In Chinese myths and legends, there is a pair of brothers and sisters who are regarded as the ancestors of humanities. One is Fuxi and the other is Fuxi's sister Nuwa. These two people are also gods who appeared earlier in our ancient mythology.
They created human beings, and they created a marriage system so that humans can reproduce. But in the same fairy tale, Fuxi and Nuwa were brothers and sisters, and they got married. What is going on?
Picture: Fuxi Comic
The stories we know about Fuxi and Nuwa are mostly recorded in Dunhuang posthumous writings. There are also many versions of Fuxi and Nuwa circulating in Gansu. No matter how different the stories are, Fuxi and Nuwa are brothers and sisters in the story, and the two people did form a husband and wife later, which makes people very Curious.
Because the times of Fuxi and Nuwa are too long, we have no way to explore through historical materials. We can only rely on these stories that have been circulating for thousands of years to make rough speculations, but it is certain that Fuxi and Nuwa Wa's story took place in the prehistoric flood era, and this era is also recorded in many myths at home and abroad, ancient and modern, and the time is about 7000 BC.
Picture: Nuwa Manga
In the ancient times, a monstrous flood suddenly occurred, almost at the level of extinction. Fuxi and Nuwa were lucky enough to lean on a section of the tree trunk and were able to float on the water without being drowned.
When the flood subsided, Fuxi and Nuwa walked around, but they did not see a human being. Now there are only two of them left in the entire human race, and only when the two of them are intermingled can humans continue to multiply.
After thinking about it for a long time, the two people finally decided to use a stone mill to marry. If two stone mills that were originally together are thrown down from the mountain together, when they reach the foot of the mountain, the two stone mills will still be together. Then it means that this is allowed by God, and the two of them became husband and wife. If the two stones are separated, they are still brothers and sisters, and mankind will be extinct.
Picture: Stills of the monstrous flood
After the stone mill rolled down the mountain, the two brothers and sisters followed the stone mill and ran down the mountain until the stone mill stopped. At the time, the two stones were firmly leaning against each other, so Fuxi and Nuwa stopped thinking about other things, and they formed a couple and began to multiply.
Of course, this is just a saying, and there is another saying that Nuwa has supernatural power and can use mud to create people. Nuwa put the willow branches into the mud, and with a sudden wave, the branches sprinkled drops of mud onto the ground. After the mud fell on the ground, they became humans. However, there is another saying in Gansu that makes people shudder.
The picture comes from the Internet: Stone mill
It is said that Fuxi and Nuwa use needle and thread to marry, which is to throw the needle and thread into the sky. When the thread falls on the ground, the thread has passed through the needle, which shows that it is the will of heaven.
The two brothers and sisters became married in this way. After getting married, Nuwa gave birth to a meat lump, and Fuxi used a knife to divide the meat lump into one hundred parts, each of which was hung separately On a tree, this one hundred pieces of meat becomes one hundred humans. The humans hanging on the poplar trees are named Yang, and the humans hanging on the willow trees are named Liu. This is also the story of the origin of the surnames in Hui County.
The picture comes from the Internet: Fuxi and Nuwa
If we read a lot of Fuxi and Nuwa stories, we will find that every place has records of these two people. They are not the same, and the origins of Fuxi and Nüwa are also vague, and there is no more rigorous statement and conclusion.
like Fuxi and NuwaWho are his parents? What tribe did these two people belong to? In most myths and stories, these two people are defined as being born by nature, or even directly born by God.
Of course, in the world of myths, we cannot say that these claims are unreasonable. But we have to consider and discuss clearly one thing, that is, are Fuxi and Nuwa real?
The picture comes from the Internet: Nuwa
For history, to determine that something has actually happened in history requires very rigorous evidence. To prove it, just like the Xia Dynasty that we have known since childhood, in the eyes of many Western countries, whether this dynasty ever existed is still uncertain. We still have no stronger evidence to prove the existence of the Xia Dynasty, let alone Fuxi and Nuwa, who are thousands of years older.
And at this time, humans did not have enough comprehensive written records to verify this period of history. It has been mentioned in the pre-Qin literature that Fuxi and Nüwa are related to the ancient "Huaxu Kingdom". This argument is obviously untenable. But the editor believes that there are indeed two people in history, Fuxi and Nuwa, but all the stories we hear now are the deification of these two people by later generations.
The picture comes from the Internet: Xia Chao
Fuxi and Nuwa are indeed two brothers and sisters, and the two men did become a husband and wife later and they did it. Multiply. But this behavior was very normal in their time.
Whether in China or other countries, in the description of ancient times, there were records of brothers and sisters combining with each other. This situation was also a situation that was inevitable in that era.
When people just entered the Stone Age, the matriarchal system began to emerge, because women have the ability to reproduce and can rely on this ability to obtain resources from men.
The disadvantage of matrilineal society is that people only know who their mother is, but they don’t know who their father is. Therefore, in order to ensure the purity of blood, the union between brothers and sisters is started. This is also the primitive family. Prototype.
Picture: Nuwa stills
With this kind of intermarriage between families, it can be ensured that blood will not be disturbed by foreign blood, and the purity of blood will be guaranteed. However, this method of reproduction still has very big drawbacks. In the case of inbreeding, it will lead to the deterioration of human reproduction ability, the increase of infant deformity rate and the greatly reduced survival rate.
So in order to solve this problem, coupled with a certain increase in male productivity, they slowly entered the Neolithic age from the Paleolithic Age, which is the patrilineal society we are more familiar with.
The emergence of this system also allows people to cancel the intermarriage of brothers and sisters while ensuring the purity of blood. At this time, people began to learn about the disadvantages of inbreeding.
Picture: Baby stills
But there are still many people who want to ensure the purity of blood through inbreeding, even in the mid-nineteenth century. Intermarriage is still commonplace.
In the Miao and Yi areas, the custom of snatching marriage is still popular, that is, when a man and a woman are married, a female cousin can choose to snatch the woman away, because in their custom, women should be The wife of the cousin.
But in other countries and regions in the world, this situation has only been cut off in recent years.
Author: Da Hui
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