One half of her he set in place as a covering for the heavens.
With the other part of Tiamat’s body Marduk made the earth. Then he fashioned the abode of the god Ea in the deep, the abode of the god Anu in high heaven, and the abode of Enlil in the air.[10]
In India is found another myth that appears to have contributed to the Chinese mosaic. At the beginning the Universal Soul assumed “the shape of a man”. This was Purusha.
“He did not feel delight. Therefore nobody, when alone, feels delight. He was desirous of a second. He was in the same state as husband (Pati) and wife (Patni).… He divided this self two fold. Hence were husband and wife produced. Therefore was this only a half of himself, as a split pea is of the whole.… The void was completed by woman.”[11]
It may be that India and China derived the god-splitting idea from a common source in Central Asia, where such “culture-mixing” appears to have taken place.
In China itself there are many traces of blended ideas. In the Texts of Confucianism, for instance, the symbol of the Khien stands for heaven, and that of the Khwan for earth.
In one of the native treatises it is stated:
“Khien suggests the idea of heaven; of a circle; of a ruler; of a father; of jade; of metal; of cold; of ice; of deep red; of a good horse; of an old horse; of a thin horse; of a piebald horse; and of the fruit of trees.
“Khwan suggests the idea of the earth; of a mother; of cloth; [[266]]of a caldron; of parsimony; of a turning lathe; of a young heifer; of a large waggon; of what is variegated; of a multitude; and of a handle and support. Among soils it denotes what is black.”[12]
Here we have the Great Father, the god of heaven, who is red and is a circle (the sun); and the Great Mother, the goddess of Earth, who is black.
The sky-god is connected with jade and metal. As we have seen, the cult of the west attributed the creation of jade to the Chinese Ishtar. Precious metals were in several countries associated with sun, moon, and stars. The horse is one of the animals associated with sky-gods; it was, of course, later than the bull, stag, antelope, goat, ram, &c. Cold as well as warmth was sent by the sky-god, who controls the seasons.