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Nüwa Created Human Beings is one of ancient Chinese mythology and legends, Nüwa is regarded as the original creator of human beings. She uses clay to create humankind and colorful stones to repair the broken heaven. Nüwa restores the order of the world, creates human beings and takes the responsibility to regular the stability of the world. It is the origin of human society in Chinese mythology, Nüwa becomes the ancestor of human beings, the Goddess of Mother and the guardian of human society.

The myths of Nüwa first appeared in traditional ancient Chinese classic Fengsu Tongyi, which is a book recording a lot of stories about folk customs and traditions in early ancient China. There are many classical Chinese texts referring myths of Nüwa Created Human Beings, such as Chu Ci, Shanhaijing and Huainanzi. The myths of Nüwa originated from folklore by word-of-mouth during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). However, because of the control for politics and culture, there were numerous literary works being destroyed in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). Later on, some scholars in the Han Dynasty repaired the relevant books and texts, compiling and recording the fairy tales of Nüwa according to their own knowledge and the folklores they had heard.

The Myth of Creation
After Pangu created the heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars began to glitter in the sky, there were lofty mountains, blossoming plants and live animals in the earth. The world was created finally, however, there were no human beings.

One day when a goddess, Nüwa wandered around the world, she could not help feeling lonely and wondering why there was no humankind in the beautiful world. Nüwa kept walking and walking, when passing by a pond, she suddenly squatted down by it and came out of an idea to use the clay to make figures according to her reflections in water. After Nüwa blew a breath, these clay figures which had eyes, noses, arms and legs began to move and dance suddenly, calling Nüwa “mother”. Nüwa was so excited that to keep making more and more clay figures, what’s more, she called these figures “人”, which means human in Chinese. According to Chinese mythology and folklore, these clay figures that made by Nüwa were the origin of human beings.

Nüwa was tired with a poor efficiency even for a long time making, she began to consider another method to create. She picked up a branch of willow and used it to slap the ground, the splashing mud dropped on the ground to become live human beings again. This is considered as the popularity of humankind and the beginning of human society in Chinese mythology.

The creation of marriage
Even though human beings were created, Nüwa occasionally realized that the life of these creatures was limited, after a period a time, the clay figures began to fall to the ground and out of breath until they died. Nüwa considered for a long time and got an idea that to give humankind the ability to reproduce themselves. She divided human beings into men and women, enable them to attract each other and taught them how to love each other. This idea is the birth of the concept of marriage. After marriage, a male and a female could combine to reproduce a new human being which was their child. Nüwa also created the marriage system to regular the marriages of human beings, so she was named as the creator of marriage and marriage goodness.

The combination of Nüwa and her brother Fuxi is regarded as the original invention of marriage and the beginning of human multiplication. Late, Nüwa and Fuxi became the leaders to organize tribes and began to dominate and govern human society.

Implied Meaning
Joining Fuxi to the myths of Nüwa Creation implies that female power begins to be suppressed during the later Han Dynasty in China. The combination of Nüwa and Fuxi is one of the examples marking the transformation from matriarchal culture to patriarchal culture. The process of the patrilineal society replacing the matrilineal society was the transformation from the consanguineous society dominated by population production to the material-related society dominated by material production. Material relationship became the main interpersonal relationship in the society, even the blood relationship has changed from female-centered to male-centered gradually. People argue that adding the character Fuxi into the myths of Nüwa Creation destroys the divinity of Nüwa, a famous American Sinologist, Shafer claims that the status of Nüwa in sacred ancient Chinese mythology has degraded because of the contempt from some educated elites for theology partly and the increasing of male domination in the society partly.

Significance
There are many themes and stories in ancient Chinese mythology, which epitomize the ancient China society at that time. These myths are the treasures of Chinese culture, becoming the part of thousands of years of Chinese cultural history. Moreover, these traditional myths also play an important role in the later development of Chinese culture even today. A scholar, Cheng argues that “literary texts are thus made to serve as a vehicle to consolidate the Chinese autochthonous myth-symbol complex, which constitutes a crucial part of the common people’s religious life.”

In Chinese mythology, Nüwa is considered as the creator of human beings, the inventor of the marriage and the guardian of the human society. On the one hand, it reveals the thought of ancient Chinese people about the form of the universe and the origin of humankind, on the other hand, it expresses a process of continuity to provide ancient Chinese people a sense of bonding, belonging and collective. Nüwa changed from a scared Mother Goddess to the consort who assisted Fuxi in ruling the society indicates the gradual transformation from matriarchal society to patriarchal society. The image of Nüwa is no longer as “glorious” as it has been in the past and the respect and worship from people to Nüwa is gradually reduced, however, the mythology of Nüwa Creation still has a far-reaching significance in the history of Chinese mythology.