Pangu

Pangu (traditional: 盤古; simplified: 盘古; pinyin: Pángǔ) is a character of the Chinese Mythologie introduced like the first being left original, separating chaos of the sky and the ground, and whose giant body became with its death the world and the men who live there. It is also a god Taoïste, the first of the Pure Three.

Origins

The myth of Pangu probably does not belong to the Chinese mythology of antiquity, where one meets of the civilizing heroes like the Yellow Empereur or more rarely of the creators of humanity like Nüwa, but no cosmogonic myth. Nevertheless, the myth of the sky and the ground joined or undifferentiated in the beginning could exist. A sentence of the Guoyu , historical work of Ve and. , a discussion mentions having taken place at the time of king Mu of the Zhou (1001? - 946?) in connection with the separation of the sky and ground by called Zhong and Li, whose identity remains a mystery.

In any event, the essential references as regards ancient myths that are the Livre of the mounts and the seas , the Questions with the sky of qu Yuan and Histoire of the emperors and the kings of Huang Fumi (215-282) do not blow word of Pangu. One finds even in the Questions with the sky a passage where qu Yuan, evoking the origin of the universe, affirms that nobody knows anything on this subject, opinion confirmed by Wang Chong (27-97) in its critical Essais . One can thus affirm that Pangu was ignored Chinese authors until the first century of the Christian era at least.

The first to bring back its legend is Xu Zheng (220 - 265). He reports it in two parts in two different books, Histoire of the three and the five '' and Annales of the five elements . Lost, they are known by their passages preserved in posterior works like the literary Encyclopédie of Ouyang Xun (557-641). Ge Hong evokes also Pangu in the Baopuzi , like Liang Renfang of the dynasties of the South in its extraordinary Histoires . It is the first to mention the particular bond of the character with the South of China (Chu, Wu, Wuyue) and the version who sees in Pangu a couple, Pan and Gu.

The assumption of a southernmost origin of the legend is supported by Tan Naichang, director of the Research institute in popular traditions of the Guangxi. Contrary to the general opinion, he considers that the myth does not owe anything with the Indian influence and that he is drawn from a legend zhuang of the surroundings of Laibin to Guangxi: A named brother and a sister Side (grinding stone) and Gu (gourd) in language zhuang, only survivors of a flood thanks to a gourd having been used to them as boat, married and gave rise to a grinding stone. They pulverized it and its fragments became the human ones as many.

But the assumption most largely shared is that of the influence of an Indian myth (perhaps even Babylonian, via Persia and India) transmitted by the Bouddhisme starting from the Eastern Han. Pangu indeed offers a certain resemblance to Purusha, the cosmic man.

Qian Zongyi published in 1986 a Étude of the representations of Pangu in which he proposes that largest of the mysterious characters appearing between Nüwa and Fuxi on the Han frescos would represent Pangu (ex: discovered vestige with Yizhou (Sichuan) which would go back to 194).

Caption

Once introduced, the legend seems to be quickly adopted and is the subject of many alternatives. It is known of all Chinese. Here as example the first two versions of Xu Zheng and additions of Liang Renfang:

Xu Zheng, History of the three and the five '':

“the sky and the ground were mixed like a hen egg; Pangu was in the medium. After 18.000 years, the sky and the ground separated, the pure yáng became the sky and the Yin disorder the ground. Pangu, to the medium, transferred nine times per day, the divine one joined the sky and démoniaque the ground. Each day, the sky rose of a zhang, the ground thickened of a zhang, and Pangu grew of a zhang. After 18.000 years, the sky was very high, the very deep ground and very large Pangu; then appeared the majestic Three. ”

Xu Zheng, Yearly of the five elements :

“Pangu was the first to be born. With its death it changed: its breath became the wind, its voice the thunder, its eye left the sun and the right the moon, its four members the ends of the universe, its elbows, its knees and its head became the five mounts crowned; its blood formed the rivers, its tendons the relief, its flesh the arable lands, its hair the stars, the hairs of its body the vegetation, its teeth metals and rocks, its marrow invaluable stones and jade, its sweat rain, and vermin on its body disseminated by the wind became the men. ”

Liang Renfang, in extraordinary Stories , brings back various versions:

Its head becomes the four crowned mounts, its grease the seas and oceans.

Its head became the Mount of the east, its belly that of the center, its left arm the Mount of the south, the right the Mount of north and its feet the Mount of the west; its tears produced the rivers, its breath the wind, its voice the thunder and its eyes the flashes. When the weather is content it is nice, when the weather is in anger it is bad.

In the countries of Wu and Chu, Pangu is the name of a couple; they are the first yin and the first yang. Close to the coasts of the South and with the country to Wuyue, one finds fall it from Pangu and the devoted temples to him, as well as a “Country of Pangu” where each one carries its patronym.

Worship and cultural exploitation

Pangu was adopted rather early like god by the taoism, compared to the first of the Pure Three. As such it does not have an individual temple because the Three Pure ones are révérés in theory together, often accompanied by other gods like the Empereur of jade. It is illustrated between two the other Pure ones. It is in general vêtu of a tunic of Master taoist and carries in hand the pearl which symbolizes original chaos. Nevertheless, one gives him sometimes the appearance of Shennong, skirt and flange of sheets, or another behavior of “primitive man”, hair long and skins of animals for example. Temples dedicated to only Pangu under its appearance of “primitive” appeared at the end of the years 1970, at the beginning of the legal resumption of the religious activities.

These fifteen last years in popular China, the cultural elements and religious autochtones are the subject of a great interest on behalf of the local authorities. This interest is not mû only by regional patriotism, but also answers the desire to develop culture industry and tourist. Thus the town of Laibin to Guangxi, encouraged by the searchs for Tan Naichang, it organized in 2003 a seminar on the “culture of Pangu” of which it intends to make its axis of cultural development, envisaging publications and an annual festival, as well as a widening of ethnological and archaeological research The protection of the “culture of Pangu of the higher course of the River of the Pearls” was registered in 2005 on the list of the Funds national of philosophy and social sciences. this same year, the government of the autonomous region of Guangxi asked for the inscription of the “culture of Pangu” on the list of the immaterial national heritage.

Others

Pangu is the Chinese transcription of Pangée
the name of Pangu was given to a crater Rhéa

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