Nüwa

Nüwa (also read as Nügua) is a prominent mother goddess and culture hero in Chinese mythology, revered as one of the Three Sovereigns. She holds significant status across Chinese folk religion, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism as the creator of humanity and the deity who repaired the Pillar of Heaven.

According to traditional myths, Nüwa crafted humans individually by hand using yellow clay. Some variations of the story specify that she created only nobles or the wealthy from yellow soil, while fashioning commoners from brown mud. One popular narrative explains that after meticulously creating "the rich and noble," she grew tired and created ordinary people more efficiently by dragging a string through mud, resulting in so-called "cord-made people."

The Huainanzi text describes a catastrophic battle between deities that damaged the pillars supporting Heaven, causing widespread flooding and celestial collapse. Nüwa heroically repaired the holes in Heaven using five colored stones and restored the pillars with tortoise legs, saving the world from destruction.

Nüwa appears throughout Chinese literature in various creation myths and remains a culturally significant figure in modern China, ranking among the most venerated Chinese goddesses alongside Guanyin and Mazu. In Chinese mythology, she is considered the legendary ancestor of all humans and creator of a magical stone. Her husband Fu Xi is traditionally associated with the origins of divination and regarded as the patron saint of numbers.