Pangu- Chinese PrimordialPrimordial"First Being"

Before the Beginning

Before heaven and earth, before light or darkness, there was only Hundun: primordial chaos, formless and without dimension. Xu Zheng's Sanwu liji describes it as an egg, dark and murky within. Inside this egg, over countless ages, Pangu took shape. He slept for eighteen thousand years.

Heaven and Earth Apart

When Pangu woke, he found himself cramped in the dark. He swung an axe and split the shell. The light, pure elements rose upward to become heaven. The heavy, turbid elements sank downward to become earth. But Pangu feared they might flow back together into chaos. He stood between them, his head touching heaven, his feet on earth.

Each day, heaven rose ten feet higher and earth sank ten feet deeper. Each day, Pangu grew ten feet taller. This continued for another eighteen thousand years. By the end he stood ninety thousand li tall, a living pillar holding the world open.

The Body Becomes the World

When heaven and earth were fixed and stable enough to remain apart, Pangu's work was done. He lay down and died, and his death was the final act of creation. His left eye became the sun and his right eye the moon. His breath became the wind, his voice thunder. His blood filled the rivers and seas, and his body raised the mountains. Every feature of the world, from metals in the rock to grass on the fields, was Pangu's flesh transformed. The Wuyun linian ji adds that the parasites on his skin, stirred by the wind, became the first human beings.