01
In the myths and legends of the peoples of the world, the mythical pattern of "creation-destruction-re-creation" is surprisingly consistent, and what is even more surprising is that the way of destruction is without exception the Great Flood. The re-creation after destruction is habitually referred to as the second birth of mankind. For example, the Great Flood and Noah's Ark in the Old Testament, the ancient Greek myth of Diocalion and his wife Pila created man after escaping from the Flood, Andrantis disappeared in the Great Flood, and so on.
Ark
In the myth of the southern ethnic minorities in our country, there is also a myth that after a great flood, only nuwa and Fuxi brothers and sisters who hid in the gourd survived, and then created the mythical story of human beings after the combination of human reproduction.
But there is one significant difference between the Chinese myth and the myths of the Western peoples: that is, our myth of the Great Flood is the only mythological system that has fought unremittingly against the Flood and finally successfully subdued the Flood. In a sense, our ancient mythological history is actually a complete record of the ancient ancestors to fight the flood to the end of the history of water control. And the beginning of all this is the distant story that we are all too familiar with, "Nuwa patches up the heavens".
Nuwa makes up the heavens
Although Nuwa is regarded as the ancestor of man-making in Chinese mythology and appears in large numbers of ethnic minority myths in the south, it is rarely recorded in the Han mythology of the pre-Qin Dynasty. Even in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", which has a vast sea of mythological stories, only one record of Nuwa can be found.
In the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Great Wilderness of the West, it is said: "There are ten gods, known as the intestines of Nuwa, who are transformed into gods, and where they are in the wilderness of Lili and the wilderness, and where they are crossed." ”
What exactly this Nüwa's intestine, which is located in the Kurihiro No no No. Tsukiji, refers to is still a mystery that cannot be fully explained.
At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu An, the king of Huainan, led the compilation of [zhuàn]'s "Huainan Zi Lan Meditation", which for the first time recorded the mythical story of Nüwa Supplementing Heaven:
"In ancient times, the four poles were abandoned, Kyushu was split, the sky was not overturned, the earth was not carried around, the fire was burning and not extinguished, the water was vast and endless, the beasts of prey ate the people, and the birds grabbed the old and weak. Therefore, Nuwa refined five-colored stones to replenish the heavens, and the broken jaws were enough to erect the four poles, kill the black dragon to save Jizhou, and accumulate reed ash to stop the water. Heaven makes up for it, the four poles are positive; the obscene water is dry, Jizhou Ping; the cunning worms die, and the people's livelihood is destroyed. ——" Huainanzi Meditation "
At the beginning of ancient times, the four Optimus Pillars that supported the heavenly canopy fell, the land of Kyushu was torn apart, the sky could not cover the earth, the earth could not carry all things, the fire spread unquenchable, the flood continued, the ferocious beasts ate the good people, and the cruel birds plundered the old and the young with their sharp claws. It was at this time that Nuwa smelted five-colored stones to repair the canopy, cut off the feet of the giant in the sea to make a pillar of heaven to prop up the four directions, killed the black dragon to save Jizhou, and used the ash to pile up to block the flood.
So the broken canopy was repaired, the pillars supporting the four sides of heaven and earth were re-erected, the flood receded, and peace was restored to the central plains.
Qu yuan
Qu Yuan said in the "Heavenly Question": "Nuwa has a body, who is the craftsman? It can be seen that as early as the Warring States period, Nuwa was already a creation-level god, so Qu Yuan asked: Who made her body?
Although many of the ancient peoples of the world are similar or similar in content, the myth of the Chinese nation is unique. The myth of Nüwa supplementing the heavens recorded in Huainanzi is also based on the flood myth, but the difference is that it explains the cause of the flood, that is, the sky cover is broken.
As to why the sky cover was broken, Huainan zi did not mention it. On the contrary, Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty came to a Qiankun great shift in the "On Balance", and in the ancient god war that occurred only in the middle of the ancient mythology, the gonggong knocked down the Buzhou Mountain as the reason for the shattering of the sky cover. The pillar of heaven does not fall around the mountain, causing the canopy to tilt, and this logic seems to be seamless. However, in chronological order, this statement is reversed and cannot be justified.
The shattering of the canopy caused water to continue to flow from heaven to the ground, creating a flood. Before the Song Dynasty, the folk had to spend the "Heavenly Wear Festival" on the first month. The Tianpu Festival, also known as the Heaven Patching Festival, is derived from the myth of Nüwa Patching Heaven. After research, it was found that the so-called 'heavenly wear' festival is actually the 'rain' in the twenty-four solar terms. Generally around the 19th to 23rd day of the first lunar month of the lunar calendar every year, there is mostly rain during this time, so it is called 'heaven wear'.
In the "Ansai County Chronicle" of Shaanxi compiled during the Republic of China, it is recorded: "On the twentieth day, every family eats pancakes, and the name is called patching up the sky." On the night of the twenty-third day, a fire was lit in the courtyard of the house, and water was poured on the fire [zhǎn], which was called 'refining'. "Pour water from a rag on the fire, and the water will immediately evaporate to embody the meaning of fire and water." It can be seen that the heavenly wear in the myth of replenishing heaven is closely related to rainwater, which in turn shows that the shattering of the canopy is the cause of the flood in the myth of replenishment.
Alchemy replenishes the heavens
Why do you need to refine stones?
02
In order to completely solve the source of the flood, Nuwa refined five-colored stones to repair the holes in the heavens. Then the question is, why do you need to refine the stone? There is a possibility that our ancient ancestors may have actually seen a large number of stones falling from the sky and causing a catastrophe on earth.
Some professional earthquake researchers believe that the background of the myth of Nüwa patching up the sky is actually very likely to be a meteorite rain disaster in ancient times. When analyzing the historical landforms of the Baiyangdian River Basin, which is now the Cangzhou area of Baoding in Hebei Province, researchers found that from Renqiu and Hejian to Baoding and Wangdu, extending in a northwesterly direction, all the way to Shunping County and near Mancheng, there are a large number of special geomorphological phenomena - disc-shaped depressions.
The researchers restored the original natural landforms of the depressions and compared them with the meteorite impact craters formed in modern times at home and abroad, and found that the disc-shaped depressions in the Baiyangdian area are the remnants left on the modern alluvial plains after the impact of the huge meteorite rain on the prehistoric scale.
After further in-depth research, it was found that the meteorite impact occurred in a very wide area, from northern Jin to Jizhong, and may even extend to the vicinity of Bohai Bay. It is likely to have occurred between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago.
It is speculated that the scene at that time may have been a small comet entering the Earth's orbit, rushing into the atmosphere above the northwestern part of Shanxi and bursting at a high altitude. Subsequently, fragments of the comet fell into a vast area from present-day northern Jin to central Hebei, forming a massive meteorite rain. It was this rare meteorite rain that caused the unique disc-shaped depression group of landforms in the Baiyangdian area.
In the myth of The Heaven Patch in Huainanzi, a place is repeatedly mentioned - Jizhou. According to the Shang Shu Yu Gong, Dayu was divided into nine prefectures, including Jizhou, and ranked first among the nine states. The territory of Guji Prefecture covers most of present-day Hebei and Shanxi, as well as parts of northern Henan, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia. This also coincides with the vast majority of the area covered by meteorite rain.
Now many cultural relics clearly show that the mythical relics of the goddess Nüwa and Nüwa supplementing the heavens are common in Shanxi and Hebei. For example, the Nüwa Mausoleum in Linfen, Shanxi, the Nüwadui in Shanxi Fengling, the Emperor's Ridge in Huguan, Shanxi, the Nüwa Mountain in Handan, Hebei, the Imperial Palace in Xiangxian County, Hebei, and so on.
The geographical location of these cultural monuments is exactly in the southern and western parts of the meteorite rain impact zone. And this meteorite rain not only brought fires and flash floods, but may even have created a thousand-year-old no-man's land in the core area.
The researchers found that the Baiyangdian area in the central Hebei Plain, covered by meteorite rains, was neither a towering mountain range nor a barren desert, and was theoretically a watery area that was very suitable for the survival and reproduction of ancient humans. Surprisingly, however, in the late Neolithic period, it was a blank area of ancient culture.
In the Physical Geography of China on this issue, it is stated that "whether it is the Neolithic period or the Shang Zhou or even the Spring and Autumn Period, there is an extremely vast area of empty settlements in the middle of the (Hebei) Plain." Mr. Tan Qijun, the main founder of the discipline of Chinese historical geography, also once said: "The Hebei Plain is a scene of hazeln zhēn mǎng, desolate and uninhabited." Are these just coincidences?
The ancient ancestors saw countless meteorites falling from the sky, followed by overwhelming fires and flash floods, and this catastrophe destroyed the homeland on which they depended, and formed a deep imprint in their memories, and then formed the original prototype of the myth of making up the heavens in word of mouth. They may think that the meteorite falling from the sky is a broken sky cover, so they believe that only by refining five-colored stones and using stones to repair the loopholes in the sky cover can be repaired.
Although there is no detailed description of the five-color stone in Huainanzi, the five colors generally refer to the five colors of black and white, blue, red and yellow. In ancient times, people used these five colors as the positive color.
The five colors can represent divine power. In the "Book of Chu" unearthed in Changsha Mawangdui, the creation myth of the Chu people during the Warring States period is recorded, and when talking about the incarnation of the emperor, it is said that the emperor obtained the essence of black and white, blue and yellow, five sacred trees, and obtained unparalleled divine power.
In addition, the ancient ancestors believed that "the nine fields of talent" were divided into nine parts according to different colors. Just because the sky is of different colors, it is natural to use five-colored stones, and the five positive colors can conjure up all other colors, which is in line with the simple world cognition of the ancient ancestors.
As for the story of Nüwa taking the five-colored soil from the Tiantai Mountain carried by the giant ao in the East China Sea and refining it into a five-colored stone, it is the plot that was gradually enriched by posterity after the Nüwa myth gradually evolved into a Taoist fairy tale, and it is not the original appearance of the myth of supplementing the heavens.
Nuwa succeeded in making up for the heavens, but her great deeds were not yet complete, because there was one more important thing, that is, to eliminate floods. Giant Ao is one of the unique mythical beasts in our Chinese mythology, they have appeared in mythology since the beginning of ancient times, and were once domesticated by the sea god Yu of the North Sea. After the Buzhou Mountain Divine War, the giant eagles were also arranged to carry five sacred mountains floating on the sea in the East China Sea. At this time, the presumably wild unobserved giant ao also took advantage of the flood to plague the human world, and was cut off by Nuwa with four legs and taken as a pillar to support the canopy.
In addition, Nuwa also killed the black dragon that was in turmoil in the water, and finally used the method of accumulating reed ashes to finally subdue the flood. Reeds are the most common plants at the water's edge, and Nuwa adapted to local conditions and burned a large number of reeds into ashes to pile up, eventually subduing the flood. It is said that this method of blocking water with reed ash was used in places until many years in later generations.
In the Treatise on Balance, it is said: "The rain is not dull [jì], and the sacrifice of the nun is not good." If the rain is continuous, it is necessary to sacrifice the goddess Nuwa, because the Nüwa who makes up the heavens can stop the rain and avoid flooding.
The myth of Nüwa patching up the heavens is one of the most magnificent and moving ancient myths in our ancient mythology. Although the myth praises the great goddess Nuwa, it is actually still a tribute to our ancient ancestors who dared to fight the forces of nature unremittingly. Although she tells a grand story of making up the sky, the essence of the story is still the disaster brought by the great flood to mankind, but compared with the Western flood myth, her story is more complete and magnificent, and the ending is more beautiful.
The myth of replenishing heaven is the origin of the myth of water control in China, and the mythological history of thousands of years since then has revolved around the theme of water control. From Nuwa to the water god working together, from the Battle of Zhuolu to the Battle of the Buzhou Mountain, from the stealing of the soil to the great Yu zhi water, this theme runs throughout. And this heroic and fearless water control spirit of our ancestors can be called one of the national cores that our Sons and Daughters of China are proud of.
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