The Sea, the Sun, and the Moon
These tales tell stories of the natural world. Although the sea, the sun and the moon were created at the time Pangu broke out of his giant egg and formed the world, during the time of pre-history, mythological early humans and demi-gods were able to interact with these monoliths of nature in a way we no longer can.
Jing Wei Fills the Sea
Yan Di had a little girl named Nu Wa*. She grew up very beautiful as well as bright and clever. One day, Nu Wa was playing alone by the seaside, and saw a small boat moored by the beach. Full of curiosity, she got into the little boat and rowed out to the depths of the Sea. As she went farther and farther off shore, a fierce wind made the sea waves rise higher and higher. Suddenly, a great wave as big as a small mountain crashed down and swallowed up Nu Wa and her little boat.
A long time passed, Nu Wa was aware that as she slowly rose up from the depths of the ocean her body had changed. Her two arms had become a pair of bird wings; her two legs had turned into a pair of slender bird claws; her red lips had become a hard, white bird beak; the flower petals on her head turned into a beautiful crest of feathers; and her once pink dress became black feathers. She emerged from the surface of the Sea, and with great effort, flew into the air. She had changed into a bird!
Nu Wa cried brokenhearted and her crying voice sounded like the sad calls of a little bird. She lowered her head and saw the rolling waves of the Sea, and thought that she could never go back to her warm home. She hated the vile Sea, and made up her mind to fill it.
The spared no effort and flew to the mountain top, took a stone in her beak, and flew back to the Sea where she threw it in. The tiny stone vanished in the blink of an eye. Then she carried back a twig and threw it in, but it disappeared too. She cried out in despair “Jing Wei! Jing Wei!”. When the people heard her, they named her the Jing Wei Bird.
Every day she flew back and forth between the tall mountains and the wide ocean, flying and flying, carrying and carrying, throwing and throwing, trip after trip, piece after piece. Many years passed, she was very busy, and threw countless twigs and stones into the Sea. Even thought the Sea was still the Sea, she never gave up on her great quest to fill it.
People felt sorry for Jing Wei, and they admired Jing Wei. They called her “Yuan Qin”, which means ‘bird who is wronged’, “Shi Niao”, which means ‘bird who has pledged a vow, “Zhi Niao”, which means ‘bird who has ambition’, and “Di Nu Qiao”, which means ‘bird who is the Emperor’s Daughter’. And by the East China Sea is a special place that is still called “Jing Wei Shi Shui Chu”, the place where Jing Wei vowed to fill the Sea.
*note: this is NOT the same Nuwa as the half serpent goddess that created humans, the daughter in the story is 女娃, the goddess is 女娲, so in Chinese it is obviously different.
Kuafu Chases the Sun
Once upon a time, there lived a tribe of giants in the North called the Kuafu Tribe, and their chief was called Kuafu. In those days, the earth was desolate, poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts rampaged all over the place, and life was hard for ordinary people. Just to survive, Kuafu had to lead his people in a fight against a flood of vicious creatures every day.
One year, there was a terrible drought. The fiery Sun baked the farm crops on the earth and dried up the water in the riverbeds. Soon, the people could not go on living. Upon seeing this situation, Kuafu became both angry and worried. He vowed he would catch the sun and make it obey the commands of his people.
Early one morning, when the sun had just shown half its face, Kuafu took a step, stretching his two long legs, and from the East China Sea he set off towards the Sun. The Sun quickly rose up into the air. Kuafu chased it from the ground like a strong wind; he ran ninety thousand miles in the blink of an eye, and grew closer and closer to the Sun. The red-hot Sun sprayed roasting flames down on to Kuafu’s head, he felt his throat becoming drier and drier, but he was afraid the Sun would slip away, so he went on without stopping. They arrived at Yu Gu, and Kuafu was about to capture the sun when dazzling rays of light shot forth, causing Kuafu to faint. When he woke up, the Sun was already far into the Western Sky.
Kuafu once again pounded his feet and once again set out. However, the closer he got to the Sun, the brighter the Sun’s rays became. He felt all the water in his whole body evaporating dry, soon he would die of thirst. Under the setting sun, the ripples of the Yellow River and the Wei River shone like crystal. Kuafu leaned down and drank mightily, and the waters of the Yellow River were entirely sucked up into his stomach. He also drank down the water of the Wei River in one gulp, but he still felt incredibly thirsty. So he planned to go north to a big pond and drink the water there. But he was too thirsty, and too tired. Halfway through he could not hold on any more and fell with a mighty boom.
After Kuafu died, his body turned into a great mountain, which everyone today calls “Mt. Kuafu”.
Hou Yi Shoots the Suns
In the Eastern side of the Ocean there was a place called Tang’gu. In this place there grew a giant tree called Fu Sang, and atop this tree there lived ten brothers who were all Suns. Every day they would send one brother to work in the sky, and the rest would go play in the sea. The next day a different one would go out. For thousands of years the ten Suns all stuck to this plan; they followed the scheduled order and each carried out his own duty.
However, one day the youngest Sun brother thought that going on every single day like that was just too boring, so he persuaded his older brothers that the next day they should all go out of the valley together and play in the sky all day. The next day, the Celestial Jade Rooster crowed and the Sun brothers all ran out as fast as they could. But while this was happening, the people across the whole world were suffering a calamity. The ground was like fire, the surface of the earth had baked and split open into thin cracks, farm crops and tree leaves were roasted to a crisp, and water in the rivers all dried up.
The people had no choice but to hide indoors and try their best to drink water, but there was not enough, and many people fell unconscious from thirst. It was terrible. Even the poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts were too hot to move. They became extremely violent natured, and they came out of the ancient woods of the deep mountains to eat and torment the people.
The Emperor of the Human World, Yao Di, could do nothing but worry, and the people all prayed for the Emperor of Heaven, Tian Di to save them. Tian Di was alarmed. He summoned the mythic Archer Hou Yi to come to the Heavenly Court where he bestowed upon him a bow and ten arrows. He then bade him go to the human world and get rid of the poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts, and while he was at it, to put a stop to the ten Sun’s mischief.
Hou Yi descended to the material world; he saw he was in a yellow and withered place with more animals dying of starvation and more people dying of thirst than he could count. He was both shocked and grieved. He raised his head and saw the ten Suns playing by opening their mouths and spitting out flames. He was immediately filled with rage toward Heaven. He nocked an arrow in his bow and cast a murderous look to frighten them away. But the Suns were not afraid and kept on spitting flames. Hou Yi was very angry. He took aim at one of the Suns and –woosh—let the arrow fly.
All that could be seen was a giant fiery ball falling –hua-la-la—out of the sky and down to earth. The people ran over to take a look and it turned out to be a three legged golden crow. The remaining nine Suns became frightened and ran away screaming in all directions. Hou Yi loosed another two arrows, and there were only seven Suns remaining in the sky. For fear that the remaining Suns would continue to wreak havoc, the people cried out with one voice to shoot them all down. He fired the Celestial arrows one after another into the air, and the Suns fell one after another to the ground.
Very soon, the weather became cool again, and the people began to cheer joufully. Then, Yao Di suddenly realized: the human world could not exist without the Sun, otherwise all living things and people would have no way to live, so he selected one person to sneak up to Hou Yi’s quiver and take out one arrow.
After shooting down nine of the Suns, Hou Yi wanted to shoot down the very last Sun, but he discovered his arrows were already all used up, and he had no choice but to stop. The one remaining Sun did not dare to make more trouble. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, every day he obediently rose in the East and set in the West, working diligently. The earth was quickly restored and was once more full of life.
The common people were very grateful to Hou Yi and surrounded him with praise. However, because Hou Yi had killed the Emperor’s own nine sons, Tian Di became very angry, and banished him to the mortal world.
Chang’e Journeys to the Moon
The mythical Archer Hou Yi felled the nine Suns and saved everyone, but he had committed a crime against Tian Di, the Emperor of Heaven, so he and his wife Chang’e were banished to the mortal world. Honest and kindhearted Hou Yi decided that in the mortal world he would do even more good works for the sake of the ordinary people, but Chang’e could not get used to how difficult life was in the human world, so she complained to Hou Yi nearly every day.
Hou Yi understood his wife’s frustration very well, and he also felt a little bit guilty. He heard tell that in the West, on Mt. Kunlun, the Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wangmu had a potion of immortality, so he crossed mountains and waded rivers to get to Kunlun Mountain, to ask the Queen Mother for this potion. However, all that remained of the potion was one small pearl, Xi Wangmu said, “If each of you takes but half of this potion of immortality, then you can both live a very long time without growing old; however, if only one takes it, that one will become an immortal and fly back to Heaven.”
After Hou Yi brought the potion back home, he talked it over with Chang’e and they decided to each take half the potion and live together forever in the human world as loving husband and wife.
One evening, Hou Yi had not yet returned from outside; Chang’e gazed into the sky and felt lonely. She began to reminisce about the carefree times when they lived as immortals and wanted to return alone to the Temple in Heaven. Just as she thought this, there came the distant sound of horses hoof beats. Hou Yi was returning home.
She made up her mind and quickly took out the little pearl that was the potion of immortality and swallowed it in one mouthful. Before long, she slowly began to rise from the floor. Hou Yi looked up and saw Chang’e flying away. Anxiously he cried out, “Chang’e! Don’t leave me!” Chang’e heard his cries and felt a sour pain in her heart, and as she continued floating off, she turned her head to watch Hou Yi.
Very soon, she arrived at the gates of Heaven. Many immortals were gathered around and talking non-stop. They all said she had betrayed Hou Yi and that she was a brazen woman. Chang’e felt too ashamed to return to the Temple in Heaven again, so she turned around and flew on to the Moon instead. She did not realize that the Guang Han Gong, the Temple of the Moon would be so cold and lonely. There was only a little Jade Rabbit and a Toad. 
Chang’e was very lonely, and she could not help but think of her loving life together with Hou Yi in the human world and feel regret. Now, she can do nothing but stand under the laurel tree by the Moon Palace and gaze upon the distant human world.
I’ll be sharing some of my own experiences with Irish pre-history in the form of ring forts and museums in a later post.
Gallivantrix 