Nüwa’s patching up the sky is better known among Chinese people. Two deities, called Gong Gong, the God of Water and Zhu Rong, the God of Fire were in battle. They fought all the way from heaven to earth, causing turmoil everywhere. Finally, the God of Fire won, and in anger the God of Water struck his head against Buzhou Mountain, a mythical peak supposed to be northwest of the Kunlun range in southern Xinjiang. The mountain collapsed and down came the big pillar that held heaven from earth. Half the sky fell in, leaving a big black hole. The earth cracked open, forests went up in flames, floodwaters sprouted from beneath the earth and dragons, snakes and fierce animals leaped out at the people. Many people were drowned and more were burned or devoured. It was an unprecedented disaster. |
Nüwa, the Goddess of Sky-patching, felt painful for the sufferings of human being and determined to patch the sky and halt the whole catastrophe. She melted together various kinds of colored stones and with the molten mixture patched up the sky.
Then she killed a giant turtle and used its four legs as four pillars to support the fallen part of the sky. She caught and killed a dragon and this scared the other beasts away. Then she gathered and burned a huge quantity of reeds and with the ashes stopped the flood from spreading. So from then on the people could live happily again. The only trace left by the disaster, said the legend, was that the sky slanted to the northwest and the earth to the southeast. As a result, the sun, the moon and all the stars turn from the east towards the west and all the rivers run southeast since then. | |