09/12/2025
Pangu and Tai Sui in Chinese Cosmology
Angela Sim explores the foundational Chinese cosmological figures of Pangu (the primordial creator) and Tai Sui (the cyclical time-keeper), contrasting their roles as architect and governor of the universe, as celebrated in Zhuxian Zhen woodblock printing.
https://garlandmag.com/article/pangu-and-tai-sui/
✿ Excerpts:
Long before mountains shouldered the sky or rivers carved their silver paths through the earth, there was only a cosmic egg — silent, infinite, waiting. From within it stirred *Pangu* (盤古), the giant whose body held the raw matter of creation. With each breath, he pushed the heavens upward and pressed the earth downward, separating sky from soil. For 18,000 years, he laboured. When his work was done, he lay down to rest — and became the world itself. His breath became the wind, his voice the thunder, his eyes the sun and moon, his blood the rivers, his bones the mountains. The forests grew from his hair; the stars glittered from his beard. In Pangu’s passing, the cosmos took form.
*Yang Ren*, the *Jiazi Tai Sui,* who oversees renewal and new beginnings. Each *Tai Sui’s* reign is brief — just one year — yet their influence is profound, shaping fortunes, fates, and even the right moments to build, marry, or embark on a journey.
Without *Pangu*, there is no world to inhabit. Without *Tai Sui*, the world drifts without rhythm, unmoored from the celestial clock.
the rhythm of craft continues. A carver leans over a block, gouging delicate lines into the wood. Another worker brushes on colour, the bristles rasping softly. Sheets are pressed, lifted, then pegged to dry in neat rows on bamboo racks, filling the room with the scent of damp paper.
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Read more in G41 ✿ Begin Again
