Pangu (Chinese: 盤古; pinyin: Pángǔ), also romanized as Pan Gu, is a primordial being in Chinese mythology and Taoism, regarded as the first living being and the creator of the world. The name derives from the Chinese characters pán (盤), meaning "tray, pan," and gǔ (古), meaning "old, ancient." These characters combine to evoke the concept of "ancient tray," a metaphor for the cosmic egg from which Pangu emerged. Etymology The name Pangu is composed of pán (盤) and gǔ (古). The element pán originally referred to a flat, circular container, while gǔ denotes antiquity. Together, they paint a picture of something both ancient and circular — hence, the cosmic egg. Mythology According to legend, before heaven and earth existed, the universe was in a featureless, formless state, resembling a cosmic egg. Inside this egg, the opposing yet complementary forces of yin and yang became balanced, and after 18,000 years, Pangu awoke. He cracked open the egg, and the lighter, clearer parts rose to form heaven (yang), while the heavier, turbid parts sank to become earth (yin). For another 18,000 years, Pangu grew daily, pushing the heavens upward and stabilizing the earth until they were permanently separated. Upon his death, Pangu's body transformed into the natural world: his breath became wind and clouds, his voice became thunder, his left eye the sun and right eye the moon, his blood formed rivers, his hair the vegetation, and his sweat the rain. This creation narrative explains the origin of the universe, and Pangu is considered an mythology figure, central to Taoist cosmology. The earliest known record of the Pangu myth comes from Xu Zheng, a writer of the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 CE). However, a depiction of Pangu was discovered in a tomb predating that era, suggesting the myth has far older roots. Meaning: "ancient tray" (symbolic of the cosmic egg) Origin: China Type: Mythological figure Usage: Chinese