NEUWA
Axeman axed open the sky and land; used his body to make the sun, the moon, starlight, mountains, grass and trees. The remnants of foggy stuff (that did not float to the top or sink to the bottom) became insects, fishes, birds and beasts which brought life to the otherwise dead and lonely world.
At this time, a goddess,
(aka NEUWA), walked across this lively natural wilderness. She let her eyes gaze everywhere and saw mountain rising, rivers and streams flowing, forest growing, plants blossoming, hundreds of birds flying and singing in the sky, beasts running across the land, fishes playing in the water and insects jumping in grassy areas, according to hearsay these little additions made the world quite pretty. However, she always felt an indescribable feeling of loneliness; the longer she looked the more she felt frustrated, the feeling of loneliness was growing stronger and stronger, even she cannot figure out why she was feeling this way.
She spoke with the mountains, grass and trees about the frustrations she was feeling inside, they did not understand her speech; she spoke to the insects, fishes, birds and beasts about what was bothering her but how could these creatures possibly understand her troubles. She sadly sat beside a pond and helplessly looked at her own reflection. Suddenly, a leaf fell onto the pond creating a tiny current across the quiet pond which caused her reflection to move a little. She felt the dead knot in her heart untied at once; Yes! Why did she have this indescribable feeling of loneliness? It was because the world was missing a living creature similar to her.
With that thought, beside the pond, she immediately used her hand to dig up some soil from the top of the ground, scoop up some water from the top of the pond and began to put the two together using her reflection as guidance.
Put after put, put together a tiny little thing that resembled Neuwa closely which also had five senses (sight, smell, hear, touch and taste)*, seven openings (a pair of eyes, a pair of ears, a pair of nostrils and a mouth), a pair of hands and two legs. When she was finally satisfied with the putting, she set the thing on the ground and unexpectedly the thing spring to life. The sight of this new life delighted Neuwa greatly and so she continued to put more (little things) together. She called these little things "mankind" or "man and/or woman" for short.
The men and women of mankind are created by copying models of gods and goddesses; their manners and movements are naturally different than other living creatures, they can even talk like Neuwa. They happily cheered and/or jumped beside Neuwa for only a short while before leaving slowly.
The loneliness in Neuwa's heart warmed up; she wanted the entire world to become loud and rowdy, and the man and woman she creates be everywhere in the world and so she continued working and putting more mankind together; however, the world was too big, she worked for a long time, her pair of hands were numb from all the putting, yet the mankind she put upon the great land was far and few. She thought things cannot continue like this and broke a stem off a nearby plant, dipped it into a puddle of mud and swung the mud onto the land off the muddy stem. Each resulting drop of mud became one little person with very similar appearance to the mankind she put together with hands; this way the speed (of putting) accelerated significantly. Neuwa saw the effectiveness of the new way, swung with more enthusiasm each time and so the great land had people everywhere.
Neuwa made a lot of man and woman on the great land; the feeling of happiness in her heart swept the feeling of loneliness empty. She felt very tired, the need to rest, and walked to four places to see how these people were living.
One day, she went to one place, saw hardly any people, found it odd, investigated in details through a little body and saw a bunch of little people laying on the ground not moving at all; they would not move even after she used hand to get them to move. Turns out those were the little people she first created; by that time, their hair was already white as snow; their lives ended into a permanent slumber.
Neuwa, after seeing this situation, unnoticeably panicked; she remembered how laborious it was to create people, yet they continuously grow old, deteriorate and die. If things continued like this, would it mean creation have to continue without pause for eternity? This could not be the way.
In the end, Neuwa consulted with the ways living things passed its seed to the next generation and told mankind to cooperate with each other to create more people generations after generations. As mankind was the only living creature copied from god and goddesses, mankind cannot be of equal ranking to beasts. As such, she set up a marriage system, prohibiting wild mating with beasts. The generations that came after eulogized Neuwa as the "goddess of mate".
*five senses could also refer to eyes, nose, ears, heart (or skin) and mouth.
At this time, a goddess,
(aka NEUWA), walked across this lively natural wilderness. She let her eyes gaze everywhere and saw mountain rising, rivers and streams flowing, forest growing, plants blossoming, hundreds of birds flying and singing in the sky, beasts running across the land, fishes playing in the water and insects jumping in grassy areas, according to hearsay these little additions made the world quite pretty. However, she always felt an indescribable feeling of loneliness; the longer she looked the more she felt frustrated, the feeling of loneliness was growing stronger and stronger, even she cannot figure out why she was feeling this way.She spoke with the mountains, grass and trees about the frustrations she was feeling inside, they did not understand her speech; she spoke to the insects, fishes, birds and beasts about what was bothering her but how could these creatures possibly understand her troubles. She sadly sat beside a pond and helplessly looked at her own reflection. Suddenly, a leaf fell onto the pond creating a tiny current across the quiet pond which caused her reflection to move a little. She felt the dead knot in her heart untied at once; Yes! Why did she have this indescribable feeling of loneliness? It was because the world was missing a living creature similar to her.
With that thought, beside the pond, she immediately used her hand to dig up some soil from the top of the ground, scoop up some water from the top of the pond and began to put the two together using her reflection as guidance.
Put after put, put together a tiny little thing that resembled Neuwa closely which also had five senses (sight, smell, hear, touch and taste)*, seven openings (a pair of eyes, a pair of ears, a pair of nostrils and a mouth), a pair of hands and two legs. When she was finally satisfied with the putting, she set the thing on the ground and unexpectedly the thing spring to life. The sight of this new life delighted Neuwa greatly and so she continued to put more (little things) together. She called these little things "mankind" or "man and/or woman" for short.
The men and women of mankind are created by copying models of gods and goddesses; their manners and movements are naturally different than other living creatures, they can even talk like Neuwa. They happily cheered and/or jumped beside Neuwa for only a short while before leaving slowly.
The loneliness in Neuwa's heart warmed up; she wanted the entire world to become loud and rowdy, and the man and woman she creates be everywhere in the world and so she continued working and putting more mankind together; however, the world was too big, she worked for a long time, her pair of hands were numb from all the putting, yet the mankind she put upon the great land was far and few. She thought things cannot continue like this and broke a stem off a nearby plant, dipped it into a puddle of mud and swung the mud onto the land off the muddy stem. Each resulting drop of mud became one little person with very similar appearance to the mankind she put together with hands; this way the speed (of putting) accelerated significantly. Neuwa saw the effectiveness of the new way, swung with more enthusiasm each time and so the great land had people everywhere.
Neuwa made a lot of man and woman on the great land; the feeling of happiness in her heart swept the feeling of loneliness empty. She felt very tired, the need to rest, and walked to four places to see how these people were living.
One day, she went to one place, saw hardly any people, found it odd, investigated in details through a little body and saw a bunch of little people laying on the ground not moving at all; they would not move even after she used hand to get them to move. Turns out those were the little people she first created; by that time, their hair was already white as snow; their lives ended into a permanent slumber.
Neuwa, after seeing this situation, unnoticeably panicked; she remembered how laborious it was to create people, yet they continuously grow old, deteriorate and die. If things continued like this, would it mean creation have to continue without pause for eternity? This could not be the way.
In the end, Neuwa consulted with the ways living things passed its seed to the next generation and told mankind to cooperate with each other to create more people generations after generations. As mankind was the only living creature copied from god and goddesses, mankind cannot be of equal ranking to beasts. As such, she set up a marriage system, prohibiting wild mating with beasts. The generations that came after eulogized Neuwa as the "goddess of mate".
*five senses could also refer to eyes, nose, ears, heart (or skin) and mouth.
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