女媧造人　(nǚ wā zào rén)

Nuwa Makes Man

After Pangu created the world, there were mountains, rivers and plants on earth but no creatures.

One day, the Goddess Nuwa started to wander around for the first time and soon felt lonely. She thought it was a beautiful world, but it should not be so deserted. To fill it with life, she decided to make creatures to inhabit earth.

On the first day, she used clay to mold a chicken, the second day a dog, the third day a lamb, the fourth day a pig and the fifth day a horse. Then Nuwa breathed life into all these clay sculptures.

Suddenly, she found herself surrounded by these lively creatures. But, it was a bit chaotic. Although she made bigger animals every day, none of them was powerful or intelligent enough to rule the world.

When the Goddess took a rest on a river bank, she saw her own reflection in the water and it suddenly dawned on her that she needed to create a creature resembling herself, beautiful and intelligent.

So, she chose some fine yellow clay and began to mold a new creature with delicate features and a unique figure. It took her days to finish the first figurine. When she put it down on the ground, it sprang into life and became a strong and highly intelligent man. Then she created a smaller version of the man and it turned into a woman.

Nuwa was extremely satisfied with her creation and spent all her time in the following days molding more men and women. But she soon became exhausted. It seemed almost impossible for her to mold enough humans to fill the vast world.

Then, she went to a mountain and brought back a wicker cane. She made a mud pool and then immersed the cane into it. When it was coated in mud, she whirled the cane over her head. All the mud drops that fell to the ground instantly transmuted into men and women.

In this way, Nuwa began mass production of human beings.

However, the men and women created by the whirling cane were a bit coarse and unrefined compared with those molded by Nuwa with fine yellow clay. So, the latter became the wise and noble and the former the poor and common.

Nuwa later found another problem. All the men and women she created would grow old and die. To make this life form last forever, she taught the human beings how to form families and breed the next generation.

In addition, she taught the men and women how to build shelters, how to gather seeds and fruit, and how to hunt.

So, in the Chinese culture, Nuwa is widely worshiped as the mother of all human life.