Chinese mythology 中国神话传说 英文版的

Chinese Mythology

Chinese mythology (中国神话) is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been

passed down in oral or written tradition. These include creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state. Like many mythologies, it has in the past been believed to be, at least in part, a factual recording of history.

Historians have conjectured that the Chinese mythology began in the 12th century BCE. The myths and legends were passed down in oral form for over a thousand years, before being written in books such as Shan Hai Jing. Other myths continued to be passed down through oral traditions like theater and song, before being recorded as novels such as Hei'an Zhuan - Epic of Darkness (literally Epic of the Darkness). This collection of epic legends is preserved by a community of Chinese Han nationality, inhabitants of the Shennongjia mountain area in Hubei, and contains accounts from the birth of Pangu up to the historical era.

Imperial historical documents and philosophical canons such as Shangshu, Shiji, Liji, Lüshi Chunqiu, and others, all contain Chinese myths.

Creation myths

Chinese creation myths explain the legendary beginnings of the universe, earth, and life.

Early Chinese texts recorded fragments of creation stories. The Zhuangzi and Huainanzi cosmogonically mention Hundun. The Shujing and Guoyu describe the separation of Heaven and Earth during the legendary era of Zhuanxu. The Huainanzi and Chuci say that Nüwa created the first humans from yellow clay and repaired the fallen pillars of Heaven (cf. Axis mundi).

One of the most popular creation myth in Chinese mythology describes Pangu 盤古separating the world egg-like Hundun 混沌"primordial chaos" into Heaven and Earth. However, none of the ancient Chinese classics mentions the Pangu myth, which was first recorded in the (3rd century CE) Sanwu Liji三五歴記

"Record of Cycles in Threes and Fives", written by Three Kingdoms period Daoist author Xu Zheng. Derk Bodde paraphrases.

Heaven and Earth were once inextricably commingled (hun-tun) like a chicken's egg, within which was engendered P'an-ku (a name perhaps meaning "Coiled-up Antiquity"). After 18,000 years, this inchoate mass split apart, what was bright and light forming Heaven, and what was dark and heavy forming Earth. Thereafter, during another 18,000 years, Heaven daily increased ten feet in height, Earth daily increased ten feet in thickness, and P'an-ku, between the two, daily increased ten feet in size. This is how Heaven and Earth came to be separated by their present distance of 9 million li (roughly 30,000 English miles). (1961:382-3)