She refined stones and used them to mend
the broken hole in the sky. (煉石補天)
In Chinese mythology, man was created by a
goddess.
The name of this goddess is (Nuwa). There
are some stories about her recorded in history books.
The upper part of her body was a woman, the
lower part of her body was a snake, and she created humans from clay.
In the imagination of the ancient Chinese,
there were four high mountains at the four corners of the earth. These four
high mountains supported the sky so that people could live in the space between
the sky and the earth.
There were many other gods in the world at
that time.
One day, in order to destroy the world, the
Water God used his power to break the high mountain on the west side that
supported the earth.
After the mountain was broken, a huge hole
opened up in the sky and it tilted. Cracks were made in the earth, so much
water poured out of the cracks.
Because of this huge change, fire broke out
in the forest and all the animals and humans fled in panic.
When Nuwa heard the cry of the humans, she
was very worried and thought about how to solve the problem.
The first thing she had to solve was how to
support the sky again. She found that because the sky was tilted, the load on
the other three mountains became uneven, and cracks appeared on the other three
mountains as well.
To solve this problem, she killed a very
large mythical beast.
This mythical beast was a tortoise. After
killing the turtle, she cut off its four legs and placed them at the four
corners of the earth. She used these four turtle legs to replace the four mountains
that held up the sky.
Next she had to deal with the problem of
the hole in the sky. She built a huge furnace. She used this furnace to refine
stones in five colours: green, red, yellow, white and black. She used these
stones to repair the hole in the sky.
Because the stones she refined are very
rich in colour, the colours of the sunset we now see are many different
colours.
Then she taught the people to use the reed
ashes after burning the reeds to reduce the effects of floods.
Because of her, these kind people in
ancient times were able to survive.
Because of her great contribution to
humanity, future generations call her Mother Earth.
The direct translation of this idiom is
that she refined stones and used them to mend the broken hole in the sky.
This idiom has been extended to describe a
country's leaders who use their talents and resources to fill the gaps in their
country's political laws and systems.
Dear friend, what inspirations or thoughts
do you have after listening to this story?
When you encounter a big problem, what
attitude will you have to face it? Do you think the earth is getting warmer?
I hope this story can give you some new
insights.
煉石補天(She refined stones and used them to
mend the broken hole in the sky. )
中國神話中，人類是被一個女神所創造出來。
這個女神的名字叫做(女媧)。歷史書上記載有關她的一些故事。
她的身體的上半部是一個女人，她的身體的下半部是蛇，她用泥土創造了人類。
在中國古人的想像中，大地的四個邊緣有四座高山，這四座高山把天撐住，所以人們才可以生活天空與大地中間的這個空間裡。
當時的世界還有很多其他的神。
有一天，水神為了要毀滅世界因此他就用力去把撐住大地的西邊的那座高山撞斷。
這座高山被撞斷之後，天空就破了一個大洞並且變成傾斜，大地上產生了裂痕所以很多洪水從裂痕中湧出。
因為這個巨大的變化，森林中發生大火，所有的野獸與人類都驚慌地四處奔逃。
女媧聽到人類的呼叫聲後，她很焦急，她思考如何去解決這個問題。
她首先要解決的是如何再把天空撐住的問題，她發現因為天空傾斜所以另外三座高山的受力變得不平均，另外三座高山也出現了裂痕。
為了解決這個問題，她殺了一隻非常巨大的神獸。
這隻神獸是一隻鱉，她把這隻鱉殺了之後就把這隻鱉的四隻腳砍下來放在大地的四個角落，她用這四隻鱉腳代替那四座撐住天空的高山。
接著她要處理的是天空破洞的問題，她建造了一個巨大的火爐，她用這個火爐去煉製出青赤黃白黑共五種顏色的石頭，她用這些石頭把天空的破洞補好。
由於她煉製好的這些石頭的顏色很豐富，所以我們現在看到晚霞的顏色也才會呈現出很多不同的色彩。
接著她教導百姓用蘆葦焚燒後的蘆葦灰燼來讓減少水患造成的影響。
因為有她，所以上古時代那些善良的人們才得以生存下去。
因為她對人類巨大的貢獻，所以後代的人們稱呼她為大地之母。
這句成語直接翻譯的意思是她煉製石頭然後用這些石頭把天空中那個破掉的洞補好。
這句成語被引申用來形容一個國家的領導者施展才能和手段來彌補自己國家政法令與制度上的漏洞。
親愛的朋友，你聽完這個故事有怎樣的啟發或有怎樣的想法呢。
當你遇到巨大的問題時，你會用怎樣的態度面對呢?你是否相信地球正在暖化中呢?
我期待這故事能讓你產生一些新的收穫。
出處為淮南子-覽冥訓
https://ctext.org/huainanzi/lan-ming-xun/zhs
出處為唐-司馬貞-三皇本記
https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E4%B8%89%E7%9A%87%E6%9C%AC%E7%B4%80
出處為四庫全書-路史-卷32發揮1-21條
https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=957280