Chinese Myth – Nuwa Created Human.女娲造人

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In every culture there is one Goddess that stands out among all else and in the Chinese culture it is Nuwa 女娲 Nǚwā . The Earth created by Pangu 盘古 Pángǔ (see post: Pangu Created the Universe. ) was a lonely and uninhabited place. Nuwa came down to live in it but was lonely as she was the only goddess on earth.


One day, she came across a crystal clear pond. When she saw her own reflection in the water, it occurred to her to make a figure of herself from the clay by the pond. When it was placed on the ground, she was delighted when it came to life and jumped around her. Whereupon, she continued to make many more figures and they all danced round her and called her “mother”. They then dispersed to populate the land.

But the earth is vast and boundless, and she tires of sculpting them by hand. So she grabbed a vine, dipped it into the mud and flicked drops of mud into the ground. These too came to life and became human. This way, she was able to make countless human who scattered to all parts of the earth and she was no longer lonely. As human is mortal, she taught them matrimonial relationship so they could bear children and continued the propagation of the human race. This is the reason why the Chinese will tell you that it is Nuwa who created human 女娲造人 Nǚwā zàorén . And why in the second month of every lunar year, thousands of Chinese will pray to her for love and fertility.

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The Cruelty of the Nine-Tailed Fox Daji - 妲己

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In an earlier post (千字文 – Line 13), it was mentioned that it was the beautiful concubine Daji 妲己 who caused the downfall of the Shang dynasty. King Zhou conquered the state of Yousu 有蘇 yǒusū and took Daji as his prize (be careful of what you win). He became extremely besotted with her beauty and lost all interest in state affairs but instead caters to her every whims and extreme cruelty to amuse her.

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She is said to derive great joy at hearing people cry in physical torment. She ordered a farmer’s feet to be cut off so she can study why he can withstand crossing icy water. And a pregnant women’s belly to be cut open to see if her guess of the sex of the baby is correct. To verify an ancient saying that "a good man's heart has seven apertures", she even had the heart of the minister Bi Gan (King Zhou's uncle) dug out.

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She is claimed to have invented many instruments of torture, the most famous of which is the bronze toaster or Paoluo 炮烙 páoluò. The poor victim is tied to this twenty feed tall charcoal heated cylinder and fried alive. Another of her invention is the snake pit where victims are thrown into a pit of venomous snakes and spiders. His own people disgusted with these acts of cruelty, revolted against King Zhou’s tyranny and supported King Wu of Zhou when he attacked. Daji was executed on the order of King Wu on the advice of Jiang Ziya (see last post).

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In the novel Fengshen Yanyi 封神演义 fēngshényǎnyì translated as “The Investiture of the Gods” or “The Creation of the Gods”, Daji was a nine-tailed fox spirit Huli jing 狐狸精 . In it, King Zhou visited an ancient temple of the Goddess Nuwa 女娲; nǚwā, he insulted the Goddess when he expressed his lust for her. Nuwa sent Daji, the ten thousand year vixen, a nine-headed pheasant spirit and jade pipa spirit to bewitch the king and hasten his downfall. There were many other interesting tales in this novel. In the end, Daji was condemned by Nuwa herself because of her extreme cruelty. This is the most famous Chinese classic tale of how a beauty caused the downfall of an empire and you can have either the historical or fairy tale version.

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