Legends and myths of ancient China. Chinese myth of the origin of the world

The history of China's ancient civilization or the birth of the universe

Ancient Chinese myths describe the history of China's ancient civilization since the birth of the universe. One could say that since the Big Bang, but this is part of modern scientific mythology, and in the ancient myths of China, the Universe is described as a kind of egg that was broken from the inside. Perhaps, if at that moment there was some external observer, for him it would look like an explosion. After all, the egg was filled with Chaos.

From this Chaos, with the help of the forces of the Universe Yin and Yang, Pangu was born. This part of the ancient myths of China is quite compatible with the modern scientific myth of how out of chaos chemical elements on Earth, a DNA molecule accidentally turned out. So, according to the theory of the origin of life, accepted in ancient Chinese civilization, everything began with the ancestor Pangu, who broke an egg. According to one version of this ancient myth In China, Pangu used an ax, with which he was often depicted on antiquities. It can be assumed that this tool was created from the surrounding chaos, thereby becoming the first material object.

Pangu separates Heaven and Earth. Chaos escaped from the egg, splitting into light and heavy elements. More precisely, the light elements went up and formed the Sky - the light beginning, the protein (yang), and the heavy ones went down, and created the Earth - cloudy, yolk (yin). It is difficult not to notice a certain relationship between the ancient myths of China and scientific explanation creation Solar system... According to which our planetary system was formed from a rotating chaotic cloud of gases and heavy elements. Under the influence of rotation, heavy elements accumulated closer to the center, around the Sun, which appeared in the course of natural causes (which we will not discuss here). They formed solid planets, and light elements that accumulated closer to the edge - gas giants(Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune ...)

Life on Earth in the Ancient Myths of China

But let us return to the theory of the origin of life adopted in the ancient civilization of China, to what our self-confident science calls mythology. So, the ancient myths of China tell how Pangu, being the first and only inhabitant of the new universe, put his feet on the ground, his head in the sky and began to grow.

For 18,000 years, the distance between heaven and earth has increased by 3 meters every day until it reaches today's scale. Finally, when he saw that the earth and the sky would no longer unite, his body reincarnated into the whole world. According to the ancient myths of China, the breath of Pangu became wind and clouds, the body with arms and legs became huge mountains and four sides of the world, blood became rivers, flesh became soil, skin became grass and trees ... The ancient civilization of China thereby confirms the myths of other peoples, in which our planet is assigned the role of a living being or an organism.

According to the ancient myths of China, when the Earth had already separated from the sky, majestic mountains rose up, rivers full of fish flowed to the seas, forests and steppes were overflowing with wild animals, the world was still incomplete without the human race. And then the history of the creation of mankind begins. As with other religious versions, the religions of ancient China's civilization believed that humans were created from clay. In a treatise of the II century " General sense customs "the creator of people was Nuiva - the great female spirit. In the ancient myths of China, Nuiva was seen as the beautifier of the world, and therefore she was depicted with a measuring square in her hand or, as the personification feminine Yin, holding the disc of the moon. Nuiva was portrayed with human body, bird's feet and a snake's tail. She took a handful of clay and began to sculpt figures, they came to life and became people. Nuiwa understood that she did not have enough strength or time to blind all the people who could populate the earth.

And then Nuiva stretched a rope through the liquid clay. When the goddess shook the rope, pieces of clay flew in all directions. Falling to the ground, they turned into people. But either because they were not molded by hand, or because the bog clay still differed in composition from the one from which the first people were molded, but the ancient myths of China claim that people are more quick way the workmanship was significantly different from the handcrafted ones. That is why the rich and noble are people made by the gods with their own hands from the yellow earth, while the poor and insignificant people are made with a rope.

Further, Nuiva gave her creations the opportunity to reproduce independently. True, before that, she gave them the law on the responsibilities of both parties in marriage, which was strictly observed in the ancient civilization of China. Since then, for the Chinese who worship the ancient myths of China, Nuiva has been considered the patroness of weddings, in whose power to save a woman from infertility. Nuiva's divinity was so strong that even from her insides 10 deities were born. But Nuwa's merits do not end there.

The progenitor Nuiva protects humanity

People then lived happily ever after - this is how fairy tales usually end in European tradition, but here is not a fairy tale, but the ancient myths of China, so they lived happily for the time being. Until that time, until the first war of the gods began. Between the spirit of Zhurong fire and the spirit of Gungong water.

Nuiva lived quietly for a while, not knowing worries. But the land, which was already inhabited by the people she created, was seized by great disasters. In some places, the sky collapsed, and huge black holes appeared there. The spirit of fire Zhuzhong gave birth to the spirit of the waters of Gonggong, the fight against which took a large place in ancient mythology... Ancient Chinese myths describe the incredible fire and heat that seeped through them, as well as the fire that engulfed the forests on Earth. Depressions were formed in the Earth, through which underground waters gushed. Two opposites that characterize ancient civilization China, two elements hostile to each other, Water and Fire, joined forces to destroy people.

Seeing how human creatures suffer, Nuiva, as a true beautifier of the world, set to work to "patch" the leaky firmament. She collected multi-colored stones and, melting them on fire, filled the heavenly holes with the resulting mass. To strengthen the sky, Nuiva cut off four legs of the giant tortoise and placed them on four parts of the earth as props supporting the firmament. The firmament strengthened, but did not return to its previous state. According to the ancient myths of China, he squinted somewhat, but in reality it can be seen by the movement of the sun, moon and stars. In addition, a huge depression was formed to the southeast of the Celestial Empire, which became the Ocean.

China is a country shrouded in myths and legends. Middle Kingdom - ancient state, full of secrets and paradoxes. The industrious Chinese people have always had a corner filled with poetry in their souls.

Only the Chinese were able to mix sublime philosophy and strange, sometimes meaningless beliefs .

The legends and myths of ancient China have changed over time. The primitive folk religion, the common sense of Confucius, the rituals and magic of Taoism, the sublime spirituality of Buddhism is a melting pot, a combination of gods for all occasions.

Some of the myths of China have something in common with the legends of other cultures. For example, the creation myth resembles many similar stories in which the world is formed from the body of a primary being.

In the beginning, there was darkness everywhere and chaos reigned.

An egg formed in the dark, and inside it is a giant was born .

When he grew to gigantic proportions, he stretched out huge limbs and thereby shattered the shell. The lighter parts of the egg floated up and formed the heavens, while the denser parts came down to become earth.

This is how the earth and the sky - Yin and Yang - appeared.

Pangu was pleased with his deed. But he was afraid that heaven and earth would merge together again, so he stood between them ... His head holds the sky, and his feet are firmly on the ground. Pangu grew at a rate of three meters a day for 18,000 summer period, increasing the space between heaven and earth until they are fixed at a safe distance from each other. Having completed their mission, Pangu with a clear conscience died, and his body went to create the world and all its elements .

Wind and clouds were formed from his breath , his voice became thunder and lightning, his eyes shone with the sun and the moon, his hands and feet appeared the four sides of the world, his teeth and bones shone precious stones, and his phallus rose to the mountains. His flesh turned into soil and plants, his blood into rivers, and so on.

And although Pangu died, many believe that he is still responsible for the weather that fluctuates according to his mood.

Legends of Chinese dragons

The dragon is central to the legends and myths of China. The first dragon appeared in the mythical era of Emperor Fu-Xi , and filled the hole in the sky made by the Kung Kung monster. Chinese legends say that his awakening, sleep and breathing determined day and night, season and weather.

V Chinese mythology there are five types of dragons:

• guarding gods and emperors;
• controlling wind and rain;
• earthly
• river and sea;
• guardians of hidden treasures.

The dragon is the highest spiritual power , the oldest in Eastern mythology and the most common motive in Chinese art. Dragons represent heavenly and earthly power, wisdom and strength. They live in water and bring wealth and good luck, as well as rainfall for crops.

The dragon always participates in the traditional Chinese New Year parades to ward off evil spirits who want to spoil the holiday.

Chinese Kung Fu Myths

Shrouded in legends and kung fu of China. Kung Fu - martial arts , the purpose of which is self-defense, health preservation and self-improvement. There is common topics v different styles that mimic the movement of animals draw inspiration from various Chinese philosophies, myths and legends.

In conclusion

The legends and myths of China, which were originally regional, spread through pictographic writing, overcoming language barriers. But even now, in every province of the Celestial Empire, there are local beliefs, and very strange and surprising. The gods here are merry and playful and endowed human weaknesses... China - Wonderland shrouded in countless legends and myths!

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Chinese mythology is a complex combination of several ancient mythological systems - ancient Chinese, Buddhist and Taoist. It was possible to reconstruct the mythology of Ancient China based on historical and philosophical, religious teachings - great works created several centuries before our era. Among them - "Shu-jing" (dated XIV-XI centuries BC, "Book of history" from the Confucian pentateuch), "I-Ching" (created in the VIII-VII centuries BC, " Book of Changes ")," Chuang Tzu ", (IV-III centuries BC, after the name of the philosopher)," Le-tzu "(" Treatise of the teacher Le ")," Huainan-tzu "(II century. BC, treatise on mythology). A lot of information about classical mythology is drawn from the treatise "Shan Hai Jing" ("Canon of Mountains and Seas", III-middle of the 1st millennium BC) and the poetry of Qu Yuan.

Ancient chinese mythology

The striving for historicization at all levels is especially characteristic of Chinese mythology. So, for example, the heroes of myths are adjacent to emperors, and minor spirits - with officials: it is believed that they were real personalities, figures of deep antiquity.

Totem animals are of no less importance. It is believed that the beliefs and legends of two tribes formed the basis of Chinese mythology. The first tribe believed that the swallow was their ancestor, the second considered the serpent as the progenitor. So, gradually the snake in myths acquired the shape of a dragon (Moon), which was associated with underground forces and the element of water, and the bird, according to a number of versions, is the prototype of Fenghuang, a mythical bird. The combined symbol of the Dragon and Fenghuang is the personification of the sovereign and empress.

In this myth about Pangu, the cosmological ideas of the ancient tribes of the Middle Kingdom are expressed, and one of the key ideas of Eastern philosophy is expressed - the connection between the external and internal space.

The cycle of myths about Nuiva, half-man-half-snake, is considered even more ancient. In myths, Nuiva appears as a demiurge, the progenitor of people and all things. And if Pangu participates in the creation of the elements and the world unconsciously, passively, then Nuiva personally improves and restores the world: for example, in myths she repairs the sky, props the world with the feet of a turtle, and also collects the ash of the reed so that the waters do not spill.

One of the most famous ancient myths about the hero is the myth of Fusi, who is considered the ancestor of one of the Eastern Chinese tribes. Traditionally, Fushi is represented in the guise of a bird-man, caring for humanity. Myths tell how Fusi taught people to hunt and fish, to fry meat on a fire. It is he who is considered the inventor of fishing nets and divination trigrams. Experts suggest that a totem animal - a swallow - was embodied in the image of Fusi.

The myths also tell about the further fate of Fusi, who, according to legend, married his sister Nuiva for the rebirth of mankind after the flood. Moreover, according to early myths, the flood was the embodiment of water chaos, and after that it began to be interpreted as a punishment for sins.

Late folk mythology of China

For the later time in Chinese mythology, there is a tradition of reverse historicization. mythical heroes... For the Middle Ages, the mythologization of historical figures is characteristic. They began to be turned into gods, patrons of cities and crafts. Now the reasons for the deification of this or that figure seem to be accidental, although it often happened officially at the behest of the emperor.

For example, the mythologization of Liu Bei, the commander of the 3rd century AD. It is known from his biographies that in his youth he was engaged in weaving mats and straw shoes, this made him in late Chinese mythology the god of weavers. And his friend Guan Yu, known for his courage, was deified as a guardian of monasteries, and later as a patron of demons. And from the 16th century, he became the god of war of Guandi. Like this real heroes 3rd century BC later turned into universal benefactors.

By the end of the first millennium, the mythological systems of China are increasingly converging. Syncretic mythology unites Buddhist, Taoist, folk mythology and the heroes of the Confucian cult into one system. Syncretization was even more active in the village, where the statues of Buddha, Confucius and Lao Tzu could be located in one temple. In cities, the process was slower, and adherents of different religions still preferred different deities.

However, syncretism led to the emergence of a consolidated pantheon of gods headed by Yudi in the Middle Ages. During the period late middle ages mythological heroes syncretic pantheon began to appear on folk prints that replaced the Chinese icons. These splints are common to this day.

In the beginning, only the primitive water chaos Hun-tun existed in the Universe, similar in form chicken egg, and formless images wandered in pitch darkness. In this World Egg, Pan-gu was born by itself.

For a long time Pan-gu slept soundly. And when he woke up, he saw darkness around him, and this saddened him. Then Pan-gu broke the egg shell and went outside. Everything that was in the egg, light and pure, ascended and became the sky - Yang, and everything heavy and rough came down and became earth - Yin.

After his birth, Pan-gu created the entire Universe from five primary elements: Water, Earth, Fire, Wood and Metal. Pan-gu breathed in, and winds and rains were born, exhaled - thunder rumbled and lightning flashed; if he opened his eyes, then the day came when he closed them - night reigned.

Pan-gu liked what was created, and he was afraid that heaven and earth would again mix into primitive chaos. Therefore, Pan-gu firmly rested his feet on the ground, and his hands on the sky, preventing them from touching. Eighteen thousand years have passed. Every day the sky rose higher and higher, the earth became stronger and larger, and Pan-gu grew, continuing to hold the sky on outstretched arms... Finally, the sky became so high and the earth so solid that they could no longer merge into one. Then Pan-gu dropped his hands, lay down on the ground - and died.

His breath became wind and clouds, his voice became thunder, his eyes became the sun and the moon, his blood became rivers, his hair became trees, bones became metals and stones. Pearls arose from Pangu's seed, and nephritis from bone marrow. From the same insects that crawled over Pan-gu's body, people turned out.

But there is another legend that is no worse

The ancestors of people are also called a pair of divine twins Fu-si and Nui-wu, who lived on the sacred mountain Kun-lun. They were children of the sea, the Great God Shen-nun, who took the guise of half-humans, half-snakes: the twins possessed human heads and the bodies of sea dragon-serpents.

There are different stories about how Nui-wa became the progenitor of humanity. Some say that at first she gave birth to a certain shapeless lump, cut it into small pieces and scattered it all over the earth. Where they fell, people appeared. Others argue that once Nui-wa, sitting on the shore of the pond, began to sculpt a small figure out of clay - a semblance of herself. The clay creature turned out to be very joyful and friendly, and Nui-we liked it so much that she sculpted many more of the same people. She wanted to populate the whole earth with people. To make her work easier, she took a long vine, dipped it into liquid clay and shook it. The scattered lumps of clay immediately turned into people.

But it is difficult to sculpt clay without unbending, and Nui-wa is tired. Then she divided people into men and women, commanded them to live in families and have children.

Fu-si taught his children to hunt and fish, make fire and cook food, invented "se" - musical instrument such as gusli, fishing net, snares and other useful things. In addition, he drew eight trigrams - symbolic signs reflecting various phenomena and concepts, which we now call the "Book of Changes".

People lived happy serene life knowing neither enmity nor envy. The land bore fruit in abundance, and people did not need to work to feed themselves. The children who were born were laid, as in a cradle, in bird's nests, and the birds amused them with their chirps. Lions and tigers were as affectionate as cats, and snakes were not venomous.

But one day the spirit of water Gun-gun and the spirit of fire Chzhu-jong quarreled among themselves and started a war. The spirit of fire won, and the defeated spirit of water, in despair, hit his head so hard against Mount Buzhou, which supported the sky, that the mountain split. Having lost its support, part of the sky fell to the ground, breaking it in several places. Groundwater gushed from the gaps, sweeping away everything in its path.

Nui-wa rushed to save the world. She collected five stones different colors, melted them on fire and sealed a hole in the sky. In China, there is a belief that if you look closely, you can see a patch in the sky that differs in color. In another version of the myth, Nui-wa repaired the sky with small shiny stones that turned into stars. Then Nui-wa burned a lot of reeds, collected the resulting ash in a heap and dammed the water streams.

Order was restored. But after the repair, the world was slightly distorted. The sky tilted to the west, and the sun and the moon began to roll down there every day, and a depression formed in the southeast, into which all the rivers on earth rushed. Now Nu-wa could rest. According to some versions of the myth, she died, according to others, she ascended to heaven, where she still lives in complete seclusion.

Ancient Chinese myths describe the history of China's ancient civilization since the birth of the universe. One could say that since the Big Bang, but this is part of modern scientific mythology, and in the ancient myths of China, the Universe is described as a kind of egg that was broken from the inside. Perhaps, if at that moment there was an external observer, for him it would look like an explosion. After all, the egg was filled with Chaos.

Creation of Earth and Heaven

From this Chaos, with the help of the forces of the Universe Yin and Yang, Pangu was born. This part of the ancient myths of China is quite compatible with the modern scientific myth of how a DNA molecule was accidentally formed from the chaos of chemical elements on Earth. So, according to the theory of the origin of life, accepted in ancient Chinese civilization, everything began with the ancestor Pangu, who broke an egg. According to one version of this ancient myth, Pangu used an ax, with which he was often depicted on antiquities. It can be assumed that this tool was created from the surrounding chaos, thereby becoming the first material object.

Chaos escaped from the egg, splitting into light and heavy elements. More precisely, the light elements went up and formed the Sky - the light beginning, the protein (yang), and the heavy ones went down, and created the Earth - cloudy, yolk (yin). It is difficult not to notice a certain relationship between the ancient myths of China and the scientific explanation for the creation of the solar system. According to which our planetary system was formed from a rotating chaotic cloud of gases and heavy elements. Under the influence of rotation, heavy elements accumulated closer to the center, around the Sun, which appeared in the course of natural causes (which we will not discuss here). They formed solid planets, and light elements that accumulated closer to the edge - gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune ...)

But let us return to the theory of the origin of life adopted in the ancient civilization of China, to what our self-confident science calls mythology. So, the ancient myths of China tell how Pangu, being the first and only inhabitant of the new universe, put his feet on the ground, his head in the sky and began to grow. For 18,000 years, the distance between heaven and earth has increased by 3 meters every day until it reaches today's scale. After that, Pangu's body disintegrated and reincarnated into the whole world. His breath became wind and clouds, his torso with arms and legs became huge mountains and four cardinal points, blood became rivers, flesh became soil, skin became grass and trees ... The ancient civilization of China thus confirms the myths of other peoples in which our planet is assigned a role living creature or organism.

Creation of people

According to ancient legends, when the earth had already separated from the sky, everything was on it - majestic mountains rose up, rivers full of fish flowed to the seas, forests and steppes were overflowing with wild animals, but the world was still incomplete without the human race.

As in various religious versions, in ancient China it was believed that people were created from clay. In the treatise of the 2nd century "The General Meaning of Customs" it is written that the creator of people was Nuiva - the great female spirit. In the ancient myths of China, Nuiwa was seen as the beautifier of the world, and therefore they portrayed her with a measuring square in her hand or, as the personification of the female principle of Yin, with a disc of the Moon in her hands. Nuiva was portrayed with a human body, bird's legs and a snake's tail. She took a handful of clay and began to sculpt figures, they came to life and became people.

Nuiwa understood that she did not have enough strength or time to blind all the people who could populate the earth. And then she stretched a rope through the liquid clay. When the goddess shook the rope, pieces of clay flew in all directions. Falling to the ground, they turned into people. But the roofing felts due to the fact that they were not molded by hand, roofing felts because the swamp clay, nevertheless, differed in its composition from the one from which the first people were blinded, but the ancient myths of China claim that people of a faster way of creation significantly differed from those created by hand. Thus, it is believed that the rich and noble are people created by the gods with their own hands from the yellow earth, while the poor and insignificant people are created with the help of a rope.

Further, Nuiva gave her creations the opportunity to reproduce independently. True, before that, she gave them the law on the responsibilities of both parties in marriage, which was strictly observed in the ancient civilization of China. For the Chinese, Nuwa was considered the patroness of weddings, who could save a woman from infertility. Nuiva's divinity was so strong that even from her insides 10 deities were born. But Nuwa's merits do not end there.

The progenitor Nuiva protects humanity

Nuiva lived quietly for a while, not knowing worries. But the land, which was already inhabited by the people she created, was seized by great disasters. In some places, the sky collapsed, and huge black holes appeared there. The spirit of fire Chzhuzhong gave birth to the spirit of the waters of Gungong, the fight against which occupied a large place in ancient mythology. Ancient Chinese myths describe the incredible fire and heat that seeped through them, as well as the fire that engulfed the forests on Earth. Depressions were formed in the ground, through which underground waters gushed. Two opposites that characterize the ancient civilization of China, two elements hostile to each other, Water and Fire, joined forces to destroy people.

Seeing how human creatures suffer, Nuiva, as a true beautifier of the world, set to work to "patch" the leaky firmament. She collected multi-colored stones and, melting them on fire, filled the heavenly holes with the resulting mass. To strengthen the sky, Nuiva cut off four legs of the giant tortoise and placed them on four parts of the earth as props supporting the firmament. The firmament strengthened, but did not return to its previous state. He squinted a little, but in reality it can be seen by the movement of the sun, moon and stars. In addition, a huge depression was formed to the southeast of the Celestial Empire, which became the Ocean.

Ksenia Velichko. The Epoch Times