Cosmogony-p'an Ku and the Creation Myth
The Fashioner of the Universe
The most conspicuous figure in Chinese cosmogony is P'an Ku. He it was
who chiselled the universe out of Chaos. According to Chinese ideas,
he was the offspring of the original dual powers of Nature, the _yin_
and the _yang_ (to be considered presently), which, having in some
incomprehensible way produced him, set him the task of giving form
to Chaos and "making the heavens and the earth."
Some accounts describe him as the actual creator of the universe--"the
ancestor of Heaven and earth and all that live and move and have their
being." 'P'an' means 'the shell of an egg,' and 'Ku' 'to secure,'
'solid,' referring to P'an Ku being hatched from out of Chaos and
to his settling the arrangement of the causes to which his origin
was due. The characters themselves may, however, mean nothing more
than 'Researches into antiquity,' though some bolder translators
have assigned to them the significance if not the literal sense of
'aboriginal abyss,' or the Babylonian Tiamat, 'the Deep.'
P'an Ku is pictured as a man of dwarfish stature clothed in bearskin,
or merely in leaves or with an apron of leaves. He has two horns on
his head. In his right hand he holds a hammer and in his left a chisel
(sometimes these are reversed), the only implements he used in carrying
out his great task. Other pictures show him attended in his labours
by the four supernatural creatures--the unicorn, phoenix, tortoise,
and dragon; others again with the sun in one hand and the moon in the
other, some of the firstfruits of his stupendous labours. (The reason
for these being there will be apparent presently.) His task occupied
eighteen thousand years, during which he formed the sun, moon, and
stars, the heavens and the earth, himself increasing in stature day
by day, being daily six feet taller than the day before, until, his
labours ended, he died that his works might live. His head became the
mountains, his breath the wind and clouds, his voice the thunder,
his limbs the four quarters of the earth, his blood the rivers,
his flesh the soil, his beard the constellations, his skin and hair
the herbs and trees, his teeth, bones, and marrow the metals, rocks,
and precious stones, his sweat the rain, and the insects creeping
over his body human beings, who thus had a lowlier origin even than
the tears of Khepera in Egyptian cosmology. [3]
This account of P'an Ku and his achievements is of Taoist origin. The
Buddhists have given a somewhat different account of him, which is
a late adaptation from the Taoist myth, and must not be mistaken for
Buddhist cosmogony proper. [4]
The Sun and the Moon
In some of the pictures of P'an Ku he is represented, as already noted,
as holding the sun in one hand and the moon in the other. Sometimes
they are in the form of those bodies, sometimes in the classic
character. The legend says that when P'an Ku put things in order in
the lower world, he did not put these two luminaries in their proper
courses, so they retired into the Han Sea, and the people dwelt in
darkness. The Terrestrial Emperor sent an officer, Terrestrial Time,
with orders that they should come forth and take their places in
the heavens and give the world day and night. They refused to obey
the order. They were reported to Ju Lai; P'an Ku was called, and,
at the divine direction of Buddha, wrote the character for 'sun'
in his left hand, and that for 'moon' in his right hand; and went to
the Han Sea, and stretched forth his left hand and called the sun,
and then stretched forth his right hand and called the moon, at the
same time repeating a charm devoutly seven times; and they forthwith
ascended on high, and separated time into day and night. [5]
Other legends recount that P'an Ku had the head of a dragon and
the body of a serpent; and that by breathing he caused the wind,
by opening his eyes he created day, his voice made the thunder, etc.
P'an Ku and Ymer
Thus we have the heavens and the earth fashioned by this wonderful
being in eighteen thousand years. With regard to him we may adapt
the Scandinavian ballad:
It was Time's morning
When P'an Ku lived;
There was no sand, no sea,
Nor cooling billows;
Earth there was none,
No lofty Heaven;
No spot of living green;
Only a deep profound.
And it is interesting to note, in passing, the similarity between this
Chinese artificer of the universe and Ymer, the giant, who discharges
the same functions in Scandinavian mythology. Though P'an Ku did not
have the same kind of birth nor meet with the violent death of the
latter, the results as regards the origin of the universe seem to
have been pretty much the same. [6]
P'an Ku a Late Creation
But though the Chinese creation myth deals with primeval things it
does not itself belong to a primitive time. According to some writers
whose views are entitled to respect, it was invented during the fourth
century A.D. by the Taoist recluse, Magistrate Ko Hung, author of the
_Shên hsien chuan_ (_Biographies of the Gods_). The picturesque person
of P'an Ku is said to have been a concession to the popular dislike
of, or inability to comprehend, the abstract. He was conceived, some
Chinese writers say, because the philosophical explanations of the
Cosmos were too recondite for the ordinary mind to grasp. That he
did fulfil the purpose of furnishing the ordinary mind with a fairly
easily comprehensible picture of the creation may be admitted; but,
as will presently be seen, it is over-stating the case to say that he
was conceived with the set purpose of furnishing the ordinary mind with
a concrete solution or illustration of this great problem. There is
no evidence that P'an Ku had existed as a tradition before the time
when we meet with the written account of him; and, what is more,
there is no evidence that there existed any demand on the part of
the popular mind for any such solution or illustration. The ordinary
mind would seem to have been either indifferent to or satisfied
with the abstruse cosmogonical and cosmological theories of the
early sages for at least a thousand years. The cosmogonies of the _I
ching_, of Lao Tzu, Confucius (such as it was), Kuan Tzu, Mencius,
Chuang Tzu, were impersonal. P'an Ku and his myth must be regarded
rather as an accident than as a creation resulting from any sudden
flow of psychological forces or wind of discontent ruffling the
placid Chinese mind. If the Chinese brought with them from Babylon
or anywhere else the elements of a cosmogony, whether of a more or
less abstruse scientific nature or a personal mythological narrative,
it must have been subsequently forgotten or at least has not survived
in China. But for Ko Hung's eccentricity and his wish to experiment
with cinnabar from Cochin-China in order to find the elixir of life,
P'an Ku would probably never have been invented, and the Chinese mind
would have been content to go on ignoring the problem or would have
quietly acquiesced in the abstract philosophical explanations of the
learned which it did not understand. Chinese cosmogony would then
have consisted exclusively of the recondite impersonal metaphysics
which the Chinese mind had entertained or been fed on for the nine
hundred or more years preceding the invention of the P'an Ku myth.
Nü Kua Shih, the Repairer of the Heavens
It is true that there exist one or two other explanations of the
origin of things which introduce a personal creator. There is,
for instance, the legend--first mentioned by Lieh Tzu (to whom we
shall revert later)--which represents Nü Kua Shih (also called Nü
Wa and Nü Hsi), said to have been the sister and successor of Fu
Hsi, the mythical sovereign whose reign is ascribed to the years
2953-2838 B.C., as having been the creator of human beings when
the earth first emerged from Chaos. She (or he, for the sex seems
uncertain), who had the "body of a serpent and head of an ox" (or a
human head and horns of an ox, according to some writers), "moulded
yellow earth and made man." Ssu-ma Chêng, of the eighth century A.D.,
author of the _Historical Records_ and of another work on the three
great legendary emperors, Fu Hsi, Shên Nung, and Huang Ti, gives
the following account of her: "Fu Hsi was succeeded by Nü Kua, who
like him had the surname Fêng. Nü Kua had the body of a serpent and
a human head, with the virtuous endowments of a divine sage. Toward
the end of her reign there was among the feudatory princes Kung Kung,
whose functions were the administration of punishment. Violent and
ambitious, he became a rebel, and sought by the influence of water
to overcome that of wood [under which Nü Kua reigned]. He did battle
with Chu Jung [said to have been one of the ministers of Huang Ti,
and later the God of Fire], but was not victorious; whereupon he
struck his head against the Imperfect Mountain, Pu Chou Shan, and
brought it down. The pillars of Heaven were broken and the corners of
the earth gave way. Hereupon Nü Kua melted stones of the five colours
to repair the heavens, and cut off the feet of the tortoise to set
upright the four extremities of the earth. [7] Gathering the ashes
of reeds she stopped the flooding waters, and thus rescued the land
of Chi, Chi Chou [the early seat of the Chinese sovereignty]."
Another account separates the name and makes Nü and Kua brother
and sister, describing them as the only two human beings in
existence. At the creation they were placed at the foot of the K'un-lun
Mountains. Then they prayed, saying, "If thou, O God, hast sent us to
be man and wife, the smoke of our sacrifice will stay in one place;
but if not, it will be scattered." The smoke remained stationary.
But though Nü Kua is said to have moulded the first man (or the first
human beings) out of clay, it is to be noted that, being only the
successor of Fu Hsi, long lines of rulers had preceded her of whom no
account is given, and also that, as regards the heavens and the earth
at least, she is regarded as the repairer and not the creator of them.
Heaven-deaf (T'ien-lung) and Earth-dumb (Ti-ya), the two attendants
of Wên Ch'ang, the God of Literature (see following chapter), have
also been drawn into the cosmogonical net. From their union came the
heavens and the earth, mankind, and all living things.
These and other brief and unelaborated personal cosmogonies, even if
not to be regarded as spurious imitations, certainly have not become
established in the Chinese mind as the explanation of the way in which
the universe came to be: in this sphere the P'an Ku legend reigns
supreme; and, owing to its concrete, easily apprehensible nature,
has probably done so ever since the time of its invention.
Early Cosmogony Dualistic
The period before the appearance of the P'an Ku myth may be divided
into two parts; that from some early unknown date up to about the
middle of the Confucian epoch, say 500 B.C., and that from 500 B.C. to
A.D. 400. We know that during the latter period the minds of Chinese
scholars were frequently occupied with speculations as to the origin
of the universe. Before 500 B.C. we have no documentary remains
telling us what the Chinese believed about the origin of things;
but it is exceedingly unlikely that no theories or speculations at
all concerning the origin of themselves and their surroundings were
formed by this intelligent people during the eighteen centuries or
more which preceded the date at which we find the views held by them
put into written form. It is safe to assume that the dualism which
later occupied their philosophical thoughts to so great an extent
as almost to seem inseparable from them, and exercised so powerful
an influence throughout the course of their history, was not only
formulating itself during that long period, but had gradually reached
an advanced stage. We may even go so far as to say that dualism, or
its beginnings, existed in the very earliest times, for the belief in
the second self or ghost or double of the dead is in reality nothing
else. And we find it operating with apparently undiminished energy
after the Chinese mind had reached its maturity in the Sung dynasty.
The Canon of Changes
The Bible of Chinese dualism is the _I ching_, the _Canon of Changes_
(or _Permutations_). It is held in great veneration both on account
of its antiquity and also because of the "unfathomable wisdom which
is supposed to lie concealed under its mysterious symbols." It is
placed first in the list of the classics, or Sacred Books, though
it is not the oldest of them. When exactly the work itself on which
the subsequent elaborations were founded was composed is not now
known. Its origin is attributed to the legendary emperor Fu Hsi
(2953-2838 B.C.). It does not furnish a cosmogony proper, but merely
a dualistic system as an explanation, or attempted explanation,
or even perhaps only a record, of the constant changes (in modern
philosophical language the "redistribution of matter and motion")
going on everywhere. That explanation or record was used for purposes
of divination. This dualistic system, by a simple addition, became
a monism, and at the same time furnished the Chinese with a cosmogony.
The Five Elements
The Five Elements or Forces (_wu hsing_)--which, according to
the Chinese, are metal, air, fire, water, and wood--are first
mentioned in Chinese literature in a chapter of the classic _Book
of History_. [8] They play a very important part in Chinese thought:
'elements' meaning generally not so much the actual substances as the
forces essential to human, life. They have to be noticed in passing,
because they were involved in the development of the cosmogonical
ideas which took place in the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D.
Monism
As their imagination grew, it was natural that the Chinese should
begin to ask themselves what, if the _yang_ and the _yin_ by
their permutations produced, or gave shape to, all things, was it
that produced the _yang_ and the _yin_. When we see traces of this
inquisitive tendency we find ourselves on the borderland of dualism
where the transition is taking place into the realm of monism. But
though there may have been a tendency toward monism in early times, it
was only in the Sung dynasty that the philosophers definitely placed
behind the _yang_ and the _yin_ a First Cause--the Grand Origin,
Grand Extreme, Grand Terminus, or Ultimate Ground of Existence. [9]
They gave to it the name _t'ai chi_, and represented it by a concrete
sign, the symbol of a circle. The complete scheme shows the evolution
of the Sixty-four Diagrams (_kua_) from the _t'ai chi_ through the
_yang_ and the _yin_, the Four, Eight, Sixteen, and Thirty-two
Diagrams successively. This conception was the work of the Sung
philosopher Chou Tun-i (A.D. 1017-73), commonly known as Chou Tzu,
and his disciple Chu Hsi (A.D. 1130-1200), known as Chu Tzu or Chu
Fu Tzu, the famous historian and Confucian commentator--two of the
greatest names in Chinese philosophy. It was at this time that the
tide of constructive imagination in China, tinged though it always
was with classical Confucianism, rose to its greatest height. There
is the philosopher's seeking for causes. Yet in this matter of the
First Cause we detect, in the full flood of Confucianism, the potent
influence of Taoist and Buddhist speculations. It has even been said
that the Sung philosophy, which grew, not from the _I ching_ itself,
but from the appendixes to it, is more Taoistic than Confucian. As it
was with the P'an Ku legend, so was it with this more philosophical
cosmogony. The more fertile Taoist and Buddhist imaginations led to the
preservation of what the Confucianists, distrusting the marvellous,
would have allowed to die a natural death. It was, after all, the
mystical foreign elements which gave point to--we may rightly say
rounded off--the early dualism by converting it into monism, carrying
philosophical speculation from the Knowable to the Unknowable, and
furnishing the Chinese with their first scientific theory of the
origin, not of the changes going on in the universe (on which they
had already formed their opinions), but of the universe itself.
Chou Tzu's "T'ai Chi T'u"
Chou Tun-i, appropriately apotheosized as 'Prince in the Empire of
Reason,' completed and systematized the philosophical world-conception
which had hitherto obtained in the Chinese mind. He did not ask his
fellow-countrymen to discard any part of what they had long held in
high esteem: he raised the old theories from the sphere of science to
that of philosophy by unifying them and bringing them to a focus. And
he made this unification intelligible to the Chinese mind by his famous
_T'ai chi t'u_, or Diagram of the Great Origin (or Grand Terminus),
showing that the Grand Original Cause, itself uncaused, produces the
_yang_ and the _yin_, these the Five Elements, and so on, through
the male and female norms (_tao_), to the production of all things.
Chu Hsi's Monistic Philosophy
The writings of Chu Hsi, especially his treatise on _The Immaterial
Principle [li] and Primary Matter [ch'i]_, leave no doubt as to the
monism of his philosophy. In this work occurs the passage: "In the
universe there exists no primary matter devoid of the immaterial
principle; and no immaterial principle apart from primary matter";
and although the two are never separated "the immaterial principle
[as Chou Tzu explains] is what is previous to form, while primary
matter is what is subsequent to form," the idea being that the two
are different manifestations of the same mysterious force from which
all things proceed.
It is unnecessary to follow this philosophy along all the different
branches which grew out of it, for we are here concerned only with
the seed. We have observed how Chinese dualism became a monism, and
how while the monism was established the dualism was retained. It is
this mono-dualistic theory, combining the older and newer philosophy,
which in China, then as now, constitutes the accepted explanation of
the origin of things, of the universe itself and all that it contains.
Lao Tzu's "Tao"
There are other cosmogonies in Chinese philosophy, but they need not
detain us long. Lao Tzu (sixth century B.C.), in his _Tao-tê ching,
The Canon of Reason and Virtue_ (at first entitled simply _Lao Tzu_),
gave to the then existing scattered sporadic conceptions of the
universe a literary form. His _tao_, or 'Way,' is the originator
of Heaven and earth, it is "the mother of all things." His Way,
which was "before God," is but a metaphorical expression for the
manner in which things came at first into being out of the primal
nothingness, and how the phenomena of nature continue to go on,
"in stillness and quietness, without striving or crying." Lao Tzu is
thus so far monistic, but he is also mystical, transcendental, even
pantheistic. The way that can be walked is not the Eternal Way; the
name that can be named is not the Eternal Name. The Unnameable is the
originator of Heaven and earth; manifesting itself as the Nameable,
it is "the mother of all things." "In Eternal Non-Being I see the
Spirituality of Things; in Eternal Being their limitation. Though
different under these two aspects, they are the same in origin;
it is when development takes place that different names have to be
used. It is while they are in the condition of sameness that the
mystery concerning them exists. This mystery is indeed the mystery
of mysteries. It is the door of all spirituality."
This _tao_, indefinable and in its essence unknowable, is "the
fountain-head of all beings, and the norm of all actions. But it is
not only the formative principle of the universe; it also seems to be
primordial matter: chaotic in its composition, born prior to Heaven
and earth, noiseless, formless, standing alone in its solitude, and
not changing, universal in its activity, and unrelaxing, without being
exhausted, it is capable of becoming the mother of the universe." And
there we may leave it. There is no scheme of creation, properly so
called. The Unwalkable Way leads us to nothing further in the way of
a cosmogony.
Confucius's Agnosticism
Confucius (551-479 B.C.) did not throw any light on the problem of
origin. He did not speculate on the creation of things nor the end
of them. He was not troubled to account for the origin of man, nor
did he seek to know about his hereafter. He meddled neither with
physics nor metaphysics. There might, he thought, be something on
the other side of life, for he admitted the existence of spiritual
beings. They had an influence on the living, because they caused
them to clothe themselves in ceremonious dress and attend to the
sacrificial ceremonies. But we should not trouble ourselves about
them, any more than about supernatural things, or physical prowess,
or monstrosities. How can we serve spiritual beings while we do not
know how to serve men? We feel the existence of something invisible
and mysterious, but its nature and meaning are too deep for the
human understanding to grasp. The safest, indeed the only reasonable,
course is that of the agnostic--to leave alone the unknowable, while
acknowledging its existence and its mystery, and to try to understand
knowable phenomena and guide our actions accordingly.
Between the monism of Lao Tzu and the positivism of Confucius on
the one hand, and the landmark of the Taoistic transcendentalism of
Chuang Tzu (fourth and third centuries B.C.) on the other, we find
several "guesses at the riddle of existence" which must be briefly
noted as links in the chain of Chinese speculative thought on this
important subject.
Mo Tzu and Creation
In the philosophy of Mo Ti (fifth and fourth centuries B.C.),
generally known as Mo Tzu or Mu Tzu, the philosopher of humanism and
utilitarianism, we find the idea of creation. It was, he says, Heaven
(which was anthropomorphically regarded by him as a personal Supreme
Being) who "created the sun, moon, and innumerable stars." His system
closely resembles Christianity, but the great power of Confucianism as
a weapon wielded against all opponents by its doughty defender Mencius
(372-289 B.C.) is shown by the complete suppression of the influence
of Mo Tzuism at his hands. He even went so far as to describe Mo Tzu
and those who thought with him as "wild animals."
Mencius and the First Cause
Mencius himself regarded Heaven as the First Cause, or Cause of Causes,
but it was not the same personal Heaven as that of Mo Tzu. Nor does
he hang any cosmogony upon it. His chief concern was to eulogize the
doctrines of the great Confucius, and like him he preferred to let
the origin of the universe look after itself.
Lieh Tzu's Absolute
Lieh Tzu (said to have lived in the fifth century B.C.), one
of the brightest stars in the Taoist constellation, considered
this nameable world as having evolved from an unnameable absolute
being. The evolution did not take place through the direction of
a personal will working out a plan of creation: "In the beginning
there was Chaos [_hun tun_]. It was a mingled potentiality of Form
[_hsing_], Pneuma [_ch'i_], and Substance [_chih_]. A Great Change
[_t'ai i_] took place in it, and there was a Great Starting [_t'ai
ch'u_] which is the beginning of Form. The Great Starting evolved a
Great Beginning [_t'ai shih_], which is the inception of Pneuma. The
Great Beginning was followed by the Great Blank [_t'ai su_], which
is the first formation of Substance. Substance, Pneuma, and Form
being all evolved out of the primordial chaotic mass, this material
world as it lies before us came into existence." And that which
made it possible for Chaos to evolve was the Solitary Indeterminate
(_i tu_ or the _tao_), which is not created, but is able to create
everlastingly. And being both Solitary and Indeterminate it tells us
nothing determinate about itself.
Chuang Tzu's Super-tao
Chuang Chou (fourth and third centuries B.C.), generally known
as Chuang Tzu, the most brilliant Taoist of all, maintained with
Lao Tzu that the universe started from the Nameless, but it was if
possible a more absolute and transcendental Nameless than that of
Lao Tzu. He dwells on the relativity of knowledge; as when asleep he
did not know that he was a man dreaming that he was a butterfly, so
when awake he did not know that he was not a butterfly dreaming that
he was a man. [10] But "all is embraced in the obliterating unity of
the _tao_, and the wise man, passing into the realm of the Infinite,
finds rest therein." And this _tao_, of which we hear so much in
Chinese philosophy, was before the Great Ultimate or Grand Terminus
(_t'ai chi_), and "from it came the mysterious existence of God
[_ti_]. It produced Heaven, it produced earth."
Popular Cosmogony still Personal or Dualistic
These and other cosmogonies which the Chinese have devised, though
it is necessary to note their existence in order to give a just idea
of their cosmological speculations, need not, as I said, detain us
long; and the reason why they need not do so is that, in the matter
of cosmogony, the P'an Ku legend and the _yin-yang_ system with its
monistic elaboration occupy virtually the whole field of the Chinese
mental vision. It is these two--the popular and the scientific--that
we mean when we speak of Chinese cosmogony. Though here and there a
stern sectarian might deny that the universe originated in one or the
other of these two ways, still, the general rule holds good. And I
have dealt with them in this order because, though the P'an Ku legend
belongs to the fourth century A.D., the _I ching_ dualism was not,
rightly speaking, a cosmogony until Chou Tun-i made it one by the
publication of his _T'ai chi t'u_ in the eleventh century A.D. Over
the unscientific and the scientific minds of the Chinese these two
are paramount.
Applying the general principles stated in the preceding chapter,
we find the same cause which operated to restrict the growth of
mythology in general in China operated also in like manner in this
particular branch of it. With one exception Chinese cosmogony is
non-mythological. The careful and studiously accurate historians
(whose work aimed at being _ex veritate_, 'made of truth'), the
sober literature, the vast influence of agnostic, matter-of-fact
Confucianism, supported by the heavy Mencian artillery, are
indisputable indications of a constructive imagination which grew too
quickly and became too rapidly scientific to admit of much soaring
into the realms of fantasy. Unaroused by any strong stimulus in
their ponderings over the riddle of the universe, the sober, plodding
scientists and the calm, truth-loving philosophers gained a peaceful
victory over the mythologists.