Primal Myths
Page 30
Yang and Yin became mixed, the five elements separated themselves from it and a man was formed. As he looked about he perceived how the sun sank in a red haze in the west and in the east he saw the silver moon ascending, enveloped in the pale fog and all the stars were circling a great star which was in the middle of the world. Out of this illuminating pattern a brilliant ray fell to the earth and standing in front of this amazed man appeared someone like him yet different, he was completely golden in color. The Gold Colored One bowed to the man and honored him. He taught him how to make a garment from grass in order to cover his naked body. He gave him a name, “Huang-lao” (The Yellow Old Man), and showed him how to nourish himself from the roots of plants. He explained to him the journey of the stars, the year long path of sun and moon.
Huang-lao asked about the beginning of all things, about the form of heaven and earth. The Gold Shining form answered:
“In the beginning out of heaven and earth was produced that which is equivalent to blood which flows through the arteries of man. The earth bore fire which produces breath in man. Wind and clouds, rain and snow spread themselves between water and fire. When Yin and Yang diminish or increase in their power, heat and cold are produced. The sun and moon trade their light. This also produces the expiration of the year and the five opposites of the sky: east, south, west, north and midpoint. Thus sky and earth produce the form of man. Yang gives and Yin receives.”
Huang-lao asked more questions concerning the nature of that which is beyond the earth and the Gold Colored One answered:
“In the middle of the earth grows a huge boulder which reaches up into the sky and there supports a mighty sphere. At the foot of this mountain flows a source which divides itself into ten thousand rivers and streams and all of these waters empty into the eight seas. The world is encircled by eight poles. The great earth, however, lies in the middle of the world sea in which are found four islands. Thus the water flows around all the sides of the great earth as the juicy meat surrounds the seed of fruit, as the white surrounds the yolk of an egg. In this way everything corresponds to the great in the small and the small in the great. The sun and moon, however, circle the earth in an endless movement and give light to the top and bottom of earth by their brightness.”
The story continues from here telling of the populating of the earth and moves from there to the divine-hero, P’an-Ku, who orders the world and teaches men many things and finally vanishes. When he does, suffering appears on earth.
—Claus W. Krieg. Chinesische Mythen und Legenden. Zurich: Fritz und Wasmuth, 1946, pp. 7–8.
—Quoted in Charles Long. Alpha: Myths of Creation. New York: George Braziller, 1963, pp. 126–128.
Four Versions of the Myth of P’an Ku From the third to the sixth century A.D., particularly in southern China, a popular creation myth centered around the immense generative power and fertility of the god P’an Ku. While it is claimed in the first of four versions of this myth that P’an Ku arose out of “nothing,” that void was indeed a rich one. Given its fecundity, one presumes it was conceived as an indistinct mass—as Chaos or “no-thing,” the potentiality of all matter—rather than as the absence or negation of matter. Creation proceeds by the development of increasingly distinct forms out of this original Chaos: first “something” evolves from the “no-thing”; within something, the fundamental creative powers, male and female, are delineated; and finally the creator god P’an Ku is born, a child of Chaos.
A variation of this myth envisages an equally close bond between P’an Ku and Chaos. In this instance, the beginning is depicted as a cosmic egg—a principle of fertility, or wholeness and duality—from which the creator springs forth. As the substance of the egg, Chaos is again the essential basis of creation, here forming the raw material in which the embryonic P’an Ku develops and the stuff from which he makes the basic things of the universe.
The two variant endings of the myth show P’an Ku creating the world by self-sacrifice. In the first, his skull, like the top of the eggshell, becomes the dome of the sky, and his body becomes the elements of the earth. The vermin on his body are transformed into humans who are thus still nourished by his being. (In the second, more local variant, P’an Ku’s body forms the five sacred mountains of China.)
The identity of the world with the sacrificed body of a god is a powerful concept. Through it, of course, the sacrality of the world is established, but there is an implicit notion of tremendous sacrifice and loss, the irrevocable end of the golden age when the creator god existed.
I AT FIRST there was nothing. Time passed and nothing became something. Time passed and something split in two: the two were male and female. These two produced two more, and these two produced P’an Ku, the first being, the Great Man, the Creator.
II FIRST there was the great cosmic egg. Inside the egg was Chaos, and floating in Chaos was P’an Ku, the Undeveloped, the divine Embryo. And P’an Ku burst out of the egg, four times larger than any man today, with an adze in his hand (or a hammer and chisel) with which he fashioned the world. Two great horns grew out of his head (the horned head is always the symbol of supernatural power in China); two long tusks grew from his upper jaw, and he was covered with hair.
P’an Ku went to work at once, mightily, to put the world in order. He chiseled the land and sky apart. He piled up the mountains on the earth and dug the valleys deep, and made courses for the rivers.
High above ride the sun and moon and stars in the sky where P’an Ku placed them; below roll the four seas. He taught mankind to build boats and showed him how to throw bridges over rivers, and he told them the secrets of the precious stones.
III THE WORLD was never finished until P’an Ku died. Only his death could perfect the universe: from his skull was shaped the dome of the sky, and from his flesh was formed the soil of the fields; from his bones came the rocks, from his blood the rivers and seas; from his hair came all vegetation. His breath was the wind; his voice made thunder; his right eye became the moon, his left eye, the sun. From his saliva or sweat came rain. And from the vermin which covered his body came forth mankind.
IV WHEN P’AN KU wept his tears became the Yellow River, and when he died his body formed the five sacred mountains of China. T’ai Mountain, in the east, rose from his head; Sung Mountain, in the center, from his body; Heng Mountain of the north rose from his right arm, Heng Mountain of the south from his left; Hua Mountain in the west grew out of his feet.
It is said that P’an Ku’s image can still be seen in a cave cherished by the Miao tribe in the Mountains of Kuangsi, and that along with the image of P’an Ku stand also images of the three great sovereigns who followed him: the Lord of Heaven, the Lord of Earth, and the Lord of Man.
—Maria Leach. The Beginning. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1956, pp. 224–226.—Retold from material in D.A. Mackensie. Myths of China and Japan. London: 1923, 260f, 247f.
Lao Tzu: From the Tao Te Ching Chinese cosmological thinking took the form of philosophical meditations more frequently than that of myth, but as can be seen in these selections from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, even the philosophy was evocative and poetic. Along with the Analects of Confucius, the Tao Te Ching was the most influential book in ancient Chinese history. Although it addressed itself primarily to the proper conduct of rulers, it necessarily included cosmological statements, for it presumed that “Man models himself on earth,/ Earth on heaven,/ Heaven on the way,/ And the way on that which is naturally so.”
Lao Tzu (c. 600 B.C.?) was a semi-legendary figure (supposedly the older contemporary of Confucius) who was the greatest of the Taoist sages. He taught a kind of quietism or nonaction that was in fact action in accordance with nature. Lao Tzu emphasized the oneness and eternity of the Tao (the “way” of life), its expression through the polar oppositions of yin and yang (female and male, earth and heaven), and the derivation and development of all creatures and things from this profound duality and even more profound oneness (“The way begets the one; one begets two
; two begets three; three begets the myriad creatures”).
The essential Tao is “nothing” in that it is “no thing”; it is without external distinctions. It is nameless not only because it has no form itself but also because it is the source of all other forms; it is the nonobjectifiable subject. “This essence is quite genuine”; it is the ground of all being and the form of all beings. The oneness of the Tao is visible if sages perceive the oneness in themselves, if they divest themselves of ego and its consequent desires. With ego and desires, the separateness of the sage and the uniqueness of all things are comprehensible as the manifestations of the Tao. “These things are the same,” Lao Tzu argues. Oneness and multiplicity, unity and diversity—they diverge in name as they issue forth, “mystery of mysteries—the gateway of the manifold secrets.”
THE WAY that can be told
Is not the constant way;
The name that can be named
Is not the constant name.
The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth;
The named was the mother of the myriad creatures.
Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observe its myriad secrets;
But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.
These two are the same
But diverge in name as they issue forth.
Being the same they are called mysteries.
Mystery upon mystery—
The gateway of the manifold secrets. (I,1)
THE WAY is for ever nameless….
Only when it is cut are there names.
As soon as there are names
One ought to know that it is time to stop. (I, 32)
THE WAY conceals itself in being nameless. (II, 41)
THE WAY begets the one; one begets two; two begets three; three begets the myriad creatures.
The myriad creatures carry on their backs the yin and embrace in their arms the yang and are the blending of the generative forces of the two. (II, 42)
OF OLD, these came to be in possession of the One:
Heaven in virtue of the One is limpid:
Earth in virtue of the One is settled;
Gods in virtue of the One have their potencies;
The valley in virtue of the One is full;
The myriad creatures in virtue of the One are alive;
Lords and princes in virtue of the One become leaders in the empire.
IT IS THE One that makes these things what they are.
Without what makes it limpid heaven might split;
Without what makes it settled earth might sink;
Without what gives them their potencies gods might spend themselves;
Without what makes it full the valley might run dry;
Without what keeps them alive the myriad creatures might perish;
Without what makes them leaders lords and princes might fall.
Hence the superior must have the inferior as root;
The high must have the low as base….
Turning back is how the way moves;
Weakness is the means the way employs.
The myriad creatures in the world are born from
Something, and something from Nothing. (II, 39)
WHAT CANNOT be seen is called evanescent;
What cannot be heard is called rarefied;
What cannot be touched is called minute.
These three cannot be fathomed
And so they are confused and looked upon as one.
Its upper part is not dazzling;
Its lower part is not obscure.
Dimly visible, it cannot be named
And returns to that which is without substance.
This is called the shape that has no shape,
The image that is without substance.
This is called indistinct and shadowy.
Go up to it and you will not see its head;
Follow behind it and you will not see its rear.
Hold fast to the way of antiquity
In order to keep in control of the realm of today.
The ability to know the beginning of antiquity
Is called the thread running through the way. (I, 14)
AS A THING the way is
Shadowy, indistinct.
Indistinct and shadowy,
Yet within it is an image;
Shadowy and indistinct,
Yet within it is a substance.
Dim and dark,
Yet within it is an essence.
This essence is quite genuine
And within it is something that can be tested. (I, 21)
THE WAY is empty, yet use will not drain it.
Deep, it is like the ancestor of the myriad creatures.
Blunt the sharpness;
Untangle the knots;
Soften the glare;
Let your wheels move only along old ruts.
Darkly visible, it only seems as if it were there.
I know not whose son it is.
It images the forefather of God. (I, 4)
THE SPIRIT of the valley never dies.
This is called the mysterious female.
The gateway of the mysterious female
Is called the root of heaven and earth.
Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there,
Yet use will never drain it. (I, 6)
HEAVEN and earth are enduring. The reason why heaven and earth can be enduring is that they do not give themselves life. Hence they are able to be long-lived.
Therefore the sage puts his person last and it comes first,
Treats it as extraneous to himself and it is preserved.
Is it not because he is without thought of self that he is able to accomplish his private ends? (I, 7)
THERE IS a thing confusedly formed,
Born before heaven and earth.
Silent and void
It stands alone and does not change,
Goes round and does not weary.
It is capable of being the mother of the world.
I know not its name
So I style it “the way.”
I give it the makeshift name of “the great.”
Being great, it is further described as receding,
Receding, it is described as far away,
Being far away, it is described as turning back.
Hence the way is great; heaven is great; earth is great; and the king is also great.
Within the realm there are four things that are great, and the king counts as one.
Man models himself on earth,
Earth on heaven,
Heaven on the way,
And the way on that which is naturally so. (I, 25)
—Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. (D. C. Lau, trans.) Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1963, pp. 57, 91, 102, 103, 100, 70, 78, 60, 62, 63, 82.
The Huai-Nan Tzu:
The Creation of the Universe The Han period (206 B.C.–220 A.D.) in China was one of syncretism in religious and philosophical thought. Drawing largely on the ethical considerations of Confucius, the political theories of the Legalists, and the mystical doctrines of the Taoists, the “Mixed Schools” emerged. Although the assumptions contained in this passage from the Huai-nan Tzu were primarily Taoist, they were nonetheless accepted by the Confucianists in their attempt to formulate a complete philosophy.
The Huai-nan Tzu asserts, as does Lao Tzu, that being came forth from non-being in the Great Beginning of Chaos. Chaos produced emptiness and emptiness produced the universe and matter; thus the infinite conceived the finite. The kinds of matter separated like the yolk and white of an egg to become heaven and earth and, ultimately, the male and female principles. And these then mixed and became seasons and the myriad creatures. Yin in its concentrated form became water, and yang, similarly, became fire.
Beyond or beneath all is the essential oneness of the creator, “No Thing,” to which all creatures owe their being.
BEFORE HEAVEN and earth had taken form all
was vague and amorphous. Therefore it was called the Great Beginning. The Great Beginning produced emptiness and emptiness produced the universe. The universe produced material-force which had limits. That which was clear and light drifted up to become heaven, while that which was heavy and turbid solidified to become earth. It was very easy for the pure, fine material to come together but extremely difficult for the heavy, turbid material to solidify. Therefore heaven was completed first and earth assumed shape after. The combined essences of heaven and earth became the yin and yang, the concentrated essences of the yin and yang became the four seasons, and the scattered essence of the four seasons became the myriad creatures of the world. After a long time the hot force of the accumulated yang produced fire and the essence of the fire force became the sun; the cold force of accumulated yin became water and the essence of the water force became the moon. The essence of the excess force of the sun and moon became the stars and planets. Heaven received the sun, moon, and stars while earth received water and soil.
When heaven and earth were joined in emptiness and all was unwrought simplicity, then without having been created, things came into being. This was the Great Oneness. All things issued from this oneness but all became different, being divided into the various species of fish, birds, and beasts…. Therefore while a thing moves it is called living, and when it dies it is said to be exhausted. All are creatures. They are not the uncreated creator of things, for the creator of things is not among things. If we examine the Great Beginning of antiquity we find that man was born out of nonbeing to assume form in being. Having form, he is governed by things. But he who can return to that form from which he was born and become as though formless is called a “true man.” The true man is he who has never become separated from the Great Oneness.
—Huai-nan Tzu. 3:1a., 14:1a.—Quoted in W. Theodore de Bary et al. (eds.). Sources of Chinese Tradition. Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964, pp. 192–193.