Panku: The Chinese View on Creation

This stop-motion video is a collaboration of 1000 photos that tell us about how the world began through the views of the Chinese.
Pan Ku Makes the World: In the beginning, the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos. The universe was like a big black cosmic egg. Through the union of Yin and Yang Pan Ku came into being and grew inside the big black cosmic egg. After 18 thousand years Pan Ku woke from a long sleep. He felt suffocated, so he took up a Jade axe and wielded it with all his might to crack open the egg. The light, clear part of it floated up and formed the heavens, the cold, turbid matter stayed below to form earth. Pan Ku stood in the middle, his head touching the sky, his feet planted on the earth.
The heavens and the earth began to grow at a rate of ten feet per day, and Pan Ku grew along with them. With a mallet and a chisel he worked for eighteen thousands years, splitting, shaping and carving the great blocks of Jade which floated in a cosmic void. From the Jade he created the Sun, Moon and Stars with the help of the cosmic tortoise. After another 18 thousand years, the sky was higher, the earth thicker, and Pan Ku stood between them like a pillar 9 million li in height so that they would never join again.
PAN KU after having created the Earth and Universe became a great giant. It was said that PAN KU ruled the 5 elements and commanded great magic through the powers of Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, and Earth. When Pan Ku died, his breath became the wind and clouds, his voice the rolling thunder. His body and limbs turned to five big mountains and his blood formed the roaring water that created the rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. His veins became far-stretching roads and his muscles fertile land. His marrow turned to jade and pearls. His sweat flowed like the good rain and sweet dew that nurtured all things on earth. According to some versions of the Pan Ku legend, his tears flowed to make rivers and radiance of his eyes turned into thunder and lighting. When he was happy the sun shone, but when he was angry black clouds gathered in the sky. The legend of Pan Ku has it that the fleas and lice (parasites) on his body became the ancestors of mankind.
In south China Pan Ku is known as King Pan, and temples and pavilions were once built in his honor. Today as China awakens from a deep slumber and starts to remember the great legends of the past new temples are being built.
Perhaps it is engrained in the very psyche of the Chinese to understand that humans are not the center of the universe, but merely tiny parasites on the back of a great giant.
This video is made for the requirement for Philosophy I under Dr. Fleurdeliz Altez created by Ervin Aroc, Apple Baula, Katherine Calleja, Froilan Fuentes, Danielle Ramirez and Justine Mendoza from the University of Santo Tomas.

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Education

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• UST
• Panku