1. Magnificent Stories Not Well Known

2.  Three major reasons according to Yuan Ke ( 袁 珂, Chairman, Assoc. of Chinese Mythology)  China didn’t enjoy the phenomenon of gifted poets like Homer and Hesiod  Chinese writing system was not sufficiently developed to write down the oral traditions  Myths were prevented from fully developed by the negative attitude of the scholars of early dynasties

3.  In a piecemeal fashion (as in Birrell’s book)  300+ narratives from 100+ classical texts  Revealing a wide range of mythic themes:  Origins  Cultural bearers  Saviors, destroyers  Miracle birth and founding (of dynasties)  Emperors, heroes, goddesses  Immortality, fabled flora/fauna

4.  Before heaven and earth had formed, there was a shapeless, dark expanse

5.  Creates human beings  Mends the Heaven

6.  Taught Fishing & Hunting  Changed marriage customs ： inter-clans  Created symbols for recording （ specifically ， the trigrams ）  Invented musical instruments  Started government & administration  Created calendar system

7.  One of the Three Huangs （三皇， major cultural bearers ）  Honored as 燧皇 （ SuiHuang ）  Fire making and cooking  The other two being  伏羲 （ FuXi ） or 羲皇  神农 （ ShenNong ） or 农（ agriculture ）皇

8.  Tasted various herbs  Invented agriculture and medicine  One of the Three Huangs

9.  奚仲作車 奚仲  倉頡作書 倉頡  后稷作稼 后稷  皋陶作刑 皋陶  昆吾作陶 昆吾  夏鯀作城鯀

12.  Teaches farming  Plants various grains  Helps Yu The Great put flood under control  Ancestor of the Zhou royal house

13.  Qu, Yuan and his poems, collectively known as ChuCi ( 楚辞, or Verses of Chu)

15. Chinese phonetic alphabet

16. Composites Singles