A RECORD OF ALL THINGS UNDER HEAVENAs gathered from the oldest accounts that remain
PROLOGUE — CHAPTER FIVEOn the Matter of Nuwa — 女媧 — The Mother of All
Nuwa is written with two characters.
The first character is Nu — 女. It means: woman. Female.
The second character is Wa — 媧. It has no clear meaning in modern Chinese. It appears almost nowhere except in her name. It is ancient. It is a phonogram — a character chosen for its sound rather than its meaning. The sound carried the name forward. The meaning of the sound is not recorded.
Together — 女媧 — the name belongs to her alone.
She is also written as Nu Gua — 女媧 — in older texts. The pronunciation shifts by region and period. The character does not.
Her surname, recorded in the Shuowen Jiezi — 說文解字 — the first dictionary of China, compiled by Xu Shen — 許慎 — is Feng — 風 — meaning wind. She and Fuxi share this surname.
Some records describe her as a man. The Shiji — 史記 — Records of the Grand Historian — uses male pronouns. This is noted. The majority of records describe her as female. The majority position is used in this chapter.
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On the oldest mentions.
The name Nuwa first appears in writing in the Chuci — 楚辭 — the Songs of Chu. Specifically in the chapter called Tianwen — 天問 — Questions to Heaven. This was written by Qu Yuan — 屈原 — who lived from approximately 340 to 278 before the common era.
The Tianwen asks: by what law was Nuwa raised up to become high lord?
It does not answer the question. The Tianwen is a poem of questions. It asks three hundred and seventy-two questions about heaven, earth, history, and the gods. It answers none of them. The question about Nuwa is among the unanswered ones.
This is the oldest surviving mention of her name.
In the Shanhaijing — 山海經 — the Classic of Mountains and Seas — she is described thus:
Nuwa. An ancient divine woman and sovereign. Human-faced and snake-bodied. Capable of seventy transformations — 七十化 — qishi hua — in a single day.
This is the complete description. The Shanhaijing adds nothing further.
The Shanhaijing also records this: her intestines — 腸 — chang — transformed into ten spirits — 十神 — shi shen. Each took a different road. Each settled in the wilderness. No further explanation is provided. The record moves on.
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On her appearance.
All sources that describe her form agree on one element.
She had the upper body of a human — 人身 — ren shen — and the lower body of a snake — 蛇尾 — she wei — or in some accounts a dragon — 龍尾 — long wei.
The Chuci — 楚辭 — records: Nuwa had a woman's head and a snake's body — 女媧人頭蛇身 — Nuwa ren tou she shen.
In Han dynasty — 漢朝 — Han Chao — murals found in the Wuliang Temple — 武梁祠 — Wu Liang Ci — in Jiaxiang county — 嘉祥縣 — Jiaxiang Xian — Shandong province — 山東省 — Shandong Sheng — she and Fuxi are depicted with their serpentine tails intertwined.
She holds a compass — 圓規 — yuan gui. Fuxi holds a square — 矩 — ju. The compass traces circles — heaven. The square traces right angles — earth. Together they hold the instruments that measure the world.
Some records describe her with two fleshy horns — 肉角 — rou jiao — on her head.
The Shanhaijing states she could transform seventy times in a single day. What she transformed into is not specified.
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On the creation of animals.
An account preserved in the Duyizhi — 獨異志 — A Treatise on Strange Beings and Things — records:
Nuwa existed at the beginning of the world. The earth was full of trees, rivers, flowers, mountains. All of it was present. None of it had a voice.
She felt lonely.
She began to create.
On the first day she created chickens — 雞 — ji.
On the second day she created dogs — 狗 — gou.
On the third day she created sheep — 羊 — yang.
On the fourth day she created pigs — 豬 — zhu.
On the fifth day she created cows — 牛 — niu.
On the sixth day she created horses — 馬 — ma.
On the seventh day — 第七天 — di qi tian — she walked to a river. She saw her own reflection in the water. She sat beside the bank. She took yellow earth — 黃土 — huang tu — and mixed it with water. She molded a figure — 人形 — ren xing — that looked like herself.
She placed it on the ground.
It came alive.
It laughed.
She loved the sound. She continued.
This is the origin of the seventh day of the lunar new year — 人日 — Ren Ri — Human Day. The seventh day of the new year is the birthday of all humans because on the seventh day Nuwa made the first one.
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On the creation of humanity. The Fengsu Tongyi account.
The Fengsu Tongyi — 風俗通義 — Comprehensive Meaning of Customs and Traditions — was compiled by Ying Shao — 應劭 — around 195 of the common era. It records the most detailed account of how humans were made.
It states:
When heaven and earth opened and unfolded, humankind did not yet exist. Nuwa kneaded yellow earth — 黃土 — huang tu — and fashioned human beings — 人 — ren.
She worked without stopping. She did not have enough strength to finish. There were too many to make by hand.
So she drew a cord — 繩 — sheng — through furrows of mud — 泥 — ni. She lifted it out. The blobs of mud that fell from the cord became human beings.
The ones made by her hand became the wealthy and the noble — 富貴者 — fu gui zhe. The nobility believed they were more important because Nuwa took time with them. Her hands touched them directly.
The ones that fell from the cord became the poor and the common — 貧賤凡庸者 — pin jian fan yong zhe. They were mass-produced. The cord touched them. Her hands did not.
This is the account that explains social hierarchy — 社會階層 — shehui jieceng. It was written into the act of creation. The rich and the poor were made differently from the beginning.
The Taiping Yulan — 太平御覧 — Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era — compiled by Li Fang — 李昉 — in the Song dynasty — 宋朝 — Song Chao — adds one detail. The clay was not strong enough to hold its shape. Nuwa put ropes — 繩索 — sheng suo — into the clay to make the bodies erect.
She also prayed to the gods to let her be the goddess of marital affairs — 婚姻 — hunyin. Her prayer was answered. She became the patron of marriage.
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On Nuwa and Fuxi. The flood survivor account.
Multiple texts record a second account of human origins. In this account, the question of how humanity began is not answered by clay and cord.
It is answered by a flood — 洪水 — hong shui — and a brother and sister.
The flood destroyed all of humanity. Two people survived. Nuwa and her brother Fuxi — 伏羲.
They were alone in the world.
They wished to marry. But they were siblings — 兄妹 — xiong mei. They sought a sign from heaven.
They climbed two separate mountains. They lit fires — 火 — huo. They agreed: if the smoke from both fires joined together in the sky — 合而為一 — he er wei yi — became one — it would mean heaven approved.
The smoke joined.
They married — 成婚 — cheng hun.
Nuwa gave birth to a ball of flesh — 肉球 — rou qiu. In some accounts a gourd — 葫蘆 — hu lu. In some accounts a stone.
Fuxi cut it into pieces. They scattered the pieces into the wind.
The pieces that landed on the ground became human beings.
This account and the clay account are both recorded in the old texts. They are not reconciled. This record does not reconcile them. Both are preserved here because both are in the record.
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On the broken sky. The Huainanzi account.
The Huainanzi — 淮南子 — compiled under the direction of the Han prince Liu An — 劉安 — around 139 before the common era — records the most complete account of how the sky was broken and how Nuwa repaired it.
It states:
In remote antiquity — 往古之時 — wang gu zhi shi — the four pillars — 四極 — si ji — that supported the sky collapsed.
The nine provinces — 九州 — jiu zhou — split open.
Heaven could not completely cover the earth. Earth could not support heaven all the way around its circumference.
Fires — 火 — huo — blazed out of control and could not be extinguished.
Water — 水 — shui — flooded in great expanses and would not recede.
Ferocious animals — 猛獸 — meng shou — ate blameless people.
Predatory birds — 鷙鳥 — zhi niao — snatched the elderly and the weak.
Then Nuwa acted.
She smelted together five-colored stones — 五色石 — wu se shi — to patch the azure sky — 補蒼天 — bu cang tian.
The five colors were: red — 赤 — chi. Yellow — 黃 — huang. Blue — 青 — qing. Black — 黑 — hei. White — 白 — bai. These are the five elements — 五行 — wu xing — made into stone and melted and used to seal the wound in heaven.
Since that repair, the clouds carry these five colors. That is why the sky at dawn and dusk shows red and gold and blue and black and white together. The repair is visible every day.
She cut off the legs — 足 — zu — of the great turtle — 大龜 — da gui — named Ao — 鰲 — and set them up as the four new pillars — 四極 — si ji — at the corners of the earth.
She killed the black dragon — 黑龍 — hei long — to provide relief for Ji Province — 冀州 — Ji Zhou — which is the central region of the world.
She piled up the ashes — 灰 — hui — of burned reeds — 蘆葦 — lu wei — to stop the surging waters.
Then: the azure sky was patched. The four pillars were set up. The surging waters were drained. Ji Province was tranquil. The crafty vermin died off. Blameless people preserved their lives.
The Huainanzi records this flatly. No drama. Just what was done.
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On the imperfect repair.
The turtle's legs were not all the same length.
This is recorded.
Because the legs were unequal — 長短不一 — chang duan bu yi — the repaired sky tilted.
It tilted toward the northwest — 西北 — xi bei.
This is why the sun, moon, and stars all move toward the northwest. They follow the tilt of the sky.
This is why the rivers of China flow southeast — 東南 — dong nan — into the sea. They follow the tilt of the earth, which compensates for the tilt of the sky.
The repair was done. The repair was imperfect. The world has been tilted ever since.
This is not presented in the old texts as a tragedy. It is presented as the explanation for an observable fact. The sky tilts. The rivers flow southeast. This is why.
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On the disagreement about the cause.
The Huainanzi says the four pillars collapsed without naming a cause.
Other texts name a cause.
The Liezi — 列子 — compiled by Lie Yukou — 列禦寇 — records that Gonggong — 共工 — the water god — and Zhuanxu — 顓頊 — the grandson of the Yellow Emperor — fought for supremacy. Gonggong lost. He was enraged by the loss. He smashed his head — 以頭觸 — yi tou chu — against Mount Buzhou — 不周山 — Buzhou Shan — one of the pillars holding the sky.
The pillar broke. The sky tilted. The earth cracked.
Nuwa repaired the sky.
Other texts name Zhurong — 祝融 — the fire god — instead of Zhuanxu as the opponent.
The accounts disagree on who Gonggong fought. They agree that Gonggong broke the pillar. They agree that Nuwa repaired what was broken.
The Gonggong account is recorded separately in this text. That chapter records his story in full.
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On Nuwa as one of the Three Sovereigns.
The Three Sovereigns — 三皇 — San Huang — are the three mythological rulers who preceded the Five Emperors — 五帝 — Wu Di — in the oldest accounts of Chinese civilization.
The lists of who the Three Sovereigns were differ across different texts. Not all lists include the same three names.
One list — recorded in the supplementary notes of Sima Zhen — 司馬貞 — to the Shiji — includes Fuxi, Nuwa, and Shennong — 神農.
In this list, Nuwa reigned after Fuxi and before Shennong.
She held the world together between those two reigns. She patched the sky. She established marriage as an institution. She ensured the continuation of humanity.
Then she passed the rule to Shennong.
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On Nuwa's birthday.
Her birthday is recorded as the tenth day of the first lunar month — 正月初十 — zheng yue chu shi — in some accounts.
Other accounts record it as the third day of the third lunar month — 三月初三 — san yue chu san.
The Nuwa Temple — 女媧廟 — Nuwa Miao — in Shexian — 涉縣 — She Xian — in Hebei province — 河北省 — Hebei Sheng — receives pilgrims on the third day of the third lunar month. It has received pilgrims since the Northern Qi dynasty — 北齊 — Bei Qi — which was between 550 and 577 of the common era. It continues to receive them.
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On what Nuwa did not do.
She did not create the physical world. That was Pangu.
She did not separate heaven and earth. That was Pangu.
She did not give fire to humanity. That was Sui Ren — 燧人 — whose chapter comes later.
She did not invent the trigrams — 八卦 — bagua — or writing or music. Those were Fuxi — 伏羲 — whose chapter comes later.
What she did: she made the humans who would receive those gifts. She repaired the sky under which they would live. She established the marriage through which they would continue.
Without her the humans would not exist. Without her the sky would not hold. Without her there would be no institution to ensure that more humans would be born.
She built the vessel. Others filled it.
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On the summary of sources.
The Liezi — 列子 — 475 to 221 before the common era — records: Nuwa repaired the heavens using five-colored stones and cut the legs off a tortoise to use as struts.
The Chuci — 楚辭 — Tianwen — 340 to 278 before the common era — first records her name. Asks by what law she was raised to high lord. Does not answer.
The Shanhaijing — 山海經 — Warring States to Han dynasty — records: human-faced, snake-bodied, seventy transformations per day. Her intestines became ten spirits.
The Huainanzi — 淮南子 — 139 before the common era — records: the complete account of the broken sky and the repair in full.
The Fengsu Tongyi — 風俗通義 — 195 of the common era — records: yellow clay, the cord through mud, the noble and the common made differently.
The Taiping Yulan — 太平御覧 — Song dynasty — records: rope in clay to make bodies erect. Prayer for governance of marriage.
The Shuowen Jiezi — 說文解字 — around 100 of the common era — records: Nuwa was both sister and wife of Fuxi. Surname Feng.
These are the major written sources. There are others. They are noted where relevant.
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After Nuwa repaired the sky and established marriage and ensured the continuation of her clay people, the world was stable.
Heaven was patched. The pillars stood. The waters receded. The fires went out. The ferocious animals retreated.
The humans multiplied.
The world filled with voices.
This is what Nuwa made possible.
The next chapter concerns the world she made possible and the gods who came to administer it.
It begins with heaven.
END OF CHAPTER FIVE