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The 20 best Chinese legends (and their explanation)

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The wisdom of a people is transmitted through its legends. And China is the possessor of a mystical philosophy that has conquered the western world. His worldview is a great contribution of Chinese culture to the world.

Chinese legends are a true path to learning about human nature and the world. We list here the 20 best Chinese legends with their explanation, to enter this ancient culture.

Top 20 Chinese Legends

In addition to its landscapes and current culture, China must also be known through its legends. Anyone who has visited this country can attest to how impressive it is. In addition to the clear differences between western and eastern culture.

We have compiled these 20 Chinese legends with his explanation, which will surely captivate you with his teachings. Although there are many more, the most popular or representative ones are compiled here.

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1. Pangu and the creation of the universe

As in all the legends and mythologies of the world, the creation of the universe and reality as we know it is a fundamental part of the culture of any civilization.

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Here we leave you one of the Chinese legends that explain the origin of the universe.

Pangu the giant was the first creator. At first everything was formless chaos, until after 18,000 years an egg was created. When the forces of ying and yang were balanced, Pangu hatched out of that egg and split the ying and yang with his giant ax. In this way heaven and earth were created. He remained between them, pushing the sky upward.

Pangu stayed that way for another 18,000 years until he decided to take a break. Pangu, already old and tired, could not wake up from that rest and died. From his last breath came the wind. From his left eye the sun and from the right the moon, from his voice the thunder. His blood was transformed in the rivers and his body in the mountains. His beard turned into stars, his hair turned into the woods, his sweat into the rain, and humans emerged from Pangu's fleas.

2. The muleteer and the weaver

The muleteer and the weaver is a beautiful Chinese legend about love. On the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese calendar there is a festival of love, let's say it is the equivalent of Western Valentine's Day. The signs of love and the celebration around this feeling have their origin in this Chinese legend.

Zhi Nu was a goddess who had decided to come down to earth and leave heaven. She then she met a muleteer named Niu Lang. They fell deeply in love and got married, but this caused the resentment of the gods in heaven and they ordered Zhi Nu to return immediately or she would be severely punished.

When Zhi Nu ascended, Niu Lang followed behind her. The gods saw that it would be impossible to separate them and created a wide river between them. A group of magpies were moved by the lovers and formed a bridge to unite them. It is said that on the seventh day of the seventh Chinese month, the magpies come together again to unite Zhi Nu and Niu Lang.

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3. The legend of the pearl and the dragon

The legend of the pearl and the dragon is one of the most popular. This legend talks about tenacity and intelligence to achieve goals.

On the highest mountain on Kinabalu Island, lived a dragon immersed in the most immense peace and happiness. His most prized possession was a pearl of enormous size, which the emperor longed to have.

With that pearl the dragon played as if it were a ball, placed it in its mouth and threw it into the sky to catch it again with its mouth. The emperor entrusted his son with the task of obtaining the pearl by promising her in exchange for his position. The boy planned everything and had his bravest soldiers accompany him carrying cannons.

He had a kite built and asked for a lamp. With the kite he was able to reach the top of the mountain and when the dragon slept, he removed the pearl and left the lamp in its place. When the dragon woke up, he caught up with the youth and the soldiers while spitting fire at them. The emperor's son fired his cannon and the dragon, confused by the glow, thought the bullet was his precious pearl and opened his mouth to catch it.

The weight of the cannonball plunged the dragon into the sea without him being able to do anything. The prince arrived at the palace and was received with the honor that heroes deserve. The next day he was appointed Emperor of all China and the Kinabalu Mountain Dragon Pearl became one of the greatest treasures appreciated by all.

4. Yue Lao and the red thread of love

The legend of Yue Lao and the red thread is another very romantic story in the Chinese tradition. This story has as a message that the person you will fall in love with is destined for you and is united by a red thread that keeps them together throughout life, from the moment of birth and until the death of both.

When Wei Gu sets out to search for a friend in distant lands, a wealthy man decides to arrange a meeting with her daughter to choose her as his wife. The young man, also from a wealthy family, agrees to attend the meeting. On the way he meets a man, Yue Lao, who is reading a mysterious book. Approaching, Wei Gu realizes that he doesn't understand anything the book says.

Asking Yue Lao what the book is about, the old man tells him that it is about predestined love. Wei Gu laughs and challenges him to tell him who she will marry. The old man pointed out a poor blind lady who was carrying a 3-year-old girl, and told her that she is that girl whom he will marry when she is 16 years old. Wei Gu is offended by this and orders the little girl to be killed.

However, his servants are not capable of committing the crime and only leave a mark on him. Years later Wei Gu gets married and when asked about her past and her peculiar scar, she tells him that he has had it since he was 3 years old. When Wei Gu investigated about his wife's past, he learns that she is about the girl that old Yue Lao had pointed out to him.

5. The legend of Houyi and the 10 suns

The legend of Houyi is an explanation about the origin of the sun. Legends are known to arise from the need to explain everyday phenomena. They are also a way of explaining to the little ones how the world works.

It is said that in ancient times there were 10 suns in the form of birds. One day all the suns went up to the sky and played for a long time. This caused the temperature to rise a lot and as a consequence plants, animals and humans would die. The emperor of China asked the god of the sky, Dijun, who was the father of the 10 suns for help.

Dijun sent the god of archery, Houyi, to scare away the 10 suns, but he made the decision to kill 9 of the suns so that humans would not suffer again because of the gods. Dijun did not see this decision favorably and in his anger he punished Houyi by taking away his immortality. For that reason we currently only have one sun.

6. Butterfly lovers

The legend of the butterfly lovers is a tragic love story. It is a legend that talks about pure and sincere love that becomes eternal and overcomes all barriers.. In the imaginary of cultures, love has always had a leading place. The stories around him are without a doubt the most shocking.

This is the legend of a wealthy young woman, Zhu, who wishes to attend school even though women were not accepted at the time. She decides to go disguised as a man and there she meets Liang Shanbo, with whom she falls in love with her. When Liang discovers that Zhu is really a woman, he too falls head over heels in love with her, but he Zhu's father does not accept the relationship, so he arranges a wedding between Zhu and a young woman of the same position. economical.

When Ling finds out about this, she suffers from a great depression and dies. On Zhu's wedding day, a whirlpool drags her to the grave of her loved one. While there the tomb opens and Zhu enters. A short time later, she sees how two butterflies emerge from the grave and move away from there together.

7. The Legend of the Monkey King

The legend of the Monkey King is undoubtedly one of the best known in Chinese culture. The legend is very broad and It is included in the book "Journey to the West", which is one of the classic works of Chinese literature. It is an epic story, difficult to condense into a few words and that also reflects much of the philosophy and culture of this country.

The Monkey King, named Sun Wukong, was born from a magic stone. He was proclaimed king of the monkeys after showing his worth when he threw himself out of a waterfall. However, the Monkey King was worried that he knew that one day he would have to die and decided to go in search of immortality.

His journey is divided into several stages. The first begins when he meets a disciple of Buddha who shows him amazing techniques for jumping 8 thousand miles, or the secret to transform into 72 different entities, but he could never get rid of the tail, even transforming into what he wanted.

Over time, his journeys lead him to meet the Ru Yi Bang rod that belonged to the Palace of the Dragon King of the East Sea and that weighed 7 thousand kilos. It was used to maintain balance between the tides. The Monkey King decides to steal it by reducing its size to be able to escape with it, but this causes a terrible tidal wave.

That's when the Jade Emperor decides to put a stop to it. He lures him into the palace with deception, offering him a noble title. Upon his arrival, the moment he realizes the trap, he reaches to take the magic elixir that lengthens life and the peaches of immortality, so not even the emperor's 100,000 warriors achieve beat it.

In order to capture him, the emperor throws him into a forge that manages to stop him for 49 days, but when he managed to free himself, he jumped into the world with a greater desire for revenge. The Jade Emperor then goes to Buddha for help. Buddha then decides to challenge the Monkey King, who if he does not overcome the challenge, would be exiled from the world of mortals.

The Monkey King accepts, confident in his abilities, and proposes to Buddha that in case of overcoming the challenge, he be awarded the title of Jade Emperor. Buddha accepted and proposed to jump on the palm of his hand to win or lose the challenge and abide by the consequences they had agreed.

The Monkey King jumped with all his might and when he fell to the ground he found himself in the middle of 5 huge columns. Believing that he had jumped to the limit of the sky, he decides to leave his mark by engraving on one of the columns "The great sage was here." But when he went to claim the title from him, he saw in the hands of the Buddha, the phrase that he had inscribed on the columns.

She realized that she had not even been able to reach the Buddha's fingers and realizing that she had lost, she tried to escape from it. Before achieving this, Buddha locked him in the mountain of the five elements for all eternity.

8. Nüwa and the creation of man

The legend of Nüwa and the creation of man explains the origin of humanity on earth. She is a female entity with many attributions, which from the torso up was human and down a dragon that could transform. It is said that after the universe was created, the first goddess, Nüwa, was born.

Nüwa traveled the world and contemplated the stars, seas, forests, mountains, and all of nature. She traveled the world only to realize that something was missing from her life, for she herself felt lonely after a time of enjoying the world and the wonders of it.

He scooped out mud and began to shape it into a shape similar to hers but with legs. When finished, he decides to give it life, thus being born the first human being. He then he created more people, in the form of man and woman, to whom he gave the gift of conceiving in order to generate more human beings to populate the world.

9. The legend of the four dragons

The legend of the four dragons explains the origin of the 4 main rivers in this country. As already mentioned, dragons cannot be absent from Chinese legends.. On this occasion they explain how the rivers that cross China arose.

Legend has it that before there were no rivers in China, there was only sea. There lived four dragons, the Black who flew through the air, the Pearl who owned fire, the Yellow who was earth and the Great Dragon who worshiped water. These beings were happy until one day they saw that humans suffered because there was no rain.

The dragons decide to go with the Jade Emperor to beg him for rain and he promises them that he will make it rain. However, many days passed and he did not rain. So the dragons decide to take the water and throw it from the sky, but the emperor was upset by his meddling. He then he ordered the mountains to stand on each one to imprison them forever, in the form of rivers.

10. The harp and the woodcutter

The legend of the harp and the lumberjack is a sad story of two good friends. It explains the true meaning and feeling of friendship. It is the story of an ancient harp that had a certain magic.

It was said that when a string broke, it was because someone had been touched by the charm of his notes. Boya was the owner of this harp, of which he was also a great virtuoso. Boya was sad because he felt that nobody appreciated his music. One day surprisingly a rope broke, when he looked for who was who was listening, he discovered a scruffy lumberjack. The woodcutter told him that he was going back to his house but his music had caught him and made him return. Boya was so pleased with this that he invited it to his house.

They spent the whole night talking about music until the day caught them by surprise. They agreed to return the following year to the same place at the same time to continue enjoying the music. Boya was on time for the appointment, but the lumberjack never arrived. Disappointed, Boya set off when he happened to meet the lumberjack's father, who told him that his son had died.

Boya asked to be taken to her grave. Standing in front of her, Boya played the most precious melodies for her woodcutter friend. Sadness and anguish seized him and he decided to destroy that magic harp. He threw it to the ground and the harp shattered into a thousand pieces, destroying the magic with it.

11. The legend of the white snake

The legend of the white snake is another story about love. This legend shows that lies and betrayal never end well. Bai Suzhen was a white snake who liked to transform into a woman. One day she was walking in the form of her woman when she started to rain and ran to take refuge under a tree. At that moment a young man passed by, his name was Xuxian, and offered him an umbrella.

Bai Suzhen fell in love with Xuxian and promised to go the next day to return her umbrella. When he knocked on her door, Xuxian, surprised, invited her to come in and when they talked he fell completely in love with her, until they were married. A few years later a monk informed Xuxian that his wife was a white snake.

He didn't believe anything but was tempted to find out the truth. The monk had recommended that Bai Suzhen buy a glass of wine, to which she agreed and immediately fled to her bedroom, where she returned to her original form. Xuxian came to see her and was so impressed that she at that moment she died. Suzhen, devastated by her death, wanders looking for a magical herb that will bring her love back to life.

12. The Jade Rabbit

The Chinese legend of the Jade Rabbit is an explanation about the spot that is seen on the moon. It is a way full of imagination and fantasy to explain to the little ones, how that mark on the moon that seems to be in the shape of a rabbit got there. A beautiful and simple legend typical of Chinese culture.

It is said that three gods came down to earth and dressed themselves as beggars. As they passed they asked for money to be able to eat. The fox and the monkey offered these beggars only food that they had stolen. But the rabbit had nothing to offer them, so he told them that if they were hungry they could cook it for him to eat.

Without giving time for the gods to accept, the rabbit jumped into the fire and cooked. The three gods were moved by this act of kindness and rewarded him by offering to live eternally in the palace of the moon. For that reason, the jade rabbit became part of the moon. There he lives forever, thanks to his generosity.

13 Huoyi and Chang’e

This legend tells the story of Chang’e, the goddess who lives on the moon. When the archer Huoyi and his wife Chang’e lose their immortality as gods, they begin their new life among human beings.. But Chang’e cannot adapt to the new life and she is very sad to have to live as a mortal.

Huoyi feels sad at the attitude of his wife, and thinking of some solution decides to speak with the Mother Goddess of the west and ask her to allow them he and his wife could be gods again, because his wife Chang’e could not feel happy with this new life and she feared that she could not accept it never.

The Goddess is moved and gives her a pill that she should eat half and half in order to return to heaven. But upon seeing the pill, Chang’e eats it whole out of curiosity and begins to float through the air. Despite Huoyi trying to shoot her with her bow to lower her, Chang’e continues to float and reaches the moon, where she is condemned to live there for all eternity.

14. The legend of the great flood

The legend of the great flood speaks is another classic story from Chinese mythology. The legend says that after a battle between the god of water and fire, the god of water, Gong was defeated and in his rage he gave a head butt to a mountain knocking it down. Being one of the four pillars that supported the sky, it affected the waters of the world.

That was the origin of a great flood that caused serious problems. Emperor Yao ordered Gong to stop the flood by granting him the power of the secret of the xirang, the living land. Gun used the power to create reservoirs in the flooded lands, making soil grow at the same speed as the water rose. But the God of heaven claimed power from him.

Gong collected all the living earth that he had created and for that reason he was imprisoned and executed. From his body emerged Yun, his son who was also tasked with stopping the flood. He asked various heavenly beings for channels that allowed the waters to drain and after 13 years they finally stopped the flood.

15. The legend of Jing Wei

The legend of Jing Wei is a sad story with an important teaching. It is said that this legend speaks of revenge but also of perseverance. Jing Wei is a mythological being. Legend has it that a young princess named Nu Wa, daughter of Emperor Shen Nong who loved the sea and to sail in it. One day the current carried her boat away and when a storm fell, the great waves sank her and she died.

Her soul returned to the world in the form of Jing Wei, a beautiful bird who now had a great hatred of the sea for having killed her. Jing Wei wanted revenge on her, so she went to the sea and communicated that she intended to kill him, something that he made fun of her. The bird made its way to the mainland and she collected everything she could to throw it into the sea.

Thus, Jing Wei thought, it would end up filling the sea at all and thus prevent anyone else from drowning in it. He didn't mind taking millions of years to achieve his goal. It is said that to this day, Jing Wei continues to do so, throwing stones, branches and everything that can make the sea dry at last.

16. The Legend of Meng Jiang Nü's Tears

A legend about love and the tragedy of losing someone you love. This Chinese legend also makes a direct reference to the conditions and risks experienced by the workers who erected the Great Wall of China.. Legend has it that at the time when this wall was under construction, two families were separated by it.

It was the Meng and the Jiang. These families, to symbolize their friendship, planted two vines so that when they grew up they would meet up. When the plants joined, they produced a fruit. They decided to split it in equal parts and inside of her they found a girl, who they decided to raise together and named her Meng Jiang Nü.

Growing up, she met Wan Xiliang who she fell in love with, but who was hunted down to be executed. After a while they got married, but on the wedding day Wan was captured. She was forced to work on the construction of the Chinese wall and Meng decided to wait for her return, but she never returned.

When she Meng decided to go looking for him they announced that her husband had died and that they had buried him somewhere on the wall. The woman cried for three days with such force that her tears sank 400 kilometers from the wall and in that area was Wan's body, so Meng was able to meet him again.

17. The Jade Emperor

The legend of the Jade Emperor is one of the main ones in Chinese mythology. It tells of the origin and importance of the Jade Emperor, who is the God of gods. It is said that after many years of contemplation this being could become a perfect being. By attaining omnipotence and enlightenment, he became the being that rules and controls the entire universe.

The earthly emperors of China were subordinate to the orders of the great jade emperor. It is said that the rest of the lesser gods, were in charge of matters with less relevance and only reported to the Jade Emperor his actions, who decided if they had been correct or not.

The great Jade Emperor called into her presence all the earthly animals that she had not been able to visit. He was so surprised by them that he decided to divide the years according to each animal, and in this way the Chinese zodiac and the names of the years that are known to this day originated.

18. The ballad of Mulan

Mulan's story is perhaps one of the best known in the world. Because Disney made an animated film, the story of this warrior was known beyond the Chinese borders.. It is an inspiring story that teaches us courage, strength, conviction and not losing our goal.

Mulan wants to take her father's place in the army, but because she is a woman, she cannot do it. But this does not stop her and she decides to dress as a man. Being in front she achieves such honors that the emperor congratulates her directly, but Mulan rejects them emphatically. In return she only asks for a horse.

She is granted her request and with that Mulan undertakes the return to her house, because it is what she wanted, far from honors and flattery. Some time later, his friends from the army decide to go visit his companion in battles, but his surprise is capitalized when, upon arriving at his house, they discover that it was a woman.

19. Ivory chopsticks

The Legend of the Ivory Chopsticks is a short story that talks about greed. This story tries to show how a small action can lead to another and generate more and more excessive ambition., so we must be careful with every step we take towards greed.

Legend has it that King Chou was a simple man with austere habits, loved by all his kingdom and especially by the wise old man Chi. One day it became known that King Chou had requested that some ivory chopsticks be made for him. When Elder Chi learned of this, he regretted that this seemingly simple action was the beginning of something else.

Chi predicted that King Chou would henceforth lose his austerity and have palaces, exquisite delicacies and luxuriant luxuries made for him, and so it was. Five years after the ivory chopsticks were made, King Choy was constantly overreaching and little by little as a result of this, he lost his kingdom completely.

20. Nian the monster

This Chinese tale is an explanation about the customs in the celebration of the new year. Nian was a monster that had scared an entire town in China. Every beginning of the year he would show up to scare and chase them. Nian really enjoyed scaring the villagers, and she was never going to stop doing it.

But it happened that one day Nian was approaching the village and on the way he met a local man wearing a red robe. The monster was scared and startled, the man also jumped in fear and dropped a metal bucket that he was carrying in his hands. As he fell to the ground he made a thunderous noise that startled Nian, who hurried away.

The man told the rest of the town what had happened. So they organized for a whole year to greet the monster with noise and red flags. And they do it like that. At the beginning of the year, when Nian arrived, they all came out making noise and waving their flags and Nian ran away scared quickly and never returned.

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