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Long, long ago, before anyone or anything was there, there was space. In space was a giant stone egg. One day, the stone eggs hatched. BOOM! Out of the egg came a giant man. He was as tall as the mountains, as broad as the ocean. At that time, there was no heaven and no earth. They were joined together. So Pan Gu, that was his name, Pan Gu pushed the heaven and earth apart with a loud crack. How heavy the heavens were! Pan Gu held the heavens and earth apart for a long, long time. Then he fell down and died, for he had expanded his strength. His sweat and blood became the rivers, his hair became the stars. His body became the landforms and mountains. His breath became the wind and clouds. Thus the World was created.
Nu Wo:The Story of Man
After Pan Gu died and created the Earth, a fairy by the name of Nu Wo came to Earth. She looked around the earth and said, "how boring this world is without anyone! "So she took some wet clay from the riverbank, and painstakingly molded some little clay figurines into the shape of men. Then she used a magic reed to breath life into them, so they could walk and talk. However, she soon realized that they were lonely, and said, "men need companions. I will make women. "So she took some more clay and molded them using her hands into the shape of women. After a while, she decided that making people, both men and women, by hand was too tiring. So she used her magic reed to spray the mud around. The mud became people. So that is why we have clever and simple people. The clever people are those that were made by Nu Wo's hands, while those simple ones are those that were made from the splattered mud.
Symbols
The ancient Chinese believed in many symbols. Some of them were very important, some of them were merely status symbols. Let us have a look at some of them.
Yin and Yang
Before the world began, there was chaos, shaped like a hen's egg. Pan Gu separated this egg into Yin and Yang. Yin formed the earth, Yang formed the sky. Yin stood for all the female, wet, dark things of nature, while Yang stood for all the male, dry and bright things. There could be no perfect happiness until there was a balance between Yin and Yang.
The dragons and tigers(animals)
In ancient China, Dragons were the rain spirits of China. They believed the dragons to have power over when it rained, and what type of rain. Dragons were also believed to ward off harm. Tigers were also popular in Chinese mythology. They were painted on the walls of houses to ward off harm. Horses represented speed and high rank, water buffalos stood for the peasant's life, and birds represented freedom.
The 12 animals
The Chinese year-cycle was based on the legendary 12 animals-Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Even now Chinese still refer to the year as "the pig year" or "the goat year". It was said that these animals were chosen to represent the 12-yearly cycle by means of the race. Actually, the ox was first, but the rat hung on to the ox's tail and reached the finishing line before him.
Emperors: Sons of Heaven
People believed that the Emperors were the Sons of Heaven and that they received the mandate, or right, to rule from their ancestors. The mandate could be taken away if the ruler was not a good one or the ancestors showed their displeasure with him through flood, famine or storms. Rulers-Emperors or Empresses had to take part in special ceremonies to ask for daily events to go on well. People rebelled against a weak or selfish leader who did not care about their interests. Then the mandate was taken away and given to someone else.