盤古神話首見於三國時期徐整《三五曆紀》和《五運歷年記》的記錄,雖此二書早已亡佚,但盤古神話卻從此後來居上,不但成為中國唯一的創世神話,盤古更取代先秦以來女媧的地位,成為中國的人根之祖。 然以盤古神話出現的時間過遲,不免啟人疑竇:盤古神話是否真為中國原創的神話,抑或是外來的神話。對此,歷來學者有許多不同的說法,如有持中原說者,持南來說者,持印度說者,眾說紛紜。然則盤古神話的核心元素,諸如「混沌」與「化」的思想,其實早見於先秦道家文獻,所以中國本土應有產生盤古神話條件。證以楚人對天地起源的關注,古楚都丹陽為今丹江流域,今丹江流域為曲瑤等民族所居,尚保留諸多盤古神話及盤王信仰,或可提供我們思考盤古神話源於楚之可能。
The myth of Pan-Gu was first recorded by Xu Zheng at San-Guo period. Since then, the myth of Pan-Gu became one of the important myth in China. Because none of other myth had talked about how the world was created before. And Pan-Gu even replaced Nu-Wa as the first ancestor of Chinese. But before San-Guo period, no books had ever record the story of Pan-Gu. So many scholars thought that the myth of Pan-Gu maybe came from other nation, ex: Babylon or Indian, or the minority group of South-China. Still there are some scholars insisted that Pan-Gu is China’s native myth. In fact, we found out that the mean elements of Pan-Gu, such as “Chaos” and “incarnation”, existing in ancient Taoism’s books and records. Which means that the myth of Pan-Gu may not translated from other nation but Chu.