User:Vxwei/nuwa

Nüwa or Nügua (simplified Chinese: 女娲; traditional Chinese: 女媧; pinyin: Nǚ wā） is a key goddess in Chinese mythology. She is credited as the mother goddess, the creator of mankind, and is the one who repaired the Pillars of Heaven. She is both the sister and wife of Fuxi, who serves as the emperor-god. Other associations she has are the goddess of wind, the goddess of marriage, the goddess of social order and stability, as well as the "Transformer of Myriad Creatures." She is also known by Wahuang (Chinese: 媧皇; lit. 'Empress Wa'). She stands as a unique figure of both spirit and empress.

As creator of mankind, she molded the upper-class individually by hand with yellow clay, and as she grew tired, she instead used a string to pull up the clay faster and form the lower-class.

In the Huainanzi, there is described a great battle between deities that broke the pillars supporting Heaven and caused great devastation. There was great flooding, and Heaven had collapsed. Nüwa was the one who patched the holes in Heaven with five colored stones, and she used the legs of a tortoise to mend the pillars.

There are many instances of her in literature across China which detail her in creation stories, and today remains a figure important to Chinese culture.

Description

Tang dynasty (618-907 C.E.) painting of Nüwa and Fuxi, their serpent-tails intertwined. Nüwa holds a compass, Fuxi holds a carpenter's square. The carpenter's square is linked to Earth and the compass to Heaven, and together the two link the Heavens and Earth.

While Nüwa's gender remained elusive in the first several hundred years of her myths being told, it was around the first century C.E. that she was stated a woman and connected as sibling and wife to Fuxi. She was originally described to have a dragon or snake's tail, representing an association with the property of yin (to include associations with the earth, water, and caves). This also shows connections with early Shang dynasty worship of dragons and snake-like deities as a manifestation of these early beliefs. In many modern depictions, she is depicted more simply as a beautiful woman, and the snake tail is not included or is hidden by gowns.

These forms are tentative and all technically correct, as Nüwa and other spirits or deities had the ability to change form at will. She could use the ability to change form 70 times a day, and this was not unusual as a manifestation of self-renewal and creativity.

Since she created humans after already existing, the origins of her own form are unclear. What model she created humans after is not stated, whether that be after herself or some other deity. These are questions used by scholars, especially after the teachings of Confucius, to decrease her power and relevance as a goddess. Confucianism heavily supports patriarchal values, and starting from the Han dynasty on there is a marked decline of the support of Nüwa being an all-powerful extremely intelligent deity.

Nüwa as an Empress

The Three August Ones

The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors are culture heroes originating from Northern Chinese belief. There is slight variation between sources, and one of the most common versions includes Nüwa as one of the Three Sovereigns, who reigned after Fuxi and before Shennong.

The myth of the Three Sovereigns sees the three as demigod figures, and the myth is used to stress the importance of an imperial reign. The variation between sources stems from China being generally divided before the Qin and Han dynasties, and the version with Fuxi, Shennong, and Nüwa was used to emphasize rule and structure.

Appearances in Literature

Huainanzi

The Huainanzi relates Nüwa to the time when Heaven and Earth were in disruption:

“ Going back to more ancient times, the four pillars were broken; the nine provinces were in tatters. Heaven did not completely cover [the earth]; Earth did not hold up [Heaven] all the way around [its circumference]. Fires blazed out of control and could not be extinguished; water flooded in great expanses and would not recede. Ferocious animals ate blameless people; predatory birds snatched the elderly and the weak. Thereupon, Nüwa smelted together five-colored stones in order to patch up the azure sky, cut off the legs of the great turtle to set them up as the four pillars, killed the black dragon to provide relief for Ji Province, and piled up reeds and cinders to stop the surging waters. The azure sky was patched; the four pillars were set up; the surging waters were drained; the province of Ji was tranquil; crafty vermin died off; blameless people [preserved their] lives. ”

The catastrophes were supposedly caused by the battle between the deities Gonggong and Zhuanxu (an event that was mentioned earlier in the Huainanzi), the five-colored stones symbolize the five Chinese elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water), the black dragon was the essence of water and thus cause of the floods, Ji Province serves metonymically for the central regions (the Sinitic world). Following this, the Huainanzi tells about how the sage-rulers Nüwa and Fuxi set order over the realm by following the Way (道) and its potency (德).

Nüwa and Fuxi on the murals (rubbing depicted) of the Wu Liang shrines, Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD)

Classic of Mountains and Seas

Nüwa as depicted on one of the Mawangdui silk banners, Han dynasty

The Classic of Mountains and Seas, dated between the Warring States period and the Han Dynasty, describes Nüwa's intestines as being scattered into ten spirits.

Liezi

In Liezi (c. 475 – 221 BC), Chapter 5 "Questions of Tang" (Chinese: 卷第五 湯問篇), author Lie Yukou describes Nüwa repairing the original imperfect heaven using five-colored stones, and cutting the legs off a tortoise to use as struts to hold up the sky.

Songs of Chu

In Songs of Chu (c. 340 – 278 BC), Chapter 3 "Asking Heaven" (Chinese: 问天), author Qu Yuan writes that Nüwa molded figures from the yellow earth, giving them life and the ability to bear children. After demons fought and broke the pillars of the heavens, Nüwa worked unceasingly to repair the damage, melting down the five-coloured stones to mend the heavens.

Shuowen Jiezi

In Shuowen Jiezi (c. 58 – 147 AD), China's earliest dictionary, under the entry for Nüwa author Xu Shen describes her as being both the sister and the wife of Fuxi. Nüwa and Fuxi were pictured as having snake-like tails interlocked in an Eastern Han Dynasty mural in the Wuliang Temple in Jiaxiang county, Shandong province.

Duyi Zhi

In Duyi Zhi (Chinese: 獨異志; c. 846 – 874 AD), Volume 3, author Li Rong gives this description.

“ Long ago, when the world first began, there were two people, Nü Kua and her older brother. They lived on Mount K'un-lun. And there were not yet any ordinary people in the world. They talked about becoming husband and wife, but they felt ashamed. So the brother at once went with his sister up Mount K'un-lun and made this prayer: "Oh Heaven, if Thou wouldst send us two forth as man and wife, then make all the misty vapor gather. If not, then make all the misty vapor disperse." At this, the misty vapor immediately gathered. When the sister became intimate with her brother, they plaited some grass to make a fan to screen their faces. Even today, when a man takes a wife, they hold a fan, which is a symbol of what happened long ago. ”

Yuchuan Ziji

In Yuchuan Ziji (Chinese: 玉川子集 c. 618 – 907 AD), Chapter 3 (Chinese: "與馬異結交詩" 也稱 "女媧本是伏羲婦"), author Lu Tong describes Nüwa as the wife of Fuxi.

Siku Quanshu

In Siku Quanshu, Sima Zhen (679–732) provides commentary on the prologue chapter to Sima Qian's Shiji, "Supplemental to the Historic Record: History of the Three August Ones," wherein it is found that the Three August Ones are Nüwa, Fuxi, and Shennong; Fuxi and Nüwa have the same last name, Feng (Chinese: 風; Hmong: Faj).

Four Great Books of Song

In the collection Four Great Books of Song (c. 960 – 1279 AD), compiled by Li Fang and others, Volume 78 of the book Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era contains a chapter "Customs by Yingshao of the Han Dynasty" in which it is stated that there were no men when the sky and the earth were separated. Thus Nüwa used yellow clay to make people. But the clay was not strong enough so she put ropes into the clay to make the bodies erect. It is also said that she prayed to gods to let her be the goddess of marital affairs. Variations of this story exist.

Culture (From Nuwa Mends the Heavens)

• Dream of the Red Chamber (1754) narrates how Nuwa gathered 36, 501 stones to patch the sky but left one unused. The unused stone plays an important role in the novel's storyline.
• Goddess Nüwa statue named "Sky Patching" by Prof. Yuan Xikun was exhibited at Times Square, New York City, on 19 April 2012 to celebrate Earth Day (2012), symbolized the importance to protect ozone layer. Previously, this 3.9 meters statue was exhibited on Beijing and now is placed on Vienna International Centre, Vienna since 21 November 2012.
• "Goddess Nuwa patches up the sky" (2013) is an application for iPhone and iPad by Zero Studio.
• The story of Nuwa patching the sky was being retold by "Carol Chen" on her book "Goddess Nuwa Patches Up the Sky" (2014) which was illustrated by "Meng Xianlong".
• The movie Xīyóujìzhī Dànào Tiāngōng (西游記之大鬧天宮) ("Journey to the West - The Monkey created chaos in heaven") (2014) directed by "Soi Cheang Pou-soi" shows the battle between Jade Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) and Bull Demon King (Aaron Kwok). Nuwa (Zhang Zilin) sacrifice herself to repairs the heaven and make a heavenly gate to protect the heaven from invading demons.

References

** other references to the books in the bibiliography on page;; 1,2,3,4 new references (added by me)

***** some of sources are blogs, unreliable, or broken links (from Nuwa Mends the Heavens)

Shan Hai Jing link good

Hucker, Charles-- reliable book

Major, John-- reliable book

Bibliography

• Birrell, Anne (1993), Chinese Mythology: An Introduction, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Lewis, Mark Edward (2006), The Flood Myths of Early China, Albany: State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-6663-6.
• Major, John S.; et al., eds. (2010), The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-14204-5.
• Nagel-Angermann, Monique. “The Three August Ones.” Dig into History, vol. 17, no. 9, Nov. 2015, p. 4. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=prh&AN=110359721&site=ehost-live.
• Ollhoff, Jim. Chinese Mythology. Abdo Publishing, 2011. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=403286&site=ehost-live.