One of China's most famous creation legends — the giant Pangu splits a formless chaos into sky and earth, and his body is said to become the mountains, rivers, sun, and moon.
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很久很久以前，天和地还没有分开，整个宇宙就像一个大鸡蛋，混混沌沌，黑黑暗暗。
在这个大鸡蛋里，睡着一个巨人，他的名字叫盘古。
盘古这一睡，就是一万八千年。
有一天，盘古终于醒了。他睁开眼睛，四周黑漆漆的，什么也看不见，心里闷得难受。于是他抄起一把大斧头，用尽全身力气，"咔嚓"一声，朝着黑暗猛地劈了下去！
只听"轰"的一声巨响，鸡蛋裂开了！
轻的、清的东西，缓缓地往上飘，变成了天空；重的、浊的东西，慢慢地往下沉，变成了大地。
盘古怕天和地会重新合到一起，就站在天地中间，头顶着天，脚踩着地。天每天升高一丈，地每天加厚一丈，盘古也跟着每天长高一丈。
就这样，又过了一万八千年，天变得高高的，地变得厚厚的，盘古也变成了顶天立地的巨人。
天地终于稳稳当当地分开了，盘古这才放心地倒下，安心地睡去。
盘古开天地是中国最有名的创世神话之一，讲的是天地是怎么来的。这个故事告诉我们，盘古用自己的身体撑起了整个世界，是一个无私又伟大的巨人。
A very long time ago, the sky and the earth were not yet separated. The whole universe was like one giant egg — dark, murky, and formless.
Inside this egg slept a giant named Pangu.
Pangu slept for eighteen thousand years.
One day, Pangu finally woke up. He opened his eyes, but everything around him was pitch black, and he felt very stifled. So he picked up a great axe and, gathering all his strength, swung it into the darkness with a mighty crack!
There was a tremendous boom, and the egg split open!
The light, clear parts drifted slowly upward and became the sky. The heavy, murky parts sank slowly downward and became the earth.
Worried that the sky and earth might join back together, Pangu stood between them, holding up the sky with his head and pressing down the earth with his feet. Every day the sky rose a little higher, the earth grew a little thicker, and Pangu himself grew a little taller too.
After another eighteen thousand years of this, the sky had become very high and the earth very thick, and Pangu had become a towering giant holding them apart.
At last, the sky and earth were fixed steadily in place, and only then did Pangu finally rest — and, legend says, his own body went on to become the world's features: his breath the wind and clouds, his voice the thunder, his left eye the sun, his right eye the moon, his body the mountains, and his blood the rivers.
Pangu Separates Heaven and Earth is one of China's most famous creation myths, answering the question of where the sky and the earth came from. It's a story about a selfless giant who quite literally gives everything he has to shape the world — a gentle, larger-than-life bedtime image for little ones.
