WEN ZHONG
Wen Zhong, the minister of thunder. In ancient myths the thunder god is described as a hideous beast, but later traditions ascribed all natural phenomena to a heavenly government which mirrored the earthly dynastic administration.
The myth of Wen Zhong
and the Gourd Children.
One summer day a long time ago a man was working in the fields
when he heard a rumble of distant thunder. He sent his two children, a boy
and a girl, indoors, and hung an iron cage under the eaves of the house. Soon
it started to rain so heavily that the man took a sharp fork of the kind used
for catching tigers, opened the cage door and stood guard in front of the
house. Suddenly there was a great flash of lightning and a crack of thunder,
and down from the clouds came the thunder god, holding an enormous battleaxe.
The man lunged at the god, impaled him on his fork, and in one move pushed
him into the cage and slammed the door shut. As soon as the thundert god had
been captured, the rain stopped and the wind died down. Next morning the man
went to the market to buy herbs and sauce in which to pickle the god after
he had killed him. He told the children thet while he was away they were not
on any account to give the thunder god any water to drink. As soon as the
man had gone, the thunder god pleaded so piteously for just one drop of water
that the children granted him his request. At once the god revived and burst
out of the cage.
To repay the children's kindness, he pulled out a tooth and told them to plant it in the ground or perish. Then he left. The children planted the tooth, and within minutes it had grown into a gourd plant which only a few hours later began to bear a gourd. The rain returned and started to cover the earth. On returning home from the market, the man told his children to climb inside the gourd. Meanwhile he built a boat and floated to heaven to appeal to the Lord of Heaven to end the flood. The Lord of Heaven listened to his pleas and ordered the water god to end the deluge. In his haste to obey, the water god made the flood subside so rapidly that the man's boat crashed to earth and he was killed. However, the children bounced harmlessly in their gourd, the flood's only survivors. It is not known what the children's original names were, but they are known from this point as Fu Xi ("bottle Gourd"). They lived happily together, and when they grew up the young man suggested they get married. His sister was reluctant because they were siblings, but said she would consent if her brother caught her in a chase. He did so, they married, and the sister changed her name to Nu Gua, another word meaning gourd or melon. Later, Nu Gua gave birth to a ball of flesh. They sliced it into many pieces, which they took with them up the ladder leading to heaven. A gust of wind blew the pieces of flesh all over the earth. Where they landed, they became people; thus humanity was re-established.
