Nüba (), also known as Ba (魃) and as Hanba (旱魃), is a Chinese

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

deity. "Ba" is her proper name, with the ''nü'' being an added indication of being feminine and ''han'' meaning "

Legend

Ba is the daughter of the

Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch, or Huangdi ( zh, t=黃帝, s=黄帝, first=t) in Chinese, is a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. He is revered as ...

(Huangdi) whom she aided during his Battle at Zhuolu against Chiyou. After Chiyou had fielded a wind god ( Feng Bo) and a rain god ( Yu Shi), Ba descended from heaven to use her drought power to defeat their wind and rain powers. She is one of the first goddesses attested to in Chinese literature, appearing in the early collection of poetry, the '' Shijing'', as well as in the later ''

Shanhaijing The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', also known as ''Shanhai jing'' (), formerly Wade-Giles, romanized as the ''Shan-hai Ching'', is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may hav ...

''. Nüba can be considered to be an ancient Chinese mythical drought demon. After having descended from Heaven to aid Huangdi at Zhuolu, instead of returning to heaven, Ba wandered to the northern parts of the earth. Wherever Ba appeared, there would be a drought. In the '' Book of the Later Han'', Yinglong was connected as a companion to Nüba in the myth. They fought simultaneously against Chiyou's forces. This relationship led to the mythological romance of Nüba and Yinglong in later centuries. She is one of the four ancestors of the jiangshi. She became a jiangshi by one part of Denglong's soul entering her body.

Appearance

Ba is described in the ''Shanhaijing'' as dressed in green clothes. In the '' Shenyijing'' of the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

Six Dynasties Six Dynasties (; 220–589 or 222–589) is a collective term for six Han-ruled Chinese dynasties that existed from the early 3rd century AD to the late 6th century AD, between the end of the Eastern Han dynasty and the beginning of the Sui ...

times, she is described as being about two to three chis in height, but otherwise looking like a person, who walked naked as fast as the wind.Yang, 78

Rain ceremonies

Up through the middle of the twentieth century, ceremonies to produce rain were held in many regions of China. The basic idea of these ceremonies, which could last several hours, was to drive Ba out of the region. Once Ba was chased away, then the drought was thought to depart along with her and rain would then be sure to soon commence.

Notes

References

*Yang, Lihui, ''et al.'' (2005). ''Handbook of Chinese Mythology''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nuba Chinese goddesses Drought goddesses Sky and weather goddesses Chinese demons Jiangshi Classic of Mountains and Seas

Legend

Appearance

Rain ceremonies

See also

Notes

References