Nuwa

The Mother of Humanity

Nuwa is one of the most ancient and important goddesses in Chinese mythology, credited with creating humanity and saving the world from destruction. With her brother-husband Fuxi, she represents the primordial creative forces that shaped civilization.

The Creation of Humanity

After Pangu's death created the world, Nuwa wandered the earth. Finding it beautiful but lonely, she began molding figures from yellow clay in her own image. When she breathed life into them, they became the first humans. At first, she carefully crafted each figure by hand - these became the nobles and wealthy. But tiring of this slow work, she dipped a rope in clay and flicked droplets across the land - these became the common people.

Repairing the Sky

A great catastrophe occurred when the fire god Zhurong and water god Gonggong fought a terrible war. In his defeat, Gonggong smashed his head against Mount Buzhou, one of the pillars holding up the sky. The sky cracked, floods and fires ravaged the earth, and monsters emerged to prey on humanity.

Nuwa gathered stones of five colors - blue, white, red, yellow, and black - and melted them to repair the hole in the sky. She killed the Black Dragon to stop the floods, piled ashes from burned reeds to absorb the waters, and cut off the legs of a giant turtle to serve as new pillars for the sky.

The First Marriage

In some versions, after a great flood destroyed all humanity except Nuwa and her brother Fuxi, they were compelled by Heaven to marry to repopulate the earth. This story establishes Nuwa as the goddess of marriage and the legitimizer of the marriage institution.

Appearance and Iconography

Nuwa is typically depicted with a human upper body and a serpent tail, sometimes shown intertwined with her brother Fuxi. Together they hold a compass and square, representing the ordering of the cosmos. This image appears in countless Han dynasty tomb paintings.