Nu Wa (Nu-kua) Patched Up Heaven
After Heaven and Earth were separated,
there began to appear on Earth mountains and rivers, flowers and plants, but
still no Man. Then came a goddess called Nu Wa (Nu-kua, Kua the Woman). She felt
something should be added to the world to make it filled with vitality.
At the waterside, she mixed the
yellow soil with water and mold the clay into a baby. Being laid down on the
ground, the clay baby instantly came to life, babbling an cooing, bouncing up
and down. Nu Was was greatly delighted.
Nu Wa picked a pine from the cliff, thrusted
it into a bog, stirring the mud, pulled it out and then swang it towards the
ground, splashing down droplets of mud, which turned in a wink into a crowd of
people. Thus came into being Man.
Nu Wa also set up a marriage system for
mankind, to match man and woman so that they could give birth to children.
Man had a happy life. However,
there occurred a great disaster one year. The newly divided Heaven and Earth
were not strong and durable enough. Half of Heaven collapsed, and Earth opened
up into deep gullies, the mountain forests were aflame, a deluge poured out
from underground and developed into billows dashing against the sky. Beats and
birds of prey were at large, hurting people here and there.
Nu Wa could not bear seeing children fashioned
by her subjected to such a grievous calamity. So she courageously took on the
great responsibility of patching up Heaven. She gathered stones of five colors
from among the mountains and rivers and built a big fire to melt them.
She ladled out the boiling lava,
raised it high against the broken Heaven and patched up every hole.
To prevent Heaven from
collapsing again, she caught a giant turtle, cut off its four feet and used
these as pillars on the four corners of Earth to prop up Heaven. Nu Wa also tore off four pieces from her dress
and stuck them on both sides of the turtle. Thats why these legendary turtles
only had fins but no feet ever since, and were called the ao fish (turtle
fish).
She killed the trouble-maker
Black Dragon in Zhong-yuan (Central Plain), and then burned the reeds into
ashes and piled them up to check the wild waters.
Scenes of flourishing life
reappeared on Earth. Mimicking the songs of the Phoenix Beauty, Nu Wa invented a wind instrument called sheng
huang (reed pipe) for Man to let them live a happier life.
Chinese Legend
[ Small Wander - Chinese ]