joy in their eyes and thanked her for her miraculous work.
However, one man didn’t thank her or clap and sing with the others. In fact, he had a thoughtful frown on his face.
“Child, what are you thinking about? Why do you look so concerned?” Nu Wo asked the man.
“Mother, is it true that because a pillar that held up the sky got knocked down, the whole sky collapsed?”
“Yes, that is so.”
“Well, I’m worried that with no pillar to hold up the sky as before, all your hard work will have been in vain. What if the dome of heaven collapses again? The original support is gone. Can we trust that the sky is as firmly in place as before?”
Nu Wo realized that the man was right. If she didn’t think of a solution to this problem, her children were doomed to suffer the same disaster as before. She saw that she still could not rest.
With a deep sigh, she heaved herself up from the ground, saying, “He is right. Farewell, children. My work is still not done. I must leave you now, but I’ll be back when I have discovered some way to avert future disasters like the one we have suffered. Meanwhile, rebuild your houses. Replant the crops. You must carry on with your lives as before the disaster.”
She waved to them sadly and walked away.
THE PILLARS THAT HOLD UP THE SKY
Nu Wo’s first thought was to use mountains to replace the collapsed pillar, but this solution was not as simple as it first seemed. Exactly how does one go about moving a mountain? Nu Wo wandered thoughtfully toward the sea. Far off shore, a giant turtle spirit was playing in the waves.
The huge turtle was a supernatural being. It possessed great wisdom from having lived so long, and it could read minds. It swam up to Nu Wo and said, “Mother of mankind, don’t worry. I will let you chop off my four legs to use as pillars to hold up the dome of heaven.” Gentle Nu Wo felt horrible about harming another creature, especially a spirit of the Celestial Realm. She was unwilling to hurt the turtle. When the spirit saw Nu Wo hesitate, it chewed off its own legs.
Nu Wo’s kind heart broke to see this mighty being so helpless. She asked it, “Creature, how will you be able to swim without your legs?” So saying, she took her outer robe off and tore it into four pieces. She tucked the pieces into the places where the turtle’s legs had been. Now the noble turtle had four flippers instead of four legs. That is why some turtles have legs, and some have only flippers.
When Nu Wo went to place the turtle’s legs as four pillars to support the sky, she saw that the two front legs were shorter than the hind legs. This caused the sky to dip down at a slant. From that day on, all the stars, the sun, and the moon rotate in the sky, constantly sliding down toward the earth.
Now the dome of heaven was firmly supported. In fact, you can only see the places where it was mended at sunrise or sunset. They shimmer at these times because of the five-colored stones, and they look even more beautiful than the original sky because of their many colors.
PEACE AT LAST
The last task was to quench the floods that ravaged the land. Nu Wo and the people went to the furnace used to melt the five-colored stones and shoveled the ashes from the furnace into the flood waters to quench them. They started from the northwest and slowly worked their way south, using baskets to carry ashes for use in reclaiming the land.
At first, they used the ashes liberally and reclaimed much of the land. Gradually, they started to run out of ashes, but by that time, they felt that they had done enough and stopped working. That is why the land in the northwestern portion of China is more elevated than the southeastern part. All the flood waters ran toward the southeast and formed the South China Sea.
The sky was now mended, and the earth was reclaimed from the flood. All was as before the great catastrophe. Everywhere, the people rejoiced and held a great celebration that lasted many days. They played their instruments and danced. All of them yelled the traditional Chinese chant, “May Mother live 10,000 years!” When Nu Wo saw how happy they were, her face lit up with a heavenly smile.
In spite of her joy, Nu Wo was exhausted. Her hair, which had been as black and glossy as a crow’s wing, was now completely white. Every bone in her body ached. Her hands were blistered and raw from shoveling ashes, and her skin was still scorched from the fires of the furnace of five-colored stones. The pain made it impossible for her to sleep. Her back, so straight and strong when she was a goddess, was now bent, and she had to use a staff to walk. She didn’t want her children to see that she was suffering and kept on smiling throughout the festivities.
In the midst of the great celebration and still smiling, Nu Wo closed her eyes forever.
Ho Yi the Archer
HO YI AND THE NINE SUNS
In the time of the ruler Yau during China’s golden age, nine suns once appeared in the sky at the same time. It was a great catastrophe for mankind, and this is how it happened. The nine suns were all the sons of the Celestial Ruler, and they lived in a place called Hot Water Valley. There, the seawater was as warm as hot soup because that was where the nine sons bathed every day. At that place was also a great tree tens of thousands of feet tall. This tree was the home of the nine brothers.
At the top of the tall tree stood a jade rooster. Each day before dawn, the rooster would crow. When all the roosters on earth heard the jade rooster’s cry, they would all crow too. Then one of the brothers would awake, and the day would break. Before the sun rose in the sky, his mother, the Queen of Heaven, would first bathe him in Hot Water Valley. Then, in a chariot drawn by six dragons, the Queen of Heaven would drive him across the sky until they reached a place called Sorrow Spring. The mother would stop the chariot and watch to make sure the sun had safely descended into the Dim Valley. Then she would return to drive her second son across the sky.
Under the Celestial Ruler’s decree, all his sons would take turns one by one bathing and driving across the sky. In this way, no more than one son was ever allowed to be with his mother. Things went on this way for billions of years. Every ninth day, each son would take his bath and ride the chariot with his mother over the same narrow path, performing the same routine. The sons got very bored. It was even worse when it wasn’t their turn, for then they slept all day.
One day, all nine agreed to awake at once and run into the sky without even bathing or getting into their mother’s chariot. As soon as the jade rooster crowed, they ran riot gleefully, skipping and jumping all at once across the sky. Their mother was quite distressed and called loudly for them to come back, but they pretended not to hear her.
On earth, the temperature started to rise drastically, and all the plants wilted and died. People had no food or water, and many died of starvation or thirst. It was the worst disaster since the sky collapsed in Nu Wo’s time. The people decided to go to their leader Yau for help.
Yau was a good ruler. He loved his people as if they were his own sons and daughters. He saw how much
