Pangu Creates the World

Pangu Parts Heaven and Earth

In the egg-like chaos Pangu was born. He split the world — clear yang rose as heaven, turbid yin sank as earth — and at death his body became all things.

In the beginning, heaven and earth were as chaotic as an egg, and within it was born Pangu. After 18,000 years they parted: the clear yang rose to become heaven, the turbid yin sank to become earth. Pangu stood between them, growing ten feet daily as heaven and earth each thickened. At his death his breath became wind and cloud, his voice thunder, his left eye the sun and right eye the moon, his limbs the four quarters, his blood the rivers, his flesh the soil — all things issued from his body.