There are two parallel sayings about the legend that Nu Wa made man very early. One is "Nu Wa made man from the earth" and the other is "Nu Wa made man from Fuxi". The earliest time of these two sayings cannot be verified in detail.
According to the literature records, the names of Nu Wa and Fuxi only appeared in the Warring States Period, and Fuxi first appeared in Yi Ju Zhuan, Guan Zi, Zhuangzi, The Lion King, Xunzi Xiangcheng, Chu Ci Zhao Da and Zhao Ce Er, the Warring States Policy. [ 1]
According to the records of ancient books, it seems that only in the Han Dynasty did Nu Wa and Fuxi become husband and wife, which is also the conclusion reached by many scholars. However, in my opinion, this can only be the lower limit of Fuxi and Nu Wa. It is not excluded that there was a legend that they were husband and wife before the Han Dynasty, but it was not recorded. The latter was recorded, but later lost.
In the creation records in Chu silk unearthed in 1942, it seems that Fuxi and Nu Wa (the queen's family) have four sons in charge of heaven, earth and stars [2], so it cannot be categorically considered that Nu Wa Fuxi and his wife were invented by Han Chinese.
The earliest evidence of Nu Wa's theory of "making man out of soil" is in Qu Yuan's Tian Wen. "Nu Wa has a body. Who made it?" This seems to ask: Nu Wa, the master of creation, created human beings. It is said that Nu Wa has a body, so who created Nu Wa?
This seems to indicate that in Chu State at the end of the Warring States Period, the legend that Nu Wa created human beings alone has spread.
By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the legend that Nu Wa created man was further developed: according to the legend, there was no one when the world was created, and Nu Wa was a human when she photographed the loess. Later, when she was tired of pinching people, she threw it on the ground with a rope stained with mud, and when she threw it on the ground, she became a person.
Many scholars interpret this kind of record as history, but in fact, Customs Tongyi was originally a book to annotate the nationalities circulated before the end of Han Dynasty. Its information sources are very miscellaneous, some are national legends, some are mythological records, just to collect national information, and it does not guarantee the authenticity of its information.
So the author followed a comment on the back of Nu Wa's creation, saying: All dignitaries were pinched by Nu Wa with loess, while all poor civilians were thrown by Nu Wa with ropes. This is obviously an incidental explanation of ancient fatalism, not a reliable historical record. It is likely that there was a record of Nu Wa creating human beings first, and then there was a sideline of "loess people" and "Yin people". This sideline may come from those powerful people who try to make the poor willing to be poor with this fatalism; It may also come from the poor, in order to express their sigh for nature and helplessness for fate. Folklore generally starts from the folk, so the latter is more likely. [3]
By the time the Song people wrote "Taiping Yu Lan", the myth of creating human beings was even more concrete: when Nu Wa created human beings, she created chickens on the first day of the first month, dogs on the second day, sheep on the third day, pigs on the fourth day, cows on the fifth day, horses on the sixth day and people on the seventh day, so the seventh day was human day.
Obviously, this is a further process for Nu Wa to create human beings according to "six animals" and customs and festivals. This kind of processing may not be created by one person or several people, but may have evolved slowly in the process of myth spread. The story of Nu Wa's "making man out of soil" that we see now was basically shaped in the Song Dynasty, and its plot evolved through the above three processes.
This is obviously not a true historical record. This legend is far from the original work of Nu Wa Made Man. Imagine how there was a calendar when the world first opened and Nu Wa made man. Even if there is, it should not be consistent with the present. In addition, there was a wide range of animal worship in ancient times, such as fish, frogs, snakes, dragons and blackbirds. Why did Nu Wa only create the concept of "six animals" in the Song Dynasty?
However, in this series of changes, the only constant seems to be the divinity of Nu Wa. In the earliest records about Nu Wa, we see more about her divinity, from which we speculate that she may have existed in the image of the creator from the beginning. The origin of the legend of Nu Wa's creation may come from some kind of maternal reproductive worship, such as frogs. Of course, this can only be a guess. It is difficult for us to draw a conclusion at present.
As for the legend about the relationship between Nvwa 、 Fuxi, the earliest record is probably in the Tang and Song Dynasties. There are probably two kinds of sayings, one is "Nu Wa is Fuxi's sister", the other is "Nu Wa is Fuxi's wife", and Nu Wa and Fuxi are husband and wife. [4]
Since they are brother and sister, how can they be husband and wife? However, in many wall carvings and silk paintings of the Han Dynasty discovered recently, Fuxi and Nu Wa are obviously intertwined, indicating that Fuxi and Nu Wa are indeed husband and wife, and this legend is still very early. The wall carvings of Fuxi and Nu Wa were found in the tombs of Han people. It can be seen that Fuxi and Nuwa are husband and wife, and in their time they were not just a legend, but a devout belief.
So it's still the same question. Since they are husband and wife, how can they be brother and sister? Someone answered this question for us. The first one is recorded in the Historical Records of the Tang Dynasty: It is said that at the beginning of the universe, only two brothers and sisters, Fuxi and Nuwa, agreed to get married for the sake of human reproduction. But I was ashamed of my own ethics, so I went to Kunlun Mountain for verification and ordered a pile of grass. If God agrees to let them be together, the smoke will merge into one place, and the result is indeed one place, and the two are together.
This story solves the ethical problem that Fuxi and Nu Wa are both brothers and sisters and husband and wife. Later, many similar versions appeared, which is obviously in line with later generations.
Another evidence is the flood story [5] spread among the Miao people in the south, saying that Fuxi and Nuwa are brother and sister. Later, their father, Lao Fuxi, offended Raytheon, who caused a flood on the earth and almost destroyed all mankind. Only Fuxi and Nu Wa survived by hiding in the gourd. In the end, there are only two brothers and sisters left in the world, and they have to get married in order to let human beings reproduce.
It is for this reason that many scholars speculate that Fuxi and Nuwa are the ancestors of Miao people in the south, and later their myths and legends spread to the Central Plains in the north.
So back to the theme of our article, is Nu Wa "created by human beings" or married to Fuxi to have children? Let's look at the two versions of Nu Wa's creation. Nu Wa's divinity is greater than human nature, and she can be said to be a god. The Nu Wa who married Fuxi, especially the legend of Nu Wa circulated by Miao people, is full of human fireworks.
This involves a question, whether God has changed into man or man has changed into God. The earliest myths and legends were changed by people, or they were myths and legends from the beginning. We looked up ancient books. In the earliest records, Nu Wa and Fuxi seem to have more divine personality than human nature. Later, they gradually got more fireworks, so it seems more reliable that Nu Wa "made people out of clay".
In the theistic belief environment, when our ancestors pursued the question "Where did people come from?", it was easy for people to associate this question with God, and Nu Wa was such a god of life. Nu Wa became the god of life or has its realistic reasons, perhaps from the female reproductive worship of "frog" or other reasons.
The legend of "Nu Wa made man" began to split into two factions in the Warring States Period or earlier. One school insists on "Nu Wa made man", but there may be more details gradually. The other school became the saying that Fuxi and Nu Wa * * * made people together. The latter group may be regarded as its ancestors by some ethnic groups because of its great humanity.
According to the laws of nature, it is obvious that human beings cannot be created by two people. It is ok to regard Nu Wa as a myth and legend, but it is absurd to regard the combination of Fuxi and Nu Wa as the real origin of human beings.
Of course, these conclusions are only speculation.
References:
[1] Wen Yiduo's research on Fuxi
[2] He Xin "The Origin of the Universe-A New Examination of the Summer"
[3] Qian Hang, Ye Shuxian and Tian Zhaoyuan, "Six Lectures on China's Creation Myth"
[4] Wen Yiduo' Fuxi Kao'
[5] Yuan Ke's Fairy Tales of China.