Before the separation of the sky and the earth, the universe was in a nebulous state and shaped like an egg. Pan Gu came into existence and grew taller, one day by ten feet. Meanwhile, the sky rose ten feet and the earth thickened by the same amount everyday. This continued for 18,000 years until the sky and the earth were completely separated. But Pan Gu died at the end too. Upon his death, his body transformed into various things in the world. His breath became winds and clouds, his voice thunder and lightning, his left eye the sun, and his right eye the moon; his arms and legs the four poles of the earth and the five parts of his body the five mountains; his blood formed the rivers and his veins the roads; his flesh and skin became the soil of the fields and his hair and moustache the stars; the fine hair on his skin turned into grass and trees, his teeth and bones metals and rocks; his marrow changed to pearls and jade, and his sweat fell as rain that nourished all things; the insects on his body, caressed by the winds, took the shape of men and women.

Another version was that Pan Gu was born amidst chaos. He stretched his body and lifted the lighter substances to form the sky, and stepped on the heavier ones to form the ground. He hacked those clinging matters with an axe, and finally separated the sky from the earth.

Long time ago Gonggong and Huangdi fought with each other and Gonggong was defeated. Angered, he smote and broke the celestial pillar, Unrotating Mountain. The bonds with the earth were thus ruptured. Heaven leaned over to the northwest, the Sun, Moon, stars and planets shifted, and the earth became empty in the southeast, which was why all the rivers flowed to the east.

When the celestial pillar was broken, the sky and the earth were in chaos again. The sky could not cover all the things under it, nor could the earth carry all the things on it. While some places were tortured by fire, some places were plagued by floods. And the land was infested with monsters. Saddened by the suffering of the living things, Nuwa melted the stones of five colours to mend the sky. She cut a foot off a turtle as the new celestial pillar. She also slew the black dragon that troubled the country. Finally, she piled up the soil to stop the overflowing waters and everything was at peace again.

It was said that a monster called "Year" existed in ancient times. It hibernated at the bottom of the sea and woke up only on the last day of a year. When it came ashore, it would bring floods. As it would eat anything it encountered, villagers were afraid of it. Then a fairy gave them hints. They learned that Year was afraid of red colour and noise. Since then, people put up red paper and set off firecrackers during New Year.

Long ago a giant called Kua Fu had a crazy idea of racing with the Sun. During the race, he was very thirsty and drank all the water in the Yellow River and the Hui River. But eventually he was exhausted and died. His stick became a field of peach forest extending thousands of miles.

Chinese believed that there were ten Suns in the sky long time ago. But they would only take turns to give sunshine to the people on earth. One day, the Suns got sick of taking turns and came out together. As a result the Earth was scorched. Emperor Yao pleaded with the governor of the sky, Emperor Jun to restrain his sons from appearing at the same time. However, they refused to listen to their father. Emperor Yao had no choice but to send Hou Yi to threaten them with a bow and arrows. But Hou Yi overdid and shot nine of them down. Losing his sons, Emperor Jun's was angry and banished Hou Yi to the Earth from Heaven.

After shooting down nine Suns, Hou Yi and his wife Chang'e were banished to the earth from heaven. But they still longed for returning. Later, Hou Yi learned that the Queen of the West had elixir of immortality. Upon his visit, the Queen was sympathetic with his misfortune. She gave him the elixir and told him, "If you and your wife share the elixir, both of you will live forever. If one consumes all the elixir, he will even rise up to Heaven and become a god." A greedy thought budded in Chang'e's mind when she realized the power of the philosopher's stone. She stole all the elixir and took them herself. Feeling ashamed and to hide from sneers from other fairies, she flew to the Moon and lived there alone and became the Goddess of Moon.

Once upon a time, there was a young man named Wu Gang who left home to study Taoism. When he returned home three years later, he found that his wife, Yun, and the grandson of Emperor Yan called Boling had an adulterous relationship. They even had three children. Blinded by the anger, he went to Boling to take revenge and brutally killed him. Emperor Yan was enraged by that and he sent Wu Gang to the Moon to chop the ever-growing bay tree as a punishment. The tree was 5000 feet tall and could heal itself immediately after each cut. So Wu Gang became a life-long tree chopper and never had a chance to rest.

Yun was sorry for her husband and ordered her three children named Gu (a toad), Shu (a rabbit) and Yan to keep company with their 'father' on the Moon. That explains why there are a toad and a rabbit on the Moon.

It was said that a fairy named Huang'e was responsible for weaving in Heaven. One day, when she was tired of her work, she paddled out to the Celestial River (the Milky Way). She went up-stream to the coast of Western Sea and took rest under a mulberry tree. Venus in the east saw her and transformed himself into a handsome young man singing and playing instrument by the riverside of the Celestial River. They fell in love and had a son called Shaohao. When he grew up, he set up a nation and named it after himself.

Moreover, in the book of Journey to the West, Venus was a fairy from Heaven. When the Monkey King was causing trouble to the East Sea and the Hell, Venus was the one sent by the Celestial Emperor to calm him. But the Venus in this novel is described as an old man, no longer young.