Pangu
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In later Chinese mythology, Pangu (盤古; pinyin: pan2 gu3; also PanGu, PanKu, Pan Guo) was the first living being and the creator of all.
The first writer to record the myth of Pangu was Xu Zheng during the Three Kingdoms period. Below are the earliest references to Pangu in Chinese mythology or history:
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Original Source Documents
+0220 AD +0265 AD Xu Zheng (徐整; pinyin: xu2 zheng3; also Shu Zheng) is the first to mention PanGu in the story "Pangu Separates the Sky from the Earth" from Three Five Historic Records (三五歷紀; pinyin: san1 wu3 li4 ji4) (where Three Five refers to Sanhuangwudi).
+0283 AD +0383 AD Ge Hong (葛洪; pinyin: ge2 hong2; also Ko Hung) is a reclusive Daoist monk who describes PanGu in Bao Pu Zi (抱朴子內篇 pinyin: bao4 pu4 zi3 nei4 pian1; also Pao Pu Tzu Nei Pien) The Master of Preserving Simplicity Inner Writings (ETC Werner, Myths & Legends of China, 1922).
+0557 AD +0641 AD Ouyang Xun (歐陽詢; pinyin: ou1 yang2 xun2; also Ou Yang Hsun) a Confucian scholar and calligrapher of the early Tang. One of three who compiled Yi Wen Lei Ju (藝文類聚 pinyin: yi4 wen2 lei4 ju4) "Classified Anthology of Literary Works" aka "Varied collection of Classics and other Literature" in 622. The three were 歐陽詢 Ouyang Xun , 令狐德棻 Linghu Defen , and 陳叔達 Chen Shuda. / possibly references PanGu by compiling Xu Zheng.
The documents above tell the following story:
Popular Version Text
"In the beginning there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. However this chaos began to coalesce into a cosmic egg for eighteen thousand years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of yin and yang became balanced and PanGu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. PanGu is usually depicted as a primitive, hairy giant clad in furs. PanGu set about the task of creating the world: he separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (murky Yin) and the Sky (clear Yang). To keep them separated, PanGu stood between them and pushed up the Sky. This task took eighteen thousand years, with each day the sky grew ten feet higher, the Earth ten feet wider, and PanGu ten feet taller. In some versions of the story, PanGu is aided in this task by the four most prominent beasts, namely the Turtle, the Qilin, the Phoenix, and the Dragon.
After the eighteen thousand years had elapsed, PanGu was laid to rest. His breath became the wind; his voice the thunder; left eye the sun and right eye the moon; his body became the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood formed rivers; his muscles the fertile lands; his facial hair the stars and milky way; his fur the bushes and forests; his bones the valuable minerals; his bone marrows sacred diamonds; his sweat fell as rain; and the fleas on his body carried by the wind became human beings all over the world."
Popular Version Text in Classical Chinese
"天地渾沌如雞子，盤古生其中 .萬八千歲，天地開辟，陽清為天，陰濁為地 .盤古在其中，一日九變，神於天，怪於地 .天日高一丈，地日厚一丈，盤古日長一丈 .如此萬八千歲，天數極高，地數極深，盤古極長 .《藝文類聚》卷一引《三五歷記》 首生盤古，垂死化身.
氣成風，聲為雷霆，左眼為日，右眼為月，四肢五體為四極五岳，血液為江河，筋脈為地里，肌膚為田土，髮髭為星辰，皮毛為草木，齒骨為金石，精髓為珠玉，汗流為雨澤，身之諸蟲，因風所感，化為黎甿（黎民百姓） .《繹史》卷一引《五運歷年記》 ."
Two main views emerge to describe the origin of the Pangu myth. The first is that the story is indigenous, and developed or was transmitted through time to Xu Zheng. The evidence for this is slender indeed. It can only be assumed from the following discussion:
Possible origins of this myth: 1
Senior Scholar Wei Juxian states that the Pangu story is derived from Western Zhou Dynasty stories 1000 years earlier. He cites the story of ZhongLi (Chong-li) in the "Chu Yu" section of the ancient classics "Guo Yu". In it, the Chu King ZhaoWang asked GuanSeFu a question: "What did ancient classic "Zhou Shu" mean by the sentence that ZhongLi caused the heaven and earth to disconnect from each other?" The "Zhou Shu" sentance he refers to is about an earlier person, Luu Xing, who is having a conversation with the Zhou King MuWang. MuWang's reign is much earlier and dates to about -1001 BC to -0946 BC. In their conversation, they discuss the "disconnection" between heaven and earth.
An indirect but possibly more substantive conclusion is that China is unique in not "creating" its creator. In this view, Xu Zheng (or a relatively recent predecessor) perpetuates the Pangu myth from other cultural influences:
Possible origins of this myth: 2
Professor Qin Naichang, head of the Guangxi Institute for Nationality Studies proposes the myth originated in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Laibin city (in the center of the Pearl River Valley). He believes that there are older stories of Pangu from this region and that they originally involved two people. He suggests China has no myth about the creation of the universe and that the Chinese mythology of PanGu had came from India, Egypt, or Babylon. Apparently, this story mingled in with the origin stories of other cultures, eventually changing into the later narrative more popular today.
This is professor Naichang's reconstruction of the true creation myth preceding the myth of Pangu. Note that it is not actually a creation myth:
"A brother and his sister became the only survivors of the prehistoric Deluge by crouching in a gourd that floated on water. The two got married afterwards, and a mass of flesh in the shape of a whetstone was born. They chopped it and the pieces turned into large crowds of people, who began to reproduce again. The couple were named 'Pan' and 'Gou' in the Zhuang ethnic language, which stand for whetstone and gourd respectively."
Other Chinese creation myths
Other Chinese myths, such as those of Nuwa or the Jade Emperor, try to explain how people were created; and do not necessarily represent "world creation" myths. It is important to note there are many variations of these myths.zh-cn:盘古 de:pangu