3

Saviors

ih e re is a certain correlation between the mythical figures o f the

last chapter and those discussed here in the sense that both culture bear­
ers and saviors benefit mankind, the first by teaching skills and func­
tions through the paradigm o f divine discovery, the second by deliver­
ing humankind from some form o f disaster or suffering. The difference
between the two lies in the context and method o f the beneficial act.
The mythical accounts in this chapter mainly narrate the intervention
o f a god, demigod, suprahuman hero, or heroic human on behalf o f
humans at a time o f trouble or impending disaster.
The readings in this chapter focus on natural disaster, such as the
absence o f sunlight or rain, cosmic disorder, such as the collapse o f part
o f the universe, a deluge, or extinction from solar disorder, or the threat
o f starvation and the depredations o f a monster.
The word savior belongs by convention to Christian religion with
the meaning o f a mesocosmic figure, the Christ, who, although inno­
cent, offers himself in sacrifice in order to redeem humanity.. Although
this soteriological dimension is absent from Chinese mythical accounts,
the concept o f deliverance from evil or harm, usually in its physical
manifestation rather than the spiritual, is inherent in many Chinese
myths. Although the w ord savior is avoided by Western mythologists in
general because o f its Christological aspect, it is used here in its neutral

67
68 ~ Chinese Mythology

meaning o f ‘deliverer or rescuer’, with an altruistic and divine colora­

tion in the term.

Chu Lung, Torch Dragon

This brief narrative o f Chu Lung, Torch Dragon, from The Classic
o f Mountains and Seas brings into play several mythic motifs: a god who
is part-human, part-serpentine in shape; the name o f a god denoting a
mythical creature; the cyclical pattern o f light and dark; the homologic
alloform o f two eyes for the sun; strangely shaped eyes; mythic geogra­
phy; a god’s power over the elements o f wind and rain; the emblematic
color scarlet; and the use o f the celestial number nine. The chapter o f
the Classic from which the reading below is taken describes the great
expanse to the north, and it probably dates from the first century a .d .
B y Han times, a cosmological Theory o f the Five Elements had been
formulated into a system o f universal correspondences, in which major
aspects o f the world, such as the cardinal points, seasons, colors, the
five elements o f wood, metal, water, earth, and fire, and so forth each
had its own attributes. According to this system, the cardinal point o f
the north had the attributes o f the dark Y in cycle, the color black, the
season o f winter, the element o f water, the number six, and the musical
note Yu. Various systems o f correlations prevailed in the Han period,
but this is the most typical (Fung Yu-lan 1953, 2:7-23). Thus the north­
ern region described in the narrative suffers from extreme darkness,
which the presiding deity, Chu Lung, alleviates with the divine light
from his’strangely vertical eyes.
The earliest commentator o f the Classic, Kuo P’u (a .d . 276-324), in
his elucidation cites tw o riddles from the “Li Sao” section o f the Songs
o f C h’u which appear to be answered by the C hu Lung myth: “Where
does the sun not reach to? H ow does Chu Lung illumine it?” (Yuan K ’o
1980.1, 439). It is interesting that these riddles in the fourth-century B.C.
text are immediately followed by a reference to the sun goddess, Hsi-
Ho. The juxtaposition o f the myths o f Chu Lung and H si-H o in “Ques­
tions o f Heaven” suggests that the Chu Lung myth may have repre­
sented an alternative etiological myth o f sunlight and darkness and that
Chu Lung may be a vestige o f an earlier sun god. If so, C hu Lung has
a parallel function to Hsi-Ho, the charioteer o f the sun and mother o f
the sons in the earliest solar myths.
Saviors ~ 69

Beyond the northwestern sea, north o f Scarlet River, is Pied-Tail

Mountain. It has a god with a human face and a snake’s body, and it
is scarlet. His vertical eyes are straight slits. When he closes his eyes
it grows dark. When he looks out it grows bright. He neither eats
nor sleeps nor rests. Wind and rain visit him. This god shines on the
nine darknesses. He is called Torch Dragon [Chu Lung]. (Shan hai
ching, Ta huang pei ching, SPPY I7.7a-b)

Nii Kua Mends the Sky

In the etiological myths presented in chapter 1, N ii Kua appeared
in her role as creatrix o f humans. It was pointed out there that in Han
iconography the goddess was shown with her attributes o f a measuring
rope and a pair o f compasses. This constructive function o f the goddess
is exemplified in the myth o f Nii Kua repairing the damaged cosmos
and so saving the world from extinction. The methods she uses are pri­
mordial metallurgy and dam building. In the following reading from
Huai-nan Tzu, the cause o f the cosmic disaster is said to be that “the four
poles collapsed,” that is, the earthly supports holding up the sky gave
way. In some versions o f the sky-earth myth, these supports are envis­
aged as pillars, or poles, or mountains. In another chapter o f Huai-nan
Tzu, however, it is related that a primeval titan, Kung Kung, collided
w ith a mountain named Pu-chou supporting the sky when he fought
the god Chuan Hsu and caused it to break, with disastrous cosmic con­
sequences. Thus Kung K ung plays the role o f the marplot in this other
version. It w ill be recalled that the text o f the Huai-nan Tzu, compiled
circa 139 B.C., constitutes a collection o f chapters by divers hands, repre­
senting different perspectives o f a generally Taoistic persuasion, and as
such constitutes a valuable source o f versions o f myths. The N ii Kua
narrative, therefore, relates the version that all four sky-earth poles col­
lapsed, whereas the Kung Kung version relates that only one support
was damaged. It w ill become evident in the discussion o f the Kung
Kung myth in chapter 4 that in the minds o f commentators the two
myths gradually became confused and merged into a new syncretic ver­
sion. Moreover, whereas in the N ii Kua version the cataclysm is
righted, in the Kung Kung version the damage is permanent, and the
cosmic flaw serves as an etiological myth to explain w hy Chinese rivers
flow toward the east, following the list o f the earth due to Kung Kung’s
belligerent blunder.
The second part o f the N ii Kua myth narrative from Huai-nan Tzu
Saviors ~ 71

reflects basic concepts o f Taoist philosophy. It presents an idealized

image o f the world after the saving intervention o f the goddess, a
utopia where savage beasts “no longer have rapacious hearts” and
where human beings, called “the people o f Chuan”— that is, the descen­
dants o f the god Chuan Hsu — survive the disaster to live in harmony
with the cosmos: “They bore earth’s square on their backs and
embraced the round sky.” In the closing sentences o f the reading, the
Taoist coloration becomes more pronounced with such terminology as
“the Way o f the True Person.” This philosophical orientation in the nar­
rative results in a subversion o f the myth o f the goddess N il Kua, for
she is transposed from the status o f an independent primeval deity to
that o f a lesser goddess under the power o f a supreme god, named High
Ancestor (T’ai-tsu), in the Taoist pantheon. The diminution o f the pri­
mal myth marks the incipient phase in the Han era in which gods and
goddesses o f the ancient pantheon begin to be demythologized and a
new pantheon begins to evolve.

In remote antiquity, the four poles collapsed. The Nine Regions split
up. Heaven could not cover all things uniformly, and earth could not
carry everything at once. Fires raged fiercely and could not be extin­
guished. Water rose in vast floods without abating. Fierce beasts
devoured the people o f Chuan. Violent birds seized the old and weak
in their talons. Then Nii Kua smelted five-color stones to mend the
blue sky. She severed the feet o f a giant sea turtle to support the four
poles and killed a black dragon to save the region o f Chi. And she
piled up the ashes from burned reeds to dam the surging waters. The
blue sky was mended. The four poles were set right. The surging
waters dried up. The region o f Chi was under control. Fierce beasts
died and the people o f Chuan lived. They bore earth’s square area on
their backs and embraced the round sky.. . .
Ever since then, there have been no birds or beasts, no insects or
reptiles, that do not sheathe their claws and fangs and conceal their
poisonous venom, and they no longer have rapacious hearts. When
one considers her achievement, it knows only the bounds o f Ninth
Heaven above and the limits o f Yellow Clod below. She is acclaimed
by later generations, and her brilliant glory sweetly suffuses the
whole world. She rides in a thunder-carriage driving shaft-steeds of
winged dragons and an outer pair o f green hornless dragons. She
bears the emblem o f the Fortune o f Life and Death. Her seat is the
Visionary Chart. Her steeds’ halter is o f yellow cloud; in the front is
72 ~ Chinese Mythology

a white calf-dragon, in the rear a rushing snake. Floating, drifting,

free and easy, she guides ghostly spirits as she ascends to Ninth
Heaven. She has audience with God inside the holy gates. Silently,
solemnly, she comes to rest below the High Ancestor. Then, without
displaying her achievements, without spreading her fame, she holds
the secret o f the Way o f the True Person and follows the eternal
nature o f Heaven and earth. (Huai-nan Tzu, Lan ming, SPPY 6.7b-8a)

Hou Chi Saves Humans from Starvation

The mythic narrative o f Hou Chi, the lord o f millet and god o f
agriculture, was presented in chapter 2 to illustrate the agricultural
function o f the grain god w ho taught humans how to cultivate plants.
The text is reexamined here to underscore the god’s role as a savior
x figure. This aspect o f the god is expressed within the special mytholog­
ical context o f the Golden A ge o f Antiquity ruled by the demigods Yao
and Shun which the Han historian, author o f the passage cited here,
borrowed from The Classic o f History. The saving role o f Hou Chi is
expressed through the demigod Shun w ho instructs Hou C h i to rescue
the people from starvation. In this passage, the Han historian Ssu-ma
Ch’ien presents H ou C hi as a minister o f agriculture rather than as a
primeval god and as a humanized hero rather than a savior deity.

Hou Chi o f the Chou was named Ch’i, the Abandoned. . . . When
Ch’i was a child, he looked imposing, as if he had the bold spirit o f
a giant. When he went out to play, he liked planting hemp and beans,
and his hemp and beans were very fine. When he became an adult, he
also grew very skilled at plowing and farming. He would study the
proper use o f the land, and where valleys were suitable he planted
and he reaped. Everyone went out and imitated him. Emperor Yao
heard about him and promoted Ch’i to master o f agriculture, so that
the whole world would benefit from him and have the same success.
Emperor Shun said, “Ch’i, the black-haired people are beginning to
starve. You are the Lord Millet [Hou Chi], Plant the seedlings in
equal measure throughout the hundred valleys.” He gave Ch’i the
fiefdom o f T ’ai with the title o f Lord Millet, and he took another sur­
name from the Chi clan. (Shih chi, Chou pen chi, SPPY 4.ia-b)
Figures, a, the demigod Yao; inscription reads, “The God Yao, Fang Hsun, was
humane like Heaven itself, and wise like a divine being; to be near him was like
approaching the sun, to look at him was like gazing into clouds”; b, the demi­
god Shun; inscription reads, “The God Shun, Chung Hua, plowed beyond
Mount Li; in three years he had developed it”; c, the demigod Yu with his
water-control rod; inscription reads, “Yii of the Hsia was skilled in charting the
earth; he explored water sources and he understood the Yin [cosmic principle];
according to the seasons he constructed high dikes; then he retired and created
the physical punishments”; d, King “Chieh [last ruler] of the Hsia,” holding a
sickle-lance, supported by his two favorites, Wan and Yen. Funerary stone bas-
relief, Wu Liang Shrine, Chia-hsiang county, Shantung province, a .d . 151.
From Feng and Feng, Research on Stone Carving (1821) 1934, chap. 3.
74 ~ Chinese Mythology

Shun, the Filial Son

There is general agreement among the Chou texts that Shun was
the second o f the three demigod rulers o f the Golden A ge o f Antiq­
u ity—Yao, Shun, and Yii. This age was paradisiacal, not in the material
sense but in the sense o f having perfect government. Two mythopoeic
trends are discernible in the texts that narrate the deeds and speeches o f
these mythical rulers: one concerns the myth o f the perfect ruler, the
other the myth o f the hero. M yths o f Yao are sparse, and details o f him
are few, but myths and details about Shun and Yu are plentiful. In the
Shun myths the first m otif o f the perfect ruler is expressed in several
ways: the ruler’s severe testing o f his successor (Yao’s tests o f Shun); the
ruler’s choice o f a successor unrelated to himself (Yao’s passing over his
ten sons in favor o f Shun, and Shun’s later passing over his nine sons in
favor o f Yii); the ruler’s abdication in favor o f a better person; and the
enlightened reign o f an ideal sage-ruler. These motifs became powerful
political myths that influenced philosophers and political theorists in
the late Chou and Han eras.
The primary sources for these myths o f Shun are the “Canon o f
Yao,” chapter i o f The Classic o f History, and the Confucian philosophi­
cal w ork Mencius. In The Heir and the Sage, Sarah Allan explores the twin
aspects o f hereditary rule and individual virtue in several mythic para­
digms, including the Yao and Shun myth o f succession, utilizing struc­
turalist theories o f Levi-Strauss (Allan 1981).
The second trend, in which classical narratives relate the acts o f
Shun the hero, is more recognizable as the stuff o f mythology. They
include accounts o f Shun’s marriage to Yao’s tw o daughters, the three
trials Shun endured at the hands o f his blind father and step-brother,
Shun’s reward o f the good and his punishment o f evil, and so forth.
These accounts appear in “Questions o f Heaven,” Mencius, the Historical
Records o f Ssu-ma Ch’ien, and numerous texts o f the late and post-Han
eras. The earliest accounts are typically fragmented and do not consti­
tute sustained narratives.
Overarching these tw o mythic trends in the accounts o f Shun is a
third major theme, Shun’s filial piety. This tradition is mainly based on
the heroic narrative o f the three trials o f Shun, in which he refuses to
rebuke or punish his father and step-brother despite their attempts to
murder him. The moral attribute o f filial piety was developed and
enhanced by writers o f the Confucian school o f philosophy, especially
by M eng Tzu (latinized as Mencius), w ho made Shun the exemplar o f
Saviors ~ 75

Confucian moral principles. B y the early Han period, The Classic o f His­
tory, the Analects o f Confucius and his school, and the Mencius came to
form part o f the Confucian canon, and Shun thereby became irrevoc­
ably identified as an orthodox Confucian hero.
The four readings in this section recount different aspects o f the
Shun cycle o f myths. They appear in the chronological order o f the dat­
ing o f their texts. The first, from “Questions o f Heaven,” refers to the
story o f Shun’s third trial at the hands o f his father, Ku Sou, whose
name means ‘the Blind M an,’ and his half-brother, Hsiang (whose
name, among various meanings, denotes ‘Elephant’). The father’s blind­
ness is a mythic m otif indicating his moral darkness. This has a parallel
in some narratives which relate that Shun had double pupils, signifying
acute mental and moral vision. (The narratives o f this and other trials
o f Shun are presented together in chap. 4.) The reference to dog’s mess
in the first reading here denotes a charm against the power o f alcohol.
The second reading is from the Mencius, dating from the fourth cen­
tury B.C. It relates two o f the trials o f Shun, in which the hero shows
mercy and filial love in the face o f evil. The third reading, from the post-
Han text Biographies o f Women, briefly mentions the two brides o f Shun
(here he is named Yu Yii). In the earlier narratives these brides, daugh­
ters o f Yao, are not named, but latter accounts tended to supply bio­
graphical data.
The fourth reading is from Historical Records. Its narrative is based
on the myth o f Shun’s marriage and follows the account o f Shun in The
Classic o f History, in which Shun the demigod is demythologized and
humanized. The narrative tells o f Yao’s mark o f favor in giving his
daughters in marriage to Shun, and it prefigures the account o f Yao’s
choice o f Shun as successor. It is possible to hypothesize that this myth
may be interpreted at one level as a myth o f political intermarriage in
which a ruler’s successor is not his hereditary heir but an outsider w ho
is integrated into the ruler’s family through marriage and entourage
affiliations. The underlying pattern o f this myth may serve the function
o f explaining and transmitting a form o f social structure which may
have existed in prehistoric times.

Shun served his brother, but his brother still wronged him. Why was
his body unharmed after he had bathed in dog’s mess? (Ch’u Tz’u,
T ’ien wen, SPTK 3.20b)

Shun’s parents sent him to repair the shed. Then they took the ladder
away, and the Blind Man set fire to the shed. They sent Shun to
76 ~ Chinese Mythology

dredge the well. They went out after him and covered over the well
and blocked it. Hsiang said, “I was the one who thought up the plot
to kill Shun. His cattle and sheep are for you, Father and Mother, and
also his granary. His spears are for me, as well as his lute and his bow.
His two wives must also take care o f my rooms.” Hsiang entered
Shun’s house and there he found Shun sitting on the bed playing the
lute. Hsiang was ashamed and said, “I was trying to do the best for
you.” Shun said, “I try to do the best for my people. You can help me
in my work o f governing.” (Meng Tzu, SPTK 9-3b-4b)

Yu Yii’s two consorts were the two daughters o f Emperor Yao. The
oldest was O-huang; the next oldest was Nu-ying. (Lieh nil chuan, Yu
Yii erhfei, SPPY i.ia)

Shun’s father, Ku Sou, was blind, and when Shun’s mother died, Ku
Sou [the Blind Man] remarried and Hsiang was born to him. Hsiang
was arrogant. Ku Sou loved his second wife and child and often felt
like killing Shun. . ..
By the time Shun was twenty, he had won a reputation for filial
piety. By the time he was thirty, Emperor Yao was making inquiries
about who might be employed in his administration. The Four Peaks
unanimously recommended Yii Shun as a man who was worth em­
ploying. Yao therefore gave his two daughters in marriage to Shun
so that they would look after Shun’s household. He ordered his nine
sons to be his [Shun’s] retainers so that they would look after his pub­
lic business. . . . Then Yao presented Shun with fine linen clothes
and a lute, and he had a granary built for him, and he gave him cattle
and sheep. (Shih chi, Wu ti pen chi, SPPY 1.17b, 1.18a, 1.18b)

The Burial Place o f Shun

There are several mythic accounts o f the death and burial place o f
Shun. The major traditions, which include the Historical Records o f the
first reading below, locate his grave in Ts’ang-wu (modern Hunan prov­
ince), where he is said to have died on a royal tour. The second reading,
from The Classic o f Mountains and Seas, points to two mythic motifs.
One concerns the name Shu Chun, w ho may be identified as Shang
Chun, Shun’s eldest son, w hom Shun rejected as his successor because
he thought him unworthy. (A late text identifies him as Hou C hi’s
grandson.) The other concerns the creatures guarding Shun’s grave.
M ost are aggressive hunting birds. The Shih-jou beast is said elsewhere
Saviors ~ 77

in the same text to be the guardian o f the earthly paradise o f K ’un-lun.

The elephant is o f special interest, since it might refer to the name o f
Shun’s brother, Hsiang. The distinguishing feature o f the elephant is its
trunk, and this may have some mythological relationship with the
name o f the shrine set up to Hsiang, called Nose Pavilion. The story
behind the names Hsiang and Nose Pavilion has not survived in classi­
cal or traditional texts. The first reading, from Historical Records, dates
from the late second century B.C.; the second and third, from The Classic
of Mountains and Seas and from Disquisitions respectively, date from the
first century a .d .; and the fourth is from Chang Shou-chieh’s eighth-
century a .d . commentary on the Han Historical Records, purporting to
cite a lost Han text, A General Treatise on Geography.

While Shun was conducting a royal progress through his southern

dominions, he passed away in the wilds o f Ts’ang-wu. (Shih chi, Wu
ti pen chi, SPPY 1.23b)

East o f Scarlet River are the wilds o f Ts’ang-wu where Shun and Shu
Chun are buried. Therefore there are the Wen-pei bird, the Li-yu
bird, the Ch’iu-chiu bird, the Ying-eagle, the Ku-eagle, the Wei-wei
serpent, the bear, the P’i-bear, the elephant, the tiger, the panther, the
wolf, and the Shih-jou beast. (Shan hai ching, Ta huang nan ching,
SPPY is.ia-b)

According to legend, Shun is buried at Ts’ang-wu, which Hsiang

plowed for him. (Lun heng, Ou hui, SPTK 3.3b)

The Spirit o f Nose Pavilion is in Ying-tao district, sixty leagues

north. An old legend says that Shun is buried on Chiu-yi [Nine-
Doubt Mountain] and that Hsiang came to the place. People later set
up a shrine, which they called the Spirit o f Nose Pavilion. (Chang
Shou-chieh’s commentary on Shih chi, Wu tipen chi, citing K ’uo ti chih,
Shih chi, SPPY 1.23b)

Yi Shoots the Ten Suns to Avert Disaster

The central myth o f Y i the Archer revolves around his heroic feat
o f saving the world from being destroyed by a solar conflagration. This
myth belongs to a nexus o f solar myths figuring Hsi-Ho, the world-
tree called Leaning Mulberry, and the pool where the suns were rinsed
after each day’s journey, especially the ten suns born o f Hsi-Ho. The Y i
myth narrates how the ten suns all came out together and threatened to
78 ~ Chinese Mythology

annihilate the world. The first reading, from The Classic o f Mountains
and Seas, relates that Y i was given a sacred bow and arrows by the god
T i Chun to shoot the suns down. T i Chun ordered Y i to rescue humans
from disaster. Thus T i Chun is connected with this nexus o f solar
myths, as he is through his consort, Hsi-Ho, mother o f the suns.
The second reading, from Huai-nan Tzu, gives a slightly different
version o f this myth. Here Y i is a minister under the demigod Yao, w ho
orders him to kill six monsters and to shoot down the ten suns. For this
act Yao is rewarded w ith the title o f Son o f Heaven, or supreme ruler.
Other versions state that it was Yao himself, not Y i, w ho shot the suns
(Wang Ch’ung, Disquisitions, SPTK 11.15b). The Yao tradition did not,
however, survive in mythography, and it was Y i the Archer w ho came
to be identified with the act o f deliverance.
Despite the profound significance o f the myth, and although nearly
all the Chou texts recite it— for example, “Questions o f Heaven,” Ana­
lects, Mencius, Chuang Tzu, Kuan Tzu, Mo Tzu, Hsun Tzu, Han Fei Tzu,
and Annals o f Master Lii — the Y i solar myth achieved far less importance
in the continuum o f the mythological tradition than the comparable
myth o f Yu controlling the flood. Perhaps this is partly because, in
terms o f diurnal reality, the myth o f the flood and its control was more
nearly relevant to the lives o f the people than the less than real myth o f
the unnatural phenomenon o f solar disaster. Another factor in this
question o f dominant motifs is the presentation o f Y i the Archer in the
totality o f classical mythic narratives. Although in the solar myth he is
portrayed positively as a hero, in others, such as the story o f his attempt
to usurp the Hsia government, he is projected negatively as a degener­
ate villain. This ambiguity o f presentation prevented Y i from attaining
the same status as Yu, who, according to all the myths in the Yii cycle,
never committed any wrong.

Ti Chun presented Y i with a vermilion bow and plain-colored ar­

rows with silk cords in order that he should bring assistance to the
land below. So Y i was the first to bring merciful relief to the world
below from all its hardships. (Shan hai ching, Hai nei ching, SPPY 18.7b)

When it came to the era o f Yao, the ten suns all rose at once, scorching
the sheaves o f grain and killing plants and trees, so that the people were
without food. And the Cha-yii Dragon-Headed beast, the Chisel-
Tusk beast, the Nine-Gullet beast, the Giant-Gale bird, the Feng-hsi
wild boar, and the Giant-Head long-snake all plagued the people. So
Yao ordered Y i to execute the Chisel-Tusk beast in’ the wilds o f Ch’ou
Saviors ~ 79

Hua, to slaughter the Nine-Gullet beast near Hsiung River, to shoot

down with his corded arrows the Giant-Gale at Ch’ing-ch’iu Marsh. •
He ordered him to shoot the ten suns up above and to kill the Cha-
yii Dragon-Headed beast below, to behead the Giant-Head long-
snake at Tung-t’ing, and to capture the Feng-hsi wild boar at Mul­
berry Forest. The myriad people were overjoyed and decided on Yao
as their Son o f Heaven. And so for the first time in the whole world,
there were roads and signposts in the broadlands and in the narrow
defiles, in the deep places and on level ground both far and wide.
(Huai-nan Tzu, Pen ching, SPPY 8.5b-6a)

Kun and the Flood

O f all Chinese mythical figures, Kun constitutes the perfect para­
digm o f the savior. The narratives in which he features, moreover, are
rich in motifs. These include his mythical name, derived from a fabled
fish; his descent from the god Chuan Hsu; his role as trickster figure in
the theft from G od o f the gift o f self-renewing soil; his desire to save
the world from the flood; his ritual execution by Chu Yung, the fire
god; the mythical location o f his place o f execution, Feather Mountain;
Kun’s incorrupt corpse; the birth o f Kun’s son.Yii, from the belly o f Kun’s
corpse (variants sayf u ‘again’ or p ’i ‘stubborn’ for/w ‘belly’); his metamor­
phosis into a yellow bear (variants say a yellow dragon or turde); Kun’s
resuscitation by shamans; his fine harvest o f black millet in what had
been an arid heath (the context o f this m otif is not known); and his role
as a failed hero.
The main sources for these motifs are “Questions o f Heaven” and
The Classic o f Mountains and Seas, and they are represented in the three
readings that follow. They portray Kun sympathetically as the hero
w ho failed in his mission. A separate tradition based on The Classic o f
History, however, presents him as an evildoer w hom Yao has executed.
Karlgren has noted that in this context The Classic o f History is “a scho­
lastic endeavour to make history out o f a deluge legend” (1946, 303). In
the historicizing method o f The Classic o f History, the myth o f Kun is
reworked and demythologized. Kun’s crime o f stealing the gift o f
God’s divine soil is transformed in The Classic o f History to his failure to
control irrigation works and to his consequent disturbance o f the nat­
ural order, known as the harmony o f the Five Elements. Aspects o f this
negative portrayal o f Kun and the historicization o f the myth also
appear in late Chou texts, such as Chronicle o f Tso and Discourses o f the
8o ~ Chinese Mythology

, States (ibid., 250). Another strand in The Classic o f History also depicts
Kun as a rebel w ho turned against Yao and Shun because he was not
appointed as one o f the Three Excellencies in government. This theme
o f Kun the rebel is corroborated in Annals o f Master Lii (Yuan K ’o and
Chou M ing 1985, 242). Thus two equally strong traditions o f Kun the
failed hero and Kun the criminal developed along parallel lines in clas­
sical mythography. The tradition based on “Questions o f Heaven” and
The Classic o f Mountains and Seas clearly represents the more authenti­
cally mythological matter, rather than the humanizing historicization
o f the History and the Annals, and so those texts are cited here.
It is worth examining the m otif o f the self-renewing soil (hsi-jang)
by comparing it with the earth-diver creation m otif o f N orth America.
(Besides my rendition o f hsi-jang as ‘self-renewing soil’, the term has
also been rendered as ‘breathing earth’ [Eberhard 1968, 354]; ‘swelling
mold’ [Bodde 1961,399]; ‘idle soil’ [Greatrex 1987,267 n. 11]; and ‘living
earth’, or ‘breathing earth’ [Mathieu 1989,96 n. 1,101 n. 6]). In the earth-
diver myth various creatures are sent down from the sky to earth to
dive into a flood o f water to secure a small particle o f soil that w ill be
used to form the earth. A ll the creatures fail except the last one, w ho re-
emerges from the flood half-dead, “bringing up the tiny bit o f mud
which is then put on the surface o f the water and magically expands to
become the world o f the present time” (Wheeler-Voegelin as quoted by
Dundes 1984, 277).

If Kun was not fit to control the flood, why was he entrusted with
this task? They all said, “D o not fear! Try him and see if he can accom­
plish it.” When the bird-turtles joined together, how did Kun follow
their sign? If [Kun] completed his task as it was willed, why did God
punish him? He lay exposed on Feather Mountain for a long time,
but why did he not decompose for three years? Lord Yii issued from
Kun’s belly. How did he metamorphose? (Ch’u Tz’u, T ’ien wen, SPTK
3.5b-6b)

When Kun came to the end o f his journey to the west, how did he
pass through the heights? He turned into a yellow bear. How did the
shamans restore him to life? They both planted black millet and the
arid heath became a tilled area. Since they planted at the same time,
why did Kun’s grow so tall and lush so fast? (Ch’u Tz’u, T ’ien wen,
SPTK 3-i6b-i7b)
Saviors ~ 81

Floodwater dashed up against the skies. Kun stole God’s self-renew­

ing soil in order to dam the floodwater, but he did not wait for God’s
official permission. God ordered Chu Yung to kill Kun on the ap­
proaches to Feather Mountain. Yii was born from Kun’s belly. So in
the end, God issued a command allowing Yii to spread out the self­
replacing soil so as to quell the floods in the Nine Provinces. (Shan
hai ching, Hai nei ching, SPPY i8.8b-9a)

Yu Controls the Flood

The myth o f Yii and the flood is the greatest in the Chinese tradi­
tion. This is not just because the narratives tell how he managed to con­
trol the flood, but also because numerous myths, legends, and folk tales
became attached to his name. In every case, Yii is depicted as a hero, self­
lessly working on behalf o f humankind, and succeeding in his task.
Yii is the third and last ruler o f the mythical Golden A ge o f Antiq­
uity, following Yao and Shun, and having been chosen by Shun as suc­
cessor in lieu o f Shun’s own nine sons. Yii is also distinguished as the
founder o f the mythical Hsia dynasty. He was also descended from the
god Chuan Hsu, through his father, Kun, and was miraculously born
from his father’s corpse. In the historicizing account o f The Classic of
History, the mythical Yii appears as master o f works for Emperor Yao.
In the third and last reading on the preceding myth o f Kun, it was
related that after Kun’s death and Yii’s birth, Yii was ordained by God
to continue his father’s work, and he was allowed to use the stolen self-
renewing soil. In the first reading on the Yii myth, from “Questions o f
Heaven,” the text emphasizes that although Yii continued the labors o f
his father, he embarked on a quite different plan o f building channels
for the flow o f flood water and reconstructing earth’s boundaries. This
account is echoed in the second reading from The Classic o f History. Sev­
eral other major texts — such as Mencius, Mo Tzu, Shih Tzu, and The Clas­
sic o f Poetry (poems 210, 244, 301, and 304), and Chronicle o f Tso— uni­
formly praise Yii as the hero w ho saved the world from the flood. The
third reading in this section, from Shih Tzu (fourth century B.C.), under­
scores the hero’s selfless devotion to duty.
The fourth reading is from Annals o f Master Lit. It ends w ith a pas­
sage similar to the Shih Tzu account. The Annals is ascribed to the third-
century B.C. politician Lii Pu-wei; it is an eclectic w ork o f philosophy,
literature, and mythology. The Shih Tzu, a century earlier, is a miscel­
lany o f textual fragments reconstructed into a short text. The graphic
82 — Chinese Mythology

descriptions o f Yii in these two texts serve to exemplify Y u’s role as the
savior who is the servant o f the people.
O f the mythical account o f Yii’s control o f the flood in The Classic
of History Karlgren notes: ‘There are scores o f names o f rivers, moun­
tains and localities, and the chapter [‘T h e Tribute o f Yii”] gives in fact
a rough geography o f the world with which the Chinese had some con­
tact— by sight or hearsay— in the early half o f the Chou dynasty” (Karl­
gren 1946, 302). Karlgren’s dating o f this text in around 600 B.C. is de­
batable, and modern scholarship would move its date closer to around
the fourth to the third century B.C., in respect o f its authentic parts.
When he speaks o f “a rough geography,” Karlgren means, as his foot­
note to this passage makes clear, mythogeography as well as verifiable
geography.
In the linked myths o f Kun and Yii, a pattern o f binary opposites
is readily discernible: Kun must die for Yii to be born; Kun must fail for
Yii to succeed; Kun is blamed as a wrongdoer (in some versions), while
Yii is glorified as a hero; Kun incurred the anger o f God, whereas Yii
was favored by God; and finally, the father’s w ork is completed by his
son. The Kun-Yii myth o f the deluge is ideally suited to a structural
analysis on the basis o f the mediation o f binary opposites, using the
methodology o f Levi-Strauss in “The Story o f Asdiwal” (1968,1-47).

If Kun was not fit to control the flood, why was he entrusted with
this task? They all said, “D o not fear! Try him and see if he can accom­
plish it.” . . . Lord Yu issued from Kun’s belly. How did he meta­
morphose? Yii inherited his legacy and continued the work o f his
father. Why was his plan different, even though the work was already
in progress? How did he dam the floodwaters at their deepest? How
did he demarcate the Nine Lands o f the earth? Over the rivers and
seas, what did the Responding Dragon fully achieve and where did
he pass? What plan did Kun devise? What did Yii succeed in doing?
(Ch’u Tz’u, T ’ien wen, SPTK 3.5b-7b)

The Nine Provinces were standardized. The four quarters were made
habitable. The Nine Mountains were deforested and put down for
arable land. The sources o f the Nine Rivers were dredged. The Nine
Marshes were banked up. The Four Seas had their concourses opened
freely. The Six Treasuries were well attended to. All the soils were
compared and classified. Their land values and revenues were care­
fully controlled. (Shang shu, Yii kung, SPPY 6.16b)
Saviors >—< 83

In ancient times, Dragon Gate had not been cleft open, Lu-liang had
not been bored through, and the river passed above Meng-men, its
waters greatly swollen and its current irregular, so that it destroyed
all in its path, the hills and high mounds, and this was what was
known as the Flood. Yii channeled the river and sluiced off the Great
River. For ten years he did not visit his home, and no nails grew on
his hands, no hair grew on his shanks. He caught an illness that made
his body shrivel in half, so that when he walked he could not lift one
leg past the other, and people called it “the Yu walk.” (Shih Tzu,
SPPY 1.16b)

When Yii went east as far as the region o f the Leaning Tree, the sun
was rising over Nine Fords and the plains o f Ch’ing-ch’iang, a place
where the trees are densely clustered and where the mountains brush
against the sky. He went through the districts o f Bird Valley, Green
Mound, through the Land o f the Black-Teeth. He went south as far
as the Lands o f Crossed Toes, Sun-p’u, and Hsu-man, and the moun­
tains o f Nine Brilliances with their cinnabar grain, lac trees, and
seething rivers that rush and roar. He went to the regions o f the
Feathered Men and Naked People, and the district o f Never Die. He
went west as far as the Land o f the Three Perils, below Mount Sha­
man, to the people who drink dew and sip air, to the Banked Gold
Mountain, to the districts o f the Odd Arm and the One Arm Three
Face. He went north as far as the Land o f Jen-cheng and near Hsia-
hui, to the top o f Heng Mountain, to the Land o f Dogfight, to the
wilds o f K ’ua-fu, to the place o f Yu Ch’iang with its immense rivers
and mountains o f massive rocks. There was nowhere he neglected to
travel. He was anxious for the black-haired people. His face became
pitch black, his bodily orifices and his vital organs did not function
properly, his stefis were faltering. As a result, he sought out wise
men, for he wished to discover everything about the advantages of
these lands. It was a laborious task. (Lu-shih ch'utt-ch’iu, Ch’iu jen,
SPTK 22.8b-9b)

K’ai Receives the Music o f Heaven

The myth o f K ’ai might appear out o f place in a chapter about savi­
ors, but there are two important reasons for its inclusion here. The first
is that a textual variant in a Han version o f an ancient text, Explanations
o f Divination in “ The Storehouse o f A ll Things” , refers to K ’ai’s attempt to
84 ' Chinese Mythology

steal (ch’ieh) the music o f the gods. The Storehouse of A ll Things is an anon­
ymous work, no longer extant except in fragments, dating from the late
Chou to Han era, and it belongs to the category o f divinatory books
such as The Classic o f Change. B y contrast, the myth o f K ’ai in a late chap­
ter o f The Classic o f Mountains and Seas (first century a . d .) uses the more
neutral word received instead o f stole. If the version in the Explanations is
correct, it would mean that K ’ai, the grandson o f Kun, repeated Kun’s
theft (ch’ieh) from God, even at the risk o f ritual execution. This version
fits the savior pattern o f the myth. It also casts K ’ai in the role o f a trick­
ster figure in myth.
Whichever version is taken to be correct, both texts contain the
important m otif o f music as the source o f divine harmony. K ’ai’s act o f
ascending the highest point on earth to sing the music o f the gods close
to Heaven itself may be interpreted as a mimesis o f divine harmony and
power.
K ’ai’s association w ith music is linked to the circumstances o f his
birth. He was the son o f Yii, and at his birth he had been named C h’i,
meaning ‘to open’. His title, Hsia-hou, in the first reading below, from
The Classic of Mountains and Seas, signifies his succession to Yii, founder
o f the Hsia, and it means ‘Lord o f the Hsia’ . When K ’ai’s father was
going to marry the T ’u-shan girl, he leapt for jo y and accidentally
drummed with his feet on a stone. The girl saw Yii metamorphosed
into a bear and fled in shame, carrying her son in her womb. She turned
to stone, and her son was born from her north side when Yu pursued
her and ordered her to give him their son. The name K ’ai also means ‘to
open’. So the birth o f K ’ai, or Ch’i, was flawed by his father’s error, and
that flaw became his gift o f music to the world.
The second reading is a good example o f the way in which a philos­
opher appropriates a myth to illustrate his ideas and in so doing sub­
verts that myth. Its author, M o Tzu (ca. 479-ca. 381 B.C.) belonged to the
utilitarian and logical traditions o f classical thought. His philosophical
method is adversarial in the sense that he expounded his ideas by means
o f a fundamental critique o f Confucian concepts. He launched a polem­
ical attack on the financial and material expense o f ritual ceremony, a
key element in Confucian educational and social theory, with its asso­
ciated aspects o f ceremonial music and dance. The chapter o f Mo Tzu
from which the reading is taken is entitled “Against M usic,” and since
the written word for ‘music’, yueh, is a pun for ‘pleasure’, lo, M o Tzu’s
attack on extravagant music carries a puritanical connotation. The Wu
kuan mentioned in the text either refers to the five sons o f K ’ai, or it may
Saviors ~ 85

mean “The Martial Kuan,” the title o f a lost chapter o f The Classic of
History.

Beyond the sea to the southwest, south o f Scarlet River and west o f
Drifting Sands, there is a man called Hsia-hou K ’ai who wears a
green snake in his pierced ears and rides a pair o f dragons. K’ai went
up to Heaven three times as a guest. He received the “Nine Counter­
points” and the “Nine Songs,” and he brought them down to earth.
This Plain o f Heavenly Mu is sixteen thousand feet high, and it was
here that K ’ai first came to sing the “Nine Summons.” (Shan hai ching,
Ta huang hsi ching, SPPY i6.7b-8a)

The Wu kuan says: “Ch’i then became immoral and dissipated, and he
spent a great deal o f time idly enjoying music. And he went out to
eat and drink in the plains to a loud ra-ra! and clang-clang! as flutes
and chimes played violently. He would get soaked with wine and
went out more and more often to eat in the plains. The splendid Wan
Dance was degraded. This show was heard up in great Heaven, and
Heaven refused to have anything further to do with him.” This was
not pleasing to Heaven above, nor did it benefit the people below. So
Mo Tzu says that if gentlemen truly wish to benefit the world and
eliminate disaster, they must prohibit things like music. (Mo Tzu, Fei
yueh, 1, SPTK 8.i9a-b)

At Mulberry Forest They Pray for Rain

There is a general acceptance that a complex interrelationship exists
between myth and ritual. The ritual-dominant Cambridge school, ex­
emplified. by Jane Ellen Harrison, Gilbert Murray, and G. M . Corn-
ford, held that myth derived from earlier ritual, and they distinguished
between the two in these terms: “The primary meaning o f myth . . . is
the spoken correlative o f the acted rite, the thing done” (Harrison 1963,
328). The extremist ritological viewpoint holds that a myth is not a
myth unless it is rooted in a rite. The middle view today is that a myth
need not be enacted in a rite or have a verifiable link with a rite for it
to exist per se. As Eliade pointed out in the context o f Greek mythol­
ogy, “w e do not know a single Greek myth within its ritual context”
(1984,138).
The tw o readings that follow relate similar versions o f a ritual cer­
emony to invoke rain. The first is from the Annals of Master Lii; the sec­
ond is a passage alleged to be from the text o f Huai-nan Tzu but does
86 — Chinese Mythology

not appear in extant editions. The rite o f rainmaking was enacted by the
mythical first ruler o f the Shang dynasty, T ’ang the Conqueror. It is
both penitential and sacrificial; the severe drought was believed to be
due to a crime or fault committed on earth, and this crime could be ex­
piated only by human sacrifice. The second reading, in fact, indicates
that prior to the royal rite human sacrifice had already been offered, but
without success. In both texts the king performs the ceremonial act o f
cutting o ff his hair and fingernails, a mimesis o f the ritual o f animal
sacrifice. Thus the king is both priest and sacrificial victim. In another
version o f the rite in Shih Tzu (fourth century B.C.), the king is described
being tightly bound w ith white rushes and driving to the open-air altar
in a plain carriage drawn by white horses, for white was the symbolic
color o f death (Yuan K ’o 1957, 289 n. 14). The kingly hero, w ho is a
good man according to all accounts, is rewarded for his saving act with
a heavy fall o f rain. The narratives o f the rainmaking rite belong to a
cycle o f myths figuring T ’ang the Conqueror. (For a survey o f these nar­
ratives in various classical works, see Mathieu 1989,140 n. 1.) They uni­
formly project him in a positive way as a great hero w ho enjoyed a
favored relationship w ith Heaven and w ho acted as the humble servant
o f the people.

Long ago, when T ’ang had conquered the Hsia and ruled the world,
there was a severe drought and the harvests failed for five years. So
T ’ang went in person to pray at Mulberry Forest, saying, “If I, the
One Man, have sinned, do not visit your punishment upon the myr­
iad people. If the myriad people have sinned, let me alone take the
blame. Do not let the demons and spirits o f Almighty God harm the
lives o f my people simply because o f my own stupid mistakes.” Then
he cut off his hair, rubbed his hands smooth, and offered himself as
a sacrificial beast to enable him to seek the blessing o f Almighty
God. And then the people rejoiced, for then there was a heavy fall of
rain. (Lii-shih ch'un-ch’iu, Shun mitt, SPTK 9-3b-4a)

In the era o f T ’ang there was a severe drought for seven years, and
divination was made for humans to be sacrificed to Heaven. T ’ang
said, “I will make a divination myself, and I will offer myself as a
sacrifice on behalf o f my people. For is this not what I ought to do?”
Then he ordered an official to prepare a pile o f kindling and logs. He
cut off his hair and fingernails, purified himself with water, and laid
himself on the woodpile in order to be burnt as a sacrifice to Heaven.
Just as the fire was taking hold, a great downpour o f rain fell. (Li
Saviors ~ 87

Shan’s commentary on Chang Heng’s Ssu hsuanfu, citing Huai-nan

Tzu, in a passage not extant, Wen hsuan, KH CP 15.310)

The Virgin Brides and the River God

The myth o f the river god demanding a ransom o f virgin brides
each year merges with historical actuality in this account from Y in g
Shao’s second-century a .d . account in Explanations o f Social Customs,
which relates an event that took place in the third century B.C. The
action is set in the reign o f K ing Chao Hsiang o f Ch’in (306-251 B.C.),
when the king sent Li Ping to govern the region o f Shu (modern Szech­
wan) following the C h’in conquest o f Shu. The narrative is full o f col­
orful detail: the cunning hero pitted against an elusive and greedy
deity, the poignancy o f the tw o beautiful virgins, the god’s contempt
for the hero, the hero’s challenge, the battle between god and man,
metamorphosis o f the god and the hero into blue oxen, and the happy
resolution. The historical Li Ping is also famous for having channeled
the Min River into tw o canals flowing around Ch’eng-tu C ity, besides
his innovations in transport and irrigation.
The hero’s cunning defeat o f the god is presented in such a way that
the power and authority o f the god is diminished, while the efficacy o f
human authority, especially bureaucratic authority, is enhanced. The
result is that, although the mythic narrative appears to relate to a god,
the belief system that created the divinity, that o f conquered Shu, has
been weakened.
The narrative may be examined from another perspective. It is
worth posing the question from a sociological and ethnological stand­
point whether the myth o f the local river god in Shu w ho demanded a
bounty o f two virgins each year may have served as a rationale o f and
a justification for a communal custom in the region. For it is implied in
the narrative that prior to Li Ping’s arrival in Shu from C h’in, the local
authorities in Shu paid the family o f the two virgins a huge sum o f
money as compensation for their loss. This annual exchange would
have brought a financial benefit to the local community and would also
have served as ajustification for culling unwanted daughters by drown­
ing them. In other words, were the death o f two virgins a year by
drowning and the compensation money for their possession by a river
god a local racket? If so, Li Ping appears to have understood this imme­
diately, since he substituted his own two daughters as the “victims” o f
the alleged river god.
88 — Chinese Mythology

Lai Whalen has drawn similar conclusions in his analysis o f a paral­

lel narrative about another river god and his quota o f virgin brides.
There the deity is H o-po, Lord o f the [Yellow] River, and the official is
the famous Confucian sage Hsi-men Pao o f the late fifth century B.C.
His ruse was to throw a seventy-year-old witch and her acolytes into
the river to tell the river god that the bride chosen was not beautiful
enough for him (Lai Whalen 1990,335-50; also see Mathieu 1989,181-83).
Malinowski and Levi-Strauss have shown that such reconstruc­
tions o f the “social charter” are often possible from mythic narratives,
and it may be that in the case o f the river god and the brides a specific
social practice is the underlying concern o f the myth.

After King Chao o f Ch’in had attacked and conquered Shu, he ap­
pointed Li Ping as prefect o f the Shu commandery. There was a river
god who took two young virgins as his brides every year. The head
officer o f the region declared, “You will have to hand over a million
in cash to pay for the brides’ dowry.” Ping said, “That won’t be nec­
essary. I have young daughters o f my own.” When the time came, he
had his daughters beautifully dressed and made up, and he led them
away to be drowned in the river. Li Ping went straight up to the
throne o f the local god, poured out wine as an offering, and said,
“Up till now, I have continued our family line into the ninth genera­
tion. Lord o f the River, you are a mighty god. Please show your
august presence to me, so that I may humbly serve you with wine.”
Ping held the goblet o f wine forward. All the god did was to ripple
its surface, but he did not consume it. Ping said in a thunderous
voice, “Lord o f the River, you have mocked me, so now I intend to
fight you!” He drew out his sword, then suddenly he vanished. A lit­
tle later two blue oxen were fighting on the sloping riverbank. After
a few moments, Ping went back to his officers and ordered them to
help him: ‘The ox facing south with white tied around his saddle will
be me with my white silk ribbon.” Then he returned to the fray. The
Keeper o f Records promptly shot dead with his arrow the ox facing
north. With the Lord o f the River dead, there was no more trouble
ever again. (T ’ai-p’ing yii-lan, citing Feng su t’ung-yi, SPTK 882.4a-b)