Only a deep profound.


And it is interesting to note, in passing, the similarity between this
Chinese artificer of the universe and Ymer, the giant, who discharges
the same functions in Scandinavian mythology. Though P'an Ku did not
have the same kind of birth nor meet with the violent death of the
latter, the results as regards the origin of the universe seem to
have been pretty much the same. [6]


P'an Ku a Late Creation

But though the Chinese creation myth deals with primeval things it
does not itself belong to a primitive time. According to some writers
whose views are entitled to respect, it was invented during the fourth
century A.D. by the Taoist recluse, Magistrate Ko Hung, author of the
_Shên hsien chuan_ (_Biographies of the Gods_). The picturesque person
of P'an Ku is said to have been a concession to the popular dislike
of, or inability to comprehend, the abstract. He was conceived, some
Chinese writers say, because the philosophical explanations of the
Cosmos were too recondite for the ordinary mind to grasp. That he
did fulfil the purpose of furnishing the ordinary mind with a fairly
easily comprehensible picture of the creation may be admitted; but,
as will presently be seen, it is over-stating the case to say that he
was conceived with the set purpose of furnishing the ordinary mind with
a concrete solution or illustration of this great problem. There is
no evidence that P'an Ku had existed as a tradition before the time
when we meet with the written account of him; and, what is more,
there is no evidence that there existed any demand on the part of