Nüwa
Nüwa | ||
---|---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin Nǚwā | | |
Wade–Giles | Nü3-wa1 | |
IPA | Nỳwá | |
Yue: Cantonese | ||
Yale Romanization | Néuih Wō | |
Jyutping | Neoi5 Wo1 | |
IPA | [nɵy˩˧ wɔː˥] | |
Southern Min | ||
Hokkien POJ | Lú-o | |
Middle Chinese | ||
Middle Chinese | nrɨaX kwue |
Part of a series on |
Chinese folk religion |
---|
Nüwa, also read Nügua, is a mother goddess, culture hero,[1] and/or member of the Three Sovereigns of Chinese mythology. She is a goddess in Chinese folk religion, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.[2] She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven.[3]
As creator of mankind, she molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay.
In the Huainanzi, there is a description of 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.[4]
There are many instances of her in literature across China which detail her in creation stories, and today, she remains a figure important to Chinese culture. She is one of the most venerated Chinese goddesses alongside Guanyin and Mazu.[citation needed]
Name
The character nü (Chinese: 女; lit. 'female') is a common prefix on the names of goddesses. The proper name is wa, also read as gua (Chinese: 媧). The Chinese character is unique to this name. Birrell translates it as 'lovely', but notes that it "could be construed as 'frog', which is consistent with her aquatic myth.[7] In Chinese, the word for 'whirlpool' is wo (Chinese: 渦), which shares the same pronunciation with the word for 'snail' (Chinese: 蝸). These characters all have their right side constructed by the word wa (Chinese: 咼), which can be translated as 'spiral' or 'helix' as noun, and as 'spin' or 'rotate' when as verb, to describe the 'helical movement'. This mythical meaning has also been symbolically pictured as compasses in the hand which can be found on many paintings and portraits associated with her.
Her reverential name is Wahuang (Chinese: 媧皇; lit. 'Empress Wa').[8]
Description
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
The catastrophes were supposedly caused by the battle between the deities
The
In
In
In
In Duyi Zhi (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 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.[16]
There are stories that have her as the "consort" of Fuxi rather than his sister.[2]
In Yuchuan Ziji (玉川子集 c. 618 – 907 AD), Chapter 3 ("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.[citation needed]
In
In the collection
In Ming dynasty myths about the transition from the Shang dynasty to the Zhou dynasty, Nüwa made evil decisions that ultimately benefited China, such as sending a fox spirit to encourage the debauchery of King Zhou, which led to him being deposed.[17] Other tales have her and Fuxi as exclusively the "great gentle protectors of humanity" unwilling to use subterfuge.[18]
Nüwa and Fuxi were also thought to be gods of silk.[19]
Iconography of Fuxi and Nüwa
Nüwa is featured within the famed
After Nüwa realized that
Creation of humanity
Pangu was said to be the creation god in Chinese mythology. He was a giant sleeping within an egg of chaos. As he awoke, he stood up and divided the sky and the earth. Pangu then died after standing up, and his body turned into rivers, mountains, plants, animals, and everything else in the world, among which is a powerful being known as Huaxu (華胥). Huaxu gave birth to a twin brother and sister, Fuxi and Nüwa. Fuxi and Nüwa are said to be creatures that have faces of human and bodies of snakes.[25]
Nüwa created humanity due to her loneliness, which grew more intense over time. She molded yellow earth or, in other versions, yellow clay into the shape of people. These individuals later became the wealthy nobles of society, because they had been created by Nüwa's own hands. However, the majority of humanity was created when Nüwa dragged string across mud to mass-produce them, which she did because creating every person by hand was too time- and energy-consuming. This creation story gives an
Nüwa was born three months after her brother, Fuxi, whom she later took as her husband; this marriage is the reason why Nüwa is credited with inventing the idea of marriage.[26]
Before the two of them got married, they lived on mount K'un-lun. A prayer was made after the two became guilty of falling for each other. The prayer is as follows,
"Oh Heaven, if Thou wouldst send us forth as man and wife, then make all the misty vapor gather. If not, then make all the misty vapor disperse."[26]
Misty vapor then gathered after the prayer signifying the two could marry. When intimate, the two made a fan out of grass to screen their faces which is why during modern day marriages, the couple hold a fan together. By connecting, the two were representative of Yin and Yang; Fuxi being connected to Yang and masculinity along Nüwa being connected to Yin and femininity. This is further defined with Fuxi receiving a carpenter's square which symbolizes his identification with the physical world because a carpenter's square is associated with straight lines and squares leading to a more straightforward mindset. Meanwhile, Nüwa was given a compass to symbolize her identification with the heavens because a compass is associated with curves and circles leading to a more abstract mindset. With the two being married, it symbolized the union between heaven and Earth.[26] Other versions have Nüwa invent the compass rather than receive it as a gift.[28] In addition, the system of male and female sex, the yang-yin philosophy, is expressed here in a complex way: first as Fuxi and Nüwa, then as a compass (masculine) and a square (feminine), and thirdly, as Nüwa (woman) with a compass (man) and Fuxi (man) with a square (woman).[29]
Nüwa Mends the Heavens
Nüwa Mends the Heavens (
The Huainanzi tells an ancient story about how the four pillars that support the sky crumbled inexplicably. Other sources have tried to explain the cause, i.e. the battle between Gong Gong and Zhuanxu or Zhurong. Unable to accept his defeat, Gong Gong deliberately banged his head onto Mount Buzhou (不周山) which was one of the four pillars. Half of the sky fell which created a gaping hole and the Earth itself was cracked; the Earth's axis mundi was tilted into the southeast while the sky rose into the northwest. This is said to be the reason why the western region of China is higher than the eastern and that most of its rivers flow towards the southeast. This same explanation is applied to the Sun, Moon, and stars which moved into the northwest. A wildfire burnt the forests and led the wild animals to run amok and attack the innocent peoples, while the water which was coming out from the earth's crack didn't seem to be slowing down.[33]
Nüwa pitied the humans she had made and attempted to repair the sky. She gathered five colored-stones (red, yellow, blue, black, and white) from the riverbed, melted them and used them to patch up the sky: since then the sky (clouds) have been colorful. She then killed a giant turtle (or tortoise), some version named the tortoise as Ao, cut off the four legs of the creature to use as new pillars to support the sky. But Nüwa didn't do it perfectly because the unequal length of the legs made the sky tilt. After the job was done, Nüwa drove away the wild animals, extinguished the fire, and controlled the flood with a huge amount of ashes from the burning reeds and the world became as peaceful as it was before.[33][34]
Empress Nuwa
Many Chinese know well their
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.[37]
In her matriarchal reign, she battled against a neighboring tribal chief, defeated him, and took him to the peak of a mountain. Defeated by a woman, the chief felt ashamed to be alive and banged his head on the heavenly bamboo to kill himself and for revenge. His act tore a hole in the sky and made a flood hit the whole world. The flood killed all people except Nüwa and her army which was protected by her divinity. After that, Nüwa patched the sky with five colored-stones until the flood receded.[38]
Popular culture
- 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.[39]
- A 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 of protecting the ozone layer.[40] Previously, this 3.9 meters statue was exhibited on Beijing and now is placed on Vienna International Centre, Vienna since 21 November 2012.[41]
- Chinese video game series Zhao Ling'er, Lin Qing'er, Zi Xuan, Li Yiru and Xiao Man.[citation needed]
- "Goddess Nuwa patches up the sky" (2013) is an application for iPhone and iPad by Zero Studio.[42]
- 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".[43]
- The 2014 hong kong movie Chow Yun Fat) and Bull Demon King (Aaron Kwok). Nuwa (Zhang Zilin) sacrifices herself to repair heaven and make a heavenly gate to protect heaven from invading demons.[44]
- Added as a playable Chinese goddess in SMITE.[citation needed]
- Nuwa is a major character in Shin Megami Tensei V.[citation needed]
- Nu Wa is a playable character in the Dynasty Warriors series.[citation needed]
- In the 2022 mobile game Dislyte, Feng Nuxi is a Legendary Esper with the powers of Nuwa.[citation needed]
- In Gremlins, Nuwa is the one who created the Mogwai.[citation needed]
- Nuwa mending the sky with the five colored stones and her sacrifice appears in Priest's BL novel Guardian (Zhen Hun) as part of a memory sequence.[citation needed]
See also
Explanatory notes
- ^ A different translation of the same text is also given in Lewis.[10]
- thearch. Enraged, they crashed against Mount Buzhou; Heaven's pillars broke; the cords of Earth snapped. Heaven tilted in the northwest, and thus the sun and moon, stars and planets shifted in that direction. Earth became unfull in the southeast, and thus the watery floods and mounding soils subsided in that direction."[11]
- ^ Sima Zhen's commentary is included with the later Siku Quanshu compiled by Ji Yun and Lu Xixiong(陸錫熊).[citation needed]
Citations
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7607-8379-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7858-4142-5.
- ^ "Nügua". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ JSTOR 1177949.
- ^ OCLC 910498369.
- ^ OCLC 46661540.
- ^ Anne Birrell (1999), trans., The Classic of Mountains and Seas. Penguin Books.
- ^ 媧皇. Handian. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ a b Major & al. (2010), ch. 6.
- ^ Lewis (2006), p. 111.
- ^ Major & al. (2010), ch. 3.
- ^ Major & al. (2010), ch. 6 n.
- Shan Hai Jing] (in Chinese).
- ^ Giles, Lionel (1912). TAOIST TEACHINGS Translated from the Book of Lieh-Tzü (1st ed.). Sacred texts: London: John Murray. pp. 78–79. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
- ^ Qu, Yuan (2017). The Songs of Chu: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poetry by Qu Yuan and Others. Columbia University Press. pp. 61–102.
- ^ Translation in Birrell 1993, 35.
- ISBN 978-1-83886-263-3.
- ISBN 978-1-78755-237-1.
- ISBN 978-0-520-23786-5.
- ^ S2CID 198704018.
- S2CID 198651581.
- ^ OCLC 1111577750.
- ^ "Painting of Fuxi and Nuwa | Highlights". NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
- ISBN 978-0-7914-0460-7.
- ISBN 978-0-7858-1078-0.
- ^ OCLC 946109909.
- ISSN 0022-3840.
- ISBN 978-1-4614-4683-5
- ISBN 978-3-930698-02-8.
- ^ "NUWA REPAIRS THE HEAVENS (Nuwa Bu Tian)". Beijing: China on Your Mind. 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ^ dartman. "Goddess Nu Wa Patching the Sky". Panoramio. Archived from the original on 2016-10-12. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ^ Zhitao Li. "Nuwa Patching the Sky". Dreamstime. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ^ a b "The Nuwa Sacrificial Ceremonies". Beijing: Confucius Institute Online. 26 October 2009. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ^ "Nüwa Repairs the Heavens". Skryrock. 5 February 2013. Archived from the original on 2015-11-17. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-2353-4.
- ISBN 962-07-5314-3, p. 142.
- ^ Nagel-Angermann, Monique (November 2015). "The Three August Ones". Dig into History. 17: 4 – via EBSCOhost.
- ^ Mark Isaak (2 September 2002). "Flood Stories from Around the World". Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ^ Lianhua Andy (25 September 2015). "Penciptaan Bumi & Manusia Menurut Chiness Mitologi (Pangu ,Nuwa & Fuxi)" (in Indonesian). Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ^ "Unveiling Goddess Nüwa in NY Times Square and Beijing". United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 22 April 2012. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ^ "Ozone statue unveiled in Vienna to mark Montreal Protocol anniversary". UNIDO. 22 November 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2015.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Goddess Nuwa patches up the sky". Zero Studio. 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ^ "Goddess Nuwa Patches Up the Sky – the Chinese Library Series (Paperback)". AbeBooks. 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ^ Jedd Jong (4 February 2014). "The Monkey King". Retrieved 15 November 2015.
General 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.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-7914-0460-9
External links
- Media related to Nuwa at Wikimedia Commons