Chinese · Classical Chinese · c. 139 BCE
The Huainanzi
Compiled under Liu An, King of Huainan
A Han compendium of philosophy and cosmology presented to the emperor, and the source of the version of the broken sky everyone knows: Nüwa smelting five-coloured stones to patch heaven and cutting the legs off a turtle to prop up its corners after Gonggong knocked the pillar down. The Shanhaijing lists such figures; this explains what they did and why the world is lopsided as a result.
Read The Huainanzi in full at the linked edition →What this text attests · 3
| Name here | Rank given | # | Powers described |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contender for the throne | — | Butts Mount Buzhou in defeat and breaks the pillar of heaven, tilting the sky and the earth; the damage is what Nüwa then repairs. | |
| — | — | The repair of the world: after the pillar of heaven is broken she smelts five-coloured stones to patch the sky and cuts the legs from a great turtle to prop up its corners, and the sky still tilts, which is why the sun and stars move as they do. A creator whose defining act is maintenance rather than creation is unusual enough to be worth citing twice. | |
| Keeper of the elixir | — | Holder of the drug of deathlessness, which is stolen from her and taken to the moon — the earliest form of the immortality role that later becomes her whole character. |
