Page 564 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

524 THE ENCYCLO PED IA OF TAOISM A - L

Fig. 43. HlIndlln C ... a cinnabar-red animal
shaped like a sack with six legs and four
wings ... "). Reproduced from Yuan Ke 1980,
55 (sketch based on a 1786 edition of the
Shanhai jing ilJ jIjj ~).

97), the Emperor of the Center, whose name was Hundun, had no openings
and therefore could not see or hear. The Emperors of the North and the
South-emblems of duality- bore seven holes in his face, one each day, and
on the seventh day Hundun died.
In these myths, Hundun i an image of primordial and central Chaos, ut-
terly closed and dark, which disappears when it opens. This happens when
the two primeval entities separate from each other, creating a space between
them that is the beginning of the world. As thunder, Hundun also symbol-
izes the beginning of life. Taoism integrated some elements of these myths,
sometimes modifying or enlarging them. In the *Kaitian jing, for instance,
hundun comes after the cosmogoruc stage of taisu jc* (Great Plainness; see
*COSMOGONY), and has two sons who are the gods of mountains and rivers.
Generally, however, the earlier mythical aspect of Hundun is subordinate
in Taoism, where hundun denotes primordial Chaos in a purely descriptive
way
Semantically, the term hundun is related to several expressions, hardly trans-
latable into Western language , that indicate the void or a barren and primal
immensity-for instance, hunlun t~ 1If6 , hundong 1~ 1foJ, kongdong 2: 1foJ, menghong
~ Wi, or hongyuan Wi 5t. It is also akin to the expression "something confused
and yet complete" (huncheng r~ JJx) found in Daode jing 25, which denotes the
state prior to the formation of the world where nothing is perceptible, but
which nevertheless contains a cosmic seed. Similarly, the state of hundun is
likened to an egg; in this usage, the term alludes to a complete world round
and closed in itself, which is a receptacle like a cavern (dong 1foJ) or a gourd
(hu 1i2: or hulu ~ 1l!). Moreover, hundun also appears as hunlun 1~ 1If6 , a name
reminiscent of Kunlun m 1i'II, the mountain at the center of the world where
the mythical Hundun lives, changing only the semantic indicator "mountain"