The Story of Pan-gu

Long before heaven and earth were separated, the universe was nothing but dark chaos in the shape of an egg. The progenitor of the universe, Pan Gu, an enormous giant, was being nurtured in the dark chaos of that egg. Nurtured and growing in a sound sleep, he spent more than eighteen thousand years there.

Then one day he work and stretched himself, shattering the egg-shaped chaos into pieces. The pure lighter elements gradually rose up to become heaven and the impure heavier parts slowly sank down to form the earth.

WIth his head supporting heaven and his feet on the earth, he grew nine times a day with each expansion of heaven and earth. This process continued for another eighteen thousand years until heaven had risen high, earth had grown thick, and Pan Gu had grown extremely tall. Eventually he collapsed and died after the heaven and earth both seemed to be securely established in their places.

After his death, great trnasformations occurred in him: his breath turned into the winds and the clouds; his voice became the clapping thunder; his left eye turned into the sun and right eye became the moon; his four limbs and his trunk turned into cardinal directions and the mountains; his blood became the rivers and his veins the roads and paths; his flesh turend into fields and soil; the hair on his head becames stars in heaven; various bugs on his body changed into the many peoples of the world...

www.about.com