In ancient Chinese mythology, Nuwa is another creator deity after Pangu, and it is because of her that humanity came into existence, making her a creator goddess and ancestral deity long revered by the common people.
After Pangu created heaven and earth, he finally collapsed from exhaustion, and his body transformed into all things in the world. From then on, there were the sun, moon, and stars, as well as flowers, grass, and trees. Later, a remaining turbid energy between heaven and earth absorbed the essence of the sun and moon, turning into insects, fish, birds, and beasts, thus bringing a touch of vitality to this silent and beautiful world.
There was a supremely powerful goddess who traveled far and wide, eventually arriving in the world created by Pangu, and she was Nüwa. As Nüwa walked across the lush plains, she looked around and saw rolling mountains, ceaselessly flowing rivers, thriving vegetation, birds singing melodiously, beasts roaming in herds, and fish swimming freely in the water—this world was truly beautiful. So, she decided to stay.
Day after day, she enjoyed the beauty of nature, but although birds, beasts, insects, and fish kept her company, Nuwa gradually began to feel lonely and isolated. She always felt that something was missing, yet she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, and could only let this growing sense of emptiness intensify with each passing day.
One day, she walked across a lush, grassy plain, but the birds, beasts, and fish could no longer lift her spirits. Listlessly, she followed a river until she grew tired and sat down on a rock by the bank. The clear water reflected her image, and she saw her own gloomy face staring back. So she smiled, and her reflection smiled too; she frowned, and it frowned as well—this struck her as amusing. Suddenly, she realized why she felt so lonely: there was no other creature like her in the world. How could the mountains, rivers, plants, insects, birds, and animals possibly understand her heart?
She thought, since that was the case, why not create some beings in her own image to liven up the world? With this idea, she immediately set to work, grabbing a lump of yellow clay by the riverbank, and, looking at her reflection in the water, she kneaded and shaped it. Soon, a small clay figure was complete. Nüwa held the little clay figure in her hand, brought it to her mouth, and gently blew a breath onto it. The little clay figure came to life and began to move. When placed on the ground, it walked around, shouting, "Mama! Mama..." Nüwa was overjoyed and quickly set to work on a second one. She blew a breath, and the second one also came to life. Then she made a third, a fourth... The clay figures multiplied. Finally, Nüwa placed them all on the ground and blew a breath over them, and the clay figures came to life. They experienced joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and could speak, completely different from the plants, trees, birds, and animals. Nüwa no longer felt lonely, and she called these living clay figures "humans." At first, the humans moved around Nüwa, but gradually many wandered far away, dispersing to various places.
With people, the world became immensely vibrant, and Nüwa was overjoyed, continuing tirelessly to mold clay figures. But the earth was so vast that people quickly scattered everywhere, and Nüwa grew increasingly weary. She thought that if she kept on like this, she would be exhausted before there were enough people in the world. So, she casually pulled a vine from the cliff, dipped it into the mud pit, and whipped it, splattering many muddy droplets that turned into lively little people upon landing. Each whip produced many people, just like the ones she had molded, making creation much faster. Delighted, Nüwa whipped vigorously, and mud droplets flew everywhere. When she stopped, the earth was already filled with enough people.
One day, she wanted to observe humans in various places and arrived at a location where she found some people lying motionless on the ground. Puzzled, she looked closer and realized these tiny figures had white hair and looked extremely aged. It turned out they had grown very old and died. Nüwa thought that since people would all age and die, eventually humans would vanish entirely if this continued—would she have to create them all over again? That would be far too troublesome! Nüwa decided the best solution was to let humans reproduce and multiply on their own, ensuring their endless continuation.
Therefore, she gave these beings different physical characteristics to distinguish male from female, and had men and women unite to produce offspring. To prevent such unions from plunging humanity into chaos, she also established the institution of marriage, allowing humans to thrive and multiply on their own from then on. Thus, Nüwa is also known as the "Goddess of Marriage" or the "Divine Matchmaker."
Humanity could now thrive and multiply on their own, living happily on the earth generation after generation. However, before long, they encountered a catastrophic disaster. It turned out that the Water God Gonggong and the Fire God Zhurong were fighting for the throne, and Gonggong was defeated. In a fit of rage, Gonggong used his head to crash into Buzhou Mountain. This pillar holding up the sky collapsed with a thunderous roar, causing the sky to tilt toward the northwest and the earth to sink toward the southeast. Seawater flooded the land, leading to widespread floods. Due to the violent tremors, large fissures opened in the ground, spewing fire continuously. Beasts in the forests, startled by the upheaval, rushed out and attacked people on sight. Many people either drowned in the floods, were burned to death by the fires, or were killed by wild animals.
Seeing her descendants suffering in deep distress, Nüwa was heartbroken and decided to save humanity. She traveled across the seas and climbed over countless mountains until she reached Tiantai Mountain by the East Sea, where she discovered five-colored soil suitable for smelting stones, and resolved to smelt stones there to mend the sky. She piled giant boulders atop Tiantai Mountain to form a furnace, borrowed the divine fire of the sun, placed the five-colored soil into the furnace, and after nine days and nine nights finally forged five-colored giant stones. Then she spent another nine days and nine nights using these colorful stones to repair the sky. Once the sky was barely mended, to prevent it from collapsing again, she cut off the four legs of a ten-thousand-year-old divine turtle to support the four corners of the earth. At last, heaven and earth returned to their proper places, floodwaters flowed into channels, great fires were extinguished, and peace was restored to the world. Moreover, from then on, whenever the rain cleared and the sky brightened, five-colored clouds and rosy hues would appear on the horizon, making the sky even more beautiful than before. The people, freed from disaster, rejoiced and cheered.
Nuwa is the great mother of the Chinese nation; she not only created humans in her own image and established a marriage system that allowed humanity to reproduce, forming human society, but also bravely protected us when humans were threatened by natural disasters. To express gratitude to this great mother, people built the Nuwa Temple at the foot of Tiantai Mountain, where generations have worshipped her with incense that has never ceased.
The legend of Nüwa, though mythological, is by no means a fabrication out of thin air; it is a reflection of early human social life. As is well known, early humans formed a matrilineal clan society based on blood ties, where women held a dominant role in production and daily life, and children knew only their mothers, not their fathers. The legend of Nüwa precisely mirrors this historical period of matrilineal society.