Chapter 8 Chapter 2 God Created Man

God created man, in fact, man-made man, man from the descendants of totems to the combination of man and things, man-centered, and things as supplements to conceive man is a great progress; man can get rid of things and be able to independently create man, which is an even greater progress.Human self-creation is also a manifestation of social progress.The god who created man was first a woman, and then a combination of male and female gods, which is closer to the true nature of things. Nuwa is a famous goddess in ancient myths and legends. It is said that she has a human face and a snake body, which shows that she was originally the first grandmother of the snake clan.When the world was created and there were no human beings, she made human beings out of lumps of yellow mud.Because she wanted to be a lot of people and felt very strenuous, she took a rope and stuck it into the soil, flicking it to the ground, and wherever there was mud falling, there was a person. (See "Taiping Yulan" Volume 78 cited "Customs of Customs")

The imagination of making people out of clay is not an unfounded fantasy, which shows that human beings have entered the stage of pottery making.The plastic art of pottery has left a glorious page in the history of human art.The inventors and operators were all women at first, and later belonged to men.Since mud can make all kinds of practical and beautiful daily-use utensils, why can't it make people.Since the animism of the primitive people is still in effect, they believe that clay figurines have souls and can move like real people. This is the psychological basis for them to regard clay figurines as being able to transform into real people.The Dai people have a saying that the gods used the dirt on their bodies to make people. Isn’t dirt the mud on people’s bodies? Rubbing people with dirt and making people with mud are completely interlinked in the minds of primitive people.

The gods of the Kazakhs used clay to create humans as part of the creation activities of the gods.It is said that their creator is named Jia Sagan.The appearance of this god is very specific, with complete limbs and facial features, can speak, and is similar to human beings.After he created the world, he planted a "tree of life" in the center of the earth. After the "tree of life" grows up, the fruit it bears is the "soul", which is like a bird and can fly.Gasa Gan pinched a pair of little clay figurines out of yellow clay, dried them, and gouged out the belly button on the clay figurines, then took the soul from the "tree of life" and blew into the clay figurines' mouths, and the little clay figurines came back to life. , a man and a woman, this is the earliest ancestor of mankind.This myth is more complete than Nuwa's creation of man, and has entered the stage of matching men and women.But its starting part, making people out of clay, is no different from Nuwa.

Going one step further, Man-God not only created man, but also created various animals.It's really interesting, it shows that people no longer recognize that they are descendants of totems, because they think that all kinds of animals and other things are also created by humans and gods.The boldness is getting bigger and bigger, and there are already some people who are the primates of all things.The Buyi mythology "How Humans and Animals Are Born" vividly reflects this process of human development: In the ancient times, there was no one in the vast land.The gods hated the life in heaven and decided to go to the earth to play.But the ground is too deserted.The first god cut a human form out of a tree trunk, breathed on it, and became a living person.They used this method to cut into thousands of people of different lengths.The second god made cows and horses; the third god made dogs and cats; the fourth and fifth gods also made various other animals out of tree trunks.Since then, the earth has been extremely lively.

Cutting people with wood is a boast to skilled craftsmen.There is a legend of the Zhuang nationality "Skillful Craftsman Makes Wooden Man". It is said that in ancient times, because there were too few people, a carpenter went to the big forest to make people.The people he created are not only indistinguishable from real people, but also exactly like himself.When his son went to deliver food to him, as long as he called out "Father", all the wooden figures would answer in unison.Demonstrates great skill. The creation of man by gods in mythology is inseparable from the imitation of witchcraft in primitive witchcraft.Witchcraft is a cultural phenomenon that is part of primitive religions.The original witchcraft was a supplementary means for primitive peoples to fight against nature.With the complexity of personal relationships, witchcraft was also used in social struggles, and it was an auxiliary means for human ancestors to survive.Imitation of witchcraft is one of the important methods of performing witchcraft.For example, people want to conquer the scorching heat and hope to shoot down the scorching sun, so they imitate the shape of the sun, make or draw an artificial sun, shoot with arrows, and if they hit it, they think the sun has been shot down , can achieve the purpose of cooling off.Once, by chance, there was a heavy rain and the temperature dropped, they became more convinced of the power of witchcraft.In order to harm Jia Baoyu and Wang Xifeng, Aunt Zhao asked Daopo to perform similar witchcraft.These two examples have the same method but very different purposes and meanings. The former is early witchcraft, which actively conquered nature, while the latter is an activity in the decline period of witchcraft, which is purely superstitious and has undergone essential mutations.The so-called creation of human beings and animals by man and god is a manifestation of belief in primitive religion, and it is mythology to describe and express it in language.The former is a form, and its enthusiasm has a certain limit, so it later became the root of superstition.The latter is the content, and future generations can try their best to absorb its enterprising and positive spirit, and enhance the belief and strength of survival.

Whether people are made of clay, wood, or other raw materials (the myth of Bunuyao, a branch of the Yao nationality, says that the first grandmother Mi Luotuo used beeswax to make people), almost no correct answer to the origin of human beings has been found.The value of such myths mainly reflects the continuous improvement of human production skills.