The myth of Nüwa Mending the Sky embodies the ancient hope for favorable weather

Nüwa Mending the Sky is one of the most widely circulated ancient myths in China, first seen in complete form in the records of the Huainanzi. According to legend, the water god Gonggong, having failed in his struggle with Zhuanxu for the throne, struck Mount Buzhou in anger and broke the pillar that held up the sky. A huge hole collapsed in the heavens, deep chasms split open across the earth, and floods and fire swept in together, leaving the people in unbearable misery.

Unable to bear the suffering of living beings, Nüwa traveled across mountains and rivers to gather five-colored stones, kindled a great fire to smelt them, and patched the sky back together bit by bit. She then cut off the four legs of a giant sea turtle and set them at the four corners of the earth to prop the sky up firmly again, killed the black dragon that stirred up storms, and piled up burned reed ashes to block the surging floodwaters.

After the sky was mended, the sun, moon, and stars each returned to their places, the four seasons were distinct, the floods receded, and the fierce beasts vanished, and peace returned to the human world. For the ancestors who lived by farming, a collapsing sky and flooding directly threatened their harvests. This story both explains the origin of disaster and embodies the hope for favorable weather and a life of peace and contentment.

The myth of mending the sky is often mentioned alongside the legend of Nüwa creating humans from clay, together shaping her image as a savior of the world. The stone left over from mending the sky at the beginning of Dream of the Red Chamber is a famous example of an allusion to this tale, and people today still use "mending the sky" as a metaphor for a great feat of turning the tide. The sense of responsibility and dedication shown when standing up in the face of the sky collapsing and the earth sinking in the story remains moving to read even now.