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Fairy Tale
Nüwa Creates Humans
Time：2025-07-09 08:59:38 Hit：839
In the beginning of chaos, although the sky already had the sun, moon, and stars, and the earth had mountains, rivers, and vegetation, there was still no living being that could move. One day, a goddess with the surname Feng appeared on the vast earth. She walked through the boundless world, inspecting it. Eventually, she grew tired and rested by the Qingzhang River at the foot of Zhonghuang Mountain.
She felt very lonely and thought: "What a beautiful land, but it’s a pity that I’m the only one here. It’s too quiet. If there were some other living beings to keep me company, how wonderful that would be!"
She pondered for a while, then squatted by the riverbank, dug up some wet mud, and, using her reflection in the water as a model, shaped it into a doll-like figure. As soon as the little figure was made, it came to life—jumping and shouting “ni wa, ni wa.” The goddess was very pleased with her creation and then, modeling after the male gods in the heavens, she shaped a male doll—and, as she wished, it too came to life.
To her surprise, as soon as the two clay figures came to life, they asked the goddess, “Who are we? Why have we come into this world?”
The two little mud beings were very excited and then asked again, “And who are you? What should we call you?”
The goddess responded casually, “Weren’t you just saying ‘nü wa’ (female baby)? Then call me ‘Nüwa.’”
From then on, the name of humanity’s first mother—“Nüwa”—began to spread far and wide. When the time came for written language to be created, to highlight Nüwa’s status as the progenitor, a special character “娲” was invented to replace the original “娃.” Thus, the name became “Nüwa.” To this day, by the banks of the Qingzhang River under Zhonghuang Mountain where Nüwa created humans, people still call their mothers “nia.” This “nia” is actually a phonetic blend derived from the name “Nüwa.”
Nüwa found that molding clay figures by hand was too slow and tiring, so she grabbed a bunch of willow branches from a tree by the river. She dipped them into the river mud and flung them into the air. Strangely enough, wherever the drops of mud landed, they turned into little people—shouting joyfully and jumping around. The number of people on earth grew rapidly, and eventually humanity spread across the land.
To this day, in the folk traditions of She County, people say: “Humans are made of yellow earth, so everyone has yellow skin.” “Because humans are made of soil, they carry the traits of earth. Don’t believe it? Rub your skin with your hand and you’ll see dirt come off.” “Since humans are born of the soil, they can never be far from it. Mischievous children love to play with dirt and are called ‘mud kids’ or ‘earth children.’ That’s why we have sayings like ‘rustic,’ ‘earthy,’ and ‘born and raised in the soil.’” “Because people come from the yellow earth, for thousands of years it has been customary to bury the dead—returning them to the soil for peace in death, known as ‘resting in the earth.’”
She felt very lonely and thought: "What a beautiful land, but it’s a pity that I’m the only one here. It’s too quiet. If there were some other living beings to keep me company, how wonderful that would be!"
She pondered for a while, then squatted by the riverbank, dug up some wet mud, and, using her reflection in the water as a model, shaped it into a doll-like figure. As soon as the little figure was made, it came to life—jumping and shouting “ni wa, ni wa.” The goddess was very pleased with her creation and then, modeling after the male gods in the heavens, she shaped a male doll—and, as she wished, it too came to life.
To her surprise, as soon as the two clay figures came to life, they asked the goddess, “Who are we? Why have we come into this world?”
The two little mud beings were very excited and then asked again, “And who are you? What should we call you?”
The goddess responded casually, “Weren’t you just saying ‘nü wa’ (female baby)? Then call me ‘Nüwa.’”
From then on, the name of humanity’s first mother—“Nüwa”—began to spread far and wide. When the time came for written language to be created, to highlight Nüwa’s status as the progenitor, a special character “娲” was invented to replace the original “娃.” Thus, the name became “Nüwa.” To this day, by the banks of the Qingzhang River under Zhonghuang Mountain where Nüwa created humans, people still call their mothers “nia.” This “nia” is actually a phonetic blend derived from the name “Nüwa.”
Nüwa found that molding clay figures by hand was too slow and tiring, so she grabbed a bunch of willow branches from a tree by the river. She dipped them into the river mud and flung them into the air. Strangely enough, wherever the drops of mud landed, they turned into little people—shouting joyfully and jumping around. The number of people on earth grew rapidly, and eventually humanity spread across the land.
To this day, in the folk traditions of She County, people say: “Humans are made of yellow earth, so everyone has yellow skin.” “Because humans are made of soil, they carry the traits of earth. Don’t believe it? Rub your skin with your hand and you’ll see dirt come off.” “Since humans are born of the soil, they can never be far from it. Mischievous children love to play with dirt and are called ‘mud kids’ or ‘earth children.’ That’s why we have sayings like ‘rustic,’ ‘earthy,’ and ‘born and raised in the soil.’” “Because people come from the yellow earth, for thousands of years it has been customary to bury the dead—returning them to the soil for peace in death, known as ‘resting in the earth.’”
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