Magnificent Stories Not Well Known

 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

 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

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

 Creates human beings  Mends the Heaven 人头蛇身，一日七十化 女媧銷煉五色 石以補蒼天， 斷鼇足以立四 極。

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

 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

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

 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

Chang’E, beautiful wife of HouYi, blamed her husband after they lost immortality. When HouYi got two doses of elixirs from the Goddess of Heaven, she took both and become immortal again. She felt sad and lonely only after she flew the moon, leaving HouYi behind, and were only accompanied by a rabbit.

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

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

Chinese phonetic alphabet

Composites Singles