Model humanity:
101-541: Main philosophical traditions: Ritual traditions: Devotional traditions: Salvation churches and sects : Confucian churches and sects: Nüwa , also read Nügua , is a mother goddess , culture hero , and/or member of the Three Sovereigns of Chinese mythology . She is a goddess in Chinese folk religion , Chinese Buddhism , Confucianism and Taoism . She is credited with creating humanity and repairing
202-544: A Chinese religious tradition characterised by a concern for salvation (moral fulfillment) of the person and the society. They are distinguished by egalitarianism , a founding charismatic person often informed by a divine revelation , a specific theology written in holy texts , a millenarian eschatology and a voluntary path of salvation, an embodied experience of the numinous through healing and self-cultivation, and an expansive orientation through evangelism and philanthropy . Some scholars consider these religions
303-498: A bird (or a three-legged crow) or a toad (sometimes a hare) which are the sun and moon symbolism respectively, and/or each holding a try square or a pair of compasses , or holding a longevity mushroom ( Chinese : 靈芝 ; pinyin : lingzhi ) plant. Fuxi and Nüwa holding the sun and the moon appears as early as the late Western Han dynasty. Other physical appearance variation, such as lower snake-like body shape (e.g. thick vs thin tails), depictions of legs (i.e. legs found along
404-549: A Confucian identity, with the foundation of the Holy Confucian Church of China which aims to unite in a single body all Confucian religious groups. Many of the movements of salvation of the 20th and 21st century aspire to become the repository of the entirety of the Chinese tradition in the face of Western modernism and materialism, advocating an "Eastern solution to the problems of the modern world", or even interacting with
505-650: A basic color or a shade of blue by different speakers. Similarly dark blue or navy blue ( granatowy —deriving from the name of pomegranate ( granat ), some cultivars of which are dark purplish blue in color) can be considered by some speakers as a separate basic color. Black ( czarny ) is completely distinguished from blue. As in English, Polish distinguishes pink ( różowy ) from red ( czerwony ). The word siwy means blue-gray in Polish (literally: "color of gray hair"). The word siny refers to violet-blue and
606-635: A cobra called Wadjet , "the green one", or as the Eye of Horus , also called by the same name. At the same time, wedjet was the word used for Egyptian blue in faience ceramics. In Hebrew, the word כחול (pronounced /kaˈχol/ ) means blue, while ירוק (pronounced /jaˈʁok/ ) means green and has the same root , י־ר־ק (j-r-q), as the word for "vegetables" ( ירקות , jeʁaˈkot ). However, in classical Hebrew, ירוק can mean both green and yellow, giving rise to such expressions as ירוק כרישה "leek green" ( Tiberian Hebrew /jɔːˈroːq kəriː'ʃɔː/ ) to specify green to
707-544: A green sweater , etc.—will generally be called midori . Japanese people also sometimes use the word gurīn ( グリーン ) , based on the English word "green", for colors. The language also has several other words meaning specific shades of green and blue. The native Korean word 푸르다 ( pureu-da ) may mean either blue or green, or bluish green. These adjectives 푸르다 are used for blue as in 푸른 하늘 ( pureu-n haneul ' blue sky ' ), or for green as in 푸른 숲 ( pureu-n sup ' green forest ' ). 푸른 ( pureu-n )
808-470: A language until the language has made a distinction between green and blue. In their account of the development of color terms the first terms to emerge are those for white / black (or light / dark ), red and green / yellow . The word for blue in the Amazigh (Berber) language is azerwal . In some dialects of Amazigh , like Shilha or Kabyle , the word azegzaw is used for both green and blue. It
909-524: A particular 'shade' of qīng applied to cloth and clothing has been attested since the Book of Odes (1000–600 BC), as in the title of Ode 27 ( 《邶風·綠衣》 , "Green Upper Garment") in the Airs of Bei section. After the discarding of Classical Chinese in favor of modern vernacular Chinese , the modern terms for blue and green are now more commonly used than qīng as standalone color terms, although qīng
1010-413: A shade of ao . Educational materials distinguishing green and blue came into use only after World War II ; thus, even though most Japanese consider them to be green, the word ao is still used to describe certain vegetables , apples , and vegetation . Ao is also the word used to refer to the color on a traffic light that signals drivers to "go". However, most other objects—a green car ,
1111-627: A similar distinction between " red " and light red ( pink , which is considered a different color and not merely a kind of red), but such a distinction is unknown in several other languages; for example, both "red" ( 紅 hóng , traditionally called 赤 ), and "pink" ( 粉紅 fěn hóng , lit. "powder red") have traditionally been considered varieties of a single color in Chinese . The Russian language also distinguishes between red ( красный krasniy ) and pink ( розовый rozoviy ). Similarly, English language descriptions of rainbows have often distinguished between blue or turquoise and indigo ,
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#17330845660791212-498: A single group they are said to have the same number of followers of the five state-sanctioned religions of China taken together. Scholars and government officials have been discussing to systematise and unify this large base of religious organisations; in 2004 the State Administration of Religious Affairs created a department for the management of folk religions. In the late 2015 a step was made at least for those of them with
1313-416: A single phenomenon, and others consider them the fourth great Chinese religious category alongside the well-established Confucianism , Buddhism and Taoism . Generally these religions focus on the worship of the universal God ( Shangdi ), represented as either male, female, or genderless, and regard their holy patriarchs as embodiments of God. "Chinese salvationist religions" ( 救度宗教 jiùdù zōngjiào )
1414-453: A symmetrical pair or they can be depicted in double figures with intertwined snake-like bodies. Their snake-like tails can also be depicted stretching out towards each other. This is similar to the representation of Rahu and Ketu in Indian astrology. Fuxi and Nüwa can also appear individually on separate tomb bricks. They generally hold or embrace the sun or moon discs containing the images of
1515-489: A third word kili̱koba is bright green (resembling a kili̱kki , a species of parrot). By 1915, the authoritative Byington dictionary gives okchako as blue and okchamali as green, blue, gray, verdant. A coursebook from 2001 differentiates based on brightness, giving okchʋko as bright blue/green and okchʋmali as pale or dull blue/green. Modern usage in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma language school
1616-585: Is melns (in some local dialects mells ). In Lithuanian žalias is green, mėlynas is blue, and žilas is gray (hair) or grizzled. Bulgarian , a South Slavic language , makes a clear distinction between blue ( синьо , sinyo ), green ( зелено , zeleno ), and black ( черно , cherno ). In the Polish language , blue ( niebieski , from niebo ' sky ' ) and green ( zielony ) are treated as separate colors. The word for sky blue or azure — błękitny —might be considered either
1717-406: Is šíbi , whereas zraq ( زرق ) stands for blue and khḍar ( خضر ) for green. The word zrag ( زرڭ ) is used to describe the color of a suffocated person , and is also used pejoratively as a synonym to "dumb, stupid". The ancient Egyptian word wadjet covered the range of blue, blue-green, and green . It was the name of a goddess, the patroness of Lower Egypt, represented as
1818-680: Is a calque of the Hispanic term chiste verde . Modern Javanese has distinct words for blue biru and green ijo . These words are derived from Old Javanese birū and hijo . However, in Old Javanese birū could mean pale blue, grayish blue, greenish blue, or even turquoise, while hijo which means green, could also mean the blue-green color of clear water. Biru and ijo in Modern Javanese are cognates of Malay / Indonesian biru and hijau which both have
1919-507: Is a contemporary neologism coined as a sociological category and gives prominence to folk religious sects' central pursuit that is the salvation of the individual and the society, in other words the moral fulfillment of individuals in reconstructed communities of sense. Chinese scholars traditionally describe them as "folk religious sects" ( 民间宗教 mínjiān zōngjiào , 民间教门 mínjiān jiàomén or 民间教派 mínjiān jiàopài ) or "folk beliefs" ( 民间信仰 mínjiān xìnyǎng ). They are distinct from
2020-455: Is a noun-modifying form. Another word 파랗다 ( para-ta ) usually means blue, but sometimes it also means green, as in [파란 불] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) ( help ) ( para-n bul ' green light of a traffic light ' ). There are Sino-Korean expressions that refer to green and blue. 초록 / 草綠 ( chorok adj. / n. ), 초록색 / 草綠色 ( choroksaek n. or for short, 녹색 / 綠色 noksaek n. )
2121-479: Is a powerful being known as Huaxu (華胥). Huaxu gave birth to a twin brother and sister, Fuxi and Nüwa. Fuxi and Nüwa are said to be creatures that have faces of human and bodies of snakes. Nüwa created humanity due to her loneliness, which grew more intense over time. She molded yellow earth or, in other versions, yellow clay into the shape of people. These individuals later became the wealthy nobles of society, because they had been created by Nüwa's own hands. However,
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#17330845660792222-662: Is a separate word for green, gjelbër , which derives from the Latin galbinus , which originally meant "yellow" (cf. German gelb ); the original Latin word for green on the other hand, viridis is the source of the Albanian word for "yellow", verdhë . Albanian also has a borrowed word for green, jeshil , from Turkish yeşil ; it tends to be used for non-natural greens (such as traffic signals) in contrast to gjelbër . Latvian has separate words for green zaļš and blue zils . Both zils and zaļš stem from
2323-405: Is a well-known theme in Chinese culture . The courage and wisdom of Nüwa inspired the ancient Chinese to control nature's elements and has become a favorite subject of Chinese poets , painters , and sculptors , along with so many poetry and arts like novels, films, paintings, and sculptures; e.g. the sculptures that decorate Nanshan and Ya'an . The Huainanzi tells an ancient story about how
2424-449: Is archaic, and denotes blue-gray, usually used to describe dark seas. Turquoise is usually described as tirkizna , and similarly, azure will use a loan word azurna . There is no specific word for cyan. Blond hair is called plava ' blue ' , reflecting likely the archaic use of plav for any bright white/blue colors (like the sky). Mrko ' dusky ' can refer either dark brown, less often dark gray, or even black. It
2525-487: Is consistent with her aquatic myth. In Chinese, the word for 'whirlpool' is wo ( Chinese : 渦 ), which shares the same pronunciation with the word for 'snail' ( Chinese : 蝸 ). These characters all have their right side constructed by the word wa ( Chinese : 咼 ), which can be translated as 'spiral' or 'helix' as noun, and as 'spin' or 'rotate' when as verb, to describe the 'helical movement'. This mythical meaning has also been symbolically pictured as compasses in
2626-492: Is depicted wearing various hairstyles characteristic of Han women. Both deities dressed in wide-sleeved clothing, which reflects typical Han clothing style also commonly depicted in Han dynasty art. Nüwa is featured within the famed Ming dynasty novel Fengshen Bang . As featured within this novel, Nüwa is revered since Xia dynasty for creating the five-colored stones to mend the heavens, which tilted after Gonggong toppled one of
2727-466: Is etymologically derived from the word for ' darkness ' ( mrak ), but is distinct from ' dark ' ( tamna ). For instance, it is used to describe the brown bear ( mrki medved/medvjed ). Smeđe and kestenjasto refer to brown, crveno means red, ružičasto is for pink and narančasto designates orange. Shades are defined with a prefix (e.g., tamno- for dark, or svetlo-/svijetlo- for light), for example, dark blue
2828-412: Is in line with common practice of using zíša/šázi for orange ( šá meaning ' red ' ), and šátȟo/tȟóša for ' purple/violet ' . Mapudungun , spoken by indigenous peoples of Chile and Argentina, distinguishes between kurü ' black ' , kallfü ' blue ' and karü ' green, raw, immature ' . The word payne was formerly used to refer to a sky blue, and also refers to
2929-414: Is likely cognate with the English word azure , which represents the colour between blue and cyan. The color of the sky is sometimes referred to as "the green" in some dialects of Classical Arabic poetry, in which it is al-khaḍrā ' ( الخضراء ). In Arabic the word for blue is azraq ( أزرق ). The Arabic word for green is akhḍar ( أخضر ). In Moroccan Arabic , the word for light blue
3030-477: Is prefixed in some cases. For example, green will be called ఆకుపచ్చ ākupacca ' leaf- pacca ' and yellow పసుపుపచ్చ pasupupacca ' turmeric - pacca ' . In Malayalam there are distinct words for blue ( nīla നീല ), green ( pacca പച്ച ) and yellow ( mañña മഞ്ഞ ). The modern Standard Chinese language has the blue–green distinction ( 藍 lán for blue and 綠 lǜ for green); however, another word that predates
3131-435: Is still part of many common noun phrases. The two forms can also be encountered combined as 青藍 and 青綠 , with qīng being used as an intensifier . In modern scientific contexts, qīng refers to cyan as a narrow range of color in between blue and green, and the modern color names are used when referring to other shades of blue or of green. The Japanese words 青 ( ao , n. ) and 青い ( aoi , adj. ) ,
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3232-407: Is suggested to be the progenitor of divination and the patron saint of numbers . The character nü ( Chinese : 女 ; lit. 'female') is a common prefix on the names of goddesses. The proper name is wa , also read as gua ( Chinese : 媧 ). The Chinese character is unique to this name. Birrell translates it as 'lovely', but notes that it "could be construed as 'frog ' ", which
3333-403: Is the Chinese word for "green vegetable", referring to bok choy , and the opposing sides of the game liubo were known as qīng and white in antiquity despite using black and white pieces. Qīng was the traditional designation of both blue and green for much of the history of the Chinese language, while lán originally referred to the dye of the indigo plant . However, lǜ as
3434-422: Is the reason why Nüwa is credited with inventing the idea of marriage. Before the two of them got married, they lived on mount K'un-lun . A prayer was made after the two became guilty of falling for each other. The prayer is as follows, "Oh Heaven, if Thou wouldst send us forth as man and wife, then make all the misty vapor gather. If not, then make all the misty vapor disperse." Misty vapor then gathered after
3535-496: Is the term traditionally given for the color of the sky and of grass. This term also falls into the general pattern of naming colors by appending the suffix po , as in mar po ' red ' , ser po ' yellow ' , nag po ' black ' , and dkar po ' white ' . Conspicuously, the term for ' green ' is ljang khu , likely related to ljang bu , and defined as—"the grue (sngon po) sprout of wheat or barley". Vietnamese used to colexify green and blue with
3636-569: Is to use okchʋko for blue and okchʋmali for green, with no distinction for brightness. The language of the Kanien'kehá:ka Nation at Akwesasne is at Stage VII on the Berlin–Kay Scale , and possesses distinct terms for a broad range of spectral and nonspectral colors such as oruía ' blue ' , óhute ' green ' , kahúji ' black ' , karákA ' white ' , and atakArókwa ' gray ' . According to one researcher,
3737-415: Is translated variously as pale blue or pale green, okchakko chohmi ' somewhat okchakko ' is given as swarthy, and okchamali is defined as deep blue, gray, green, or sky blue. In 1880, okchakko and okchʋmali are both given as blue, and green is not specifically listed as a color. In an 1892 dictionary, okchamali is deep blue or green, okchakko is pale blue or bright green, and
3838-708: Is used for green. Cheong 청 / 靑 , another expression borrowed from Chinese ( 靑 ), is mostly used for blue, as in 청바지 / 靑-- ( cheong-baji ' blue jeans ' ) and Cheong Wa Dae ( 청와대 / 靑 瓦臺 ), the Blue House , which is the former executive office and official residence of the President of the Republic of Korea, but is also used for green as well, as in 청과물 / 靑果物 ( cheong-gwamul ' fruits and vegetables ' ) and 청포도 / 靑葡萄 ( cheong-podo ' green grape ' ). In Tibetan , སྔོན་པོ། ( Wylie sngon po )
3939-1046: Is used for green. The word aky , which is cognate with Nheengatu akira , also means ' green/immature ' . The Yebamasa of the Rio Piraparana region in Vaupés Department , southeastern Colombia , use the term sumese for both blue and green in the Barasana-Eduria language . Speakers of Tagalog most commonly use the Spanish loanwords for blue and green— asul (from Spanish azul ) and berde (from Spanish verde ), respectively. Although these words are much more common in spoken use, Tagalog has native terms: bugháw for blue and lunti(án) for green, which are seen as archaic and more flowery. These are mostly confined to formal and academic writings, alongside artistic fields such literature, music, and poetry. In Cebuano , another major Philippine language ,
4040-444: Is used to describe the color of bruises ( siniaki ), hematoma , and the blue skin discoloration that can result from moderate hypothermia . Russian does not have a single word referring to the whole range of colors denoted by the English term "blue". Instead, it traditionally treats light blue ( голубой , goluboy ) as a separate color independent from plain or dark blue ( синий , siniy ), with all seven "basic" colors of
4141-547: The höh category, and nogoon became a more common term in the modern era. Albanian has two major words for "blue": kaltër refers to a light blue, such as that of the sky, but it is derived from Vulgar Latin calthinus , itself derived from caltha , a loan from Ancient Greek that meant "marigold" a small and in fact yellow flower. The other word, blu , refers to a darker shade of blue, and like many similar words across many European languages, derives ultimately from Germanic (see also: Italian blu ). There
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4242-579: The Book of Rites . Some scholars even find influences from Manichaeism , Mohism and shamanic traditions . In the Ming and Qing dynasties many folk religious movements were outlawed by the imperial authorities as "evil religions" ( 邪教 xiéjiào ). With the collapse of the Qing state in 1911 the sects enjoyed an unprecedented period of freedom and thrived, and many of them were officially recognised as religious groups by
4343-402: The Chinese folk religion consisting in the worship of gods and ancestors, although in English language there is a terminological confusion between the two. The 20th-century expression for these salvationist religious movements has been "redemptive societies" ( 救世团体 jiùshì tuántǐ ), coined by scholar Prasenjit Duara . A collective name that has been in use possibly since the latter part of
4444-447: The Guaraní hovy /hɔʋɨ/ . In modern Tupi ( Nheengatu ) the word suikiri can be used for green and iakira/akira for blue. However, iakira/akira also means immature, as in pakua akira ' green banana/immature banana ' , and suikiri can also mean blue. In modern Guarani , the word hovy is used for blue and hovy'û (which literally means "dark green/blue")
4545-573: The Nine-Headed Pheasant . With these words, Nüwa brought destined chaos to the Shang dynasty, "The luck Cheng Tang won six hundred years ago is dimming. I speak to you of a new mandate of heaven which sets the destiny for all. You three are to enter King Zhou's palace, where you are to bewitch him. Whatever you do, do not harm anyone else. If you do my bidding, and do it well, you will be permitted to reincarnate as human beings." With these words, Nüwa
4646-577: The Shang dynasty would end in payment for his offense. In her rage, Nüwa personally ascended to the palace in an attempt to kill the king, but was suddenly struck back by two large beams of red light. After Nüwa realized that King Zhou was already destined to rule the kingdom for twenty-six more years, Nüwa summoned her three subordinates—the Thousand-Year Vixen (later becoming Daji ), the Jade Pipa , and
4747-480: The early republican government . The founding of the People's Republic in 1949 saw them suppressed once again, although since the 1990s and 2000s the climate was relaxed and some of them have received some form of official recognition. In Taiwan all the still existing restrictions were rescinded in the 1980s. Folk religious movements began to rapidly revive in mainland China in the 1980s, and now if conceptualised as
4848-630: The Bu Qianqiu Tomb. They can also be found without intertwining tails from the stone murals of the same period. Since the middle of the Eastern Han dynasty , their tails started to intertwine. In the Gansu murals dating to the Wei and Western Jin period, one of the most typical features of Fuxi is the "mountain-hat" ( Chinese : 山字形 ; pinyin : Shanzixing ) which looks like a three-peaked cap while Nüwa
4949-594: The Kanien'kehá:ka term for purple arihwawakunéha , which translates to ' bishop['s color] ' , a recent, post-Christianization coinage. The way in which purple was categorized and referenced prior to the addition of the latter term is not clear. In the Lakota language , the word tȟó is used for both blue and green, though the word tȟózi (a mixture of the words tȟó ' blue (green) ' , and zí ' yellow ' ) has become common ( zítȟo can also be used). This
5050-452: The Pillar of Heaven . As creator of mankind, she molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay. In other stories where she fulfills this role, she only created nobles and/or the rich out of yellow soil. The stories vary on the other details about humanity's creation, but it was a tradition commonly believed in ancient China that she created commoners from brown mud. A story holds that she
5151-445: The Qin and Han dynasties, and the version with Fuxi, Shennong, and Nüwa was used to emphasize rule and structure. In her matriarchal reign, she battled against a neighboring tribal chief, defeated him, and took him to the peak of a mountain. Defeated by a woman, the chief felt ashamed to be alive and banged his head on the heavenly bamboo to kill himself and for revenge. His act tore a hole in
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#17330845660795252-533: The Qing dynasty is huìdàomén ( 会道门 "churches, ways and gates"), as their names interchangeably use the terms huì ( 会 "church, society, association, congregation"; when referring to their corporate form), dào ( 道 "way") or mén ( 门 "gate[way], door"). Their congregations and points of worship are usually called táng ( 堂 "church, hall") or tán ( 坛 "altar"). Western scholars often mistakenly identify them as " Protestant " churches. The Vietnamese religions of Minh Đạo and Caodaism emerged from
5353-551: The Way ( 道 ) and its potency ( 德 ). The Classic of Mountains and Seas , dated between the Warring States period and the Han dynasty , describes Nüwa's intestines as being scattered into ten spirits. In Liezi (c. 475 – 221 BC), Chapter 5 "Questions of Tang" ( 卷第五 湯問篇 ), author Lie Yukou describes Nüwa repairing the original imperfect heaven using five-colored stones , and cutting
5454-423: The black dragon to provide relief for Ji Province , and piled up reeds and cinders to stop the surging waters. The azure sky was patched; the four pillars were set up; the surging waters were drained; the province of Ji was tranquil; crafty vermin died off; blameless people [preserved their] lives. The catastrophes were supposedly caused by the battle between the deities Gonggong and Zhuanxu (an event that
5555-528: The bluish color of stones. Single words for blue/green are also found in Mayan languages ; for example, in the Yucatec Maya language , yax is ' blue/green ' . Tupian languages did not originally differ between the two colors, though they may now as a result of interference of Spanish (in the case of Guaraní ) or Portuguese (in the case of Nheengatu ). The Tupi word oby /ɔˈβɨ/ meant both, as does
5656-590: The book Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era contains a chapter "Customs by Yingshao of the Han Dynasty" in which it is stated that there were no men when the sky and the earth were separated. Thus Nüwa used yellow clay to make people. But the clay was not strong enough so she put ropes into the clay to make the bodies erect. It is also said that she prayed to gods to let her be the goddess of marital affairs. Variations of this story exist. In Ming dynasty myths about
5757-427: The colors பச்சை paccai ' green ' , நீலம் nīlam ' blue ' , and கருப்பு karuppu ' black ' . The prefix karu- would indicate dark colors while the suffix -iḷam would indicate light colors. Thus, கரும்பச்சை karumpaccai would be dark green. The Telugu language uses a single word, పచ్చ pacca , for green and yellow. To differentiate between the two shades, another word
5858-464: The colors described in English as "blue" and "green" are colexified , i.e., expressed using a single umbrella term . To render this ambiguous notion in English, linguists use the blend word grue , from green and blue , a term coined by the philosopher Nelson Goodman —with an unrelated meaning—in his 1955 Fact, Fiction, and Forecast to illustrate his " new riddle of induction ". The exact definition of "blue" and "green" may be complicated by
5959-476: The compass rather than receive it as a gift. In addition, the system of male and female sex, the yang-yin philosophy, is expressed here in a complex way: first as Fuxi and Nüwa, then as a compass (masculine) and a square (feminine), and thirdly, as Nüwa (woman) with a compass (man) and Fuxi (man) with a square (woman). Nüwa Mends the Heavens ( Chinese : 女娲補天 ; Chinese : 女娲补天 ; pinyin : Nǚwā bǔtiān )
6060-451: The creation of humanity, Nüwa and Fuxi were survivors of a great flood. By the command of the God of the heaven, they were married and Nüwa had a child which was a ball of meat. This ball of meat was cut into small pieces, and the pieces were scattered across the world, which then became humans. Nüwa was born three months after her brother, Fuxi , whom she later took as her husband; this marriage
6161-592: The early leaders of humanity as well as culture heroes according to the Northern Chinese belief . But the lists vary and depend on the sources used. One version includes Nüwa as one of the Three Sovereigns, who reigned after Fuxi and before Shennong . The myth of the Three Sovereigns sees the three as demigod figures, and the myth is used to stress the importance of an imperial reign. The variation between sources stems from China being generally divided before
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#17330845660796262-426: The exclusion of yellow. Like Russian and Italian, Hebrew has a separate name for light blue ( תכלת , tekhelet )—the color of the sky and of tzitzit on the tallit , a ritual garment. This color has special symbolic significance in both Judaism and Jewish culture. The Choctaw language has two words, okchʋko and okchʋmali , which have different meanings depending on the source. In 1852 okchakko
6363-455: The four pillars that support the sky crumbled inexplicably. Other sources have tried to explain the cause, i.e. the battle between Gong Gong and Zhuanxu or Zhurong . Unable to accept his defeat, Gong Gong deliberately banged his head onto Mount Buzhou (不周山) which was one of the four pillars. Half of the sky fell which created a gaping hole and the Earth itself was cracked; the Earth's axis mundi
6464-448: The hand which can be found on many paintings and portraits associated with her. Her reverential name is Wahuang ( Chinese : 媧皇 ; lit. 'Empress Wa'). The Huainanzi relates Nüwa to the time when Heaven and Earth were in disruption: Going back to more ancient times, the four pillars were broken; the nine provinces were in tatters. Heaven did not completely cover [the earth]; Earth did not hold up [Heaven] all
6565-503: The heavenly pillars, Mount Buzhou . Shang Rong asked King Zhou of Shang to pay her a visit as a sign of deep respect. Upon seeing her statue, Zhou was completely overcome with lust at the sight of the beautiful ancient goddess Nüwa. He wrote an erotic poem on a neighboring wall and took his leave. When Nüwa later returned to her temple after visiting the Yellow Emperor , she saw the foulness of Zhou's words. In her anger, she swore that
6666-567: The heavens. In Shuowen Jiezi (c. 58 – 147 AD), China's earliest dictionary, under the entry for Nüwa author Xu Shen describes her as being both the sister and the wife of Fuxi . Nüwa and Fuxi were pictured as having snake-like tails interlocked in an Eastern Han dynasty mural in the Wuliang Temple in Jiaxiang county, Shandong province. In Duyi Zhi ( 獨異志 ; c. 846 – 874 AD), Volume 3, author Li Rong gives this description. Long ago, when
6767-589: The label "secret sects" ( 秘密教门 mìmì jiàomén ) to distinguish the peasant "secret societies" with a positive dimension of the Yuan, Ming and Qing periods, from the negatively viewed "secret societies" of the early republic that became instruments of anti-revolutionary forces (the Guomindang or Japan ). Many of these religions are traced to the White Lotus tradition ("Chinese Maternism", as mentioned by Philip Clart ) that
6868-454: The latter of which is often described as dark blue or ultramarine . The Serbo-Croatian color system makes a distinction between blue, green and black: Modra may also mean dark blue and dark purple that are used to describe colours of a bruise, modrica . Native speakers cannot pinpoint a color on the spectrum which would correspond to modra . Sinje , cognate to Bulgarian синьо sinyo and Russian синий siniy ,
6969-434: The legs of a tortoise to mend the pillars. There are many instances of her in literature across China which detail her in creation stories, and today, she remains a figure important to Chinese culture. She is one of the most venerated Chinese goddesses alongside Guanyin and Mazu . In Chinese mythology , the goddess Nüwa is a legendary progenitor of all human beings. She also creates a magic stone. Her husband Fu Xi
7070-427: The legs off a tortoise to use as struts to hold up the sky. In Songs of Chu (c. 340 – 278 BC), Chapter 3 " Asking Heaven " ( Chinese : 问天 ), author Qu Yuan writes that Nüwa molded figures from the yellow earth, giving them life and the ability to bear children. After demons fought and broke the pillars of the heavens, Nüwa worked unceasingly to repair the damage, melting down the five-coloured stones to mend
7171-489: The majority of humanity was created when Nüwa dragged string across mud to mass-produce them, which she did because creating every person by hand was too time- and energy-consuming. This creation story gives an aetiological explanation for the social hierarchy in ancient China. The nobility believed that they were more important than the mass-produced majority of humanity, because Nüwa took time to create them, and they had been directly touched by her hand. In another version of
7272-485: The misty vapor disperse." At this, the misty vapor immediately gathered. When the sister became intimate with her brother, they plaited some grass to make a fan to screen their faces. Even today, when a man takes a wife, they hold a fan, which is a symbol of what happened long ago. There are stories that have her as the "consort" of Fuxi rather than his sister. In Yuchuan Ziji ( 玉川子集 c. 618 – 907 AD), Chapter 3 ( "與馬異結交詩" 也稱 "女媧本是伏羲婦" ), author Lu Tong describes Nüwa as
7373-497: The modern discourse of an Asian -centered universal civilisation. The Chinese folk religious movements of salvation are mostly concentrated in northern and northeastern China, although with a significant influence reaching the Yangtze River Delta since the 16th century. The northern provinces have been a fertile ground for the movements of salvation for a number of reasons: firstly, popular religious movements were active in
7474-525: The modern vernacular, qīng ( 青 ), is also used in many contexts. The character depicts the budding of a young plant and it could be understood as " verdant ", but the word is used to describe colors ranging from light and yellowish green through deep blue all the way to black, as in xuánqīng ( 玄青 ). For example, the flag of the Republic of China is referred to as qīng tiān, bái rì, mǎn dì hóng ( 青天，白日，滿地紅 , ' A Blue Sky, White Sun, and Wholly Red Earth ' ) whereas qīngcài ( 青菜 )
7575-468: The native words for "blue" and "green" end in the same syllable: pughaw and lunhaw , respectively. Pughaw means sky blue, while lunhaw is fresh leaf green (i.e., neither brownish nor yellowish). Humor and jokes of a sexual or derogatory nature that would otherwise be described as "blue" in English (e.g., " blue comedy ", " blue joke ") are called "green" in Philippine English . This
7676-425: The physical world because a carpenter's square is associated with straight lines and squares leading to a more straightforward mindset. Meanwhile, Nüwa was given a compass to symbolize her identification with the heavens because a compass is associated with curves and circles leading to a more abstract mindset. With the two being married, it symbolized the union between heaven and Earth. Other versions have Nüwa invent
7777-437: The population of China, which is around 30 million people, claim to be members of folk religious sects. The actual number of followers may be higher, about the same as the number of members of the five state-sanctioned religions of China if counted together. In Taiwan, recognised folk religious movements of salvation gather approximately 10% of the population as of the mid-2000s. Qing (color) In many languages,
7878-456: The prayer signifying the two could marry. When intimate, the two made a fan out of grass to screen their faces which is why during modern day marriages, the couple hold a fan together. By connecting, the two were representative of Yin and Yang ; Fuxi being connected to Yang and masculinity along Nüwa being connected to Yin and femininity. This is further defined with Fuxi receiving a carpenter's square which symbolizes his identification with
7979-492: The region already in the Han dynasty , and they deeply penetrated local society; secondly, northern provinces are characterised by social mobility around the capital and weak traditional social structure, thus folk religious movements of salvation fulfill the demand of individual searching for new forms of community and social network. According to the Chinese General Social Survey of 2012, approximately 2.2% of
8080-461: The same kanji character as the Chinese qīng , can refer to either blue or green depending on the situation. Modern Japanese has a word for green ( 緑 , midori ) , but it is a relatively recent usage. Ancient Japanese did not have this distinction: the word midori came into use only in the Heian period and, at that time and for a long time thereafter, midori was still considered
8181-529: The same Proto-Indo-European word for yellow ( * ghel ). Several other words in Latvian have been derived from these colors, namely grass is called zāle (from zaļš ), while the name for iris is zīlīte (from zils ). The now archaic word mēļš was used to describe both dark blue and black (probably indicating that previously zils was used only for lighter shades of blue). For instance, blueberries are called mellenes . In Latvian black
8282-446: The same meaning. The Kannada language distinguishes between blue ( neeli ನೀಲಿ ), green ( hasiru ಹಸಿರು ) and yellow ( haladi ಹಳದಿ ). The prefix kadu- ( ಕಡು- ) would indicate darker colors while the prefix tili- ( ತಿಳಿ- ) would indicate light colors. Thus kaduneeli ( ಕಡುನೀಲಿ ) would mean dark/deep blue, while tilineeli ( ತಿಳಿನೀಲಿ ) would mean light blue. The Tamil language distinguishes between
8383-494: The same tradition of Chinese folk religious movements. A category overlapping with that of the salvationist movements is that of the "secret societies" ( 秘密社会 mìmì shèhuì , or 秘密结社 mìmì jiéshè ), religious communities of initiatory and secretive character, including rural militias and fraternal organisations which became very popular in the early republican period, and often labeled as " heretical doctrines" ( 宗教异端 zōngjiào yìduān ). Recent scholarship has begun to use
8484-607: The second syllables is derived from the Chinese: 藍 and 綠 respectively, sometimes skipping the syllable xanh , for blue and green, respectively, in formal or scientific speech. Xanh can also be used singularly for any color that is the shade in between blue and green inclusively. Modern Mongolian makes a distinction between green ( ногоон , nogoon ) and blue, which has separate categories for light blue ( цэнхэр , tsenher ) and dark blue ( хөх , höh ). Historically, Mongolian included greens such as fresh grass in
8585-867: The sky and made a flood hit the whole world. The flood killed all people except Nüwa and her army which was protected by her divinity. After that, Nüwa patched the sky with five colored-stones until the flood receded. Three Exalted Ones: Suiren · Fuxi · Taihao · Nüwa · Zhurong · Shennong · Yandi · Gonggong · Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) Four Perils: Gonggong · Huandou · Gun · Sanmiao · Hundun · Qiongqi · Taowu · Taotie Five Primal Emperors: Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) · Shaohao · Zhuanxu · Ku · Zhi · Yao · Shun Chinese salvationist religions Model humanity: Main philosophical traditions: Ritual traditions: Devotional traditions: Salvation churches and sects : Confucian churches and sects: Chinese salvationist religions or Chinese folk religious sects are
8686-480: The snake-like body) and wings (e.g. wings with feathers which protrude from their backs as found in late Western Han Xinan (新安) Tomb or smaller quills found on their shoulders), and in hats and hairstyles, also exist. In the Luoyang regions murals dating to the late Western Han dynasty , Fuxi and Nüwa are generally depicted as individual figures, each one found at each side of the central ridge of tomb chambers as found in
8787-597: The speakers not primarily distinguishing the hue, but using terms that describe other color components such as saturation and luminosity, or other properties of the object being described. For example, "blue" and "green" might be distinguished, but a single term might be used for both if the color is dark. Furthermore, green might be associated with yellow, and blue with either black or gray. According to Brent Berlin and Paul Kay 's 1969 study Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution , distinct terms for brown , purple , pink , orange , and gray will not emerge in
8888-429: The spectrum (red–orange–yellow–green– голубой / goluboy (sky blue, light azure, but does not equal cyan )– синий / siniy ("true" deep blue , like synthetic ultramarine )–violet) while in English the light blues like azure and cyan are considered mere shades of "blue" and not different colors. The Russian word for "green" is зелёный zielioniy . To better understand this, consider that English makes
8989-438: The time period and also shows regional differences. In Chinese tomb murals and iconography, Fuxi and Nüwa generally have snake-like bodies and human face or head. Nüwa is often depicted holding a compass or multiple compasses, which were a traditional Chinese symbol of a dome-like sky. She was also thought to be an embodiment of the stars and the sky or a star god. Fuxi and Nüwa can be depicted as individual figures arranged as
9090-473: The tortoise as Ao , cut off the four legs of the creature to use as new pillars to support the sky. But Nüwa didn't do it perfectly because the unequal length of the legs made the sky tilt. After the job was done, Nüwa drove away the wild animals, extinguished the fire, and controlled the flood with a huge amount of ashes from the burning reeds and the world became as peaceful as it was before. Many Chinese know well their Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors , i.e.
9191-521: The transition from the Shang dynasty to the Zhou dynasty , Nüwa made evil decisions that ultimately benefited China , such as sending a fox spirit to encourage the debauchery of King Zhou , which led to him being deposed. Other tales have her and Fuxi as exclusively the "great gentle protectors of humanity" unwilling to use subterfuge. Nüwa and Fuxi were also thought to be gods of silk. The iconography of Fuxi and Nüwa vary in physical appearance depending on
9292-408: The water which was coming out from the earth's crack didn't seem to be slowing down. Nüwa pitied the humans she had made and attempted to repair the sky. She gathered five colored-stones (red, yellow, blue, black, and white) from the riverbed, melted them and used them to patch up the sky: since then the sky (clouds) have been colorful. She then killed a giant turtle (or tortoise), some version named
9393-412: The way around [its circumference]. Fires blazed out of control and could not be extinguished; water flooded in great expanses and would not recede. Ferocious animals ate blameless people; predatory birds snatched the elderly and the weak. Thereupon, Nüwa smelted together five-colored stones in order to patch up the azure sky, cut off the legs of the great turtle to set them up as the four pillars, killed
9494-668: The wife of Fuxi. In Siku Quanshu , Sima Zhen (679–732) provides commentary on the prologue chapter to Sima Qian 's Shiji , "Supplemental to the Historic Record: History of the Three August Ones", wherein it is found that the Three August Ones are Nüwa, Fuxi, and Shennong ; Fuxi and Nüwa have the same last name, Feng ( Chinese : 風 ; Hmong: Faj). In the collection Four Great Books of Song (c. 960 – 1279 AD), compiled by Li Fang and others, Volume 78 of
9595-475: The word xanh . This is a colloquial rendering of thanh 靑 , as with Chinese and Japanese. In modern usage, blue and green are dislexified . Shades of blue are specifically described as xanh da trời ' blue skin of sky ' , or xanh dương, xanh nước biển , ' blue of ocean ' . Green is described as xanh lá cây ' green of leaves ' . Vietnamese occasionally employs the terms xanh lam ' blue ' and xanh lục ' green ' in which
9696-441: The world first began, there were two people, Nü Kua and her older brother. They lived on Mount K'un-lun . And there were not yet any ordinary people in the world. They talked about becoming husband and wife, but they felt ashamed. So the brother at once went with his sister up Mount K'un-lun and made this prayer: "Oh Heaven, if Thou wouldst send us two forth as man and wife, then make all the misty vapor gather. If not, then make all
9797-455: Was already active in the Song dynasty ; others claim a Taoist legacy and are based on the recovery of ancient scriptures attributed to important immortals such as Lü Dongbin and Zhang Sanfeng , and have contributed to the popularisation of neidan ; other ones are distinctively Confucian and advocate the realisation of a "great commonwealth" ( datong 大同 ) on a world scale, as dreamt of in
9898-516: Was mentioned earlier in the Huainanzi ), the five-colored stones symbolize the five Chinese elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water), the black dragon was the essence of water and thus cause of the floods, Ji Province serves metonymically for the central regions (the Sinitic world). Following this, the Huainanzi tells about how the sage-rulers Nüwa and Fuxi set order over the realm by following
9999-413: Was never heard of again, but was still a major indirect factor towards the Shang dynasty's fall. Pangu was said to be the creation god in Chinese mythology . He was a giant sleeping within an egg of chaos. As he awoke, he stood up and divided the sky and the earth. Pangu then died after standing up, and his body turned into rivers, mountains, plants, animals, and everything else in the world, among which
10100-459: Was tilted into the southeast while the sky rose into the northwest. This is said to be the reason why the western region of China is higher than the eastern and that most of its rivers flow towards the southeast. This same explanation is applied to the Sun, Moon, and stars which moved into the northwest. A wildfire burnt the forests and led the wild animals to run amok and attack the innocent peoples, while
10201-538: Was tired when she created "the rich and the noble", so all others, or "cord-made people", were created from her "dragg[ing] a string through mud". In the Huainanzi , there is a description of a great battle between deities that broke the pillars supporting Heaven and caused great devastation. There was great flooding, and Heaven had collapsed. Nüwa was the one who patched the holes in Heaven with five colored stones, and she used
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