A collapsing sky
According to the 2nd-century BCE Chinese text Huainanzi, there was a time of cosmic disaster when the pillars supporting the sky collapsed. The world fell into chaos, with rampant fires and floods, as "Heaven did not completely cover the earth." Into this turmoil stepped the creator goddess Nüwa. To save humanity, she undertook a monumental repair. The text says Nüwa "smelted together five-colored stones in order to patch up the azure sky." This story of celestial repair using colored stones from a riverbed is a mythological way to view real astronomical events that ancient people witnessed.
The "five-colored stones" may be a mythological interpretation of a meteorite fall or an intense meteor shower. A large meteor entering the atmosphere, known as a bolide, can create a spectacular, multi-hued streak across the sky. The stones themselves, upon landing, can exhibit different colors. The fusion crust from the fiery descent is typically black or brown, while the interior of iron-nickel meteorites is silvery. A rare class of meteorites called pallasites contains a matrix of iron-nickel metal embedded with crystals of a greenish silicate mineral called olivine, fitting the description of colored stones.
Ancient skies and falling stars
Ancient China has one of the world's longest continuous traditions of astronomical observation. One of the oldest known records of a meteor shower comes from the Chinese text Zuo Zhuan (Zuo Commentary). This text describes an event in 687 BCE where "stars fell like rain." This account is widely believed to describe an intense outburst of the Lyrid meteor shower, which is still visible every April. The Lyrids are dust particles shed by the long-period Comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher), which orbits the sun every 415 years. While the typical Lyrid shower produces a modest 10-20 meteors per hour, it is known for occasional intense displays.
The sight of hundreds or thousands of meteors an hour would look like the sky itself was fragmenting and falling—an event that prompted divine explanations. The myth of Nüwa smelting stones to patch the heavens is a narrative for such a terrifying natural event. The story transforms a destructive cosmic event into a purposeful act of salvation by a creator goddess.
A more direct link between "sky stones" and reality is found in documented meteorite falls. In May of 1516, during the Ming Dynasty, a meteorite fall was witnessed over Nantan County, Guangxi. Historical accounts describe the event as "stars fell from the sky," with streaks of light that "waved like snakes and dragons." The fragments were not recovered until 1958, when they were gathered during a push for industrialization. The Nantan meteorite is an iron meteorite, classified as an IAB-MG, with a nickel content of about 6.96%. A total of 9,500 kilograms of this material has been recovered from a strewn field 28 kilometers long. The Nantan fall provides a concrete historical example of stones falling from the sky in China, showing the physical basis that could have inspired legends like Nüwa's.