中文

The Tao (Yami)

The Tao Origin Myth: Born out of Bamboo and Rocks

A long, long time ago, back in the mists of time, the Lord of the Skies was looking down on a small island called Yami, and he found it to be beautiful and fertile, with schools of migratory fish swimming in its waters. The Lord of the Skies felt it was a pity that no people were living on this island, and so he called his children and grandchildren to him, asking two of them, “Would you be willing to descend into the mundane world? I mean, look: that little island down there is so wonderful, wouldn’t you two like to live there?” The two grandchildren replied, “We will do whatever you ask us to do, Revered One.” The Lord took a rock, split it in half, put the boy inside, and put the two halves together again. Next he took a joint of bamboo and put the girl inside. Then he dropped both the rock and the bamboo joint from the heavens, and since the rock was heavier, it fell down perpendicularly, straight onto the top of the mountain in the middle of the lush forest. The rock cracked open upon impact, and out came the boy. The segment of bamboo, meanwhile, being much lighter than the rock, was blown by the wind to the edge of the forest at the foot of the mountain. As it hit the ground, the girl walked out of it.

After a period of time, the boy began to feel lonely, and so he walked down the mountain. On his way down, he met the girl that had been born out of the bamboo. Very excited at meeting each other, the two began to chat, talking about the places where they had been born. Only as dusk was slowly descending upon the island did the two take leave from each other and returned to their respective homes. From that day on, the two would often get together and talk about this and that, until finally the boy decided to move down from the mountain and settle down in the neighborhood of the girl. One day, as they were sitting inside and happily chatting away, they noticed that their knees were itching. When they took a closer look, they saw that both of their knees were gradually swelling up. They were very surprised, but as the days went by, their knees got bigger and bigger, until one day after ten months, they each gave birth to a boy and a girl, one child coming from each of their knees.

They were very happy about this. There was no need for them to take much care of their offspring, because the children were able to stand and walk the minute they were born. Later, when the children had grown up, they got married. But strangely, their own children were either blind, or cripples. So Stone Boy, the man born from a rock, asked his wife, “Bamboo Girl, the children of our children are all crippled or blind or something—maybe that’s because their parents are brother and sister. So I’ve come up with an idea: let our sons swap wives! What do you think?” Bamboo Girl replied, “Yes, that might work.” So their children swapped spouses, and after that, all their offspring was normal with regular eyes, noses, mouths, and four healthy limbs. Stone Boy and Bamboo Girl slowly grew old, and by the time they had become grandparents, Stone Boy, the tribe’s first ancestor, began to give names to all the plants and animals on the island. His people, however, had no personal names yet, and they all called themselves Tawo (now mostly spelled “Tao”), which simply means “person” or “people”.

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