Hundun

Hundun is an old idea from Chinese stories and beliefs. It means “muddled confusion” and talks about a time when everything was mixed up and not sorted out yet.

In Chinese tales, Hundun is described as a being without a face, which makes it very special and mysterious.

People in China think of Hundun as the first chaos before the world was made. This idea is a bit like the story of a world egg that comes before everything else. These old stories help us understand how people long ago thought about how the world began.

Linguistics

The word Hundun (混沌) started as an old idea of "primordial chaos" — the messy, formless state of the universe before heaven and earth separated. Over time, its meaning grew to include ideas like "unintelligible," "messy," or even "innocent as a child."

In everyday Chinese today, Hundun is usually written as 混沌, but it can also appear as 渾沌 — as in the ancient Daoist book Zhuangzi — or 渾敦 — as in the Zuozhuan. The sounds and writings of Hundun connect to ideas of water, confusion, and even dullness. For example, hùn can mean "muddy" or "confused," and dùn can mean "dull" or "solid."

The term Hundun is also linked to other Chinese words that describe empty or vast spaces, like hunlun (混淪) or hongyuan (洪元). It is sometimes compared to an egg — a complete, round world closed in itself, like a cavern or a gourd.

The word Hundun is written with a "water" symbol and sounds from kūn (昆) and tún (屯). Interestingly, it is related to the word for Wonton (餛飩; húntun), which means a type of dumpling soup. Some scholars see a deep link between the two, suggesting that just as soup contains many small blobs, the early universe contained bits of matter coming together.

Early textual usages

The word hundun is found in old Chinese books from the Warring States period. It appears mostly in Daoist texts, but it is also in one Confucian book.

In Confucian writing, hundun describes people who cause trouble. An old story talks about Hundun, a son of the Yellow Emperor. He had no good qualities and was banished.

In Daoist books, hundun often means a mix of everything before the world was made. The book Zhuangzi has a story about Hundun. He had no openings in his body, like eyes or a mouth. The rulers of the North and South Seas decided to give him seven openings. By the seventh day, Hundun died from these new openings. This story shows an idea about nature and the universe.

Interpretations

Stories about Hundun have many different versions. They often talk about "primordial chaos" and link to other legends.

Wolfram Eberhard studied these Hundun myths. He saw them as a kind of world egg story from the southern Liao culture, starting in the Sichuan and Hubei areas.

Hundun myths include ideas like people coming from a "thunder-egg" or a piece of flesh. There are tales of a Thunder god shown as a dog with bat wings, linked to the Miao people and Tai peoples.

In old Chinese astronomy, the universe was seen as a round egg with Earth inside like a yolk.

Norman J. Girardot, a professor at Lehigh University, has written extensively about Hundun. He explains that in early Taoism, Hundun brings together many mythic ideas from different cultures.

In Chinese internal alchemy, Hundun is an important idea. Alchemists start their work by "opening" Hundun, meaning they begin from the very beginning.

In popular culture

In the 2013 film Pacific Rim, a creature named Hundun appears briefly. In the movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a character named Morris is a Hundun and travels with Shang-Chi.

In the video game Spelunky 2, Hundun is a large egg-shaped boss. The anime Lazarus also references Hundun in some episodes.

In the mobile game Tears of Themis, a character is called Hundun, and there is a special ornament showing a small Hundun. In a Chinese story, Hundun looks like a friendly, colorful animal and helps two special characters. In Age of Mythology: Retold downloadable content Immortal Empires, players can recruit Hundun as a mythical creature.