China: Land of the Dragon The history of China began about 2,000 years before Rome was founded (753 BC). But many centuries before that, the Black Haired people, as the Chinese called themselves, must have begun to till the fertile yellow soil along Huang Ho, the Yellow River. Then, like all other early people, they had felt the world about them to be full of unseen spirits. In the great winding river, whose water gave a life to their fields, there seemed to be a friendly dragon with a winding tail, a helpful spirit, except when he was angry. Then he lashed about, the water rose, flooded the fields and swept away the tiny huts. In the shape of clouds gathering in the summer sky, the Chinese farmer, looking up, could see another dragon---the good sky dragon who sent the gentle summer rain. Against the sky, under the jagged outline of the mountains, could easily be seen the shape of still another dragon which slept beneath the earth, guarding its riches. And so the dragon, which represented to the Chinese the life and fertility of their land, came to be the symbol of China. To the question of who had made the world, and how it had been created, these early people answered Pan Ku. When all was confusion and disorder, Pan Ku, a mighty being, had lifted up the heavens. Holding the sun in one hand and the moon in the other, he had put them into place. Then he had spread out the earth like a carpet, and lain down to die. His head had formed the mountains; his bones, the rocks; his flesh, the soil. His blood made rivers and streams; his breath was the wind. And in thunder, could be heard his voice. Centuries passed. The early myth about Pan Ku no longer satisfied the sages or wise men of ancient China. Looking about them, they saw that everything in the world seemed to have its opposite. There was light and darkness, heat and cold, giving and taking, man and woman, birth and death, good and evil. In that lay the secret of creation, they said. Two forces acting upon each other, made up the universe. By a circular symbol, half black, half white, they showed how the two forces, Yang and Yin, fitted together and made a perfect whole.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 20:29:45 +0000
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