中国神话传说英语

During China's Great Flood, Yu's father, Gun, was assigned by King Yao (尧) to tame the raging waters. Gun built earthen dikes all over the land in the hope of containing the waters. But the earthen dikes collapsed everywhere and the project failed miserably. Gun was executed by King Shun (舜), to whom Yao had handed the rulership. Shun recruited Yu as successor to his father's flood-control efforts. Instead of building more dikes, Yu began to dredge new river channels, to serve both as outlets for the torrential waters, and as irrigation conduits to distant farm lands. Yu spent a backbreaking thirteen years at this task, with the help of some 20,000 workers."Passing his own door 3 times" is a tale of Yu's dedication. It is said that when Yu was given the task of fighting the flood, he had been married only 5 days. He then said good bye to his wife, saying that he does not know when he will return. His wife then asked him what name to give if a son is born. Yu replied, Qi (启), a character meaning 5 days in ancient Chinese. Then in his 13 years of fighting the flood, Yu passed by his own family doorstep 3 times. The 1st time, he passed by, hearing that his wife was in child labor pain. The 2nd time, he passed by, his wife was holding his son's hand as he was learning his first steps. The 3rd time, he passed by, his son greeted him and employed him to come in for rest. Each time, Yu refused to go in the door, saying that the flood was rendering countless people homeless, he could not rest in his own.For this engineering feat, Yu has been remembered as an examplar of perseverance and determination and revered as the perfect civil servant. Stories continue to dwell on his single-minded dedication. In spite of passing his own house three times during those thirteen years, he never once stopped in for a family visit, reasoning that a personal reunion would distract him from dealing with the public crisis at hand.King Shun was so impressed by Yu's engineering work and diligence that he passed the throne to Yu instead of to his own son, following King Yao's example in rewarding merit. At the end of Great Yu's life, however, his ministers favoured passing the throne to Yu's son, Qi (启), instituting a hereditary monarchy. This created China's first hereditary dynasty, the Xia Dynasty (ca.2070 BCE - 1600 BCE).

Pan Gu Makes the World（盘古开天地） In the beginning , the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos. The universe was like a big black egg, carrying Pan Gu inside itself. After 18 thousand years Pan Gu woke from a long sleep. He felt suffocated, so he took up a broadax and wielded it with all his might to crack open the egg. The light, clear part of it floated up and formed the heavens, the cold, turbid matter stayed below to form earth. Pan Gu stood in the middle, his head touching the sky, his feet planted on the earth. The heavens and the earth began to grow at a rate of ten feetper day, and Pan Gu grew along with them. After another 18 thousand years, the sky was higher, the earth thicker, and Pan Gu stood between them like a pillar 9 million li in height so that they would never join again. When Pan Gu died, his breath became the wind and clouds, his voice the rolling thunder. One eye became the sun and on the moon. His body and limbs turned to five big mountains and his blood formed the roaring water. His veins became far-stretching roads and his muscles fertile land. The innumerable stars in the sky came from his hair and beard, and flowers and trees from his skin and the fine hairs on his body. His marrow turned to jade and pearls. His sweat flowed like the good rain and sweet dew that nurtured all things on earth. According to some versions of the Pan Gu legend, his tears flowed to make rivers and radiance of his eyes turned into thunder and lighting. When he was happy the sun shone, but when he was angry black clouds gathered in the sky. One version of the legend has it that the fleas and lice on his body became the ancestors of mankind.

China myth