East Asian Myths

29 questions · Answers revealed below each question · Print this set

1.Which deity is the moon god born of Izanagi's right eye?
- A. Kagutsuchi
- B. Ryūjin
- C. Susanoo
- D. Tsukuyomi
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Tsukuyomi
Did you know? Tsukuyomi rules the night after the moon's birth from the right eye.
2.Who is the wife of the archer Houyi?
- A. Nüwa
- B. Meng Po
- C. Xiwangmu
- D. Chang'e
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Chang'e
Did you know? Houyi won the elixir of immortality, which he left in Chang'e's keeping.
3.Which shapeshifting "raccoon dog" drums its belly in Japanese tales?
- A. The kitsune
- B. The kappa
- C. The oni
- D. The tanuki
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The tanuki
Did you know? Tanuki's belly-drumming pranks mock the pompous.
4.What did Nüwa cut off to prop up the four corners of the sky?
- A. The horns of a dragon
- B. The legs of a giant turtle
- C. The tusks of a boar
- D. The branches of a sacred tree
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The legs of a giant turtle
Did you know? Nüwa planted the giant turtle's four legs as pillars at the sky's corners.
5.Which primordial being hatched from a cosmic egg and separated heaven and earth?
- A. Fuxi
- B. Pangu
- C. Nüwa
- D. Huangdi
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Pangu
Did you know? Pangu split the primordial egg, raising heaven with his head and pressing earth with his feet.
6.How many heads did the serpent Yamata-no-Orochi have?
- A. Twelve
- B. Eight
- C. Seven
- D. Nine
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Eight
Did you know? Yamata-no-Orochi, eight-headed and eight-tailed, stretched over eight valleys.
7.What happened to the world while Amaterasu stayed in the cave?
- A. The stars fell from the sky
- B. Darkness fell over heaven and earth
- C. The seas boiled away
- D. Eternal winter began
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Darkness fell over heaven and earth
Did you know? With the sun goddess sealed away, endless darkness gripped the world.
8.Which divine archer shot down nine of the ten suns?
- A. Huangdi
- B. Kuafu
- C. Zhurong
- D. Houyi
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Houyi
Did you know? Houyi's arrows saved the earth when ten suns rose together and scorched the crops.
9.What did Nüwa use to patch the broken sky?
- A. Five-colored stones
- B. Feathers of the fenghuang
- C. Gold from ten rivers
- D. Melted jade
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Five-colored stones
Did you know? Nüwa smelted five-colored stones to plug the sky's breach and stopped the floods.
10.What became of Pangu's body after his death?
- A. It was buried under Kunlun
- B. It became the features of the world
- C. It drifted to the sea
- D. It was burned as an offering
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It became the features of the world
Did you know? Pangu's breath became wind, his eyes sun and moon, his blood rivers.
11.Which rescued maiden became Susanoo's wife in Izumo?
- A. Toyotama-hime
- B. Kushinada-hime
- C. Izanami
- D. Konohanasakuya
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Kushinada-hime
Did you know? Susanoo wed Kushinada-hime after slaying the serpent that ate her sisters.
12.Which goddess rules the sun in Japanese myth?
- A. Izanami
- B. Uzume
- C. Amaterasu
- D. Tsukuyomi
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Amaterasu
Did you know? Amaterasu, born from Izanagi's left eye, rules Takamagahara.
13.Which goddess fashioned the first humans from yellow earth?
- A. Chang'e
- B. Nüwa
- C. Xiwangmu
- D. Tianhou
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Nüwa
Did you know? Nüwa kneaded humans from yellow clay by hand, then sped the work with a rope dipped in mud.
14.How long did Pangu stand between heaven and earth, pushing them apart?
- A. Forty thousand years
- B. One hundred years
- C. Eighteen thousand years
- D. Nine hundred years
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Eighteen thousand years
Did you know? Pangu grew ten feet a day for eighteen thousand years as sky and earth drifted apart.
15.What fine did the gods levy on Susanoo before banishing him?
- A. A hundred years of servitude
- B. His beard and fingernails cut off
- C. His name struck from the records
- D. All his treasure confiscated
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His beard and fingernails cut off
Did you know? Penalties of shorn beard and nails marked Susanoo's expulsion from heaven.
16.How is Nüwa's body usually described?
- A. A woman with crane wings
- B. A woman with golden antlers
- C. A woman with a serpent's tail
- D. A woman with a fish tail
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A woman with a serpent's tail
Did you know? Nüwa appears with a human head and serpentine coils.
17.Which storm god was exiled from heaven for his rampages?
- A. Kagutsuchi
- B. Ryūjin
- C. Tsukuyomi
- D. Susanoo
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Susanoo
Did you know? The gods fined Susanoo his beard and fingernails before his exile.
18.Whose comic dance drew laughter that lured Amaterasu to peek out?
- A. Izanami
- B. Ame-no-Uzume
- C. Toyotama
- D. Konohanasakuya
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Ame-no-Uzume
Did you know? Uzume danced on an overturned tub, and the gods' laughter tempted Amaterasu out.
19.How many suns normally hang on the Fusang tree before Houyi's deed?
- A. Nine
- B. Five
- C. Twelve
- D. Ten
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Ten
Did you know? The ten sun-birds bathed in the Tang valley and rested on the Fusang tree.
20.Which Flame Emperor, master of agriculture, is paired with the Yellow Emperor as ancestor?
- A. Gun
- B. Chiyou
- C. Zhurong
- D. Yandi
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Yandi
Did you know? Chinese tradition names Yandi and Huangdi together as the ancestors of the people.
21.To which land did Izanagi descend to retrieve his dead wife?
- A. The high plain of heaven
- B. The island of Onogoro
- C. The bottom of the sea
- D. Yomi, the land of the dead
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Yomi, the land of the dead
Did you know? Izanagi followed Izanami to Yomi, but fled the land of the dead without her.
22.Which shapeshifting fox grows extra tails with age in Japanese tales?
- A. The nekomata
- B. The kitsune
- C. The tanuki
- D. The bakeneko
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The kitsune
Did you know? A nine-tailed kitsune stands at the foxes' full wisdom.
23.What are the eight trigrams of Fuxi collectively called?
- A. The yijing
- B. The wuxing
- C. The bagua
- D. The taotie
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The bagua
Did you know? Fuxi's eight trigrams, the bagua, encode heaven, earth and the forces between them.
24.Which three-legged crow dwells in the sun in Chinese myth?
- A. The yangwu
- B. The kun
- C. The yatagarasu
- D. The fenghuang
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The yangwu
Did you know? The sun's yangwu is a three-legged golden crow.
25.What do Chinese tales call the river of stars dividing the Weaver Girl and Cowherd?
- A. The Dragon River
- B. The Star Ford
- C. The Silver River
- D. The Heavenly Way
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The Silver River
Did you know? Magpies bridge the Silver River once a year for the lovers' meeting.
26.What did Susanoo draw from the slain serpent's tail?
- A. The sword Kusanagi
- B. A string of jade beads
- C. A jar of healing herbs
- D. A mirror of silver
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The sword Kusanagi
Did you know? From Orochi's tail came the great sword later named Kusanagi.
27.What object did the gods hold up for Amaterasu to see herself?
- A. A bronze mirror
- B. A polished shield
- C. A crystal sphere
- D. A silver basin of water
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A bronze mirror
Did you know? The mirror Yata no Kagami tricked Amaterasu out of the cave.
28.Who tasted hundreds of herbs to catalogue medicine and teach farming?
- A. Shennong
- B. Fuxi
- C. Huangdi
- D. Cangjie
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Shennong
Did you know? Shennong, the Divine Farmer, tested herbs on his own body, said to be translucent.
29.Which fire god's birth fatally burned his mother Izanami?
- A. Tsukuyomi
- B. Kagutsuchi
- C. Susanoo
- D. Ryūjin
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Kagutsuchi
Did you know? Izanami died of burns bearing the fire god Kagutsuchi.

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