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The largest category of Chinese myths concerns hero myths, describe by Derk
Bodde as “those of the culture heroes who enjoy supernatural birth, are sometimes aided by protective animals, become sage rulers or otherwise perform great deeds for mankind.”
Bodde, “Myths of Ancient China,” p. 370

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Derk Bodde (9 March 1909
– 3 November
2003) was a prominent 20th century
American Sinologist and historian of
China. He authored pioneering work in the history of the Chinese legal system.
Bodde was an emeritus Professor of
Chinese Studies at the University of
Pennsylvania and former president of the
American Oriental Society (1968-69).
Bodde received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1930. He spent six years (1931-1937) studying in China on a fellowship. He earned a doctorate in
Chinese Studies from the University of
Leiden in Amsterdam in 1938. When the
Fulbright scholarship program was initiated in 1948, Bodde was the first
American recipient of a one-year fellowship, which he spent studying in
Beijing (formerly Peking).

盘古 【 páng ǔ 】 Pan Gu, creator of the universe in Chinese mythology
 Scholars used to the mythology of the Ju’deo-
Christian tradition observe that China lacks myths in general and creation myths in particular. However in pri’mordial antiquity there were a small number of supernatural creatures who were involved in a transformation process of a cata’clysmic nature.

盘古 【 páng ǔ 】 Pan Gu, creator of the universe in Chinese mythology
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According to Xu Zheng 徐整 of the Thee Kingdoms period (early 3 rd century A. D.), Pan Gu transformed the world in two ways. One of these myths says that the world was opaque like the inside of an egg, and Pan Gu was born inside it.
In 18,000 years, Heaven and Earth split open; the Yang, which was clear, became Heaven, and the Yin, which was murky, became Earth.
Pan Gu was in the middle, transforming himself nine times every single day [and he performed] like a god in Heaven and like a sage on
Earth. Heaven rose by one Zhang (a unit of length =3.333 meters) every day, Earth thickened by one zhang every day, and Pan Gu grew by one zhang every day. It was like this for 18,000 years. Heaven was exceedingly hight, Earth exceedingly deep, and Pan Gu exceedingly tall…Thus, heaven’s distance from Earth was 90,000 li (a
Chinese unit of length (=0.5 kilometer).

Ancient Heroes and Their Inventions
The Cambridge History of Ancient China , 69
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Sui Ren 燧人 , Chinese Prometheus--first use of fire;
Fu Xi 伏羲 --the Eight Trigrams, Wedding rituals, se-zither 瑟 ; hunting and fishing nets;
Shen Nong 神 农
, also known as Yan Di 炎帝 —Qin 琴 -zither, medical plants;
Huang Di
黄帝
--Cooked meals, crown;
--Xihe
羲和
--Divination by the sun;
--Changyi
常儀
--Divination by the moon;
--Qu
區
--Divination by the stars;
--Linglun
伶倫
--Musical notes;
--Darao
大橈
--Calendar by Jiazi;
--Lishou
隶首
--Arithmetic;
算盤【 suànpan 】 abacus.
--Quyong
沮誦 and Cangjie
倉頡 —Writing, 象形文字 Hiero’glyphic
--Shi Huang
史皇
--Graphics

Ancient Heroes and Their Inventions
The Cambridge History of Ancient China , 69
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Yong Fu 雍父 --Stone and wooden mortars, pestles;
Hai 胲 --Domesticated cattle;
Xiangtu 相土 --Horse carriage;
Nǚ Wa 女媧 --The Jew’s harp;
Hui 揮 --Bow;
Yimou 夷牟 --Arrow;
Chiyou 蚩尤 --The five weapons;
Zhurong 祝融 --The market;
Hou Ji 后稷 --Plant cultivation;
Wu 巫 /Peng 彭 --Medicine;
Wu Xian 巫咸 --Yarrow divination; drum, 蓍属（ Achillea ）植物；尤指： the common 蓍（ Achillea millefolium ）
Shun 舜 --Pottery;
Chui 垂 --Wooden digging sticks; bell;
Gun 鲧 --The town wall;
Yao 堯 --The Palace;

龙的传人 【 lóngde chuánrén 】
Descendant of the Dragon
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In the beginning there was as yet no moral or social order. Men knew their mothers only, not their fathers. When hungry, they searched for food; when satisfied, they threw away the remnants.
They devoured their food hide and hair, drank the blood, and clad themselves in skins and rushes.
Then came Fu Xi and looked upward and contemplated the images in the heavens, and looked downward and contemplated the occurrences on earth. He united man and wife, regulated the five stages of change, and laid down the laws of humanity. He devised the eight trigrams, in order to gain mastery over the world.
– Ban Gu, Baihu tongyi
 Fu Xi on a mural in Peterborough

Shen Nong/
Shennong ploughing the fields.
Mural painting from Han dynasty
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 Shennong counterattacked the
Busui/Fusui over resources to protect his people. This is the earliest military battle indirectly inferred from Sun Bin’s Treatise on the art of war.
神农 / 神戎 伐补遂 / 斧遂
这次战争见于银雀山汉墓竹简
《
孙膑兵法 ． 见威王 》和《 战国策
．秦策》。据 记载 ： 孙膑为了说
服 齐威王用兵 ，列 举了许多古代
战例 ，首先就 谈及 “ 神戎 战斧遂 ”
。 苏秦说秦惠王连横 ，同 样以 “
神
农伐斧遂 ” 作
为最古老的战争
讲述

炎黄子孙【 yánhuáng z ǐ sūn 】
Yandi and Huangdi's children and grandchildren; descendants of Flame the
Emperor and Yellow Emperor

 Huang-di , 黃帝 or the Yellow
Emperor , is a legendary
Chinese sovereign and cultural hero who is considered in
Chinese mythology to be the ancestor of all Han Chinese.
Tradition holds that he reigned from 2697 BC to 2597 BC. His personal name was said to be
Gōngsūn Xuānyuán ( 公 孙轩辕
).
He emerged as a chief deity of
Taoism during the Han Dynasty
(202 BCE-220 CE).

The South Pointing Chariot
Reconstruction of a South Pointing Chariot

A Vehicle/Chariot a non-magnetic compass
 The South Pointing Chariot is widely regarded as one of the most complex geared mechanisms of the ancient
Chinese civilization, and was continually used throughout the medieval period as well. It was supposedly invented sometime around 2600 BC in China by the Yellow
Emperor, yet the first valid historical version was created by Ma Jun 馬鈞 (c. 200–265 AD) of Cao Wei during the
Three Kingdoms. The chariot is a two-wheeled vehicle upon which is a pointing figure connected to the wheels by means of differential gearing. Through careful selection of wheel size, track and gear ratios, the figure atop the chariot will always point in the same direction, hence acting as a non-magnetic compass vehicle.
According to Records of the Grand Historian, the Yellow
Emperor defeated Chi You during the Battle of Zhuolu
(~2500 BC) with the help of this invention on a foggy day—fog created by Chi You.

Chinese Mythology Studies
山海 经 【 shānh ǎ ijīng 】
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The Shanhai jing has been variously classified as a geographical treatise and as a work of fiction. It is a rich collection of myths and legends, some of which may be of early date. Many of the entries are of supernatural and fabulous occurrences. The present edition is divided into eighteen sections, each of which is named by the general geographical area purportedly described in the section.
The Shanhai jing traditionally has been attributed to the sage emperor Yu
禹 or his assistant Boyi. The work now is considered to be a composite text of materials from different periods, the earliest of which may have been put together around the fourth century. B. C. The existence of Han time place names indicates that material was still being added to the text in the Han period.

夸父追日
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One day out of the blue, Kua Fu (literally means a bragging father) was perplexed by the Sun's whereabouts at night and decided to chase and catch the Sun. He followed the Sun from the East to the West, draining all rivers and lakes crossing his path as sources of water to quench his burning thirst.
However, he wasn't able to finish his quest because he died of the extreme thirst and exhaustion.
The wooden club/staff he was carrying grew into a vast forest…(peach trees)

 In modern day
Chinese usage, the story of Kua Fu chasing the sun ( 夸父
追日 ) is used to describe a person who fails to obtain his goal because he greatly overestimates himself.
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Nüwa and Fuxi as depicted from murals of the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD)
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Nüwa 女媧 is a goddess in ancient
Chinese mythology, best known for creating mankind and repairing the roof of heaven. Later traditions attribute mankind's creation to either Pangu or Yu Huang.
龙的传人
Descendants of the
Dragon;
“Foot” in Chinese culture the original measurement of the
English foot was from King
Henry I (c. 1068/1069
– 1
December 1135) , who had a foot 12 inches long; he wished to standardize the unit of measurement in England.

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Houyi (Chinese: 后羿 ), also simply called Yi, was a mythological Chinese archer and the leader of
Dongyi 東夷 . He is sometimes portrayed as a god of archery descended from heaven to aid mankind, and sometimes as the chief of the Youqiong Tribe (
有窮國 ) during the reign of King Xiang of Xia
Dynasty. His wife, Chang'e, was a lunar deity.
In Chinese mythology, the sun is sometimes symbolized as a three-legged bird, called a Sunbird.

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Mural from the Han Dynasty period found in Henan province depicting a threelegged bird.
According to folklore, there were originally ten sun birds who perched on a red mulberry tree called the
Fusang (Chinese: 扶桑
; pinyin: fúsāng ) in the East at the foot of the Valley of the Sun.

淮南子【 Huáinánz ǐ 】 , literally means
"The Masters/Philosophers of Huainan"
 The Huainanzi is a 2nd century BCE Chinese philosophical classic from the Han dynasty that blends
Daoist, Confucianist, and Legalist concepts, including theories such as Yin-Yang and the Five Phases/Elements.
It was written under the patronage of Liu An, Prince of
Huainan, a legendarily prodigious author. 刘安（前 179-
前 122 ）， 汉高祖刘邦的孙子 ， 袭封淮南王 。
The text, also known as the Huainan honglie 淮南 鸿烈
("The Great Brilliance of Huainan"), is a collection of essays presented as resulting from literary and philosophical debates between Liu and guests at his court, in particular the scholars known as the Eight Immortals of
Huainan
淮南八仙
.

The Eight Immortals of Huainan ( 淮南八仙
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 The Eight Immortals of Huainan ( 淮南八仙 ; Huáinán bāxiān), also known as the Eight Gentlemen ( 八公 bāgōng), were the eight scholars under the patronage of Liu An ( 劉安 Liú Ān), the prince of Huainan during the Western
Han Dynasty. They are not deified in any religions and the xian "immortal" is used metaphorically to describe their talent. Together, they wrote the philosophical collection Huainanzi ( 淮南子 , Huáinánzǐ, literally "The
Masters of Huainan").
They are:
Jin Chang ( 晉昌 jǐn chāng),
Lei Bei ( 雷被 leí beì),
Li Shang ( 李尚 lǐ shàng),
Mao Bei ( 毛被 máo beì),
Su Fei ( 蘇非 sū feì),
Tian You ( 田由 tián yoú),
Wu Bei ( 伍被 wǔ beì), and
Zuo Wu ( 左 吳 zǔo wú).
The "Bagong Mountain" ("Eight Gentlemen Mountain") in China is named after them.

塞翁失 马
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塞翁失 马
,
焉知非福
【 sāiwēngshīmǎ,
yānzhīfēifú 】
Misfortune may be an actual blessing.
《 淮南子 · 人 间训 》
The parable goes that one day an old man lost his horse.
When his folks remarked,
“That’s too bad,” he replied,
“How do you know whether it’s not a blessing?” When his horse was retrieved, the old man commented, “How do you know if it is not a curse?”
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【塞】 边塞 ，指 长城一带 ；
【翁】老翁；
【失】 丢失 ；
【 马 】 马匹 ；
When the horse was returned, his son broke his leg from horse riding. “That’s too bad,” his folks shook their heads.
The old man responded, “How do you know if it is not a blessing?” Before long, a war broke out. His son did not get drafted due to his disability.

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Often extolled as the morally perfect sageking, Emperor Yao 's benevolence and diligence served as a model to future Chinese monarchs and emperors.
Consult “The Canon of
Yao”

尧典【
ǎ
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尚书【
】
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五经【
ǔ
】
the core/canonical Confucian Texts
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1. The Book of Songs —gentleness and generosity ,
2. the Book of Documents/History —knowledge and flexibility, able to mediate between two parties;
3. the Book of Changes —wisdom and resourcefulness ,
4. the Book of Rites —respect/no transgression of social stations;
5. The Spring and Autumn Annal — parallelism/juxtaposition of historical events .

五经
易
书
诗
礼
春秋
信
礼
仁
五常
智
义
土
火
木
五行
水
金
中
南
东
五方
北
西
弓
戟
剑
五兵器
盾
刀

九族
ǔ
 Nine generations of direct kin. Besides oneself, it includes father, grandfather, greatgrandfather, great great-grandfather, son, grandson, great-grandson and great greatgrandson
 (it is said that it includes relatives of different kin, which are four generations of father, three generations of mother. Two generations of wife, which constitute nine generations.

http://ctext.org/shang-shu/tribute-of-yu
 Yu the Great ( 大禹
Dà-Yǔ ), was the legendary founder of the Xia Dynasty that began in 2205
BCE. He is best remembered for teaching the people techniques to tame rivers and lakes during an epic flood.

 Three Ancient Sage
Kings-Rule by
Virtue
 Yao/Shun/Yu
 What is the limit of this model?
 How to pass the throne to the next generation?
 Moral strengths vs. blood line