76 Hayashi, Minao 327 He, Linyi 122 n. 3

He, Xin 172–173 Hebei 37, 158 n. 5, 241, 244 Hebrew 11, 15, 21 Hegel 192–193 Hei’an Zhuan (A Biography of Darkness) 175, 184 Heiaiboluosai 189, 206, 215 Heilongjiang 51, 281 n. 1, 287 n. 1, 289 n. 1 Henan 37–39, 41, 176, 193, 195, 242, 244, 246 Henry, Teuira 10 Hesiod 26, 33 Hetao 62, 65 Hindu 7, 19, 21 n. 9, 192 Hittite 19 Hnewo (Hnewo tepyy) 52, 266 Homer 26, 33 Hong, Xingzu 327 Hongshan 67, 94 Honko, Lauri 263 Hopi Indian 7 Horawaka 91–92 Hou Tu 28 Hou, Guang 327 Hpyining-Hpala 185 Hsangb Sax 268 Hu 35, 108, 141, 147 Hu, Congjun 327 Hu, Wanchuan 153, 155 Hu, Zhongshi 173 hua 123, 138 Huainanzi 26, 31, 93, 121–122, 126, 140 n. 11, 156, 165, 169, 172, 180, 225, 230, 233 Huaiyang 38–42, 239, 242, 244–247, 258 Huang, Shi ix Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) 128, 141 n. 12, 146, 150 n. 28, 166, 227 Huangjiazhai 76 Huangxi 76 huasheng 197, 205–206, 210–211, 214–216 Hubei 29, 224 Hui 37, 45 Hunan 29, 130 Hundun (Chaos) 35, 120–123, 125, 128–129, 132, 184 Hunh sangh 186 huopao 229 Hure Banner 96 Huzhou 37

index Hveberg, Harald 10, 104 Hwanin 283 Hwanoong 283 Hxak Lul hxak Ghot 182, 213, 265 Hxub Niux 268 Ikezawa, Masaru 327 Illustration of the Armillary Sphere, The 170 Inada, Koji 87–90 India 11, 60, 62, 83 n. 4, 95, 103, 154, 158, 163, 172–173 Indo-European 99–100, 104–106, 108–113 Indonesia 17, 96 Indra 103 Inner Mongolia 65–66, 68, 89, 96, 285 n. 1 Inpayap 188 intercultural comparison 3, 18, 21 Ito, Bo 327 Ito, Seiji 195 Iwate 88 Izanagi 158 Izanami 158 jade 65, 67, 74, 81, 94, 102, 104, 143, 146, 151, 207, 213, 217, 302, 315 Jaiwa 49–50, 184 Janger 192 Jangx Vangb 268–269 Japan 79, 86–91, 93, 96–97, 108 n. 7, 158 Japanese 8, 79, 86–91, 93, 95, 97, 106, 154, 158, 195, 199 Jasağan 189, 207 Ji, Xianlin 95 Jiang, Linchang 328 Jiangxi 149 Jiangyuan 237 Jiangzhai 60 Jicarilla Apache 12 Jiezi Tui 112 Jin Wengong (Duke Wen of Jin) 112 jingge 247 Jingpo 49–50, 179, 184–185, 201, 213, 279 Jingwei 28 Jino 72, 74–75, 188, 200 Jisaimi 189 Jitgultu, Togtenqiqige 82 jiuzhou 124, 126 Jizhou 126, 226–227 Jones, Lindsay 328

339 jotun 104 julin 166 Jung, Jaeseo 10, 297 n. 1 Jurchen 84 n. 5 Kafka, Franz 148 Kaipi Yanyi 175 kami 8 kang 53 Kanto 96 Kao, Lifeng xi, xv, xxiii Kara 91–92 Karanga 16 kaszal 91 Kawokapu 207, 311 Kazakh 79, 85–91, 93, 179, 189, 200, 202, 207, 279 Kelheil-rdjit 183 kenre 52 Kgal Mangh Mangs Daol Xie Jav 183 Khalkha Mongolia 80 Khan 80, 84 Khoi 91 Khudai 80, 201, 295 Kingu 103 Kirghiz 179 Kirk, G. S. 99 Kojiki xii Kokomaht 8 Koran 26 Korea 89, 283 Korean 11, 79, 89, 201, 279 Kshatrya 103 Kua Fu 28 Kuangren Riji (Diary of a Madman) 112 Kui 34 Kujum-Chantu 11 Kujum-Popi 11 Kundun 185 Kunlun 30, 137, 148, 244 Kunming 70, 94 Lagx Yiuc 185 Lahu 7, 43, 46, 50, 179, 200, 205, 209, 232, 243, 265 n. 2, 279, 323 n. 1, 324 n. 5 Lambert, W. G. 328 Lan, Hong’en 173 Lan, Ke 49 Langz goz liz 186 Lanzhou 13 Lao Gu 306 Lao Tai 306

340 Laoteil 186 Laotguf 186 Laozi (Laodan, Laojun) 10, 109, 135–139, 140 n. 10, 141–146, 150, 163, 169, 222–224 Lapu 208 Leach, Maria 328 Leeming, David 328 Legjax 236 Lévi-Strauss, Claude 328 Lhasa 101, 204, 229 Lhoba 201, 206–207 Li 46, 48, 210 Li Guolao 59 Li, Chengming 53 Li, Fang 328 Li, Fengmao 328 Li, Hongwu 38 n. 13, 42 Li, Ling 328 Li, Xueqin 118, 130 Li, Yunfeng 328 Li, Zixian 328 Lian, Shaoming 328 Liang dynasty 121 Liaohuangnan 125 Liaoning 53 Liexiliesha 186 Liexishasha 186 Liguan 28 Lincoln, Bruce 328 Lingbao Neijing 175 Lingjiatan 217 Lintao 55 Lintong 60 Linxi 65 Lisu 37, 179, 202 Lithuania 75 liturgy 135, 142, 148 Liu, An 31, 140, 225 Liu, Dongqing 328 Liu, Junqi 328 Liu, Xi 329 Liu, Xiang 29 Liu, Xicheng 329 Liu, Xingfang 329 Liu, Yahu 219 Liu, Zongdi 34 n. 7 Lof Dik 200 Loire 76 Lo-ngam 229 Lox Xenx 185 Lu Shi 166 Lü, Daji 329 Lü, Simian 172

index Lü, Wei 155 Lu, Xun 112 Lu, Yilu 48 n. 14 Lubell, Winifred Milius 329 Luo, Guanzhong 329 Luo, Mi 34 Luo, Qingchun (Aku Wuwu) 266 Ma, Changyi 186 n. 5, 191 n. 7 Ma, Huixin 173–174, 176 Ma, Su 329 Ma, Xueliang 265 Macculloch, J. A. 329 Macedonia 84 Machang 57 Magdalenian 75 Maguai 57 Mai Deer 293–294 Mais Bangx 268 Majiayao 55, 57, 67, 74–76 Malaysia 83, 96 Malgache 12 Mali 12 Malinowski, Bronislaw 195 Manas 192 Manau Jaiwa 184 Manchu 8–9, 43, 45, 51, 53, 200, 203, 205, 208, 234, 279 Mandala 60 Mangjirwa Borhon 95 Man-Yo-Shui 93 Mao, Dun 173 Mao, Zedong 245 Maonan 48 Marduk 103, 106, 110 Mariap 187 Marshall Islands 8 Marx, Karl 195 Maswan 187 Mathieu, Rémi 329 Maya 15, 158 Meh Loeggyap 57, 174, 231 Meletinsky, E. M. 329 Mencius 110 Meng, Huiying 48 Merolla, Daniela 20 Mesopotamia 7, 19, 96–97, 103 Metamorphoses 60, 236 Meu nye kyeng 186 Mi Lu 316 Miao (Hmong) 265 Middle East 17, 19 Midgard 10, 104 Miggo 232–233

index milao 231 Miloto 211 Miluotuo (Miloto) 44, 210–211 Ming dynasty 172, 175, 247 Ming Jiani 86 Minhe 62, 297 n. 1 Miqwul aqxil aqma 188 Mišir 84 Miyako-jima 86–87 Mogan 125 Moik 189 Momota, Yaeko 329 möngke usu 80, 84 Mongol 37, 46 Mongolia 87 Mongolian 79–80, 82–87, 91–93, 95–97, 179, 192, 200, 203, 205, 234, 279 Moretti, Franco 329 Mote, Frederick 329 Mud phal mil phal 183 Mud te mil te 186 Mukenmudangmu 9, 309 Mulao (Mulam) 46, 213, 215 Munau Jaiwa 49–50 Mupupha 188 Muq pung gyeu 310–311 Murray, Margaret 75 Muslim 21, 295 n. 2 muthos 3 Muyiji 50–51 Myining Ma Majan 185 Na De 320–322 Nakagami 90 Nakhi (Naxi) 74, 126, 179, 216 Namjila 83 n. 4, 85 n. 6 Nan Man 227 Nanhuo 191 Nanning 73 Navajo 14–15 Neolithic Age 60 Netherlands, the 20 n. 7 Nevsky, N. 330 New York 23, 25 n. 1 Nge ti gu nzy 185 Nigeria 8 Niigata 88 Ninglang 167 Ningxia 64 ninigou 247 Nizami 90 Norse 10, 12, 103 Noyan 84

341 Nu 201, 208 Nuosu 52, 266–267, 269, 271–272, 275 Nüwa 12, 14, 19–20, 28, 30 n. 6, 31, 33–34 Obayashi, Taryo 154 Odin 104, 106 Ogono 89 Okinawa 86 n. 7, 88 n. 9, 90 oral traditions 3, 21, 23, 36, 54 n. 16, 144, 179–180, 214, 274 Oroqen 279, 282 Osiris 63 Ouyang, Xun 330 Page, Jake 328 Paleolithic Age 64 Pangu 19, 99–100, 102, 105–106, 108–110, 121–122, 135, 137, 160, 163–166, 168–170, 172–176, 180–181, 190–192, 198, 201, 205–206, 209–210, 214, 216, 226, 234–236 Pansheng 210 Paoxi 120, 224 Papua New Guinea 12 Pentateuch 151 Performance 52, 179, 181, 192, 239, 242, 247, 253–254, 257–260, 263, 266, 269 Plaks, Andrew H. 330 Plato 15 Polynesia 18, 96 Poppe, N. 84 Potala Palace 201, 229 pottery 55, 59–60, 64–65, 67, 69, 74, 76 pre-Qin 31, 117, 121, 123–124, 128, 130, 132–133 Protagoras 15 Puhvel, Jaan 109 Pumi 46, 179, 201, 209, 235, 279 Purusha 10, 103, 106 qi

124, 133, 136–137, 140–142, 150, 166, 168, 170, 172, 174, 223, 224–227, 231 Qi Huangong (Duke Heng of Qi) 112 Qi’an 55 Qiang 37, 46, 65, 67, 179, 227, 231 Qin dynasty 108, 222, 224–225 Qin, Cailuan 173 Qing dynasty 33, 175

342

index

Qinggan 125 Qinghai 62, 64–65, 67, 297 n. 1 Qinghao 191 Qiong Fang 220 Qishan 171, 194, 237 Qu, Yuan 29–30, 172, 219 Qumo, Yynuo 52 Rahu 83 Rajanya 103 Rao, Zongyi 118–120, 122, 224 Raparao 188 Records of Three Kingdoms x Regong 76 Ren, Fang 121 Renzu 23, 38, 40, 42, 53, 239, 242, 244–245, 247, 258 Rig Veda 10, 62 Roman 11, 19, 22 Romance of the Three Kingdoms 110, 112 Rome 64 Rooth, Anna Birgitta 100, 108 n. 7 Rui, Yifu 180 n. 2 Sabina 86 sacred number 117, 128–129, 133 Sakurai, Tokutarō 330 Sakyamuni 82, 201, 214 Salar 201, 279 Salinan 12 San (South African) 92 San Miao 227 San Tao Jicheng 36–37, 242 Sanhuang (Three Sovereigns) 163, 165–166, 188 Sanskrit 62, 83 n. 4, 103 Sanwu Liji (Historical Records of the Three Sovereign Divinities and the Five Gods) 100, 234 Sarusuberi 87–88 Sax Tiinp Bas 187 Schein, Louisa 266 Schipper, Kristofer 330 Schipper, Mineke 19 n. 6, 20 n. 8 Se 183, 186 Senggerincin, D. 80 Sha La 316 Sha Ya 323–324 Shaanxi 38, 60 shaman 26–27, 30, 40, 48–52, 148 n. 27, 285 Shan Hai Jing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas) 26 Shang dynasty 67, 170, 220–221, 228

Shang Shu (The Book of History) 221 Shang, Chengzuo 330 Shangdi 220 Shangwu 76 Shanrang 110 Shanxi 38 Shao Hao 227 Shaoxing xxi, 354 Shashiteer 74 Shate 74 She (county) xxi, 241, 244 She (ethnicity) 46, 191, 198, 207 Shennongjia 193 shenwu 228 Shi Ji (Historical Records, or The Book of History) 145, 169 Shimohei-gun 97 Shu 35, 108, 151 shu 129 Shu Yi Ji 121 Shuangfu 330 Shui 46, 179, 200, 208, 213, 224 Shun 34, 227 Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters) 122, 219 Shy mu yy zo nbyl 182 Sichuan 37, 43, 52, 181, 263–264, 266, 279 Sigangli 50, 207 Sigu 38, 42 Siik Kuangp 185 Siilkala, Anna-Leena 330 šijimizu 86–87, 93 Sijin 188 Sim, Zae-Gwan 103 n. 5 Sima, Qian 136 n. 2, 145 Sin 64, 154 Sinsi 283 Sioux 12 Slavic 75 Snyder, Gary 261, 263 Song dynasty, Southern Song 34, 175 Song, Ying xvi South Africa 12 South Korea xiii Sproul, Barbara 8 Stone Age 60, 67 Su, Donghai 263 Su, Shixue 173 Sui xxix Suigongxu 26 Sulharnai 84 Sulharnai Yin Tuguji 84–86

index Ta Po 315 Ta’aora 10–11 Tagin(s) 11 Tahiti 10 Tai Hao 246 tai yang 59 tai yin 59 Taiji 128, 168 Taipei xiii Taiping Yulan (Taiping Imperial Encyclopedia) 100, 166, 168 Taiwan 43–44, 69, 96 Takaki, Toshio 172, 199 Tang dynasty 180, 244 Tangri 189 Tannahill, Reay 111, 113 n. 9 Tao, Yang 279 Tapo 216, 235 Tapp, Nicholas 266 Tedlock, Dennis 331 Teillard, Ania 63 Temptation of St. Anthony, The 63 Tengeri barkan 190 Tengri 82, 83 n. 3, 84 Thompson, Stith 199 Tiamat 103, 106, 110 Tianshui 161 Tianwen (Questions of Heaven) 29–31, 126 Tianzhenhuangren 166 Tibet 101 Tibetan 37, 43, 46, 60, 65, 74, 76, 107, 179, 192, 204, 206, 208, 229, 272 Tigris, the 103 Tochigi 88 Tomaru, Tatsu 331 Tong, Yunli 38 n. 13, 42 Tongnae 89 Tongren 76 totem 55, 69–71, 202, 228 Tserensodnom, D. 80, 95 Tu 8, 76–77, 203, 205, 216, 279 Tubo Kingdom 65, 101 Tujia 37, 43, 46, 57, 59–60, 179 Turkic 80, 82, 84 n. 5, 85, 89, 234 Ugaritic 19 Uligen 80, 82 Unduri 190 United States, the (US) 262–263 Uyghur 84 n. 5, 179, 208–209, 279, 295 n. 2

343 Va 50–51, 71–72, 207–208, 265 n. 2 Vafþrúðnismál 104 Vaisyara 103 Vayu 103 Ve 104 Vedic 62 Vili 104 Viraj 103 Vo mu ge nzy 218, 232 Völuspá 104 wa[frog] 60, 71–72, 123 Wačir 83 wakamizu 87, 90–91 Walker, Anthony 7, 265 n. 2 Wan 124–125, 132 Wang, Bi 331 Wang, Donglian 247–248, 252–258 Wang, Guoxiang 200 Wang, Hui 37, 45, 173 Wang, Jianjun 27 n. 3 Wang, Liqun 168 Wang, Luchang 169 Wang, Niansun 331 Wang, Xianzhao xv Wangc Nyih 185 waren 56–58, 72 Warring States period 27, 29, 34 n. 7, 117, 130, 133, 170, 224 Washington DC 118 n. 1, 224 n. 4 water-moon 79 Water-of-Immortality (möngke usu) 79–80, 82–93, 96–97 Weangz jax 200 Wei, Deming 265 n. 2 Werner, E. T. C. 6 West Africa 18 womb 8, 135, 141–143, 146–147, 151 Wu Jing (Five Classics) 151 Wu, Bing’an xiii Wu, Wen 221 Wu, Xiaodong xv Wu, Yiwen 331 Wudi (Five Emperors) 163 wusemu 126–127 wuseshi 126 wutu 76 Wuyun Linianji (A Chronicle of the Five Circles of Time) 100, 102, 121, 163, 165–166, 168, 170, 172, 175, 226, 234 Xangb Liangx 268 Xi He 127, 221

344

index

Xi Wangmu 28 Xi’aobu 50 Xia 221, 227–228 Xia, Zenyou 173 Xiao, Jiacheng 50 n. 15 Xiaojiagui 48 Xiawu 76 Xilin Gol League 80 Xindian 57, 59, 65 Xinglongwa 65–68 Xinjiang 85, 295 n. 2 Xiqiang 65 Xiuyan 53 Xongt 272 Xu, Shen 331 Xu, Songshi 172 Xu, Yuanchong 331 Xu, Zheng 100, 163, 180, 226 Xumi 294 Xurasan 84 Ya Sanggai 14, 307 Yamagata 88 n. 9, 89, 97 Yamei 44 Yan Sha 316 Yan, Deliang 176 Yan, Yiping 331 Yandi (the Yan Emporer) 224, 227 yang 59–60, 69, 102, 109, 121–123, 128, 133, 135–138, 140, 151, 160, 164–166, 170, 172–173, 223–225, 231 Yang Dai 71 Yang, Kuan 331 Yang Taomu 71 Yang, Lihui 3 n. 1, 14 n. 4, 19 n. 6, 33, 35 n. 8, 37–38, 42, 53, 123, 248 Yang, Rubin 123 Yangshao 60, 76 Yaniu 186 Yao (ethnicity/mythic character) 44–45, 179, 198, 207, 210, 231 Yasumaro, Ōno 108 n. 7 Yaxwuc 200 Ye Luli 290 Ye, Shuxian 20, 128, 153, 155 Yellow River, the 13, 28, 67, 72, 74, 227 Yemen 21 Yeuf Congt 187 Yi (ethnicity) 37, 52, 179, 202–203, 206, 215–216, 231, 261–263, 266, 268, 270 Yi Shi (The Exploration of the History) 100

Yi Ya 112 Yi, or Hou Yi (mythical character) 30–31, 34 n. 7 Yiluo 43 Yin Ruins 67 Yin, Hubin xvi, xxv Yin, Jianzhong 332 Yinfu Jing 166 Ying, Shao x Yingba 203, 307 yin-yang 57, 160, 174, 207 Yisa 189 Yiwen Leiju (Classified Anthology of Literary Works) 100, 164 Ymir (Yme) 103–104, 106, 108 n. 7 Yoruba 8 Yu (Yu the Great) 156 yuan qi 102 n. 2, 165 Yuan, Ke 3 n. 1, 14 n. 4, 33, 127, 173 Yuan, Wenqing 332 Yugur 75, 201, 213 Yuma Indians 8 Yunji Qiqian 136 n. 5, 141 n. 12, 175 Yunnan 7, 44, 49–51, 61, 71–72, 83 n. 4, 167, 229, 263, 265 nn. 2–3, 270, 305 n. 1, 307 n. 1, 309 n. 1, 319 n. 1, 323 n. 1 Zeng, Xiantong 332 Zhang Guolao 59 Zhang, Guangzhi 332 Zhang, Heng 170 Zhang, Qizhuo 332 Zhang, Wen’an 168 Zhang, Yuzhi 249–250, 253–255, 257–258 Zhang, Zhenli 37, 244, 248 Zhao, Tingguang 164 Zhejiang 37 Zhemima (Zhe Mima) 302–304 Zhengkulun 291 Zhepama (Zhe Pama) 301–304 Zhepama and Zhemima 49, 229–230 Zhi Ta 315 Zhong, Jingwen 33, 36 n. 9, 37, 180 Zhong, Nian 164 Zhong, Xiu 279 zhonghe 102 n. 3, 165 Zhou dynasty 26, 77, 172, 221–222, 227–228, 237 Zhuang 46, 57, 174, 179, 203, 206, 210, 213, 231 Zhuangzi 34–35, 108, 135, 136 n. 2, 137–138, 142–143, 146 n. 23, 224

index Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou) 34–35, 136–138, 145–146 Zhulong 30 Zhuolu 227 Zhurong 126–127, 132, 224 Zhusidan 125 Zhyge Alu 52 Zidanku 118

345 Zihdeecqben 184 Zimbabwe 16 Zou 43 Zulkharnai 84 Zulu 12 Zuo Bei 316–317 Zuo Luo 316–317

COLOR PLATES

Figure 3. “Nüwa Creates Human Beings,” statue, Nüwa Temple, She county, Hebei province.

color plates 349

350

color plates

Figure 10. The Tibetan monkey ancestor in a thangka painting, Potala Palace, Lhasa.

color plates

351

Figure 16. Nyatri Tsenpo, the first tsenpo (king) of the Tubo Kingdom (Tibet today), mural, Qing dynasty, Potala Palace, Lhasa.

352

color plates

Figure 21. Fuxi and Nüwa diagram, a silk painting from the unearthed Astana Graves (Tang dynasty), Xinjiang.

color plates

353

Figure 23. Religious drawing of the origin of the world by an anonymous Mosuo daba (priest), Ninglang, Yunnan province.

Figure 25. “Yu the Great Conquers the Flood,” modern mural, Yu Mausoleum, Shaoxing, Zhejiang province.

354 color plates