Chinese Creation Myth

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This is the story of Pan Gu (Pan Ku)

In the beginning , the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos. The universe was like a big black egg, carrying Pan Gu inside itself. After 18 thousand years Pan Gu woke from a long sleep. He felt suffocated, so he took up a broadax and wielded it with all his might to crack open the egg. The light, clear part of it floated up and formed the heavens, the cold, turbid matter stayed below to form earth. Pan Gu stood in the middle, his head touching the sky, his feet planted on the earth. The heavens and the earth began to grow at a rate of ten feet per day, and Pan Gu grew along with them. After another 18 thousand years, the sky was higher, the earth thicker, and Pan Gu stood between them like a pillar 9 million li in height so that they would never join again.

When Pan Gu died, his breath became the wind and clouds, his voice the rolling thunder. One eye became the sun and on the moon. His body and limbs turned to five big mountains and his blood formed the roaring water. His veins became far-stretching roads and his muscles fertile land. The innumerable stars in the sky came from his hair and beard, and flowers and trees from his skin and the fine hairs on his body. His marrow turned to jade and pearls. His sweat flowed like the good rain and sweet dew that nurtured all things on earth. According to some versions of the Pan Gu legend, his tears flowed to make rivers and radiance of his eyes turned into thunder and lighting. When he was happy the sun shone, but when he was angry black clouds gathered in the sky. One version of the legend has it that the fleas and lice on his body became the ancestors of mankind.

To read another version of  the story and find out a little more about it look at the

http://www.chinatown-online.co.uk/pages/culture/legends/pangu.html

Task One.    Find out about the Yin Yang symbol.   Draw it carefully in your books and
                    explain what you think is meant by balance.  

Task Two.   Discuss some ideas about balance in nature with your classmates.
                   a)  Write down in bullet points  as many examples as you can of things in
                       nature that are balanced. 
                   b) Write a letter to a newspaper explaining how things go wrong in nature
                       when humans get the balance wrong.

Task three.  In your books using a series of drawings in a Chinese style (you can use
                    Yin Yang, dragons and soft colours) draw the story of Pan Gu and explain  
                    it in words.  Why do you think the idea of an egg is important? Think of
                    any other stories where the sky is held up above the earth. Find out about
                    them. The following site will help you:-

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mythology/worldmap_new.html

                    simply click on the names of the countries on the world map.