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Pangu Wikipedia

In later Chinese mythology, Pangu or Pan Gu (盤古; pinyin: P?ngǔ) was the first living being and the creator of all.

According to creation myth of China, in the beginning there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. 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 (mythology)|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 Chinese phoenix|Phoenix, and the Chinese dragon|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 fleas on his body carried by the wind became human beings all over the world.

Other variations of Chinese myths say humans were created later either by the goddess Nuwa or by the Jade Emperor.

Category:Chinese godsCategory:Creator gods
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Last Modified:   2005-04-13