As promised, here comes the first of a few Chinese myths that I would like to introduce you to. So grab a baozi, make yourself some tea and let's get to it! I'll try to keep it short, though c: This is a story about ancient Chaos, called Hundun (混沌) in Chinese.
You may probably expect that Hundun is just the name for something that existed before our world was created and you're not wrong. However, there is also a separate myth that introduces him as a real character. And if you're wondering how could a personification of chaos itself look like - well, Chinese artists probably asked themselves the same question. Apparently the best they could come up with was a big, old, stuffed sack, so that's how Hundun was usually portrayed. Charming!
According to the myth, Hundun was the ruler of Middle Sea. He wasn't all alone in the world - he actually had two neighbours. On one side there was Shu (倏), which means Abrupt, who ruled the Southern Sea and on the other side there was Hu (忽), the ruler of Northern Sea whose name meant Impetuous. A funfact: these two represented the elements of yin-yang. Shu symbolised the active element and Hu was the passive one.
And so, the three rulers coexisted in peace. They often met on Middle Sea territory to talk. Hundun, although it didn't join the discussions (it was just a shapeless sack after all, can't expect it to be a perfect partner for conversation), it always allowed the brothers to meet on his ocean and treated them generously.
One day, Shu and Hu decided that they should find a way to repay for its kindness. Naturally, the active Shu was the one who came up with the idea.
"Listen," he began. "Every man has seven openings, to breathe, to see, to eat and to hear. Everyone, but Hundun. Why don't we give him these holes as a gift?"
Hu, passive as he was, simply agreed. And so, the brothers immediately started realising their plan. They found a drill (don't ask me how it was there in the middle of the ocean. It's a thing in Chinese myths, characters often conveniently find stuff they need in places where it should not be), then they went to Hundun and simply started boring the first opening in it - its mouth.
After a whole day of work, Hundun breathed in for the very first time, bringing both of the brothers great joy. They say, it breathed in cold air, which was the Northern rulers doing and breathed out warm, thanks to the Southern king.
Encouraged, Shu and Hu spent another few days boring new openings. They were especially overjoyed when Hundun had both ears and mouth and they all could finally have a conversation together.
On the evening of the sixth day, the brothers were done with boring the left eye - the only thing left to do was the right one. Hundun immediately wanted to share the feeling of seeing its ocean and friends for the first time, but it was silenced.
"Don't tell us yet," Shu said. "Wait until we finish your second eye tomorrow. Then you'll have the full picture."
And so, on the dawn of the last day, the yin-yang brothers excitedly got right to it. But then, when their work was almost done, the most unexpected thing happened - Hundun suddenly groaned in agony and died, just like that.
Any ideas what was the cause of poor old Chaos' death? The answer is simple. After getting eyes, nose, mouth and ears, Chaos stopped being Chaos. It changed into something else, something more human. And that killed him. And that is also the example of what the ancient Chinese philosophers were teaching the folk - trying to fight or change the nature or its creations is wrong and leads to misfortunes!
And that's it for the first story! If you read all of it, congratulations, I hope you liked it ^^"