Zhuang Zi - Mozi (Modi) - Lao Zi

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Zhuangzi: el principal patriarca del daoísmo junto con Lao Zi. (Ilustrado por SM Yang/

Zhuang Zi (369 a.C. – 286 a.C.), o también conocido como Chuang Tse, nunca había ocupado un alto cargo gubernamental en su vida, sólo uno menor en su ciudad natal durante un breve período.

El Rey de un Estado le ofreció una vez el puesto de Primer Ministro, pero lo rechazó, respondiendo con la famosa analogía de que transar su libertad por un puesto oficial en el gobierno era como si una tortuga divina vendiera su caparazón para ser adorada.

Visto en ese entonces como un excéntrico, Zhuang Zi vivió una vida muy pobre pero nunca pesimista. Se distanció de los eruditos que disfrutaban de lujos, y no tenía problemas con la ropa remedada, con un tazón de arroz vacío, o incluso a veces, vivir de la caridad. Abogó por la iluminación a través del desapego a las preocupaciones mundanas y seguir la regla natural del Dao, y fue reconocido como el patriarca principal del taoísmo, junto con Lao Zi.

Siendo un daoista, no perseguía fama, riqueza o una carrera, ni se interesaba en el reconocimiento público, así que la historia de vida de Zhuang Zi fue poco conocida. Sin embargo, el libro que lleva su nombre, "Zhuangzi", también conocido como "El Clásico Puro de Nan-hua”, ha sido ampliamente admirado por generaciones, y ha generado miles de volúmenes de investigación y literatura interpretativa.

Siendo una persona sabia e imaginativa, Zhuang Zi utilizaba numerosas metáforas y sarcasmo de humor en sus libros. Él creía que no se debería molestar a la naturaleza, y los humanos deberían buscar la armonía con el medio ambiente. El libro Zhangzi atrajo a personas de una amplia gama de clases sociales y su pensamiento ha tenido un impacto profundo en la vida cotidiana de las personas. El libro ha sido traducido a muchos idiomas en todo el mundo.

En Zhuangzi, reflexionó sobre los efectos negativos de la llamada civilización y expresó su aspiración por la libertad espiritual, la libertad de las ataduras mundanas, y se opuso firmemente a la gente que pasa toda la vida persiguiendo glorias mundanas o tesoros materiales. Esta filosofía posteriormente encontró su camino en la evolución de la literatura secular y el arte visual.

Zhuang Zi, creía que el mayor logro de una sociedad es "acción sin acción, gobernar gobernando nada" (wu wei). Es una acción tan perfecta que todo sigue el cauce natural, por lo que no hay ni rastro visible del autor y está en sintonía plena con la naturaleza original del mundo, el Dao. Así que en una sociedad el gobernante debe gobernar sin intervención deliberada, cada uno sigue su naturaleza con libertad espiritual y la sociedad se desarrollará en armonía.

A diferencia del confucianismo institucional, que tiene que ver con las responsabilidades sociales de sus miembros, la filosofía de Zhuang Zi hace más hincapié en la vida privada del individuo y la sabiduría espiritual. Posteriormente, los intelectuales chinos cambiaron hacia su filosofía durante las turbulencias de los cambios de dinastía.
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Mozi, el gran pensador chino de la paz y el amor, ilustrado por Zona Yeh, 

Mozi nació después de Lao Zi y Confucio, y vivió aproximadamente entre los años 470 - 391 a.C. en el período de Primavera y Otoño y de los Estados Combatientes (770 a 222 a.C.), una época muy oscura y cruel. En ese momento de caos, todos, hasta los mismos reyes, estaban ansioso por encontrar a personas capaces de proporcionar los métodos adecuados para manejar bien un Estado. Fue así que en dicho contexto, aparecieron muchas doctrinas filosóficas para abordar los problemas sociales, incluyendo cómo disciplinar el comportamiento y la moral de las personas.

El verdadero nombre de Mozi era Mo Di. Él era un humanista entusiasta que se convirtió en el fundador del Mohismo, cuya teoría fue conocida como "amor universal y no lucha". Además se le conoce como uno de los grandes pensadores de China.

Desde el punto de vista de Mozi, la principal razón que llevó al mundo al caos, fue la búsqueda del beneficio propio y el egoísmo, pues esto evita que la gente sea más compasiva y amorosa entre sí.

Para Mozi, cuando llegue el momento de que cada uno pueda amar a los demás como si fueran ellos mismos, tratar a otros como si fueran sus propios familiares, atesorar a los otros Estados como si fueran el propio, y dejar completamente el pensamiento egoísta, el mundo ya no estaría en guerra y se conseguiría la paz verdadera.

Al introducir la teoría de la "no lucha", Mozi afirmaba que la guerra era injusta y trágica para el ser humano. Cada guerra destruyó innumerables propiedades, vidas y familias. Por lo tanto Mozi estaba en contra de las guerras e instó a detenerlas.

Además de la teoría del amor universal y la no lucha, Mozi presentó también sus ideas para seleccionar a personas sabias y capaces para ocupar puestos oficiales y de trabajo en los Estados, independientemente de sus antecedentes familiares y estatus social.

Los funcionarios corruptos debían ser despedidos tan pronto como sea posible.

Mozi estaba en contra de los funerales espléndidos y de la música como una actividad de ocio, ya que él pensaba que era una pérdida de recursos y tiempo. Estas ideas estaban en contradicción con las de Confucio, y era difícil para el pueblo chino aceptarlas.

El espíritu trabajador y dedicado de Mozi para conseguir la paz en el mundo, fue magnífico. Su idea de amor universal y no lucha, a la que llegó casi 350 años a.C., sigue siendo válida y es totalmente apropiada para la actualidad.

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El santo Lao Zi apareció sobre un búfalo de agua. (ilustrado por Zona Yeh/

Lao Zi (571-470 a.C. aproximadamente) es visto como un santo en China y es conocido como un gran filósofo y el fundador de la Escuela Dao – la vía del Dao (también llamado Tao).

Su verdadero nombre era Li Er. Se dice que tenía el pelo blanco y cejas blancas cuando nació. Desde entonces fue llamado Lao Zi, que significa "viejo hombre sabio" en chino. Él era muy inteligente y diligente en aprender cosas desde su juventud.

Lao Zi trabajó como curador en el Museo de Historia durante el Período de Primavera y Otoño (770–481 a.C.) de la Dinastía Zhou. Estaba familiarizado con los antecedentes históricos de las costumbres y los rituales, y tenía un amplio conocimiento acerca de la naturaleza. Cuando la guerra civil por el trono real estalló en el 520 a.C., Lao Zi fue destituido de su cargo debido a su implicación en la guerra. Entonces, optó por ocultar su identidad, se volvió alguien anónimo y empezó a deambular por distintos lugares.

Lao Zi creía que Dao es la raíz de todas las cosas. Le dijo a la gente que la ley de los Cielos y la Tierra no cambiaría por los pensamientos y deseos de las personas. La vida y la muerte de todas las cosas y la vida cotidiana de la gente deben seguir el camino natural.

Se dice que un oficial militar que vigilaba un paso en la frontera observó un aura violeta surgiendo en el este, lo que sugiere la llegada del santo. Mirando hacia el este, la gente vio a Lao Zi apareciendo sobre un búfalo de agua.

Conscientes que Lao Zi se disponía a partir, el funcionario le solicitó dejar escrita su sabiduría. Lao Zi dejó cinco mil palabras. Este es el conocido clásico "Dao De Jing" (también llamado "Tao Te Ching") - la forma y su poder.

Señaló que el percance es la premisa de la buena fortuna y la buena fortuna contiene los elementos de la desgracia. En otras palabras, las cosas buenas y malas son intercambiables. En ciertas condiciones, una buena fortuna podría convertirse en una desgracia, y viceversa. Sus ideas políticas básicas eran gobernar con la inacción, es decir, mientras se gobierna un Estado, todo debe estar de acuerdo con la naturaleza y los logros se pueden crear por medio de la inacción.

Lao Zi menciona que el desarrollo de la civilización condujo a la búsqueda humana de la fama y el beneficio, por lo que la gente pierde su naturaleza inocente. La aparición de la bondad, la justicia, la piedad filial y la lealtad indican el deterioro de la moral social. Si todos pudieran ser amables los unos con los otros, y los funcionarios del gobierno fueran probos e íntegros, la moralidad sería parte de la vida cotidiana y no habría necesidad de fomentarla.

Para permitir que las personas regresen a su naturaleza innata, Lao Zi difundió el Dao en estos tiempos caóticos. En sólo 5000 palabras, Lao Zi le dijo a la gente el significado de este Dao, la relación entre el Dao y la formación del universo y el origen de todas las cosas. También mencionó consecutivamente los asuntos de la forma de ser un ser humano y cómo finalmente regresar a su ser original y verdadero. Sus elaboraciones sobre otros temas fueron precisamente para allanar el camino para ese propósito final.

Confucio en su búsqueda del Dao se encuentra con Lao Zi
“El cielo es naturalmente alto, la tierra es naturalmente profunda, el Sol y la Luna son naturalmente brillantes. Si quieres cultivar el Dao, deberías sólo seguir la ley natural, y naturalmente obtendrás el Dao”

Dao y técnica
Basado en habilidades y descuidando la esencia será imposible encontrar soluciones fundamentales.


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Top 10 Most Inspiring Lao Tzu Quotes

written by Myrko Thum in Inspiration — 39 Comments

Lao Tzu was the most important spiritual Chinese sage. His name, which is also often called Laozi, literally means “Old Master” and is generally considered an honorific.
He lived in the 6th century BC, at the same time as Confucius, who was born a generation after Lao Tzu. He once sought out Lao Tzu who told him “Strip yourself of your proud airs and numerous desires, your complacent demeanor and excessive ambitions. They won’t do you any good. This is all I have to say you.”
Lao Tzu is the father of the Chinese spiritual tradition Taoism, mainly because of his text called Tao te Ching (Tao: the way of all life, te: the fit use of life by men, ching: text or classic).
It is based on the Tao (The Way), which is the creator and sustainer of all things in the Universe, and the practice of doing by nondoing (wu-wei) that enables the disciple to unite with the Tao.
Lao Tzu wrote his only book Tao Te Ching just before he walked away from the Chou empire he served. There are a lot of translations of Tao te Ching, which begins with the very first words of …

1. “The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.” [Tweet this!]

This first sentence of his teachings seems paradoxical. In my humble opinion it says that everything that is in the world of form (or the world of the ten thousand things, as the Chinese said) is not the formless animating source, which is not nameable. It is like the analogy of the finger pointing to the moon, which is a pointer, but not the moon itself. Whenever the Tao is named, it is labeled and made into a concept which is not the eternal Toa itself.
If you are interested, Wayne Dyer did a complete interpretation of the Tao te Ching called Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.

2. “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” [Tweet this!]

Really a quote to think about. How can that be in the first place: there is no rush and no hurry, but everything works out. Grass does not try to grow, it just grows. Water does not try to flow, it just flows. The only explanation is that everything is done in a naturally perfect way, without resistance and within the flow of life …

3. “Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.” [Tweet this!]

The Inside-Out approach tells us to start with the man in the mirror. Self-mastery is the basis for success, for yourself as well as with others.

4. “To see things in the seed, that is genius.” [Tweet this!]

To me this means nothing else as being able to form a personal vision for something. Genius for that matter, is to see the potential in something or someone, although not realized yet (“in the seed”). It is the essence of forming a vision of what might be and then going on making it real.

5. “When the best leader’s work is done the people say: We did it ourselves.” [Tweet this!]

A leader is not a good leader if he is so ego-driven that he is always standing in front of his team, and is letting the team feel it. The most empowering way is to inspire people so that they become able to realize their own potential.

6. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” [Tweet this!]

Non-attachment – even or especially to ones own self-image – is the necessity for personal change. If we are open to change and to new possibilities and perspectives, without buying into them blindly, we can grow.

7. “To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.” [Tweet this!]

This is a realization that can be understood intuitively if we practice meditation and/or are able to quiet the mind of the constant chatter of thoughts.

8. “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” [Tweet this!]

This emphasizes that getting started is often the hardest part of the journey. Even the greatest thing is started and then continued by single little steps, one after another. It also has the very practical meaning of breaking huge projects down into small and doable tasks, that then can be executed more easily.

9. “Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.” [Tweet this!]

In my opinion this is Lao Tzu’s expression of “intentions manifesting” or “thoughts become things”, which is also discusses widely as the secret or the law of attraction. But it is really a much more elegant way to put it :)

10. “At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.” [Tweet this!]

All you need to really find yourself is to look inside. It reminds me of what Eckhart Tolle said at the beginning of The Power of Now: Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth.”
Those were the selected 10 most inspiring quotes by Lao Tzu, as well as my annotations to them. Maybe you have other interpretations or other favorite quotes of him. Let me know in the comments!

PANGU - Nüwa and Fuxi in Chinese Mythology: Compass & Square

An ancient painting of Nüwa and Fuxi unearthed in Xinjiang, holding the tools of creation - compass and square.

Hugh Nibley gave a lecture in 1975 on “Sacred Vestments” which was later transcribed and included in the collected works volume Temple and Cosmos (pgs. 91-132).  The entire paper is fascinating, and highly recommended reading.  One of the things he wrote about were certain Chinese artifacts which had been found depicting two mythological gods, Nüwa and Fuxi, and the tools they hold:

Most challenging are the veils from Taoist-Buddhist tombs at Astana, in Central Asia, originally Nestorian (Christian) country, discovered by Sir Aurel Stein in 1925… We see the king and queen embracing at their wedding, the king holding the square on high, the queen a compass. As it is explained, the instruments are taking the measurements of the universe, at the founding of a new world and a new age. Above the couple’s head is the sun surrounded by twelve disks, meaning the circle of the year or the navel of the universe. Among the stars depicted, Stein and his assistant identified the Big Dipper alone as clearly discernable. As noted above, the garment draped over the coffin and the veil hung on the wall had the same marks; they were placed on the garment as reminders of personal commitment, while on the veil they represent man’s place in the cosmos. (pg. 111-12)

Nibley included drawings of this depiction found on veils in the Astana Tombs in Xinjiang, China, with a caption that reads:

In the underground tomb of Fan Yen-Shih, d. A.D. 689, two painted silk veils show the First Ancestors of the Chinese, their entwined serpect bodies rotating around the invisible vertical axis mundi.  Fu Hsi holds the set-square and plumb bob … as he rules the four-cornered earth, while his sister-wife Nü-wa holds the compass pointing up, as she rules the circling heavens.  The phrase kuci chü is used by modern Chinese to signify “the way things should be, the moral standard”; it literally means the compass and the square. (pg. 115)

See the photos at the end of the post for more examples of this icon.  The veil redrawn in Temple and Cosmos is shown photographed in the second row, fourth from the left. 
Wikipedia notes, “Nüwa and Fuxi were pictured as having snake like tails interlocked in an Eastern Han dynasty (206 – 220 A.D.) mural in the Wuliang Temple in Jiaxiang county, Shandong province.”  It also notes the various roles of Nüwa (and sometimes with Fuxi) in Chinese mythology:

• Creator
• Woman/Man
• Mother
• Goddess
• Wife
• Sister
• Tribal leader (emperor)
• Maintainer
• Repairer
• Sun god/moon god
• Adam and Eve

Some have even suggested that “Nüwa” might be related to “Noah” from the Genesis account, with some parallels between the accounts, such as Nüwa’s sealing of the sky with five colored stones connected with Noah’s rainbow.
Another description of Nüwa and Fuxi and their tools is found in a book entitled The Magic Square: Cities in Ancient China by Alfred Schinz:

It appears from these legends that civilization, i.e. ordered human life, begins with two personages, both portrayed as being semi-human and with mermaid tails.  Nüwa and Fuxi, originally sister and brother, later became wife and husband after they had invented proper marriage procedures and family names to prevent marriages between people from the same family.  Nüwa, in her own legend, had restored order between heaven and earth after a horrible catastrophe had caused heaven to tilt to the north so that it no longer covered all of the earth.  This may refer to the first observation of the oblique elliptic and the angle of the pole star.  Nüwa found it necessary to reestablish the four cardinal points, which she did, thereby creating the prerequisites for further observations.  In the oldest pictures of her she carries a compass, the instrument related to heavenly observations.  Her brother Fuxi became the first legendary emperor, which also implies the establishment of government, of law and order… On another, more practical level he is said to have invented axes for splitting wood, the carpenter’s square, ropes for hunting and fishing nets.  It is worthy of special attention that the two words for compass and square, gui ju, used together denote -the rule, custom, usage- and -good behavior-, i.e., keeping order.  Furthermore, it should be observed that the male-female system, the yang-yin philosophy, is expressed here in a complex manner, first as Fuxi and Nüwa, second as compass (male) and square (female), and third as Nüwa (female) with compass (male) and Fuxi (male) with square (female).  The compass-square dichotomy is similar to the heaven-earth, yang-yin, relationship, which in this case means that man (Fuxi) establishes harmonious order between heaven and earth.  This is also expressed in the Chinese character for king, wang, the upper and lower line indicating heaven and earth and the middle line man, all three connected by the vertical line.  This represents the position and function of the ruler; it is he who establishes and keeps order by placing himself in a balanced and harmonious position between heaven and earth, so that yang and yin cooperate in a beneficial way.

[Caption] Fuxi and his sister Nüwa, he with the carpenter’s square and she with the pair of compasses.  From the decoration incised in the wall of the Wu Lang tombs in Jiaxiang, Shandong, second century AD.  The Chinese words for carpenter’s square, ju, and a pair of compasses, gui, together form the expression to establish order.  This is what, according to their legends, Fuxi and Nüwa did.  The carpenter’s square also stands for the square that is the symbol of the earth, while the pair of compasses represent the circle, the symbol of heaven.  Fuxi, the male (yang), gives order to the earth (yin), and Nüwa, the female (yin), gives order to the heaven (yang).¹

A book entitled The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam by Victor J. Katz and Annette Imhausen relates a practical tradition about the use of these tools in Chinese history:

Here Fu Xi – the first of the “Three Sovereigns” – is shown on the right holding a ju or carpenter’s square.  In some versions of this legend Fu Xi is said to have invented both the carpenter’s square and the compass, or gui – which is held in the above depiction by his consort Nü Wa (on the left).  According to the Chronicles of the famous Chinese historian Sima Qian, the Emperor Yu of Xia (who reigned in the twenty-first century BCE), when attending to floods, carried with him “a plumbline in his left hand and a gnomon and compass in his right” in order to do the surveying required to bring the floods under control [Li and Du 1987, 3].²

The Silk Road by Susan Whitfield and Ursula Sims-williams connects the concepts of the compass and the square with the circle and the square:

In traditional Chinese cosmology the earth was square and the heavens round and thus Fuxi holds a set square to draw the former, and Nüwa a pair of compasses to draw the circle of the earth.³

Noted by Mark Edward Lewis in Writing and Authority in Early China, these symbols were used to represent cosmic order, a link between heaven and earth, and a favorable environment for the deceased:

This role of linking Heaven to Earth also figures in the depictions of Fu Xi and Nü Wa.  First, in Han tombs their elongated, serpent bodies stretch from the bottom of the register to the top, and in later depictions this vertical ascent becomes even clearer.  In Sichuan sarcophagi they play the iconographic role of the dragons on the Mawangdui banners who physically link the earthly realm to that of Heaven.  This idea is reinforced through the regular inclusion of two other iconogrpahic traits.  Fu Xi and Nü Wa are often depicted with the sun and moon, and they are shown holding a carpenters square (Fu Xi) and a drawing compass (Nü Wa).  The former are metonyms for Heaven and the celestial equivalents of yin and yang.  The latter suggests the linking of square Earth to the round Heaven.  Most scholars agree that the role of the intertwined Fu Xi and Nü Wa was to depict the interaction of yin and yang that underlies cosmic order and thereby secure an auspicious environment for the denizen of the tomb.⁴

Santillana and Dechend offer more explanation for the figures of Nüwa and Fuxi:

The Chinese picture illustrates in true archaic spirit (which means that only hints are given, and the spectator has to work out for himself the significance of the details) the surveying of the universe.  The two characters surrounded by constellations are Fu Hsi and Nu Kua, i.e., the craftsman god and his paredra, who measure the “squareness of the earth” and the “roundness of heaven” with their implements, the square with the plumb bob hanging from it, and the compass.  The intertwined serpent-like bodies of the deities indicate clearly enough, although in a peculiar “projection,” circular orbits intersecting each other at regular intervals. ⁵

In another place some Chinese commentators have noted the uses of these tools in construction or building:

All “great instruments” were invented by the ancients to help lesser men “first rule the self and then rule others.”  Although all are needed in construction, by no means do all these tools work in the same way.  Level and line determine straight horizontal and vertical lines, while compass and square are needed to form perfect circles and corners.  By analogy, each of the social institutions, including ritual, has its own function in building civilization, with each addressing a separate human need.  It is characteristic of the sage-ruler that he always knows which tool to apply to the specific problem at hand.⁶

There are probably hundreds of other sources which describe these symbols in Chinese tradition and mythology.  You can find more by doing a Google Books search for “nuwa square compass.”
I’ve done some image searching and these two figures are almost always depicted holding the same symbols in their hands, and which have been described by many different scholars as the tools of creation and divine order.  See the images below.
Notes:

1. Schinz, The Magic Square: Cities in Ancient China, 25-26, link. [↩]
2. Katz and Imhausen, The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam, 191, link. [↩]
3. Whitfield and Sims-williams, The Silk Road, 329, link. [↩]
4. Lewis, Writing and Authority in Early China, 204, link. [↩]
5. Giorgio De Santillana, Hertha Von Dechend, Hamlet’s Mill, 272, link. [↩]
6. Yan Hsiuing, Xiong Yang, Michael Nylan, The Elemental Changes: The Ancient Chinese Companion, 54, link. [↩]

This entry was written by Bryce Haymond, posted on September 17, 2008 at 10:41 am, filed under Artifacts, Scholarship and tagged ancients, celestial, chinese, civilization, compass, construction, cosmology, creation, earth, heaven, hugh nibley, marks, marriage, noah, philosophy, rituals, scholar, square, symbols, universe, veil, yin yang. 

Pangu 

(chino tradicional: 盤古, chino simplificado: 盘古, pinyin: Pángǔ,  fue, según la mitología china, el primer ser vivo y creador del universo.

 

Índice

• 1 El mito de Pangu
• 2 Enlaces externos
• 3 Fuentes documentales
• 4 Referencias

El mito de Pangu

En el principio no había nada en el universo salvo un caos uniforme y una negra masa de nada. Es inconcebible para el hombre imaginar una situación donde no existe nada.

El caos comenzó a fusionarse en un huevo cósmico durante 18.000.000 de años. Dentro de él, los principios opuestos del yin y yang se equilibraron y Pangu salió del huevo, que normalmente es representado como un gigante primitivo y velludo vestido con pieles. Pangu emprendió la tarea de crear el mundo: dividió el yin del yang con su hacha gigante (hacha de la cual se desconoce el origen), creando la tierra del yin y el cielo del yang. Para mantenerlos separados permaneció entre ellos empujando el cielo hacia arriba.

Esta tarea le llevó 18.000 años, elevándose el cielo cada día un zháng (丈, equivalente a 3'33 metros) mientras la tierra se hundía en la misma proporción y Pangu crecía también la misma longitud. En algunas versiones, Pangu es ayudado por los cuatro animales principales:
la tortuga, el qilin, un ave y el dragón.

Después de otros 18.000 años, Pangu se tumbó a descansar. Era ya tan mayor que su sueño fue llevándolo lentamente hacia la muerte. De su respiración surgió el viento, de su voz el trueno, del ojo izquierdo el sol y del derecho la luna.

Su cuerpo se transformó en las montañas, su sangre en los ríos, sus músculos en las tierras fértiles, el vello de su cara en las estrellas y la Vía Láctea.

Su pelo dio origen a los bosques, sus huesos a los minerales de valor, la médula en jade y en perlas. Su sudor cayó en forma de lluvia y las pequeñas criaturas que poblaban su cuerpo (pulgas en algunas versiones), llevadas por el viento, se convirtieron en los seres humanos. Según la leyenda Pangu acabó de crear el universo hacia el año 2.229.000 A.C..¹ Así, Pangu dio origen a todo lo que conocemos hoy en día.

Enlaces externos

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP83e1XbHPg es una presentación en formato de video de los contenidos expuestos anteriormente.

 This story is a synthesis of three stories from classical Chinese mythologiy. The stories come from The Classic of Mountains and Seas, an anthology of stories collected in the first century B.C. that were nearly as ancient then as the anthology seems to us today.

     

Pan Gu and Nü Wa

      Long, long ago, when heaven and earth were still one, the entire universe was contained in an egg-shaped cloud. All the matter of the universe swirled chaotically in that egg. Deep within the swirling matter was Pan Gu, a huge giant who grew in the chaos. For 18,000 years he developed and slept in the egg. Finally one day he awoke and stretched, and the egg broke to release the matter of the universe. The lighter purer elements drifted upwards to make the sky and heavens, and the heavier impure elements settled downwards to make the earth.

      In the midst of this new world, Pan Gu worried that heaven and earth might mix again; so he resolved to hold them apart, with the heavens on his head and the earth under his feet. As the two continued to separate, Pan Gu grew to hold them apart. For 18,000 years he continued to grow, until the heavens were 30,000 miles above the earth. For much longer he continued to hold the two apart, fearing the retun of the chaos of his youth. Finally he realized they were stable, and soon after that he died.

      With the immense giant's death, the earth took on new character. His arms and legs became the four directions and the moutains. His blood became the rivers, and his sweat became the rain and dew. His voice became the thunder, and his breath became the winds. His hair became the grass, and his veins became the roads and paths. His teeth and bones became the minerals and rocks, and his flesh became the soil of the fields. Up above, his left eye became the sun, and his right eye became the moon. Thus in death, as in life, Pan Gu made the world as it is today.

      Many centuries later, there was a goddess named Nü Wa who roamed this wild world that Pan Gu had left behind, and she became lonely in her solitude. Stopping by a pond to rest, she saw her reflection and realized that there was nothing like herself in the world. She resolved to make something like herself for company.

      From the edge of the pond she took some mud and shaped it in the form of a human being. At first her creation was lifeless, and she set it down. It took life as soon as it touched the soil, however, and soon the human was dancing and celebrating its new life. Pleased with her creation, Nü Wa made more of them, and soon her loneliness disappeared in the crowd of little humans around her. For two days she made them, and still she wanted to make more. Finally she pulled down a long vine and dragged it through the mud, and then she swung the vine through the air. Droplets of mud flew everywhere and, when they fell, they became more humans that were nearly as perfect as the ones she had made by hand. Soon she had spread humans over the whole world. The ones she made by hand became the aristocrats, and the ones she made with the vine became the poor common people.

      Even then, Nü Wa realized that her work was incomplete, because as her creations died she would have to make more. She solved this problem by dividing the humans into male and female, so that they could reproduce and save her from having to make new humans to break her solitude.

      Many years later, Pan Gu's greatest fear came true.
The heavens collapsed so that there were holes in the sky, and the earth cracked, letting water rush from below to flood the earth. At other places, fire sprang forth from the earth, and everywhere wild beasts emerged from the forests to prey on the people. Nü Wa drove the beasts back and healed the earth. To fix the sky, she took stones of many colors from the river and built a fire in which she melted them. She used the molten rock to patch the holes in the sky, and she used the four legs of a giant turtle to support the sky again. Exhausted by her labors, she soon lay down to die and, like Pan Gu, from her body came many more features to adorn the world that she had restored.



Jan Walls and Yvonne Walls (translators and editors), 1984, Classical Chinese Myths: Hong Kong, Joint Publishing Company, 135 p. (BL1825.C48 1984)  

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Nüwa

< Chinese Stories

Nüwa, Chinese creator goddess

The Bible says that God made people and a great big flood. In Chinese mythology, the goddess Nüwa also made people, but rather than making a big flood, she stopped one.

The story

Nüwa existed in the beginning of the world. She felt lonely as there were no animals so she began the creation of animals and humans. On the first day she created chickens. On the second day she created dogs. On the third day she created sheep. On the fourth day she created pigs. On the fifth day she created cattle. On the sixth day she created horses. On the seventh day she began creating men from yellow clay, sculpting each one individually, yet after she had created hundreds of figures in this way she still had more to make but had grown tired of the laborious process.
So instead of hand-crafting each figure, she dipped a rope in clay and flicked it so blobs of clay landed everywhere; each of these blobs became a common person. Nüwa still laboriously crafted some people out of clay, who became nobles.
There was a quarrel between two of the more powerful gods, and they decided to settle it with a fight. When the water god Gong Gong saw that he was losing, he smashed his head against Mount Buzhou , a pillar holding up the sky. The pillar collapsed and caused the sky to tilt towards the northwest and the earth to shift to the southeast. This caused great calamities, such as unending fires, vast floods, and the appearance of fierce man-eating beasts. Nüwa cut off the legs of a giant tortoise and used them to supplant the fallen pillar, alleviating the situation and sealing the broken sky using stones of seven different colours, but she was unable to fully correct the tilted sky. This explains the phenomenon that sun, moon, and stars move towards the northwest, and that rivers in China flow southeast into the Pacific Ocean.

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