Chinese mythology is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature throughout the area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology encompasses a diverse array of myths derived from regional and cultural traditions. Populated with engaging narratives featuring extraordinary individuals and beings endowed with magical powers, these stories often unfold in fantastical mythological realms or historical epochs. Similar to numerous other mythologies, Chinese mythology has historically been regarded, at least partially, as a factual record of the past.
Fenghuang are mythological birds featuring in traditions throughout the Sinosphere. Fenghuang are understood to reign over all other birds: males and females were originally termed feng and huang respectively, but a gender distinction is typically no longer made, and fenghuang are generally considered a feminine entity to be paired with the traditionally masculine Chinese dragon.
The three-leggedcrow is a mythological creature in various mythologies and arts of East Asia. It is believed to inhabit and represent the Sun.
Jingwei is a bird in Chinese mythology, who was transformed from Yandi's daughter Nüwa. She is also a goddess in Chinese mythology. After she drowned when playing in the Eastern Sea, she metamorphosed into a bird called Jingwei. Jingwei is determined to fill up the sea, so she continuously carries a pebble or twig in her mouth and drops it into the Eastern Sea.
The Vermilion Bird is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. According to Wu Xing, the Taoist five elemental system, it represents the Fire element, the direction south, and the season of summer correspondingly. Thus it is sometimes called the Vermilion Bird of the South. It is described as a red bird that resembles a pheasant with a five-colored plumage and is perpetually covered in flames. It is known as Suzaku in Japanese, Jujak in Korean and Chu Tước in Vietnamese.
Xingtian is a Chinese deity who fights against the Supreme Divinity, not giving up even after the event of his decapitation. Losing the fight for supremacy, he was beheaded and his head buried in Changyang Mountain. Nevertheless, headless, with a shield in one hand and a battle axe in the other, he continues the fight, using his nipples as eyes and his bellybutton as a mouth.
The Xiangshuishen or Xiang River Goddesses are goddesses of the Xiang River in Chinese folk religion. The Xiang flowed into Dongting Lake through the ancient kingdom of Chu, whose songs in their worship have been recorded in a work attributed to Qu Yuan. According to the Shanhaijing, the Xiang River deities were daughters of the supreme deity, Di. According to a somewhat later tradition, the Xiang goddesses were daughters of Emperor Yao, who were named Ehuang and Nüying who were said to have been married by him to his chosen successor, and eventually emperor, Shun, as a sort of test of his administrative abilities: then, later, they became goddesses, after the death of their husband.
The Kunlun or Kunlun Shan is a mountain or mountain range in Chinese mythology, an important symbol representing the axis mundi and divinity.
The Shangyang, in Chinese mythology was a rainbird. It was one of several important mythical birds in this tradition. The Shangyang was particularly associated with the Lord of Rain, Yu Shi. Once the Shangyang was supposed to have visited the royal court at Qi, where it performed a dance upon its one leg, whereupon an embassy was sent inquire of the meaning of this event to Confucius in the neighboring state of Lu: the Shangyang was known to Confucius, who predicted imminent heavy rain and advised the digging of drainage and the raising of dikes. As a result of following the sage's advise, Qi was spared calamity due to the ensuing inundation, whereas the other states who did not heed the advice were heavily damaged. This legendary incident has been often used to illustrate the folly of those who refuse to heed the words of the wise. Mythographer Lihui Yang associates Yu Shi with the Bi Fang bird, instead.
The Qingniao were blue or green birds which appear in Chinese mythology, popular stories, poetry, and religion. Qingniao is especially regarded as the messengers or as otherwise serving the Queen Mother of the West Xi Wangmu. In some sources, three-legged Qingniao carry her messages; in other sources, a single one-legged Qingniao fetched her food. In some versions, three, sometimes three-legged, green birds brought her food: these seem to have some similarity with the Three-footed birds believed to reside in the sun. The Qingniao are an important motif and frequently depicted in myths regarding Xi Wangmu and her Western Paradise, which is generally located on the mythical Kunlun Mountain.
Cranes are an important motif in Chinese mythology. There are various myths involving cranes, and in Chinese mythology cranes are generally symbolically connected with the idea of longevity. In China, the crane mythology is associated with the divine bird worship in the animal totemism; cranes have a spiritual meaning where they are a form of divine bird which travels between heaven and man's world. Cranes regularly appear in Chinese arts such as paintings, tapestry, and decorative arts; they are also often depicted carrying the souls of the deceased to heaven. The crane is the second most important bird after the fenghuang, the symbol of the empress, in China.
Horses are an important motif in Chinese mythology. There are many myths about horses or horse-like beings, including the pony. Chinese mythology refers to those myths found in the historical geographic area of China. This includes myths in Chinese and other languages, as transmitted by Han Chinese as well as other ethnic groups. There are various motifs of horses in Chinese mythology. In some cases the focus is on a horse or horses as the protagonist of the action, in other cases they appear in a supporting role, sometimes as the locomotive power propelling a chariot and its occupant(s). According to a cyclical Chinese calendar system, the time period of 31 January 2014 - 18 February 2015 falls under the category of the (yang) Wood Horse.
In Chinese mythology, the xiao is the name of several creatures, including the xiao "a long-armed ape" or "a four-winged bird" and shanxiao "mischievous, one-legged mountain spirit". Furthermore, some Western sources misspell and misconstrue the older romanization hsiao as "hsigo" [sic] "a flying monkey".
The Eight Pillars also known as Eight Pillars of the Sky are a concept from Chinese mythology. Located in the eight cardinal directions, they are a group of eight mountains or pillars which have been thought to hold up the sky. They are symbolically important as types of axis mundi and cosmology. Their functions in mythology ranged from pillars which functioned to hold apart the Earth and the Sky, as ladders allowing travel between the two, and as the location of various paradises or wonderland with associated magical people, plants, and animals. The Eight Pillars are a central aspect to Chinese mythology, and also have been used extensively in poetic allusion. Some variations exist, such as only having four pillars.
The Red River or Red Water is an important feature in the mythological geography of Chinese literature, including novels and poetry over a course of over two millennia from the Warring States to early Han dynasty era poetry of the Chuci onward. The Red River is one of the mythological rivers said to flow from Kunlun, a mythological land, with mountainous features. Translations into English include "Scarlet River".
The Bifang is a mythological bird, encountered in Chinese mythology. The Bifang is thought to have one leg. However, sources vary in terms of its description.
Chinese mythological geography refers to the related mythological concepts of geography and cosmology, in the context of the geographic area now known as "China", which was typically conceived of as the center of the universe. The "Middle Kingdom" thus served as a reference point for a geography sometimes real and sometimes mythological, including lands and seas surrounding the Middle Land, with mountain peaks and sky above, with sacred grottoes and an underworld below, and even sometimes with some very abstract other worlds.
