Chinese Mythology · God / Legendary Figure
女娲 · Nǚwā
The serpent-bodied goddess who shaped humans from clay and patched the broken sky.
女娲
With a woman's upper body and a serpent's lower body, Nüwa is the primordial mother-goddess of Chinese myth. In the best-known story she creates humans from yellow clay, hand-shaping the first and then flinging mud droplets from a cord to make the rest. She is often paired with Fuxi, the two shown with intertwined tails holding a compass and set-square.
Mending the Heavens: after the water god Gonggong cracks the sky, Nüwa smelts five-colored stones to patch it and props up the four corners with the legs of a giant turtle.
A foundational creation figure; the leftover stone she didn't use opens the classic novel Dream of the Red Chamber.
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