Creation of Heaven and Earth by Pangu

Creation of Heaven and Earth by Pangu is the creative myth that was spread in the Orient in ancient times.

Story has it that the heaven and earth were integrated into one body that resembles an egg, with Pangu slept inside. He slept for about 18000 years and then awoke. He found that he was in a vast of dark; therefore, he expanded his huge hands and cut into the darkness. After an explosion, the heaven and earth started to split. He feared that the heaven and earth may come together again, so he held the heaven with his hands and trod his legs on the land. His body grew three meters every day. Consequently, the distance between the heaven and earth became three meters longer every day. Time flies! Another 18000 years passed and now, the heaven became far away from the earth and the earth was now very thick. At the same time, Pangu also grew to a huge man. During this period, the heaven continued ascending and expanding while the earth sinking and thickening until the distance between them was as far as 90,000 kilometers which had reached the extreme. That was the condition of the universe in our eyes at present. Pangu gradually weakened after he separated the heaven and the earth. After he died, his body turned into all the things in the universe. His left eye became the sun and his right eye, the moon. The protruded parts in his body turn out to be high mountains and his blood became rivers. His muscle became the soil field, and his hair and beard became the stars on the sky and grasses on the ground. His teeth and bones turned out to be iron and huge stone while the essence in his body became pearls and precious jade. His breath became the wind and cloud, his shout became the thunderbolt, and the sweat turned out to be the rain. A lot of insects on his body were blown by wind into living human beings. This story was first appeared in Sanwu Liji written by Xu Zheng in the Three Kingdoms Period.

The myth of Pangu was pervasively spread among the southern ethnic minorities long long ago. Both of the Miao and Yao people took Pangu as their ancestors. So far, the Zhuang people are still singing "Song about Pangu Creating the Heaven and Earth". The song goes like this: Pangu split the heaven and the earth, and created the sun, moon and other stars. It is thanks to Pangu that human beings can get brightness... From historical record and oral tales, we can detect the evolution trace of the myth of Pangu in the process of spreading. Pangu split the heaven and the earth, seeded all the things in the universe and turned into the heaven and the earth. He is not only the god that created the world but also the hero who broke darkness and sought brightness. Pangu will forever remain living in the minds of generations after generations of the Chinese people.