After Pangu opened up the world, everything in the world was full of vitality, but it seemed that this world was missing something, and the earth seemed to lack some spirituality, who would be the master of this world? Who created human beings?
In the folklore work "Customs and Customs" compiled by Taishan Taishou Of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is recorded that the world was opened up, there were no people, and Nuwa shook the loess and became a person. Drama work, the strength is not enough to provide, but to lead (pull, pull) rope in the mud, to hold up people. Therefore, the rich and the noble, the loess people; the poor and the lowly, the lead (rope) people also.
Customs and customs
This is the first time in the ancient books about the creation of nüwa a relatively complete record, before the ancient books in the description of nüwa is simply a word like gold, but that is, this text, is only about fifty words, the ancients are really a master of complexity and simplicity, ah, this may also be closely related to the lack of written records in ancient times.
Here we combine other literature to enrich this story:
Folklore, after the opening of heaven and earth, the stars and the sun and moon between heaven and earth, fish, insects, flowers, birds, mountains and trees have not yet been human. One day, a miraculous goddess appeared in the heavens and the earth- her name was Nuwa, and she walked alone on the desolate wilderness, unaware of the desolation and loneliness around her, as if there was a lack of life in this heaven and earth. She walked and walked, walked to the bank of the Yellow River, saw the beautiful reflection in the river, she laughed at the shadow in the water and laughed with it, she was angry, the shadow was also angry.
An interesting thought suddenly flashed in her mind: "Although there are all kinds of creatures in the world, but there are no creatures like herself, then why not create a creature like herself to join the world to accompany herself, so that she will not be alone, and the world also needs such elves to dominate?" ”
So she came to the Yellow River, mixed the loess from the river into the yellow river water, imitated her own appearance in the water, pinched into a small clay figure, she blew a breath at these little people, the little people just put on the ground, these little things actually jumped up happily, they lived! Her mouth called out to her mother, and she danced happily around Nuwa, who was very happy and gave them a name, "People".
In this way, Nuwa used loess as a material to pluck (tuan) out of the people.
Nuwa made man
She was bent on letting these sensitive little creatures cover the earth, so she kept pinching the little people day and night, tirelessly. However, the world was too big after all, she had worked for a long time, the number of villains was still far from enough, and she had become tired.
In the end, she came up with a brilliant way to create human beings. She pulled a dead vine from the cliff wall, reached into a quagmire, stirred into a yellowish mud, and then threw the rattan to the ground, and the mud splashed all around, and then became a multitude of little people who shouted and jumped, and they were exactly the same as the little people made of yellow mud. The shouts of "Mama" and "Mama" reverberated around.
Nuwa kept waving the rattan, and soon the earth was full of humans.
Later, people said that the people who were born rich and noble were created by Nüwa herself by cutting loess, while the poor people were just made by Nüwa dipping the mud with rattan and sprinkling the mud on the ground.
In the traditional Chinese folk mythology, Before creating people, Nüwa also created six animals: on the first day of the first lunar month, she created a chicken, the second created a dog, the third created a pig, the fourth created a sheep, the fifth created a cow, the sixth created a horse, and on the seventh day, Nüwa used loess and water to imitate her own appearance to create a small clay man, she felt that this was too slow, so she used a cane, stained with mud, waved up, the mud spilled on the ground, all became people.
The ancients used six animals to name the date of the New Year. The first day of the first lunar month is Chicken Day; the second day of the first month is Dog Day; the third day of the first month is Pig Day; the fourth day of the first month is sheep day; the fifth day of the first month is the day of the ox; the sixth day of the first month is the day of the horse; and the seventh day of the first month is the day of man.
Six animal diagrams
Folklore also says that in order to allow human beings to reproduce forever, Nuwa also created a marriage ceremony, she acted as a matchmaker, so that people know the method of "creating man" and passed on the generations by human beings' own efforts. In this way, human beings have been passed down from generation to generation, and they are increasing day by day. This is the legend about the creation of marriage by Nuwa.
There is also a short passage in the "Customs and Customs" (Ying Shao) about Nüwa: "Nüwa prays for the shrine and becomes a female matchmaker, because she is in marriage." Meaning: Nuwa prayed to God, asking God to let her be a female matchmaker to arrange marriage between the sexes.
It seems that ah, our grandmother god is the earliest matchmaker, there are legends, said that Nuwa also collected bamboo and other materials from the Kunlun Mountains, invented musical instruments such as reeds, used to express happiness, celebrate and communicate emotions between men and women, this anchor himself has personal experience, in the northern countryside where I lived when I was a child, people will have this kind of instrument when they get married or do funerals, and the expressiveness of the tone is really very able to reflect the feelings that people want to pour out. The reed is also one of the earliest musical instruments in China and has a very long history.
Later, the Emperor of Heaven sent someone to pick up Nuwa back to the Heavenly Court, although she was in love with her own children, but in the end Nuwa still boarded the thunder car and rode away in the clouds and the dragon.
From the history of the development of human social forms, we can speculate that the myth of Nüwa's creation of man actually reflects the primitive worship of the grandmother god in the matriarchal society in ancient times.
We can also speculate that later, with the advent of the patriarchal clan society, the mythical story of the creation of pangu open heaven and earth and the brothers and sisters of Fuxi Nuwa to match and reproduce human beings, which highlighted the important role of men, slowly spread in the folk.
There is such an ancient myth and legend in the ethnic minority areas in southwest China: one day in a certain month of a certain year, when it rained heavily, someone caught Lei Gong and sent Lei Gong to an iron cage, wanting to pickle it with spices as food. Then he said to one of his children: Be sure not to give him water to drink. Then I went out. The young brothers and sisters saw that Lei Gong was pitifully thirsty, so they dipped a few drops of water in a brush to quench his thirst. As soon as Lei Gong touched the water, a deafening thunderbolt came from the sky, and the iron cage instantly cracked, and Lei Gong was very grateful to the little brothers and sisters, and before leaving, he pulled a tooth from his mouth and handed it to the two little brothers and sisters and said:
"When I'm gone, you'll plant this thing in the ground." In the future, if there is any disaster, you can hide in the fruit of it, and it will be auspicious. ”
After saying that, only a thunderbolt was heard, and in the blink of an eye, Lei Gong rushed up to the nine days.
Later, the brothers and sisters buried the tooth in the soil according to Lei Gong's words, and soon there were really fruit seedlings growing in the place where the tooth was buried, and soon a huge gourd was born.
Soon after, Thor returned to take revenge, the sky lightning thundered, the rain poured down, the flood flooded the field and mountains, only the two huge gourds floated steadily in the waves, and the two brothers and sisters were also saved by these two gourds.
Hulu Sister (Nuwa) and Hulu Brother (Fuxi)
"Du Yi Zhi" (written by Tang Li Kang) scrolls down: "When the universe first opened, there were only two brothers and sisters in the Kunlun Mountains, and there were no people in the world. Thinking of a couple, but also ashamed of themselves. The brother and sister went up to the Kunlun Mountain and cursed: "If heaven leaves my brother and sister as husband and wife, and the smoke is united, if not, let the smoke disperse." When they smoke, the two become married. "Meaning: Once upon a time, when the universe first opened, there were only two brothers and sisters between heaven and earth, and they lived under the Kunlun Mountain, and there were no other human beings in the world at this time. They want to be married and feel ashamed. The brother and sister climbed up the Kunlun Mountain and swore to the heavens, "If heaven agrees that my brother and sister are husband and wife, please combine the clouds in the sky into a ball, and if you do not agree, disperse the clouds." So the clouds in the sky immediately merged, and the brothers and sisters obeyed the will of heaven and married. Humans are the offspring of the couple. The legend of the two brothers and sisters here is Fuxi and Nuwa. Later, Mr. Wen Yiduo verified that Fuxi and Pangu are the same person, the original meaning of the name is gourd, Nuwa is a female gourd, "Fuxi" in Chinese, in Miao and Yao is the meaning of "Hulu Brother"; the Chinese "Nuwa" means "Hulu Sister" in Miao and Yao. This legend has some connection with the story of the pan we told earlier.
Legend has it that the eighteenth day of the third month of the lunar calendar is the birthday of Nüwa, at this time all parts of the country, especially in the Central Plains, the tradition of worshiping Nüwa is still followed, and every year from the first to the eighteenth day of the third month of the lunar calendar, people from the four provinces of Jin, Hebei, Lu and Yu will worship Nüwa, forming a far-reaching temple fair of the Imperial Palace, which has a history of more than a thousand years.
Nuwa Festival
The "Nuwa Festival" is one of the five major ancestral ceremonies in China, and was listed as one of the first batch of national folk "intangible cultural heritage" in 2006.