开天辟地

Origin and story

Pangu's creation myth is recorded in fragments of Xu Zheng's San Wu Li Ji, a Three Kingdoms work preserved in later compilations such as the Taiping Yulan. Heaven and earth begin as an egg-like undivided mass, with Pangu inside. After eighteen thousand years they separate: the clear yang becomes heaven, and the turbid yin becomes earth.

Pangu grows as heaven rises and earth thickens through another immense span. This early account does not include every detail familiar from later retellings, such as an axe. The idiom recalls cosmic beginnings and figuratively describes an unprecedented founding achievement. It belongs to mythology, not a historical or scientific account of creation.