14．女部 female
女娲name of a goddess补patch天sky
In remote antiquity, there was a goddess named 女娲. It is said that she had a human head and a snake body. She did many great things for mankind. Her most impressive gift to humanity was to patch up the sky.
The sky was damaged when the God of Water had a fight with the God of Fire. In the course of their fight one of four pillars holding up the sky was broken. Unsupported, half the sky collapsed. Then a huge crack appeared in the earth causing a big forest fire that spread across the world. The people’s lives were in danger.
In order to save them, 女娲melted Five-Colored Rock and used the rock liquid to fill the hole in the sky. Then she took a huge tortoise, cut off all four feet and used them as four pillars to hold up the sky. Further catastrophe was averted and humans were able to resume normal life. However, the sky still tilted a bit toward the west and the earth tipped a bit towards the east. This is why today the sun and the moon travel towards the west, and the water in the rivers flows toward the east.
【拼音】nǚ wā bǔ tiān
【出处】女娲补天的传说相关，在上古奇书《列子·汤问》、《淮南子·览冥训》、《山海经》上均有记载。
