Nuwa

Nuwa (Work Card: 女媧 c.s. : 女娲 Pinyin : nǚwā), is a character of the Chinese Mythologie whose origin goes back to antiquity. Creative goddess, it worked the first men with clay, their gave the capacity to procreate, repaired the broken sky. A body of snake is often lent to him. She forms a couple with her brother Fuxi of which she is also the woman. From the Tang, they are presented like the inventors of the rites of the marriage, of which it is the owner. She is also donneuse children.

Like all the characters of ancient mythology, she is known by rather late texts (Dynastie Han and perhaps end of the Royaumes combatants), her true nature and its origin is thus difficult to determine. S. Butterfly recognizes a strong resemblance to Indo-European divinities to him, evoking the possibility of an origin tokharienne. It is one of the majestic Three. It remained in the Chinese religion only like minor divinity. The Miao of the South-west of the China return also a worship to him. One allots the invention of the to him 瑟, kind of Cithare.

The myth of Nuwa in the texts

The oldest sources which mention Nuwa would date from the kingdoms combatants ( Shanhaijing , Liezi and Chants of Chu - chapter Questions with the Sky (1), and of IIe front century J.C. ( Huainanzi ). It is told there how it worked the first human ones and the capacity gave them to procreate. The mount Buzhou (2), one of the pillars supporting the sky, having been broken by Gonggong at the time of its combat against Zhurong (or Zhuanxu), the celestial river ran out on the ground involving a flood and, according to the Huainanzi , of the fires and the attacks of wild animals. Nuwa clogged the brêche while dissolving a stone of five colors. The Huainanzi specifies that it replaça the sky on the legs of a tortoise, killed the black dragon to restore the ground and manufactured a dam with ashes of reed. Repaired, the sky and the ground remained nevertheless slightly tilted in opposite direction one of the other, causing the north-western drift of the stars and the south-eastern direction of the rivers. In the Shiji which reports the history of China since antiquity, Sima Qian of Han Western does not mention Nuwa, which it replaces by a man named Feng Lixi (3). In its complement of the Shiji , Sima Zhen of the Tang will make it reappear, preserving to him with his/her Fuxi brother Feng family name.

It is Li Rong (4) of Tang which prète to the couple the invention of the marriage in the Duyizhi (5): Only on the Kunlun mount at the time where there were no yet human, they thought of marrying. They had recourse to a divination by the observation of the direction of smoke. The answer being favorable, they proceeded to the ceremony, but as Nuwa was embarrassed, it hid behind a range; it was there the first ritual of the bridal ceremony.

The Traité habits of Ying Shao (Han) included in the imperial Encyclopédie Taiping (6) of the Song enriches the myth by creation: having manufactured the first hundred human, Nuwa, tired, thinks of a more effective solution. It took a cord, soaked it in mud and whipped the air; the mud drops were transformed into as many people. The first, worked with the hand, constituted the nobility, and the others the people.

(1) 問天 (2) 不周 (3) 風裡希鳳裡犧 (4) 李冗李榮 (5) 獨异志 (6) Taiping yulan 太平御覽

Iconography

The charts of Nuwa depict it in general half-woman, half-snake. She is often accompanied by Fuxi, holding in hand a compass whereas it holds a square.

Others

According to the Chinese sociologist Meng Fanren (1), the myth of Nuwa could be particularly related to the Monts Taihang (2) with the Shanxi where sites point out its history. It is révérée in the area like protective marriage in the temples of the large matchmaker (3) or donneuse children in the temples of the grandmother (4). He thinks that a tumulus discovered in 1994 at the village of Zhenhou (5), municipality of Zhao (6), Comté of Hongdong (7), is the tumulus of Nuwa quoted in local annals and the geographical encyclopedia of the Qing Daqing yitong zhi (8).

Certain groups Miao révèrent Nuwa and preserved the myth of the broken Sky, but consider that it repaired it by clogging the breach with its body.

(1) 孟繁仁 (2) 太行山 (3) 高媒廟 (4) 娘娘廟 (5) 鎮侯 (6) 趙 (7) 洪洞縣 (8) 大清一統志

See too

Nuwa and the influence tokharienne
Chinese traditional Religion

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