Great flood and procreation
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The great flood theme, in which a flood almost wipes out the entire human race followed by the procreation of a brother and sister pair to repopulate the earth, is a popular mythological theme in China. Chen Jianxian (1996) said that this theme was one of the more popular legends which was still being told by more than 40 ethnics in China. There is a possibility that the myth is newer than the other Chinese great flood mythologies, because the oldest recorded sources about this myth were from Six Dynasties, save that the oral tradition maybe much older.[1] The myth narrates a brother and sister incest and often confused with the myth of Nüwa and Fuxi (Shan Hai Jing described both the divine ancestors as brother and sister who married each other to populated the earth with human beings).[2] Another version paired Pangu with his unnamed older sister as the main characters of this myth.[3]
The theme has several variations, but the outline describes a great flood which destroyed all the humans all over the world except a pair of brother and sister, or aunt and nephew. Both ended up married in order to repopulate the world. One version stated that their children were ordinary humans, while the others said it was a lump of meat, gourd, melon, or grindstone; after they opened, cut, or destroyed it, humans emerged.[1]