Pangu
For the 1st century Chinese historian, see Ban Gu.
Pangu (
Traditional: 盤古;
Simplified: 盘古;
pinyin: Páng") was the first living being and the creator of all in
Chinese mythology.
In the beginning there was nothing in the
universe except a formless
chaos. However this chaos began to coalesce into a
cosmic egg for eighteen thousand years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of
yin and yang became balanced and Pangu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. Pangu is usually depicted as a primitive, hairy
giant clad in furs. Pangu set about the task of creating the world: he separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the
Earth (murky
Yin) and the
Sky (clear
Yang). To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the Sky. This task took eighteen thousand years, with each day the sky grew ten feet higher, the Earth ten feet wider, and Pangu ten feet taller. In some versions of the story, Pangu is aided in this task by the four most prominent beasts, namely the
Turtle, the
Qilin, the
Phoenix, and the
Dragon.
After the eighteen thousand years had elapsed, Pangu was laid to rest. His breath became the
wind; his voice the
thunder; left eye the
sun and right eye the
moon; his body became the
mountains and extremes of the world; his blood formed rivers; his muscles the fertile lands; his facial hair the stars and milky way; his fur the bushes and forests; his bones the valuable minerals; his bone marrows sacred diamonds; his sweat fell as rain; and the little creatures on his body carried by the wind became
human beings all over the world.
The first writer to record the myth of Pangu was
Xu Zheng (徐整) during the
Three Kingdoms (三國) period.
*
Xu Zheng (徐整;
pinyin: Xú Zhěng; 220-265 AD), in the book "Three Five Historic Records" (三"歷紀;
pinyin: Sānw" Lìjì,
Sanwu Liji), is the first to mention Pangu in the story "Pangu Separates the Sky from the Earth".
*
Ge Hong (葛洪;
pinyin: Gě Hóng; 284-364 AD), in the book "Master of Preserving Simplicity Inner Writings" (抱朴子内篇;
pinyin:
Baopuzi Neipian), describes Pangu (ETC Werner, Myths & Legends of China, 1922).
*
Ouyang Xun (欧阳询;
pinyin: Ōuyáng Xún; 557-641 AD), in the book "Classified Anthology of Literary Works" (藝文類聚;
pinyin:
Yiwen Leiju), also refers to Pangu.
Two main views emerge to describe the origin of the Pangu myth.
1) The first is that the story is indigenous, and developed or was transmitted through time to
Xu Zheng. The evidence for this is slender indeed. It can only be assumed from the following discussion:
Senior Scholar
Wei Juxian states that the Pangu story is derived from Western
Zhou Dynasty (西周朝) stories 1000 years earlier. He cites the story of Zhong (重) and Li (黎) in the "Chuyu" section of the ancient classics
Guoyu (國語). In it, the King Zhao of
Chu asked Guanshefu (观射父) a question: "What did ancient classic "Zhou Shu" mean by the sentence that Zhong and Li caused the heaven and earth to disconnect from each other?" The "Zhou Shu" sentence he refers to is about an earlier person, Luu Xing, who is having a conversation with the
King Mu of Zhou (周穆王). King Mu's reign is much earlier and dates to about 1001 to 946 BC. In their conversation, they discuss the "disconnection" between heaven and earth.
2) An indirect but possibly more substantive conclusion is that China is unique in not "creating" its creator. In this view,
Xu Zheng (徐整) (or a relatively recent predecessor) perpetuates the Pangu myth from other cultural influences:
Professor
Qin Naichang, head of the
Guangxi Institute for Nationality Studies proposes the myth originated in Laibin city,
Guangxi, in the center of the
Pearl River Valley. He believes that there are older stories of Pangu from this region and that they originally involved two people. He suggests China has no myth about the creation of the universe and that the Chinese mythology of Pangu had came from
India,
Egypt, or
Babylon. Apparently, this story mingled in with the origin stories of other cultures, eventually changing into the later narrative more popular today.
This is professor Naichang's reconstruction of the true creation myth preceding the myth of Pangu. Note that it is not actually a creation myth:
"A brother and his sister became the only survivors of the prehistoric Deluge by crouching in a gourd that floated on water. The two got married afterwards, and a mass of flesh in the shape of a whetstone was born. They chopped it and the pieces turned into large crowds of people, who began to reproduce again. The couple were named 'Pan' and 'Gou' in the Zhuang ethnic language, which stand for whetstone and gourd respectively."
This myth appears to have been preceded in ancient Chinese literature by the existence of
Shangdi or
Taiyi. Other Chinese myths, such as those of
Nuwa, or the
Jade Emperor, try to explain how people were created; and do not necessarily represent "world creation" myths. It is important to note there are many variations of these myths.
Pangu is worshipped at a number of shrines in contemporary
China. However, most if not all of these are modern creations built since the
1970s. In these shrines, Pangu is usually depicted in stereotypical "caveman" regalia, with leopard-skin tunics and long hair.
Taoist symbols, such as the
Bagua, are associated with Pangu in these shrines.
