CHINA FLOOD STORY

Bahnar (Cochin China):

A kite once quarrelled with the crab and pecked a hole in its skull (which can still be seen today).

In revenge, the crab caused the sea and rivers to swell until the waters reached the sky.

The only survivors were a brother and sister who took a pair of all kinds of animals with them in a huge chest.

They floated for seven days and nights.

Then the brother heard a cock crowing outside, sent by the spirits to signal that the flood had abated.

All disembarked, birds first, then the animals, then the two people.

The brother and sister did not know how they would live, for they had eaten all the rice that was stored in the chest.

However, a black ant brought two grains of rice.

The brother planted them, and the plain was covered with a rice crop the next morning.

[Gaster, p. 98]

Gaster, Theodor H. Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament, Harper & Row, New York, 1969. (Most of the flood stories in this work are taken from Frazer, 1919.)

Myth, Legend And Custom In The Old Testament: A Comparative Study With Chapters From Sir James G. Frazer's Folklore In The Old Testament (volume 1) - Anna’s Archive

Lisu (northwest Yunnan, China, and neighboring areas):

After death came into the world as a result of a macaque's curse, sky and earth longed for human souls and bones.

That is how the flood began.

An orphaned brother and sister lived in squalor in a village.

A pair of golden birds flew down to them one day, warned them that a huge wave would flood the earth, and told them to take shelter in a gourd and not to come out until they heard the birds again.

The two children warned their neighbors, but the people didn't believe them.

The children sawed off the top of a gourd and went inside.

For ninety-nine days, there was no wind or rain, and the earth became parched.

Then torrents of rain fell, and the resulting flood washed everything away.

The brother and sister occasionally could hear the gourd bump against the bottom of heaven.

After long waiting, they heard the birds calling, left the gourd, and found they had landed atop a mountain, and the flood had receded.

But now there were nine suns and seven moons in the sky, and they scorched the earth during the day.

The two golden birds returned with a golden hammer and silver tongs and instructed the children how to use them to get the dragon king's bow and arrows.

Brother and sister went to the dragon pond and struck the reef-home of the dragon king with the hammer.

This raised such a racket that the dragon king sent his servants (various fish) to investigate.

The children grabbed the fish with the tongs and threw them on the bank.

At last, the dragon king himself came to investigate and had to give his bow and arrows when he was likewise caught.

With these, brother and sister shot down all but the brightest sun and moon.

Brother and sister then went in search of other people, exploring north and south respectively.

They found nobody else, and the golden birds appeared again and urged them to marry.

They refused, but the birds told them it was the will of heaven.

After divinations in the form of several improbable events (tortoise shells landing a certain way, a broken millstone came together, and the brother shooting an arrow through a needle's eye--all happening three times), they consented.

They had six sons and six daughters which traveled different directions and became the ancestors of different races.

[L. Miller, pp. 78-84]

Miller, Lucien (ed). South of the Clouds: Tales from Yunnan, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1994.

"The tales included here represent all of Yunnan Province s officially designated ethnic minorities, and include creation myths, romances, historical legends, tales explaining natural phenomena, ghost stories, and festival tales. The tales are peopled by memorable characters, such as the Tibetan mother who, reborn as a cow, comforts and helps her daughter into her harsh life as a slave girl; the two Kucong sisters who marry snakes; and the bodiless Lahu head-baby who grows up to win one of the earth-god Poyana s daughters in marriage. Chosen for their representativeness, aesthetic appeal, and variety, the stories provide rich examples of the folk traditions of Southwest China. South of the Clouds includes introductions and an appendix which describe the places and people of Yunnan, analyze the literary and psychological characteristics of their stories, give the sources of the tales, and explain the methodology of collecting folk literature in China." - Google books viewed Jan. 29, 2021

South of the Clouds : Tales From Yunnan - Anna’s Archive

In primeval times, men were wicked.

The patriarch Tse-gu-dzih sent a messenger down to earth, asking for some flesh and blood from a mortal.

Only one man, Du-mu, complied. In wrath, Tse-gu-dzih locked the rain-gates, and the waters mounted to the sky.

Du-mu was saved in a log hollowed out of a Pieris tree, together with his four sons and otters, wild ducks, and lampreys.

The civilized peoples who can write are descended from the sons; the ignorant races are descendants of wooden figures whom Du-mu constructed after the deluge.

[Gaster, pp. 99-100]

From the time of creation, people's lives were happy and peaceful, but one year a great flood came.

The parents of Mahei and Maniu, twin brother and sister, felled a big tree, hollowed it out, and covered both ends with cowhide.

They attached brass bells to the outside, and inside they put grain and seed, the two children, and a knife and cake of beeswax.

They instructed the children not to come out until the flood had gone down.

The flood came, and the children floated for an undeterminable period.

Mahei got impatient and cut a small hole with the knife.

He saw muddy waves surging and dead bodies everywhere, and he closed the hole with wax. 

Later, Maniu cut a hole and saw nothing but water; she likewise filled the hole.

Finally, they heard the bells ringing, indicating they had touched ground, and they left the drum.

They were the only survivors.

When they got old, they realized that there would be no people left if they died.

Mahei suggested marriage, but his sister was ashamed to marry her brother.

Mahei suggested she consult the magic tree.

Maniu went there, but Mahei took a shortcut and hid behind the tree.

Disguising his voice, he answered Maniu that she should marry her brother.

They did so, but by then they were too old to have children.

The sole gourd seed they had carried in the wooden drum had grown profusely, and although most of the fruits dried and rotted, one stayed ripe.

They had hung it in their shed.

One day, they heard faint voices coming from the gourd.

They heated their fire tongs red hot to burn a hole in the gourd, but each time they tried, a voice said:

Finally, one voice, calling herself Grandma Apierer, said to burn her or none could get out.

They burnt a hole in the navel on the gourd's bottom.

First out was Apo, ancestor of the Konge people; his skin was darkened by the soot around the hole.

The next out, in order, were Han, Dai, and last of all Jino (which literally means "last squeeze"); they became ancestors of their people.

Since then, rice offerings have been made to Apierer, who gave her life so that the Jino might live.

[L. Miller, pp. 68-73]

The Supreme Sovereign ordered the water god Gong Gong to create a flood as punishment and warning for human misbehavior.

Gong Gong extended the flood for 22 years, and people had to live in high mountain caves and in trees, fighting with wild animals for scarce resources.

Unable to persuade the Supreme Sovereign to stop the flood and told by an owl and a turkey about Xirang or Growing Soil, the supernatural hero Gun stole Growing Soil from heaven to dam the waters.

Before Gun was finished, however, the Supreme Sovereign sent the fire god Zhu Rong to execute him for his theft.

The Growing Soil was taken back to heaven, and the floods continued.

However, Gun's body didn't decay, and when it was cut apart three years later, his son Yu emerged in the form of a horned dragon.

Gun's body also transformed into a dragon at that time and thenceforth lived quietly in the deeps.

The Supreme Sovereign was fearful of Yu's power, so he cooperated and gave Yu the Growing Soil and the use of the dragon Ying.

Yu led other gods to drive away Gong Gong, distributed the Growing Soil to remove most of the flood, and led the people to fashion rivers from Ying's tracks and thus channel the remaining floodwaters to the sea.

[Walls, pp. 94-100]

Walls, Jan & Walls, Yvonne. Classical Chinese Myths, Joint Publishing Co., Hongkong, 1984.

One Hundred Allegorical Tales from Traditional China (2nd) - Anna’s Archive

The goddess Nu Kua fought and defeated the chief of a neighboring tribe, driving him up a mountain.

The chief, chagrined at being defeated by a woman, beat his head against the Heavenly Bamboo with the aim of wreaking vengeance on his enemies and killing himself.

He knocked it down, tearing a hole in the sky.

Floods poured out, inundating the world and killing everyone but Nu Kua and her army; her divinity made her and her followers safe from it.

Nu Kua patched the hole with a plaster made from stones of five different colors, and the floods ceased. [Werner, p. 225; Vitaliano, p. 163]

Werner, E. T. C. Myths and Legends of China, Singapore National Printers Ltd, Singapore, 1922, 1984.

Myths and Legends of China - Anna’s Archive

Zhuang (China):

Thunder God demanded half of Bubo's crops, but Bubo tricked him into taking the tops of taro and the roots of rice. Thunder God retaliated by withdrawing rain from the earth. Bubo led his people to open the copper sluice gate of the heavenly river a crack, but Thunder God closed it tight and lifted heaven higher so the people couldn't come again. Bubo went to the Dragon King to demand water of him. Dragon King refused, but he was forced to release his stream when Bubo held him tight and the people plucked out almost all his beard. By the third year, this stream dried up. Bubo climbed the sun-moon tree on Mount Bachi to heaven to fight Thunder God. Qigao, one of the thunder soldiers, told Bubo that Thunder God was determined to kill people with drought and pointed out his location. Bubo caught him and made him promise to send rain in three days, but Thunder God went back on his promise. Qigao brought world that Thunder God was grinding his axe. Bubo put a slippery surface on his roof and instructed his wife and children to stand ready with clubs and a net. Thunder God came in a rainstorm and tried to land on Bubo's house but slipped off and was captured. Bubo imprisoned Thunder God in a granary, warning his family not to give him an ax or any water, but his children, Fuyi and his sister, were enticed to give him some indigo ink, and the moisture gave Thunder God the strength to escape. The children were angry that he had tricked them, but Thunder God promised that he would repay them by saving them from the flood that he would bring in a few days. He gave them one of his teeth and told them to plant it. They did so, and it grew into a vine with a giant gourd fruit. Fuyi and his sister scooped out the pith and entered it. Thunder God breached the dike holding back the river of heaven, and Dragon King, in revenge against Bubo's plucking his beard, released his lake water, too. The water rose over the mountains as high as heaven's ceiling. Bubo, though, rode the waves floating on an inverted umbrella. He made for the gate of heaven and attacked Thunder God, chopping off his feet. (Thunder God later replaced them with chicken feet.) Thunder God, with the help of Dragon King, rapidly made the water subside so Bubo could not reach him. Bubo and his umbrella dropped from the sky and were smashed. Bubo's heart was thrown onto the ceiling of heaven and remains there as the planet Venus. Fuyi and his sister landed safely in the soft gourd. They wandered the earth but found nobody else. They came across a turtle which said the two of them should marry. Fuyi and his sister said, "How can a brother and sister marry?" and said if the turtle can come back to life after they beat it death, they would marry. They beat it to death, whereupon it laughed and crawled away. A bamboo also told them to marry; they cut it down, and it came back to life and laughed as they left. Venus spoke to them, told them to build fires on two different mountains, and if the smoke columns joined, they could marry. They did so, the smoke columns came together, Venus laughed, and the brother and sister married. They gave birth to a fleshball. Not knowing what to do with it, they minced it up and scattered the pieces, and the pieces became men and women. Qigao became a worm, which Thunder God attacks when he comes to the surface.

[L. Miller, pp. 137-150]

Grandpa Xiang and his wife Ya lived at the food of Sun mountain, barely getting by. One day, there was a beautiful rainbow after a downpour, and Xiang followed it as he picked bamboo shoots. He saw an eagle clutch a tiny red snake. In pity for the snake, Xiang yelled and threw his basket at the eagle, which dropped the snake and flew away. Xiang saw the snake disappear in a flash of light, and a column of smoke drifted up the mountain. That night he dreamed that a golden dragon thanked him for saving the life of the dragon's daughter and told him to visit. Grandma Ya had the same dream, so they set out, with their grandchildren, across three mountain passes and up a long slope, as the dream had directed. A beautiful girl came and told them that she had gone out earlier, entranced by the rainbow, and Xiang had rescued her. She led them to an idyllic pond and invited them to settle there. They did, and they grew younger and stronger from eating the fish of the pool. After a year, Xiang went back to his village and invited the people to live up on Sun Mountain with him. They did so and lived happily for some time. But an evil man wasted fish, polluted the pond, and finally poisoned all the fish. One dying fish told Xiang to make it a corn-flour body, feed it for 81 days on dew, and make a wooden house for himself. He did so, and all the people except the evil man made wooden houses. After 81 days, a fierce gale came, while the sky darkened and lightning flashed. The fish shook itself and turned into a girl and then into the red snake, which flew off to join the golden dragon Xiang had seen in his dreams. It told him to take his things into his wooden house and stay there. Pelting rain then fell from the sky, and soon there was a vast flood. The evil man was helpless in his stone house, but the wooden houses of the others floated. The golden dragon shook his body, and the upper half of Sun Mountain erupted into the sky. The body of the evil man was buried by the falling stones. The others floated peacefully down the mountain and carved a giant stone fish where they settled. This statue and the lower part of Sun Mountain can be seen near the town of Shuilong.

[L. Miller, pp. 107-112]

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CHINA FLOOD STORY

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CIVILIZATION: ASIA: CHINA: FLOOD STORY – Do YOU have the HOLY GHOST?