The earliest description of the theme of the goddess mending the sky in poetry and prose is "Gu Sui Pian" written by Jiang Yan of Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty: On hearing this, the ancient fire runs, the water keeps flowing, and the Nu Wa's work of mending the sky by refining stones can't touch the surrounding mountains. ……
Second, two supernova explosions in Vela.
Constellations are artificially divided by Westerners according to the distribution of bright spots in the starry sky. Vela is a part of the ancient southern constellation, and it didn't differentiate itself until 1750. The most interesting deep space object in Vela is the planetary nebula NGC 3 132 (nicknamed the octagonal nebula), which is also the remains of the interesting supernova explosion in Vela.
First, a supernova in Sagittarius exploded twice about 10500 (taking the median) and 5000 years ago; Second, supernova explosions release a lot of energy. Because of the short distance, the earth received huge energy after 800 years (the distance is 800 light years), which quickly raised the temperature of the earth in a short time. Although the last explosion produced a little less energy, both forest fires and grass deaths occurred.
This not only technically solved the serious fire in the myth of China and the goddess mending the sky, but also solved the slightly weak fire in the myth of Houyi shooting at the sun, that is, "burning crops and killing vegetation". Also happens to correspond in time. The deified image of Nu Wa is a reflection of matriarchal clan society in literary legends, which originated from the agricultural revolution 10,000 to 8,000 years ago, and made human society gradually enter the patriarchal era. About 10,000 years ago happened to be the late matriarchal clan society, which was deified by transforming the image of Nu Wa, and 4,000 years ago happened to be the legendary Yao Shun era.
Third, relevant evidence of other cultures.
The legend of mending the sky is not unique to the Han nationality: in Ya 'an area on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China, the festival arrangement of mending the sky on the twentieth day of the first lunar month is still preserved; There is also a legend of mending the sky in the epic "Axi Jianguo" by the Axi people, a branch of the Yi nationality, which spread in Xishan, Mile County, Yunnan Province, China. Among them, it is said that dark clouds are used as cloth, Huang Yun is used as thread, and long-tailed stars are used as needles to mend the sky.
The explosion about 10000 years ago did not completely destroy the supernova in Vela, but it still had a certain brightness. George Micha Noszky, a Sumerian expert, found a phenomenon in the study of cuneiform. A lot of records of the same star appeared on earlier clay tablets, so he put forward the hypothesis that the origin of Sumerian civilization was related to this star. 1980, the astronomer Richard Stacey of NASA accurately calculated that this supernova could shine with the sun and hang with the moon at night 6000 years ago. For human beings at that time, supernova explosion was a mysterious natural phenomenon, and it is conceivable how huge psychological impact it brought to early humans. At that time, there was no mature writing in China, but it also left the legend of "shooting at the sun".