Page 95 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 88
among the non-Han minority peoples in South China, from whom the Chinese then
borrowed and transformed it. Originally, Pan-gu was a cosmic being whose limbs, when
he died, turned into animals and plants and all the other manifestations of nature. In
pictures he is sometimes shown, however, carving the world out of rock.
A very widespread myth relates that human beings were created by the goddess
Nü-gua from loam or clay: they then had to be dried out.

Pan-gu with the cosmic egg

A more recent version of this myth says that she fired the clay figures in an oven. Some
were overdone and came out black; others were insufficiently fired and came out white. It
was only the third firing that was successful – the figures came out a nice yellow colour,
and these are the Chinese. A complementary myth relates that during the drying-off
process it began to rain, and some figures were spoiled – which explains why there are
cripples in the world.
According to a completely different myth, the earth rests on the back of an Ao,
or tortoise; and when the tortoise moves there is an earthquake.
It was for long held that the heavens were round and the earth square, which
meant that there were parts of the earth which were not under the canopy of heaven. In
these regions eternal darkness reigned, and they were inhabited by a race of sub-humans.