Nüwa: Encyclopedia II - Nüwa - Nuwa Original Source Documents

Nüwa - Nuwa Original Source Documents

-0475 BC -0221 BC 列子 [lie4 zi5] (aka 列圄寇 Lie YuKou, Lieh Zi) a Daoist of the Warring States period writes the "列子" / Nuwa repairs the heavens after a great flood. It was also said that this NuWa moulded the first man out of clay

-0278 BC 楚辭 [chu3 ci2] "Elegies of Chu" by Qu Yuan has a part 問天 [wen4 tian1] "Asking Heaven" in which a story called "Nuwa Mends The Firmament". The name Nuwa first appears here: She moulded figures from the yellow earth and gave them life and the ability to bear children. Demons fought and broke the pillars of heavens. Nuwa worked unceasingly, melting down the five-coloured stones to mend the breach.

-0206 BC +0024 AD 淮南子 [huai2 nan2 zi3] chapter Lanming, describes the tale called "Nuwa Mended the Sky" In remote antiquity, the four poles of the Universe collapsed, and the world got into a chaos: the firmament was no longer able to cover everything and the earth was no longer able to support everything, either; fire ran wild everywhere without stop, and flood overflowed out of control. Fierce beasts ate common people and ferocious birds attacked the old and the weak. Hence, Nuwa tempered the five-colored stone to mend the Heaven, cut off the feet of the great turtle to support the four poles, killed the black dragon to help the earth, and gather the ash of reed to stop the flood. Variation: The four corners of the sky collapsed and the world with its nine regions split open.

-0145 BC -0087 BC Sima Qian /ShiJi / Chapter BenJi (or prolog) Nuwa is a man with the last name of Feng. He is related to Fuxi. (?possibly related to 鳳凰 [feng4 huang2] /(n) legendary phoenix bird/)

+0058 AD +0147 AD Shuowen Jiezi by Xu Shen, defines NuWa. The ShuoWen is China's earliest dictionary. In some versions of the legend Nuwa is said to have been both the sister and the wife of Fu Xi. Nuwa and FuXi were pictured as having snake like tails interlocked in an Eastern Han dynasty (+25 +220) mural in the Wu-liang Temple in Jiaxiang county, Shandong province.

+0618 AD +0907 AD 李冗 [li3 rong3] (possibly also 李榮), has 獨异志 [du2 yi4 zhi4] Volume Three written in Tang Dynasty At the opening of the universe, there were a brother and a sister called Nuwa, living in the Kunlun Mountain, and there were no ordinary people at that time. They wished to become husband and wife, yet, felt shy about it. Thus, the elder brother took his younger sister to the top of the Kunlun Mounatain and swore: If Heaven allows us to be man and wife, please let the smoke before us gather; if not, please let the smoke scatter. Then, the smoke gathered together. The younger sister came to live with her elder brother. She made a fan with grass to hide her face. The present custom of women taking a fan in their hands, originated from that story.

"與馬異結交詩" 也稱 "女媧本是伏羲婦" "yu3 ma3 yi4 jie1 jiao1 shi1" ye3 cheng1 "nu:3 wa1 ben3 shi4 fu2 xi1 fu4" 玉川子集 / 3rd 卷 Tang dynasty: 唐 / author: 盧同 (撰) "Becomes friends with the poem with Ma I" also calls "NuWa originally is Fu Xi woman "

Tang Dynasty / Sima Zhen author / [Si Ku Quan Shu] or 4 Branches of Literature Complete Library / part "Supplemental to the Historic Record – History of the 3 Emperors" the three Emperors are: Fuxi, Nuwa, Shengnong / Fuxi and Nuwa were brother and sister and have the same last name "Fong" or Feng

+0960 AD +1279 AD 太平御覽 [tai4 ping2 yu4 lan3] or Taiping Anthologies for the Emperor, Volume 78, "Customs by Yingshao of the Han Dynasty" describes that there were no men when the sky and the earth were separated. Nuwa used yellow clay to make people. As it was not strong enough, she put ropes into the clay to make the bodies erect. It was also said she prayed to gods to let her be the goddess in charge of marital affairs. Variations exist.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Nuwa Original Source Documents", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki