Ten Myths and Stories of Ancient China
Myths are a type of folklore. Its production shows the ancient people's struggle against natural forces and their pursuit of ideals. It is a spiritual sustenance, human longing and the realization of religion.
1. Nuwa created human beings
Legend has it that a long time ago, there were no human beings on the earth. At that time, Nuwa played carefree in the mountains and rivers. But Nuwa felt very lonely during the play, so when she was looking in the mirror by the river, he made many little clay figurines in his own image. But kneading the clay figurines was too tiring, so she found a vine, dipped it in the mud and swayed it wantonly, and thus human beings were created.
2. Drill wood to make fire
According to legend, in ancient times, there was a country called Suiming in a remote part of the West. In this country, there was a very huge Suimu, and the crown of this tree covered an area of 10,000 hectares. What is very strange about this tree is that its branches glow brightly. At that time there was a very wise man who once traveled all over the world to a place where neither the moon nor the sun could see. When he was resting in Suiming Kingdom, he found that the reason why the trees glowed was that there was a large bird on the tree that kept pecking at the branches and trunks with their beaks. So this wise man came up with the method of drilling wood to make fire, and brought this method to his original country, so fire was widely used and spread among the people. In order to commemorate the person who made the fire, people named him Suiren, which means the person who made the fire.
3. The Great War between Emperor Yan and Huangdi
The Chinese call themselves the descendants of Yan and Huang, and the descendants of Yan and Huang originated from an earth-shattering battle in ancient times - the Battle of Banquan. In ancient times, Emperor Yan and Emperor Huang were the leaders of two relatively large tribes. Because of the competition for territory, the two sides fought in Banquan. In the end, Emperor Yan was defeated, and the Yan Emperor tribe was merged into the Yellow Emperor tribe, collectively referred to as the Yanhuang tribe.
4. Jingwei fill the sea
According to legend, Jingwei was the daughter of the Yellow Emperor. One day, when she went to play in the East China Sea, she accidentally drowned in the East China Sea. Because of the innocent death, Jingwei had deep resentment in his heart, so he often brought wood and stones from the Western Mountains and threw them into the East China Sea, trying to fill the East China Sea to avenge his innocent death.
5. Kuafu Chasing the Sun
According to legend, in the era of the Yellow Emperor, there was a leader of the Kuafu clan. He was very curious. Looking at the sun, he always wanted to find out where did the sun come from? He wanted to give an answer to this question. He stepped out towards the sun, but no matter how hard he chased, he couldn't catch up, until he finally drank the water from the Yellow River and the Wei River and died of thirst on the edge of the Daze. Kuafu died twice in Shanhaijing, once by Yinglong, and once by thirst while chasing the sun.
6. Cut off the passage between heaven and earth
Zhuanxu was the grandson of the Yellow Emperor, and after the abdication of the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu inherited the throne of his grandfather. Zhuanxu saw that Chi You Xingtian Gonggong Kuafu and others often used the human world to facilitate communication with the sky, and often went down the ladder to deceive the people in the lower realm to rebel. So Zhuanxu angrily sent someone to cut off the ladder connecting heaven and earth. From then on, gods could no longer go down to the realm, and people could no longer go up to the sky casually.
7. Hou Yi shoots the sun
According to legend, during Dijun's reign, he and his wife Xihe had ten sons of the sun, and these ten sons were very naughty. One day, the ten golden crows sneaked out to play while their mother was away. But the phenomenon that these ten golden crows play in the world is that ten suns appear together in the sky. For some reason, Di Jun did not ask his wife Xihe to bring back his ten sons, but instead called a god named Dayi to come down and clean them up. Dayi was also very serious, he drew his bow and shot arrows, and he shot nine golden crows in a row. Maybe Di Jun just wanted to scare ten sons, but he didn't expect Dayi to be so serious and kill nine of his sons at once. In this way, Dayi, who was originally born as a god, can no longer go to heaven. Later, even the merits were stolen by a poor king who was good at archery, and he became Hou Yi Shooting the Sun.
8. Gun stealing special soil
According to legend, Gun is also a descendant of the Yellow Emperor. Maybe he was not loved by his parents from birth. In addition, he was unwilling to use his brain to control the water and only knew the method of filling and blocking. Not only did he fail to control the flood, but the flood became more and more flooded. However, Gun still had a good heart. He couldn't see the world suffering from floods, so he secretly stole the Yellow Emperor‘s special soil to control the floods while he was out. But it was discovered by Emperor Gun, so he sent his subordinates to kill Gun in Yushan and took back the special soil.
9. Dayu manages floods
Although Gun was killed, his last wish has not been fulfilled, and his body will not rot for three years after his death. Three years later, a yellow dragon was born from his body. This is Dayu, the founder of our Xia Dynasty. After his birth, Dayu inherited his father's legacy and devoted his life to flood control. He passed through his house three times and did not enter, and improved his father's method of water control and changed the filling and blocking to dredging. And with the support of the Emperor of Heaven, he successfully obtained the special soil, and managed the flood that had been flooding in Kyushu for nearly 100 years. And successfully became the emperor and walked to the pinnacle of life.
10. Yugong Moves Mountains
There was a man named Yu Gong who felt that the two mountains, Taihang and Wangwu, which stood in front of his house, were too much of a hindrance for him to travel. When he was almost 90 years old, he led his son, grandson, and the people of the village to dig the Taihang and Wangwu mountains. This whimsical idea was ridiculed by a wise old man. The old man said to him, you are too stupid. With your remaining years and remaining strength, you can't even pull a blade of grass, how can you move it? Walk so much sediment and stone? After Yu Gong heard it, he sighed and said, Even if I die, I still have a son, my son is dead, I still have a grandson, my grandson is dead, my grandson has a son, and the descendants are endless, but the mountains do not. No matter how long it will be, we have countless people to dig it down, don't we all dig it out? Yugong's spirit moved God. After hearing about this, the Emperor of Heaven sent the two sons of Kua'e, the God of Hercules, to carry away the two mountains.
