Gods And Goddesses: Nu Wa

Nu Wa is a creator goddess, goddess of mankind, marriage and mud. She is often depicted as a beautiful woman or a half serpent/dragon and half human, with the half human part of her noticeably beautiful. Nu Wa’s surname was Feng and is also known as Mi Xi. Nu Wa and Mi Xi can also be spelt as Nuwa and Mixi, with the spelling Nuwa also being a girls name meaning ’mother goddess’.  Nu Wa herself is even said to be the first empress of China.

A legend goes that Nu Wa created mankind itself, some say she even created everything but people tend to say she created mankind only. It goes that Nu Wa existed at the beginning of the world and was lonely due to the lack of both humans and animals. Nu Wa created chickens, dogs, sheep, pigs, cows, horses and eventually men with yellow clay or mud (it is notable that some say animals were already around so Nu Wa only created humans). Hand  by hand these people were individually created, but Nu Wa grew tired from creating humans this way so the clay/mud was dipped in rope and flicked it so blobs went everywhere. These blobs became the common people while the one’s made individually became nobles.

Two gods are known to have fought to see who is most powerful between the water god also known as a demon, Gong Gong, and the fire god, Zhu Rong. Gong Gong, upon losing committed suicide by hitting his head against a pillar that held up the sky causing the pillar to collapse and caused the sky to tilt towards the northwest and the earth to shift to the southeast. Due to this happening, fires and floods appeared causing much trouble. Nu Wa cut the legs of a giant tortoise off, using them as a replacement of the fallen pillar.

Nu Wa is also the sibling of the god known as Fu Xi, and the two married after getting approval from Heaven (using a smoke from a fire to seek approval or disapproval from Heaven). Nu Was and Fu Xi appear in  the Dynasty Warriors games where Nu Wa is depicted as a full human of the age of eighteen and her first appearance being in Dynasty Warriors 3.

Some minorities of South-Western China hail Nu Wa as their goddess and hold festivals, such as the Water-Splashing Festival, in her honour. The Miao people also hold Nu Wa as their traditional divine goddess.