Page 263 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 256

The five noxious creatures

Nü-gua

Nü-gua seems to have been the sister of Fu-xi, who was also her husband. Like him,
she has a snake’s body or a fish’s tail. She could transform 70 different things per day.
Together, she and Fu-xi ‘invented’ marriage. But her main claim to fame is that she could
smelt and fuse things. One day when the gods were engaged in combat, one of the four
pillars holding up the earth got broken: whereupon Nü-gua used her skill to smelt stones
and mend it. However, she didn’t get the height quite right, with the result that the
firmament sags a little at the south-eastern corner – and this is why all the rivers in China
run towards the South-east.
She is also regarded as the inventor of the mouth organ, and she codified the
(religious) music of China. According to other traditions she invented the flute, and
created human beings from figures of clay which she baked in an oven: some got
overdone, which accounts for the black races; others were taken out too soon and these
are the white races. Yet another tradition tells us that once upon a time a brother and
sister lived in the Kun-lun: their names were Fu-xi and Nü-gua, and no one else existed.
They did not wish to contract an incestuous marriage, so they sought the advice of the
oracle by letting two clouds of smoke ascend upwards: these united in the sky, a sign that
it was their duty to marry. When intercourse took place, Fu-xi thought it proper to cover
his bride’s face – which is what many women still do, according to an old text.
It is said of Nü-gua that on many occasions she has come to the help of hard-pressed
heroes. On the other hand, she was instrumental in bringing about the death of Emperor
Zhou-xin, the last Emperor of the Shang Dynasty, because he had made up a suggestive
poem about her.