China Popular Itineraries |
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2.1 The Creation of the World |
In the field of Chinese folk literature, legends and folk tales are two dif-ferent concepts. Legends are stories about the gods and goddesses, or about the deified heroes and heroines. They were innocent accounts in the primitive societies about natural phenomena and social lives. But the folk tales are the stories in relation to historical personnel, historical events and ancient relics, which are created by the labouring people and spread orally from generation to generation. They are an account of the history. But in reality, people often refer to legends and folk tales as fairy tales and historical stories.
2.1 The Creation of the World
The legend is recorded in History of the Three Emperors and Their Five Successors written by Xu Zheng. The book is quoted in Volume 1 of Classi-fied Collections of Literature and Art Works.
"Before the Creation, heaven and earth were in chaos. Pan Gu, the Cre-ator was born in it. After about eighteen thousand years the heaven began to be separated from the earth. The light, clear and shining matters rose up and formed the heaven, whereas the heavy and dark matters sank down and formed the earth. Pan Gu was in between. With his head touching the heaven and his feet standing on the earth, he changed himself nine times one day, holier than both the heaven and the earth. Everyday the heaven rose more than three meters higher, the earth also thickened itself over three meters thicker, while Pan Gu also grew over three meters taller. This went on for eighteen thousands of years and the heaven rose extremely high, the earth be-came extremely thick, and Pan Gu also extremely tall and big. Then there were born the three august figures, Fuxi, the father of the human beings, Sui Ren, the god of fire, and Shen Nong, the god of agriculture. And numbers were created including one to nine, so the heaven was nine thousands of li a-part from the earth."
And the story was also recorded in History of the Remote Ancient Times quoted by Volume 1 of The General History by Ma Xiao of the Qing dynasty as follows:
"In the very beginning there was born Pan Gu the Creator. When he was dying, he changed himself. His breath became winds and clouds, his voices became thunders, and his left eye changed into the sun; his right one, the moon. His four limbs changed into the four columns supporting the heaven, his body into five famous mountains. His blood flew in all directions and formed the rivers and springs. His reins ran the strikes of the earth, his mus-cles dissolved into the earth of the fields, his hair and beard turned into the stars in the sky, his hair on his skin grew into trees and grasses. His teeth and bones were hardened into metals and rocks, his marrow, the pearls and jades. His sweat dropped to be rain and dew. And finally, the worms on his body were changed into human beings. "
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