This article is a list of topics in Chinese mythology. Chinese mythology is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature from the area now known as China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions. Chinese mythology is far from monolithic, not being an integrated system, even among Han people. Chinese mythology is encountered in the traditions of various classes of people, their Huaxia predecessors, Tibetan mythology, Turkic mythology, Korean mythology, and many others. However, the study of Chinese mythology tends to focus upon material in the Chinese language. Much of the mythology involves exciting stories full of fantastic people and beings, the use of magical powers, often taking place in an exotic mythological place or time.
Like many mythologies, Chinese mythology has in the past been believed to be, at least in part, a factual recording of history. Along with Chinese folklore, Chinese mythology forms an important part of Chinese folk religion (Yang et al 2005, 4). Many stories regarding characters and events of the distant past have a double tradition: ones which present a more historicized or euhemerized version and ones which presents a more mythological version (Yang et al 2005, 12–13). Many myths involve the creation and cosmology of the universe and its deities and inhabitants. Some mythology involves creation myths, the origin of things, people and culture. Some involve the origin of the Chinese state. Some myths present a chronology of prehistoric times, many of these involve a culture hero who taught people how to build houses, or cook, or write, or was the ancestor of an ethnic group or dynastic family. Mythology is intimately related to ritual. Many myths are oral associations with ritual acts, such as dances, ceremonies, and sacrifices.
Verse poetry associated with the ancient state of Chu such as "Lisao", "Jiu Ge", and "Heavenly Questions", contained in the Chuci anthology, traditionally attributed to the authorship of Qu Yuan of Chu
Fengshen Bang (Investiture of the Gods), a mythological fiction dealing with the founding of the Zhou dynasty
Baishe Zhuan, a romantic tale set in Hangzhou involving a female snake who attained human form and fell in love with a man
Presiding deities
The concept of a principal or presiding deity has fluctuated over time in Chinese mythology. Examples include:
Shangdi, also sometimes Huángtiān Dàdì (皇天大帝), appeared as early as the Shang dynasty. In later eras, he was more commonly referred to as Huángtiān Shàngdì (皇天上帝). The use of Huángtiān Dàdì refers to the Jade Emperor and Tian.
Yu Di (the Jade Emperor) appeared in literature after the establishment of Taoism in China; his appearance as Yu Huang dates back to beyond the times of Yellow Emperor, Nüwa, or Fuxi.
Tian (Heaven) appeared in literature c.700 BCE, possibly earlier as dating depends on the date of the Shujing (Book of Documents). There are no creation-oriented narratives for Tian. The qualities of Tian and Shangdi appear to have merged in later literature and are now worshiped as one entity ("皇天上帝", Huángtiān Shàngdì) in, for example, the Beijing's Temple of Heaven.
Nüwa (also referred to as Nü Kwa) appeared in literature no earlier than c.350 BCE. Her companion, Fuxi, (also called Fu Hsi) was her brother and husband. They are sometimes worshiped as the ultimate ancestor of all humankind, and are often represented as half-snake, half-human. It is sometimes believed that Nüwa molded human beings from clay for companionship. She repaired the sky after Gong Gong had damaged the pillar supporting the heavens.
Pangu, written about by Taoist author Xu Zheng c.200 CE, was claimed to be the first sentient being and creator, “making the heavens and the earth.”[1]
During or following the age of Nüwa and Fuxi came the age of the Three August Ones and Five Emperors. These legendary rulers ruled between c.2850 BCE to 2205 BCE, before the Xia dynasty. These rulers are generally regarded as morally upright and benevolent, examples to be emulated by latter-day kings and emperors. The list of names comprising the Three August Ones and Five Emperors vary widely among sources. One widely circulated and popular version is:
The Three August Ones (Huáng)
Fuxi: companion of Nüwa
Yellow Emperor ("Huang Emperor"): often regarded as the first sovereign of the Chinese nation
Shennong ("Divine Farmer"): reputedly taught the ancients agriculture and medicine
The Five Emperors (Dì)
Shaohao: leader of the Dongyi (Eastern Barbarians); his pyramidal tomb is in present-day Shandong
Mount Buzhou (不周山): mythical mountain, generally considered to be one of the eight mountain pillars supporting the sky above the world (China). Damage by Gong Gong was thought to have caused China/the world to slant to the southeast, and thus the rivers to flow in that direction, and also displacing the Celestial Pole.
Diyu (Chinese: 地獄): hell, the subterranean land inhabited by souls of dead humans and various supernatural beings.
Eight Pillars: pillars between Earth and Heaven, supporting the sky.
Heaven: an elaborate place up in the sky, the abode of the god (or God) Tian (also meaning "Heaven), also the home destination of various deities, divinities, shamans, and many more.
Crane: linked with immortality, may be transformed xian
Jiān/biyiniao (鶼/比翼鸟): a mythical bird with two heads, one male, one female. They have only one pair of wings, and they are inseparable. In the poem Chang Hen Ge(长恨歌), the emperor mourns for his dead lover, and states that he would be a biyiniao and stay with her forever.
Jiguang (吉光; jíguāng)
Jingwei: the mythical bird which tried to fill up the ocean with twigs and pebbles
Xiezhi (also Xie Cai): the creature of justice said to be able to distinguish lies from truths; it had a long, straight horn used to gore liars
Qilin: chimeric animal with several variations. The first giraffe sent as a gift to a Chinese emperor was believed to be the Qilin; an early Chinese painting depicts this giraffe replete with the fish scales of the Qilin. Qilin was believed to show perfect good will, gentleness, and benevolence to all righteous creatures.
Xīniú (犀牛): a rhinoceros; became mythologized when rhinoceroses became extinct in China. Depictions later changed to a more bovine appearance, with a short, curved horn on its head used to communicate with the sky
Bai Ze: legendary creature said to have been encountered by the Yellow Emperor and to have given him a compendium listing all the demons in the world
Dēnglóng / Hǒu (蹬龙/犼) : legendary creature worshipped as the greatest creature in China because it helps to drive away evil from its master, defend against ill-meaning wishes, takes away bad fortune, gathers and guards money.
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