Nüwa

Serpent-bodied creator goddess who made humanity and mended the sky.

Domains

• creation
• fertility

Powers

• Fashion humans from yellow clay
• Repair the broken sky

Epithets

• 媧皇 chinese · Wāhuáng · epithetEmpress Wa; the creator-goddess sovereignFengsu tongyi 風俗通義 (Nüwa fashioning humans from clay) (primary)
• 女媧氏 chinese · Nǚwāshì · epithetThe clan/house of Nüwa; she who mended the skyHuainanzi 淮南子, Lanming xun (Nüwa repairing the heavens with five-colored stones) (primary)

Relations

• spouse: FuxiReciprocal of chinese_fuxi.spouse — Fuxi and Nuwa as the primal brother-and-sister couple who marry and engender humanity.Li Rong, Duyi Zhi (Tang); Han Wuliang Shrine reliefs depicting the intertwined Fuxi-Nuwa pair (primary); Birrell, Chinese Mythology: An Introduction (1993), pp. 33-35 (secondary)
• sibling: FuxiReciprocal of chinese_fuxi.sibling — Brother-consort relationship; the two are siblings in the Han and Tang strata.Li Rong, Duyi Zhi (Tang) (primary); Lewis, The Flood Myths of Early China (2006) (secondary)

Sources

• existence: Huainanzi, 2nd c. BCE (primary); Ying Shao, Fengsu Tongyi, 2nd c. CE (primary)