Chinese mythology is rich in legends, colorful and varied.
Like most mythologies, you can find different versions of each legend, most without logical explanation.
As in many cases from other cultures there are different versions for each myth. Despite the multiple versions, they all agree that the end of chaos would begin to develop the universe.
Hu, the emperor of the North Sea and Shu, the emperor of the South Sea, used to meet halfway between their respective domains. This region belonged to Hum-Tun (this name means Chaos), who was the emperor of the Center region. Hum-Tun was very kind and hospitable, but he had one defect: he lacked the seven primordial holes to see, hear, eat and breathe.
In gratitude for all the hospitality, Hu and Shu decided to create the holes for him at the rate of one per day. But on the seventh day Hum-Tun died.
As the Chaos disappeared, the universe arose.
Other legend
Hum-Tun was a bird like a yellow bag. The bird had six feet four wings, but had no face, so it lacked the seven holes to see, hear, eat and breathe. He could sing and dance even though he had no face.
Chaos was like a chicken egg.
In those days there was neither earth nor heaven.
From that egg was born Phan-Ku. The parts of the egg separated. The heavy parts formed the earth and the light parts formed the sky. These parts would then be called Ying and Yang.
By the end of 18,000 years the distance between heaven and earth increased at a rate of 3 meters per day and Phan-Ku grew in the same way filling the space between them.
Phan-Ku is depicted as a leprechaun dressed in bear skin or tree leaves.
When Phan — Ku dies, then the parts of his body are transformed into the various natural elements. Some sources say the mountains came out of his head. The sun and lagoon of his eyes, the rivers and oceans of his face, the plants of his hair.
Other sources say that from his tears rivers and seas sprouted, that from his breath, the wind, from his eyes the light and from his voice the thunder.
When the sky was separated from the earth, there was no man yet.
The goddess Un-Kua, wife of Fu-Hsi, modeled the man with yellow earth.
He modeled some men and as the task was very heavy he got tired and decided to take a piece of rope and soak it in mud. Then he raised the rope and droplets of mud fell out of it.
Legend has it that from the first men modeled by Un-Kua, the rich and powerful were born and from those who formed from the drops of mud that fell from the rope, the poor and humble came out.
Another Legend on the Creation of Man
Once heaven and earth were created and plants and animals developed, Phan-Ku was dissatisfied because there was no being capable of reasoning.
So Phan-ku modelled man and woman in clay. This job took him a whole day. As they dried, they became impregnated with Ying and Yang and thus became human beings.
Phan-Ku made a lot of clay models, but when the sun was dry, storm clouds appeared and fearing that his work would be spoiled, he decided to move the clay models under guard with an iron shovel.
Phan-Ku rushed, but the storm broke out before the transfer ended and some of the clay figures were damaged. This explains the appearance of defective and disabled people.
An ancient Chinese legend says that at the top of the sky there is a hole through which light sneaks.
In turn, there are ten suns that take turns appearing in the sky. They move in a dragon-drawn carriage driven by their mother.
Early in the morning, the shift sun emerges from the valley of light and is bathed by his mother in the lake situated at the eastern end of the earth. Near the lake there is a huge tree of blackberries.
Freshly bathed, suns climb the tree. While nine suns remain in the branches, the tenth sun climbs to the top of the tree and there ascends to the carriage and crosses the sky to Mount Yen-Tzu in the far west, where dragons are released.
In the West there is also a tree called Jo where the sun descends.
Legend has it that there were twelve moons referring to the twelve lunar months. They traveled through the sky in a carriage after bathing in a lake in the west. The moon was made of water and inhabited by a hare and a sling.
A beautiful mirror shows the image of a hare preparing the elixir of immortality that Heng-O, the moon goddess, had to take to become an immortal sling at the foot of an Acacia tree that was also on the moon.
This legend is based on two groups of stars from the constellations of Eagle and Lyra, located on both sides of the Milky Way, or celestial river. One of these groups represents the herder of cows and the other represents the young weaver.
The cowherd and the weaver were married and lived only dedicated to tributing each other's love by neglecting their obligations.
Until one day they were forced to take over their usual duties. The young weaver was only allowed to meet her husband on the seventh day of month seven, where she could cross the Milky Way through a bridge of magpies.
If it rained, the birds sought refuge in the trees, the bridge was not formed and the young weaver had to wait until next year to meet her husband.
