The first batch of ancient book records of the Nuwa myth are such as "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" and "Chu Ci" in the pre-Qin period (although "Shuowen Jiezi" records that in the works written by Taishi Zhou, King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty in the Western Zhou Dynasty) There is the word "Wa", but it has been lost and is only a rumor). Although the records in the two books are still relatively vague, most people today affirm the divine intention of the First Mother Goddess whose function it is to create humans. Mr. Yuan Ke understood the sentence "Nu Wa has a body, who can craft it" in "Chu Ci·Tian Wen" to mean "Nu Wa made someone else's body, who made her body?" Mr. Dingshan more clearly believes that these two sentences illustrate: "(at least) during the Warring States Period, the story of Nuwa creating human beings has been widely spread among Chinese people."
As for "The Classic of Mountains and Seas·The Great Wild West" In the Sutra, it is recorded that "there are ten gods named Nuwa's Intestines, who turned into gods and lived in the fields of Liguang, crossing the road." Yuan Ke interpreted it with an annotation by Guo Pu from Jin Dynasty: "Maybe it is Nuwa's. Abdomen." He also said: "Nu Wa, an ancient goddess and emperor, had a human face and a snake body, and her abdomen transformed into this god. Dingshan also believes that this is "obviously another fable for gestating mankind." Despite this, these records still do not explicitly state that Nuwa created humans.
In addition to the creation of humans, the record in the pre-Qin classics that Nuwa was the god of musical instruments (inventing the harp, the reed, the xun, etc.) should also be an important part of Nuwa's creation. However, this does not seem to be the case yet. It has attracted sufficient attention from scholars, especially its transfer to romantic themes in literature, but it lacks attention. "Book of Rites" and "Emperor's Century", and Ying Shao's "Shiben·Zuopian" write "Nuwa makes Shenghuang", which shows that Confucius is correct. This short five-character record has become a platform for future generations of writers to display their talents.
The earliest ancient book that explicitly mentions the story of Nuwa creating humans is "Customs and Customs". Although this story positively describes the deeds of Nuwa creating humans and shows the status of Nuwa's first grandmother as a deity, But there is no doubt that the changes in human society have been imprinted on it. "Crushing loess to make a human being" is considered to be the mythical projection of the invention of pottery technology in the history of human culture, and the distinction between rich and poor in the created human beings is a reflection of human beings entering a hierarchical society. This shows that once a myth leaves the soil in which it grows, its form will take on a new shape along with the new land of growth.
At the same time, Nuwa is also the goddess of marriage that allows human beings to continue. "Customs" says: "Nuwa prayed to the ancestral gods and prayed to be a matchmaker. Because she set up a blind marriage." Luo Mi believed: "Using her as a matchmaker was the reason for the state in later generations, and she was worshiped as the god of Gaohui. "Dian Temple Yan." This should be the trace of the marriage myth given to Nuwa after humans entered the marriage system. Two short articles about Nuwa in "Customs" (written by Ying Shao):
1. Folk legend says that at the beginning of the creation of the world, there were no humans on the earth. It was Nuwa who kneaded the loess into balls. Got people. She was so busy and tired that she couldn't keep up with the supply even though she tried her best. So she took the rope and threw it into the mud. She lifted the rope and swung it. The mud spilled to the ground and turned into a person. Later generations said that wealthy people were made by Nuwa who kneaded loess with her own hands, while poor people were made by Nuwa who dipped a rope in mud and spilled the mud on the ground.
2. Nuwa prayed in the temple, begging God to appoint her as a matchmaker. So Nuwa arranged the marriage between the two sexes.
The source books of other legends:
"Taiping Yulan": Before creating humans, Nuwa created chickens on the first day of the first lunar month, dogs on the second day of the first lunar month, and pigs on the third day of the lunar month. On the fourth day of the lunar month, she created sheep, on the fifth day of the lunar month she created cows, and on the sixth day of the lunar month she created horses. On the seventh day of the lunar month, Nuwa used loess and water to create small clay figures in her own image. She made batch after batch and felt It was too slow, so he used a cane, covered it with mud, and waved it, and bit by bit of mud sprinkled on the ground, and all of them turned into people. In order to let human beings pass on forever, she created the wedding ceremony, acted as a matchmaker herself, and let people know how to "create humans" and pass on the family line by her own strength.
These legends were created due to the influence of the matriarchal society at that time, which reflects the great influence that the matriarchal society at that time had on human beings. The myth of Nuwa creating human beings reflects the living conditions of early human society. As we all know, there was a period of matrilineal clan society in human history. At that time, women occupied an important position in production and life, and children only recognized their mothers, a country without fathers or husbands. The myth of Nuwa’s creation of human beings contains the shadow of matriarchal society.
"Huainanzi·Shuo Lin Xun" puts forward the theory that Nuwa and the gods created humans together. When Nuwa created humans, the gods came to help her: Huangdi created a female For the male gender, the ears and eyes are made of the upper parallel, and the arms and palms are made of the mulberry forest, so Nuwa can change, create and educate in various ways. " Gao You, a scholar in the late Han Dynasty, commented: "The Yellow Emperor is the ancient god of heaven. When he first created humans, he created gender; Shang Pian and Mulberry Forest are both names of gods; Nuwa is the king of the gods in the world. . Various transformations of creation, education, and education (human beings) are the cause of social evolution that is not just the work of one person. ”
Another legend was put forward in the subsequent era. Nuwa and Fuxi were brothers and sisters in reproducing mankind. Volume 2 of "Duyi Zhi": In the past, when the universe first opened, there were only two brothers and sisters, Nuwa and Nuwa, between heaven and earth. At the foot of the Kunlun Mountains, there were no other people in the world. They wanted to be husband and wife, but they felt ashamed. The brother and his sister went to the Kunlun Mountains and cursed: "If the sky allows my brother and sister to be husband and wife, please unite the clouds in the sky." It's a cloud, or the clouds will disperse.
"So the clouds in the sky immediately gathered together, and the brother and sister became husband and wife. The Chinese nation is the descendant of the two people.
These legends reflect the transition from matrilineal society to patrilineal society, the increase in male power and the In order to control society, more and more people cannot accept the idea that the creator and supreme god of mankind is female, that is, the transformation of the goddess-centered myth to the male-god-centered myth, and finally ends with the power of the male god replacing the goddess Nuwa in creating humans. As the patriarchal society weakened the goddess, the Yellow Emperor, Fuxi, Pangu, etc. were created one after another, who co-created or reproduced humans with Nuwa or replaced them. The myth that Nuwa created humans is not a pure fabrication. This is a reflection of the dominance of women in population production in the matriarchal society of the early bloodline era.
For women, men were at a disadvantage in the population at the beginning.
The recognition of their role in production came later.
However, the establishment of patriarchal society was not mainly because men finally realized their indispensable position in population production; it was because when material production ( In the historical process in which the production of means of living and the production of production tools gradually replaced population production, men had special advantages over women.
In the communes of the matrilineal society of the bloodline era. In life, land, houses, forests, water sources and other means of life and production are under public ownership, and food, clothing and other daily necessities are under public ownership and distribution.
At the same time, those who go out to fight, fish, hunt, and herd. Men took the lead in starting the privatization process of weapons such as bows and arrows, harpoons, slings, canoes, and small labor tools. In the process of barter exchange, they began to privately possess livestock and other means of living. .
In this process, women do not pay much attention to the historical advantages that men have in the early stages of the establishment of private ownership, as well as the inherent advantages that men have in the material production process. Physical superiority made men quickly become the new protagonists of society.
The process of replacing matriarchal society by patriarchal society in human history is a transition from a kinship society dominated by population production to a society dominated by material production. The transformation of the material-related society.
Once this transformation is completed, the main ideology of the society will no longer be the blood-related complex, but will become the material-related complex and even the money complex. Dependent relationship, that is, material dependence, has become the main interpersonal relationship and functional element of human social groups at this time.
In this "patrilineal society in the era of material dependence", even "blood relationships" have gradually become more important. From being female-centered to being male-centered, the unearthed cultural relics show that after the goddess statues that highlighted female sexuality, statues of male gods that highlighted male sexuality began to be produced around the world.
The transformation of female genital worship to male genital worship, and the occurrence of obstetrical system (a custom of letting the mother leave immediately after the child is born, and letting the father go to bed to hold the baby, and stay in bed for confinement) all illustrate that : In the era of materialism, women not only did not have the right to control material production, but also lost their dominant position in population production. As a result, women were reduced from goddesses to slave girls, and even to goddesses or prostitutes. Characters such as plain women, whom the Yellow Emperor once asked, became tools for men to vent their sexual desires.
All these low sexual status of women are actually nothing more than a non-essential appearance. In essence, the low sexual status of women is mainly because they do not have the right to own materials, control production, and distribute products in the process of material production. Even in a materialistic society, once women master these rights due to some historical chance, their sexual slavery will be instantly eliminated, and their sexual relationship status will be improved accordingly. The story of Wu Zetian can leave a deep impression on people. The reason why some feminist pioneers of the modern women's liberation movement focused on the improvement of women's economic status was based on their deep understanding of this essence.
Just as women will not always be willing to be slaves. With the advent of the Xinyuan Era (also known as the Information Age), women truly began to become women. In this new era of faith, women and men no longer need to waste their energy arguing about the dominance of population production. The physical differences between the sexes due to natural creations in the material production process have become insignificant with the advancement of science and technology.
In today’s era, information production occupies a dominant position. In this field, men and women no longer have natural advantages in terms of their natural nature. In the process of information production that transcends gender differences, women and men begin to have truly equal opportunities to compete. Although due to historical reasons, this opportunity for truly equal competition has not yet been fully divided equally between the two sexes. Not only that, the advantage of information that transcends gender differences is becoming an important condition for possessing the means of living and production tools, and controlling material production and commodity distribution.
In this new era of trust and connection, in which the relationship of trust and dependence on information is the main interpersonal relationship of human social groups and the main functional element of human social structure, the abnormal development of women and men (such as the goddess and the noodle) First, eating youth food, etc.) are gradually losing their practical meaning; thus, the true state of women and men can truly be displayed and revealed. It is on this basis that the two sexes can form a truly harmonious and complementary relationship.
In the course of the development of human history, the three social productions of population production, material production, and information production have constantly changed their dominant and controlled positions; as the dominant and controlled positions of the three social productions have With the changes, women’s social status is also constantly changing. Therefore, women gradually completed their own historical formation from the goddesses in the age of blood, to the slave girls in the age of material relations, and then to the women in the age of faith. The era of goddesses has gone and will never return; the era of female slaves is gone and will never return; the era of women has opened the curtain of history.
This will be the era when real women are born - the interpretation of Nuwa's matrilineal feminism.