“Hasty” and “Heedless” met daily in the Central land, and each day they opened an orifice. On the seventh day their work was finished. But when he had eyes and ears opened, and could see and hear, and could breathe through his nostrils, and had a mouth with which to eat, old Chaos died.
The meaning of this Chinese parable seems to be that the Universe had, in the space of seven days, been “set in order”, Chaos having been transformed into Kosmos.
Although Taoism has been referred to by some writers of the “Evolution School” as “an elaboration of animistic lore”, this myth is really a product of the years that bring the philosophic mind. The three “Rulers” may have originally been giants, and the story may owe something to the Babylonian myth of Ea-Oannes, the sea-god, who came daily from the Persian Gulf to instruct the early Sumerians how to live civilized lives; but it was evidently some Far Eastern Socrates who first named the sea-gods “Heedless” and “Hasty”, and tinged the fable with Taoistic cynicism.
Creation myths are not as “primitive” as some writers [[260]]would have us suppose. Considerable progress was achieved before mankind began to theorize regarding the origin of things. Even the widespread and so-called “primitive myth” about the egg from which the Universe, or the first god, was hatched by the “Primeval Goose” may belong to a much later stage of human development than is supposed by some of those writers who speculate with so much confidence regarding “the workings of the human mind”. Even the metaphysicians of Brahmanic India were prone to speak in parables and fables.
“At the beginning there was nothing”, the Chinese philosophers taught their pupils. “Long ages passed by. Then nothing became something.” The something had unity. Long ages passed by, and the something divided itself into two parts—a male part and a female part. These two somethings produced two lesser somethings, and the two pairs, working together, produced the first being, who was named Pʼan Ku. Another version of the myth is that Pʼan Ku emerged from the cosmic egg.
It is not difficult to recognize in Pʼan Ku a giant god or world-god. He was furnished with an adze, or, as is found in some Chinese prints, with a hammer and a chisel. With his implement or implements Pʼan Ku moves through the universe as the Divine Artisan, who shapes the mountains and hammers or chisels out the sky, accompanied by the primeval Tortoise, and the Phœnix, and a dragon-like being who may represent the primeval “somethings”—the symbols of water, earth, and air. The sun, moon, and stars have already appeared.
Another version of the Pʼan Ku myth represents him as the Primeval World-giant, who is destroyed so that the material universe may be formed. From his flesh comes the soil, from his bones the rocks; his blood is the waters of rivers and the ocean; his hair is vegetation; [[261]]while the wind is his breath, the thunder his voice, the rain his sweat, the dew his tears, the firmament his skull, his right eye the moon, and his left eye the sun. Pʼan Ku’s body was covered with vermin, and the vermin became the races of mankind.
A somewhat similar myth is found in Tibet. When M. Huc sojourned in that country, he had a conversation with an aged nomad, who said:
“There are on the earth three great families, and we are all of the great Tibetan family. This is what I have heard the Lamas say, who have studied the things of antiquity. At the beginning there was on the earth only a single man; he had neither house nor tent, for at that time the winter was not cold, and the summer was not hot; the wind did not blow so violently, and there fell neither snow nor rain; the tea grew of itself on the mountains, and the flocks had nothing to fear from beasts of prey. This man had three children, who lived a long time with him, nourishing themselves on milk and fruits. After having attained to a great age, this man died. The three children deliberated what they should do with the body of their father, and they could not agree about it; one wished to put him in a coffin, the other wanted to burn him, the third thought it would be best to expose the body on the summit of a mountain. They resolved then to divide it into three parts. The eldest had the body and arms; he was the ancestor of the great Chinese family, and that is why his descendants have become celebrated in arts and industry, and are remarkable for their tricks and stratagems. The second son had the breast; he was the father of the Tibetan family, and they are full of heart and courage, and do not fear death. From the third, who had inferior parts of the body, are descended the Tartars, who are simple and timid, without head or heart, and who [[262]]know nothing but how to keep themselves firm in their saddles.”[2]
Pʼan Ku, with his implements, links with the Egyptian artificer god Ptah of Memphis, who used his hammer to beat out the metal firmament. Ptah’s name means “to open” in the sense of “to engrave, to carve, to chisel”; the sun and moon were his eyes; he was “the great artificer in metals, and he was at once smelter, and caster, and sculptor, as well as the master architect and designer of everything that exists in the world”. In the Book of the Dead he (or Shu) is said to have performed “the ceremony of opening the mouth of the gods with an iron knife”,[3] as “Hasty” and “Heedless” opened the mouth, eyes, ears, and nostrils of Chaos in the Chinese myth. The high priest of Memphis was called Ur Kherp hem, “the great chief of the hammer”. As we have seen, he was closely associated with the Egyptian potter’s wheel, which reached China at an early period. Like Ptah, Pʼan Ku is sometimes depicted as a dwarf, and sometimes as a giant.