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148-630: In Sima Qian 's Records of the Grand Historian , the Xiongnu 匈奴 were mentioned as Shanrong 山戎, Xianyun 獫狁, and Hunyu 葷粥 "since before the time of Tang [i.e. Emperor Yao (堯)] and Yu [i.e. Emperor Shun (舜)]" (唐虞以上). 3rd century scholar Wei Zhao also identified the name Chunwei with the name of the Xiongnu : “During the Han (206 BC-220 AD) they were called Xiongnu 匈奴, and the Hunyu 葷粥

296-583: A speech in which he paid tribute to a fallen PLA soldier. Sima Qian wrote eight rhapsodies ( fu ), which are listed in the bibliographic treatise of the Book of Han . All but one, the "Rhapsody in Lament for Gentlemen who do not Meet their Time" ( 士不遇賦 ) have been lost, and even the surviving example is probably not complete. Sima and his father both served as the taishi (太史) of the Former Han dynasty ,

444-710: A definition in apocryphal texts related to the Hétú 河圖 , the Yellow Emperor "proceeds from the essence of the Yellow God". As a cosmological deity, the Yellow Emperor is known as the "Great Emperor of the Central Peak" ( 中岳大帝 Zhōngyuè Dàdì ), and in the Shizi as the "Yellow Emperor with Four Faces" ( 黃帝四面 Huángdì Sìmiàn ). In old accounts the Yellow Emperor is identified as a deity of light (and his name

592-605: A descendant of Lord Xia (夏后氏), aka Yu the Great . Chunwei is alleged to be a son of Jie of Xia ( Xia dynasty 's last ruler). Sima Zhen stated that Yue Chan (樂產) wrote in now-lost Guadipu (括地譜) "Register of the Encompassing Lands" that: “Jie, (ruler of) the House of Xia lived an immoral life. Tang exiled him to Mingtiao, he died there three years later. His son Xunyu 獯粥 married his concubines and they wandered far away to

740-524: A divine heritage would positively affect their claim to legitimacy. Harvard University historian Michael Puett writes that the Qi bronze inscription was one of several references to the Yellow Emperor in the fourth and third centuries BC within accounts of the creation of the state. Noting that many of the thinkers who were later identified as precursors of the Huang–Lao – "Huangdi and Laozi" – tradition came from

888-405: A farmer and tamed six different special beasts: the bear ( 熊 ), the brown bear ( 罴 ; 羆 ), the pí ( 貔 ) and xiū ( 貅 ) (which later combined to form the mythical Pixiu ), the ferocious chū ( 貙 ), and the tiger ( 虎 ). Huangdi is sometimes said to have been the fruit of extraordinary birth , as his mother Fubao conceived him as she was aroused, while walking in the country, by

1036-554: A figure paradigmatic of emperorship. In his Shiji , Sima Qian claims that the state of Qin started worshipping the Yellow Emperor in the fifth century BC, along with Yandi , the Fiery Emperor. The altars were established at Yong 雍 (near modern Fengxiang County in Shaanxi province), which was the capital of Qin from 677 to 383 BC. By the time of King Zheng , who became king of Qin in 247 BC and First Emperor of

1184-470: A general history affected later historiographers like Zheng Qiao (鄭樵) in writing Tongzhi and Sima Guang in writing Zizhi Tongjian . The Chinese historical form of dynasty history, or jizhuanti history of dynasties, was codified in the second dynastic history by Ban Gu 's Book of Han , but historians regard Sima's work as their model, which stands as the "official format" of the history of China . The Shiji comprises 130 chapters consisting of half

1332-571: A god who could reveal new teachings – in the form of texts such as the sixth-century Huangdi Yinfujing – to his earthly followers. The Yellow Emperor became a powerful national symbol in the last decade of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) and remained dominant in Chinese nationalist discourse throughout the Republican period (1912–1949). The early twentieth century is also when the Yellow Emperor

1480-519: A highly admired example of literary prose style, studied widely in China even today. The Letter to Ren An contains the quote, "Men have always had but one death. For some it is as weighty as Mount Tai ; for others it is as insignificant as a goose down. The difference is what they use it for." ( 人固有一死，或重于泰山，或輕于鴻毛，用之所趨異也。 ) This quote has become one of the most well known in all of Chinese literature. In modern times, Chairman Mao paraphrased this quote in

1628-577: A later transformation and systematization of Shang mythology ." In her view, Huangdi was originally an unnamed "lord of the underworld" (or the "Yellow Springs"), the mythological counterpart of the Shang sky deity Shangdi. At the time, Shang rulers claimed that their mythical ancestors, identified with "the [ten] suns, birds, east, life, [and] the Lord on High" (i.e., Shangdi), had defeated an earlier people associated with "the underworld, dragons, west." After

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1776-484: A lightning bolt from the Big Dipper . She delivered her son on the mount of Shou (Longevity) or mount Xuanyuan, after which he was named. Another story states that "Huang Di came into being when the energies that instigated the beginning of the world merged with one another, and created human beings by placing earthen statues at the cardinal points of the world and leaving them exposed for 300 years. During that time,

1924-563: A long dialogue between Zhonghang and an envoy sent by the Emperor Wen of China during which the latter disparages the Xiongnu as "savages" whose customs are barbaric while Zhonghang defends the Xiongnu customs as either justified and/or as morally equal to Chinese customs, at times even morally superior as Zhonghang draws a contrast between the bloody succession struggles in China where family members would murder one another to be Emperor vs.

2072-438: A major impact on the course of history, regardless of whether they were of noble or humble birth and whether they were born in the central states, the periphery, or barbarian lands. Unlike traditional Chinese historians, Sima went beyond the androcentric, nobility-focused histories by dealing with the lives of women and men such as poets, bureaucrats, merchants, comedians/jesters, assassins, and philosophers. The treatises section,

2220-479: A massive migration of his people into China around 2300 BC and founded what later became Chinese civilization. European sinologists quickly rejected these theories, but in 1900 two Japanese historians, Shirakawa Jirō and Kokubu Tanenori, omitted these criticisms and published a long summary that presented Lacouperie's views as the most advanced Western scholarship on China. Chinese scholars were quickly attracted by "the historicization of Chinese mythology " that

2368-582: A medical classic, and the Huangdi Sijing , a group of political treatises – were thus attributed to him. Having waned in influence during most of the imperial period , in the early twentieth century Huangdi became a rallying figure for Han Chinese attempts to overthrow the rule of the Qing dynasty, remaining a powerful symbol within modern Chinese nationalism . Until 221 BC when Qin Shi Huang of

2516-604: A million characters. The jizhuanti format refers to the organization of the work into benji (本紀) or 'basic annals' chapters containing the biographies of the sovereigns ('sons of heaven') organized by dynasty and liezhuan (列傳) or 'ordered biographies' chapters containing the biographies of influential non-nobles, sometimes for one prominent individual, but often for two or more people who, in Sima Qian's judgment, played similarly important roles in history. In addition to these namesake categories, there are chapters falling under

2664-636: A modern translator of the Records of the Grand Historian , states that Huangdi was originally the head of the Youxiong clan, which lived near what is now Xinzheng in Henan. Rémi Mathieu, a French historian of Chinese myths and religion, translates "Youxiong" as "possessor of bears" and links Huangdi to the broader theme of the bear in world mythology. Ye Shuxian has also associated the Yellow Emperor with bear legends common across northeast Asia people as well as

2812-430: A moralizing approach to history with the historian high-guiding the good and evil to provide lessons for the present could be dangerous for the historian as it could bring down the wrath of the state onto the historian as happened to Sima himself. As such, the historian had to tread carefully and often expressed his judgements in a circuitous way designed to fool the censor. Sima himself in the conclusion to chapter 110 of

2960-505: A palace eunuch to complete his histories, rather than commit suicide as was expected of a gentleman-scholar who had been disgraced by being castrated. As Sima Qian himself explained in his Letter to Ren An :       且夫臧獲婢妾猶能引決，況若僕之不得已乎。所以隱忍苟活，函糞土之中而不辭者，恨私心有所不盡，鄙沒世而文采不表於後也。古者富貴而名摩滅，不可勝記，唯俶儻非常之人稱焉。       If even the lowest slave and scullion maid can bear to commit suicide, why should not one like myself be able to do what has to be done? But

3108-435: A policy to which Sima was apparently opposed. Sima also broke new ground by using more sources like interviewing witnesses, visiting places where historical occurrences had happened, and examining documents from different regions and/or times. Before Chinese historians had tended to use only reign histories as their sources. The Shiji was further very novel in Chinese historiography by examining historical events outside of

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3256-543: A position which includes aspects of being a historian, a court scribe, calendarist, and court astronomer/astrologer. At that time, the astrologer had an important role, responsible for interpreting and predicting the course of government according to the influence of the Sun, Moon, and stars, as well as other astronomical and geological phenomena such as solar eclipses and earthquakes , which depended on revising and upholding an accurate calendar. Before compiling Shiji , Sima Qian

3404-422: A scholar in reclusion ( 隱士 ; yǐnshì ) after leaving the Han court, perhaps dying around the same time as Emperor Wu in 87/86 BC. Although the style and form of Chinese historical writings varied through the ages, Records of the Grand Historian ( Shiji ) has defined the quality and style from then onwards. Before Sima, histories were written as certain events or certain periods of history of states; his idea of

3552-639: A total of 25 sons, 14 of whom began their own surnames and clans. The oldest was Shaohao or Xuan Xiao, who lived in Qingyang by the Yangtze River . Changyi , the second son, lived by the Ruo River . When the Yellow Emperor died, he was succeeded by Changyi's son, Zhuan Xu . The chronological tables found in chapters 13 of the Shiji represent all past rulers – legendary ones such as Yao and Shun,

3700-610: A traitor's death, the world has united in scoffing at him and has been loath to study his policies ... Su Qin arose from the humblest beginnings to lead the Six States in the Vertical Alliance, and this is evidence that he possessed an intelligence surpassing the ordinary person. For this reason I have set forth this account of his deeds, arranging them in proper chronological order, so that he may not forever suffer from an evil reputation and be known for nothing else. Such

3848-463: A unified China in 221 BC, Huangdi had become by far the most important of the four "thearchs" ( di 帝 ) who were then worshiped at Yong. The figure of Huangdi had appeared sporadically in Warring States texts. Sima Qian 's Shiji (or Records of the Grand Historian , completed around 94 BC) was the first work to turn these fragments of myths into a systematic and consistent narrative of

3996-480: A very literary style, making extensive use of irony, sarcasm, juxtaposition of events, characterization, direct speech and invented speeches, which led the American historian Jennifer Jay to describe parts of the Shiji as reading more like a historical novel than a work of history. For an example, Sima tells the story of a Chinese eunuch named Zhonghang Yue who became an advisor to the Xiongnu kings. Sima provides

4144-403: A work on the sovereigns of antiquity, commented that Xuanyuan was the name of a hill where Huangdi had lived and that he later took as a name. The Classic of Mountains and Seas mentions a Xuanyuan nation whose inhabitants have human faces, snake bodies, and tails twisting above their heads; Yuan Ke , a contemporary scholar of early Chinese mythology, "noted that the appearance of these people

4292-444: Is a "novel etymology" likening huang 黄 to the phonetically close wang 尪 (the "burned shaman" in Shang rainmaking rituals), Lewis suggests that "Huang" in "Huangdi" might originally have meant "rainmaking shaman" or "rainmaking ritual." Citing late Warring States and early Han versions of Huangdi's myth, he further argues that the figure of the Yellow Emperor originated in ancient rain-making rituals in which Huangdi represented

4440-415: Is a descendant of Qin general Sima Cuo (司馬錯), the commander of Qin army in the state's conquest of Ba and Shu . Before his castration, Sima Qian was recorded to have two sons and a daughter. While little is recorded of his sons, his daughter later married Yang Chang (楊敞), and had sons Yang Zhong (楊忠) and Yang Yun (楊惲). It was Yang Yun who hid his grandfather's great work, and decided to release it during

4588-405: Is a reply to a lost letter by Ren An to Sima Qian, perhaps asking Sima Qian to intercede on his behalf as Ren An was facing execution for accusations of being an opportunist and displaying equivocal loyalty to the emperor during the rebellion. In his reply, Sima Qian stated that he is a mutilated man with no influence at court. Some later historians claimed that Sima Qian himself became implicated in

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4736-437: Is also a mirror called the "Xuanyuan Mirror". In the second century AD, Huangdi's role as a deity was diminished because of the rise of a deified Laozi . A state sacrifice offered to "Huang-Lao jun" was not offered to Huangdi and Laozi, as the term Huang-Lao would have meant a few centuries earlier, "yellow Laozi". Nonetheless, Huangdi kept being considered as an immortal: he was seen as a master of longevity techniques and as

4884-583: Is also depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu by Jin Guliang. Sima Qian was born at Xiayang in Zuopingyi (near present-day Hancheng , Shaanxi ). He was probably born around 145 BC, although some sources say he was born about 135 BC. In about 136 BC, his father Sima Tan was appointed to the position of "grand historian" ( tàishǐ 太史 , alternatively "grand scribe" or "grand astrologer") at

5032-515: Is because I regretted that it had not been completed that I submitted to the extreme penalty without rancor. When I have truly completed this work, I shall deposit it in the Famous Mountain. If it may be handed down to men who will appreciate it, and penetrate to the villages and great cities, then though I should suffer a thousand mutilations, what regret should I have? Upon his release from prison in 97/96 BC, Sima Qian continued to serve in

5180-497: Is characteristic of gods and suggested that they may reflect the form of the Yellow Thearch himself". The Qing dynasty scholar Liang Yusheng ( 梁玉繩 , 1745–1819) argued instead that the hill was named after the Yellow Emperor. Xuanyuan is also the name of the star Regulus in Chinese, the star being associated with Huangdi in traditional astronomy. He is also associated to the broader constellations Leo and Lynx , of which

5328-548: Is credited with teaching his people how to build shelters, tame wild animals, and grow the Five Grains , although other accounts credit Shennong with the last. He invents carts, boats, and clothing. Other inventions credited to the emperor include the Chinese diadem ( 冠冕 ), throne rooms ( 宮室 ), the bow sling , early Chinese astronomy , the Chinese calendar , math calculations, code of sound laws ( 音律 ), coins and

5476-540: Is explained in the Shuowen jiezi to derive from guāng 光 , "light") and thunder, and as one and the same with the "Thunder God" ( 雷神 Léishén ), who in turn, as a later mythological character, is distinguished as the Yellow Emperor's foremost pupil, such as in the Huangdi Neijing . The Chinese historian Sima Qian  – and much Chinese historiography following him – considered

5624-647: Is just another name for the same people, and similarly, the Xunyu 獯粥 is just another transcription of Chunwei 淳維, their ancestor’s name”. In Shiji jijie (史記集解) "Collected Explanations on Historical Records" Liu Song historian Pei Yin (裴駰) quoted Jin Zhuo 's statement that "In Yao 's time they were called Hunyu ; in Zhou 's time they were called Xianyun ; in Qin 's time they were called Xiongnu ." In Shiji Suoyin (史記索隱) "Seeking

5772-544: Is often regarded in the West as arising from Laozi , many Chinese Taoists claim the Yellow Emperor formulated many of their precepts, including the quest for "long life". The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon ( 黃帝內經 Huángdì Nèijīng ), which presents the doctrinal basis of traditional Chinese medicine , was named after him. He was also credited with composing the Four Books of the Yellow Emperor ( 黃帝四經 Huángdì Sìjīng ),

5920-435: Is only those who were masterful and sure, the truly extraordinary men, who are still remembered.       僕竊不遜，近自託於無能之辭，網羅天下放失舊聞，考之行事，綜其終始，稽其成敗興壞之理 ... 凡百三十篇，亦欲以究天人之際，通古今之變，成一家之言。草創未就，適會此禍，惜其不成，是以就極刑而無慍色。僕誠已著此書，藏諸名山，傳之其人通邑大都，則僕償前辱之責，雖萬被戮，豈有悔哉！       I too have ventured not to be modest but have entrusted myself to my useless writings. I have gathered up and brought together

6068-567: Is rooted in the hearts of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor," whereas in 1986 the PRC acclaimed the Chinese-American astronaut Taylor Wang as the first of the Yellow Emperor's descendants to travel in space . In the first half of the 1980s, the Party had internally debated whether this usage would make ethnic minorities feel excluded. After consulting experts from Beijing University ,

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6216-421: Is suspicious and doubtful, clarifies right and wrong, and settles points which are uncertain. It calls good good and bad bad, honours the worthy, and condemns the unworthy. It preserves states which are lost and restores the perishing family. It brings to light what was neglected and restores what was abandoned. Sima saw the Shiji as being in the same tradition as he explained in his introduction to chapter 61 of

6364-541: Is unclear, but historians have formulated several hypotheses about it. Yang Kuan , a member of the Doubting Antiquity School (1920s–40s), argued that the Yellow Emperor was derived from Shangdi , the highest god of the Shang dynasty . Yang reconstructs the etymology as follows: Shangdi 上帝 → Huang Shangdi 皇上帝 → Huangdi 皇帝 → Huangdi 黄帝 , in which he claims that huang 黃 ("yellow") either

6512-494: The Records of the Grand Historian and completed it before 91 BC, probably around 94 BC. Three years after the death of his father, Sima Qian assumed his father's previous position as taishi . In 105 BC, Sima was among the scholars chosen to reform the calendar. As a senior imperial official, Sima was also in the position to offer counsel to the emperor on general affairs of state. In 99 BC, Sima became embroiled in

6660-802: The Yellow Emperor's Book of the Hidden Symbol ( 黃帝陰符經 Huángdì Yīnfújīng ), and the "Yellow Emperor's Four Seasons Poem(軒轅黃帝四季詩)" included in the Tung Shing fortune-telling almanac. "Xuanyuan (+ number)" is also the Chinese name for Regulus and other stars of the constellations Leo and Lynx , of which the latter is said to represent the body of the Yellow Dragon. In the Hall of Supreme Harmony in Beijing's Forbidden City , there

6808-498: The 1911 Revolution , which overthrew the Qing dynasty. In 1912, for instance, banknotes carrying Huangdi's effigy were issued by the new Republican government. After 1911, however, the Yellow Emperor as national symbol changed from first progenitor of the Han race to ancestor of China's entire multi-ethnic population. Under the ideology of the Five Races Under One Union , Huangdi became the common ancestor of

6956-477: The Book of Han , which was written under the supervision of the imperial dynasty, Shiji was a privately written history since he refused to write Shiji as an official history covering only those of high rank. The work also covers people of the lower classes and is therefore considered a "veritable record" of the darker side of the dynasty. In Sima's time, literature and history were not seen as separate disciplines as they are now, and Sima wrote his magnum opus in

7104-836: The Chinese Academy of Social Science , and the Central Nationalities Institute , the Central Propaganda Department recommended on March 27, 1985, that the Party speak of the Zhonghua Minzu  – the "Chinese nation" broadly defined – in official statements, but that the phrase "sons and grand-sons of Yandi and the Yellow Emperor" could be used in informal statements by party leaders and in "relations with Hong Kong and Taiwanese compatriots and overseas Chinese compatriots". After retreating to Taiwan in late 1949 at

7252-580: The Dangun legend . Sima Qian 's Records of the Grand Historian describes the Yellow Emperor's ancestral name as Gongsun ( 公孫 ). In Han dynasty texts, the Yellow Emperor is also called upon as the "Yellow God" ( 黃神 Huángshén ). Certain accounts interpret him as the incarnation of the "Yellow God of the Northern Dipper " ( 黄神北斗 Huángshén Běidǒu ), another name of the universal god ( Shangdi 上帝 or Tiandi 天帝 ). According to

7400-685: The Five Regions Highest Deities ( Chinese : 五方上帝 ; pinyin : Wǔfāng Shàngdì ) in Chinese folk religion . Regarded as the initiator of Chinese culture , he is traditionally credited with numerous innovations – including the lunar calendar ( Chinese calendar ), Taoism , wooden houses, boats, carts, the compass needle , "the earliest forms of writing ", and cuju , a ball game. Calculated by Jesuit missionaries , as based on various Chinese chronicles, Huangdi's traditional reign dates begin in either 2698 or 2697 BC, spanning one hundred years exactly, later accepted by

7548-728: The Han Chinese , the Manchu people , the Mongols , the Tibetans , and the Hui people , who were said to form the Zhonghua minzu , a broadly understood Chinese nation. Sixteen state ceremonies were held between 1911 and 1949 to Huangdi as the "founding ancestor of the Chinese nation " ( 中華民族始祖 ) and even "the founding ancestor of human civilization" ( 人文始祖 ). The cult of the Yellow Emperor

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7696-807: The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor in Huangling , Yan'an , in mainland China. Gay studies researcher Louis Crompton has cited Ji Yun 's report in his popular Notes from the Yuewei Hermitage (1800), that some claimed the Yellow Emperor was the first Chinese to take male bedmates, a claim that Ji Yun dismissed. Ji Yun argued that this was probably a false attribution. Today, Xuanyuanjiao based on Taiwan represents an organised form of Yellow Emperor worship married to Confucian orthodoxy. As with any myth, there are numerous versions of Huangdi's story, emphasizing different themes and interpreting

7844-500: The Old Chinese pronunciations of Hunyu 葷粥 ~ Xunyu 獯粥 as * xur-luk , 獫狁 as hram′-lun′ , and 匈奴 as * xoŋ-NA ; and comments all three names are "manifestly unrelated"; he further states that sound changes made the names more superficially similar than they really had been, and prompted later historians and commentators to conclude that those names must have referred to one same people in different epochs, even though people during

7992-436: The Qin dynasty coined the title huangdi ( 皇帝 ) – conventionally translated as " emperor " – to refer to himself, the character di 帝 did not refer to earthly rulers but to the highest god of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC) pantheon. In the Warring States period (c. 475–221 BC), the term di on its own could also refer to the deities associated with the five Sacred Mountains of China and colors. Huangdi ( 黃帝 ),

8140-473: The Shiji declared that he was writing in this tradition where he stated:       孔氏著春秋，隱桓之閒則章，至定哀之際則微，為其切當世之文而罔褒，忌諱之辭也。       When Confucius wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals , he was very open in treating the reigns of Yin and Huan, the early dukes of Lu; but when he came to the later period of Dukes Ding and Ai, his writing was much more covert. Because in

8288-533: The Shiji where he wrote:       或曰：天道無親，常與善人。若伯夷、叔齊，可謂善人者非邪。積仁絜行如此而餓死。... 盜蹠日殺不辜，肝人之肉 ... 竟以壽終。是遵何德哉。 ... 余甚惑焉，儻所謂天道，是邪非邪。       Some people say "It is Heaven's way, without distinction of persons, to keep the good perpetually supplied." Can we say then that Boyi and Shuqi were good men or not? They clung to righteousness and were pure in their deeds yet they starved to death ... Robber Zhi day after day killed innocent men, making mincemeat of their flesh ... But in

8436-508: The Tang – Song period. The great use of characterisation and plotting also influenced fiction writing, including the classical short stories of the middle and late medieval period (Tang- Ming ) as well as the vernacular novel of the late imperial period. Sima had immense influence on historiography not only in China, but also in Japan and Korea. For centuries afterwards, the Shiji was regarded as

8584-491: The Tongmenghui , featured the Yellow Emperor on its cover and called Huangdi "the first great nationalist of the world." It was one of several nationalist magazines that featured the Yellow Emperor on their cover in the early twentieth century. The fact that Huangdi meant "yellow" emperor also served to buttress the theory that he was the originator of the "yellow race". Many historians interpret this sudden popularity of

8732-509: The Warring States period would never have been thus misled. Sima Qian Sima Qian (Chinese: 司馬遷 ; ( [sɹ̩́mà tɕʰjɛ́n] ); c.  145  – c.  86 BC ) was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty . He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his Records of the Grand Historian , a general history of China covering more than two thousand years beginning from

8880-699: The Yan Emperor were both leaders of a tribe or a combination of two tribes near the Yellow River . The Yan Emperor hailed from a different area around the Jiang River , which a geographical work called the Shuijingzhu identified as a stream near Qishan in what was the Zhou homeland before they defeated the Shang. Both emperors lived in a time of warfare. The Yan Emperor proving unable to control

9028-541: The Yangtze River to Changsha Kingdom (modern Hunan ), where he visited the Miluo River site where the Warring States -era poet Qu Yuan was traditionally said to have drowned himself. He then went to seek the burial place of the legendary rulers Yu on Mount Xianglu and Shun in the Jiuyi Mountains (modern Ningyuan County , Hunan). He then went north to Huaiyin (modern Huai'an , Jiangsu) to see

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9176-464: The Zhou dynasty overthrew the Shang dynasty in the eleventh century BC, Zhou leaders reinterpreted Shang myths as meaning that the Shang had vanquished a real political dynasty, which was eventually named the Xia dynasty . By Han times – as seen in Sima Qian 's account in the Shiji – the Yellow Emperor, who as lord of the underworld had been symbolically linked to the Xia, had become a historical ruler whose descendants were thought to have founded

9324-414: The "yellow di ", was one of the latter. To emphasize the religious meaning of di in pre-imperial times, historians of early China commonly translate the god's name as "Yellow Thearch" and the first emperor's title as "August Thearch", in which "thearch" refers to a godly ruler. In the late Warring States period, the Yellow Emperor was integrated into the cosmological scheme of the Five Phases , in which

9472-401: The 1920s by historians such as Gu Jiegang , one of the founders of the Doubting Antiquity School in China. In their attempts to prove that the earliest figures of Chinese history were mythological, Gu and his followers argued that these ancient sages were originally gods who were later depicted as humans by the rationalist intellectuals of the Warring States period. Yang Kuan , a member of

9620-423: The Communists, sponsored the production of the movie Children of the Yellow Emperor ( Huangdi zisun 黃帝子孫 ), which was filmed mostly in Taiwanese Hokkien and showed extensive passages of Taiwanese folk opera . Directed by Bai Ke (1914–1964), a former assistant of Yuan Muzhi , it was a propaganda effort to convince speakers of Taiyu that they were linked to mainland people by common blood. In 2009 Ma Ying-jeou

9768-412: The Confucian classics, he systemically compared the information with other documents. Sima mentioned at least 75 books he used for cross-checking. Furthermore, Sima often questioned people about historical events they had experienced. Sima mentioned after one of his trips across China that: "When I had occasion to pass through Feng and Beiyi I questioned the elderly people who were about the place, visited

9916-407: The Han court as zhongshuling ( 中書令 ), a court archivist position reserved for eunuchs with considerable status and with higher pay than his previous position of historian. The Letter to Ren An was written by Sima Qian in reply to Ren An in response to the latter's involvement in Crown Prince Liu Ju 's rebellion in 91 BC. This is the last record of Sima Qian in contemporary documents. The letter

10064-491: The Li Ling affair, where Li Ling and Li Guangli , two military officers who led a campaign against the Xiongnu in the north, were defeated and taken captive. Emperor Wu attributed the defeat to Li Ling, with all government officials subsequently condemning him for it. Sima was the only person to defend Li Ling, who had never been his friend but whom he respected. Emperor Wu interpreted Sima's defence of Li as an attack on his brother-in-law, Li Guangli, who had also fought against

10212-502: The Li Ling affair. Although there are many theories regarding the exact dating as well as the true nature and purpose of the Letter to Ren An , one common interpretation suggests that the letter, in part, tacitly expressed a refusal to play an active role in securing a reduced punishment for Ren An. The early-20th-century scholar Wang Guowei stated that there are no reliable records establishing when Sima Qian died. He and most modern historians believe that Sima Qian spent his last days as

10360-413: The Obscure in the Records ", Tang history Sima Zhen quoted from Fengsu Tongyi (風俗通義) "Comprehensive Meaning of Customs and Mores", by Ying Shao 應劭, that “In the time of Yin , they were called Xunyu [獯粥], which was changed to Xiongnu [匈奴]”; however, this quote no longer exists in Fengsu Tongyi's received text. Sima Qian wrote that the 匈奴 Xiongnu's ruling clan were descendants of Chunwei (淳維),

10508-485: The Renovation of the Temple of the Grand Historian ) erected in the nearby county seat Han City (韓城) claims that the title was given to the grandson of Sima Lin. Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor , also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi ( / ˈ hw ɑː ŋ ˈ d iː / ), is a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors , and an individual deity ( shen ) or part of

10656-506: The Sima ancestors. To this day, people living in the village with surnames Feng and Tong are forbidden from intermarrying on the grounds that the relationship would be incestuous. According to the Book of Han , Wang Mang sent an expedition to search for and ennoble a male-line descent of Sima Qian as 史通子 ("Viscount of Historical Mastery"), although it was not recorded who received this title of nobility. A Qing dynasty stele 重修太史廟記 ( Records of

10804-477: The Xia. Given that the earliest extant mention of the Yellow Emperor was on a fourth-century BC Chinese bronze inscription claiming that he was the ancestor of the royal house of the state of Qi , Lothar von Falkenhausen speculates that Huangdi was invented as an ancestral figure as part of a strategy to claim that all ruling clans in the " Zhou dynasty culture sphere" shared common ancestry. Explicit accounts of

10952-412: The Xiongnu as savages who had the appearance of humans, but the minds of animals. In his comments about the Xiongnu, Sima refrained from evoking claims about the innate moral superiority of the Han over the "northern barbarians" that were the standard rhetorical tropes of Chinese historians in this period. Likewise, Sima in his chapter about the Xiongnu condemns those advisors who pursue the "expediency of

11100-404: The Xiongnu less favorably, so the debate was almost certainly more Sima's way of criticizing the Chinese court system and less genuine praise for the Xiongnu. Sima has often been criticized for "historizing" myths and legends as he assigned dates to mythical and legendary figures from ancient Chinese history together with what appears to be suspiciously precise genealogies of leading families over

11248-620: The Xiongnu without much success, and sentenced Sima to death. At that time, execution could be commuted either by money or castration . Since Sima did not have enough money to atone for his "crime", he chose the latter and was then thrown into prison, where he endured three years. He described his pain thus: "When you see the jailer you abjectly touch the ground with your forehead. At the mere sight of his underlings you are seized with terror ... Such ignominy can never be wiped away." Sima called his castration "the worst of all punishments". In 96 BC, on his release from prison, Sima chose to live on as

11396-509: The Yellow Emperor as a reaction to the theories of French scholar Albert Terrien de Lacouperie (1845–94), who in a book called The Western Origin of the Early Chinese Civilization, from 2300 B.C. to 200 A.D. (1892) had claimed that Chinese civilization was founded around 2300 BCE by Babylonian immigrants. Lacouperie's " Sino-Babylonianism " posited that Huangdi was a Mesopotamian tribal leader who had led

11544-516: The Yellow Emperor started to appear in Chinese texts during the Warring States period . The earliest extant mention of Huangdi is an inscription on the Chen Hou Yinqi dui ( 陳侯因齊敦 ), cast during the first half of the fourth century BC by the royal family (surnamed Tian 田 ) of the state of Qi , a powerful eastern state. As the Tian family had usurped the throne of Qi , establishing such

11692-407: The Yellow Emperor to be a more historical figure than earlier legendary figures such as Fu Xi , Nüwa , and Shennong . Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian begins with the Yellow Emperor, while passing over the others. Throughout most of Chinese history, the Yellow Emperor and the other ancient sages were considered to be historical figures. Their historicity started to be questioned in

11840-605: The Yellow Emperor's "career". The Shiji ' s account was extremely influential in shaping how the Chinese viewed the origin of their history. The Shiji begins its chronological account of Chinese history with the life of Huangdi, whom it presents as a sage sovereign from antiquity. It recounts that Huangdi's father was Shaodian and his mother was Fubao ( 附寶 ). The Yellow Emperor had four wives. His first wife Leizu of Xiling bore him two sons. His other three wives were his second wife Fenglei ( 封嫘 ), third wife Tongyu ( 彤魚 ) and fourth wife Momu ( 嫫母 ). The emperor had

11988-591: The Yellow Race ( Huangshi 黃史 ), which was published serially from 1905 to 1908, Huang Jie ( 黃節 ; 1873–1935) claimed that the "Han race" was the true master of China because it was descended from the Yellow Emperor. Reinforced by the values of filial piety and the Chinese patrilineal clan , the racial vision defended by Huang and others turned vengeance against the Manchus into a duty owed to one's ancestors. The Yellow Emperor continued to be revered after

12136-473: The Zhou dynasty (originally serving as vassals to the Zhou kings), as well as the histories of contemporary aristocratic houses established during the Han dynasty. In all, the Records consist of 12 Basic Annals, 10 Tables, 8 Treatises, 30 House Chronicles, and 70 Ordered Biographies. The last of the Ordered Biographies is the postface. This final chapter details the background of how the Shiji

12284-453: The age of ten Sima was able to "read the old writings" and was considered to be a promising scholar. Sima grew up in a Confucian environment, and Sima always regarded his historical work as an act of Confucian filial piety . In 126 BC, around the age of 20, Sima Qian began an extensive tour around China as it existed in the Han dynasty. He started his journey from the imperial capital, Chang'an (modern Xi'an ), then went south across

12432-485: The ambitious project of writing a complete history of China, but had completed only some preparatory sketches at the time of his death. After inheriting his father's position as court historian in the imperial court, he was determined to fulfill his father's dying wish of composing and putting together this epic work of history. However, in 99 BC, he would fall victim to the Li Ling affair for speaking out in defense of

12580-433: The author himself. The postface concludes with a self-referential description of the postface as the 70th and last of the Ordered Biographies chapters. Sima was greatly influenced by Confucius's Spring and Autumn Annals , which on the surface is a succinct chronology from the events of the reigns of the twelve dukes of Lu from 722 to 484 BC. Many Chinese scholars have and still do view how Confucius ordered his chronology as

12728-417: The basic accuracy of the Shiji including the reigns and locations of tombs of ancient rulers. Sima's Shiji is respected as a model of biographical literature with high literary value and still stands as a textbook for the study of classical Chinese. Sima's works were influential to Chinese writing, serving as ideal models for various types of prose within the neo-classical ("renaissance" 复古 ) movement of

12876-638: The basic annals section, the Emperor Gaozu is portrayed as a good leader whereas in the section dealing with his rival Xiang Yu, the Emperor is portrayed unflatteringly. Likewise, the chapter on Xiang presents him in a favorable light whereas the chapter on Gaozu portrays him in more darker colors. At the end of most of the chapters, Sima usually wrote a commentary in which he judged how the individual lived up to traditional Chinese values like filial piety, humility, self-discipline, hard work and concern for

13024-525: The biographies sections and the annals section relating to the Qin dynasty (as a former dynasty, there was more freedom to write about the Qin than there was about the reigning Han dynasty) that make up 40% of the Shiji have aroused the most interest from historians and are the only parts of the Shiji that have been translated into English. When Sima placed his subjects was often his way of expressing obliquely moral judgements. Empress Lü and Xiang Yu were

13172-539: The book dealing with the Xiongnu "barbarians" might indicate his disapproval of the foreign policy of the Emperor Wu. In writing Shiji , Sima initiated a new writing style by presenting history in a series of biographies. His work extends over 130 chapters—not in historical sequence, but divided into particular subjects, including annals , chronicles , and treatises —on music, ceremonies, calendars, religion, economics, and extended biographies. Sima's work influenced

13320-404: The categories of biao (表) or 'tables', containing graphical chronologies of royalty and nobility, and shu (書) or 'treatises', consisting of essays giving a historical perspective on various topics like music, ritual, or economics. Most importantly, the shijia (世家) chapters, or 'house chronicles', document important events in the histories of the rulers of each of the quasi-independent states of

13468-529: The color yellow represents the earth phase , the Yellow Dragon , and the center. The correlation of the colors in association with different dynasties was mentioned in the Lüshi Chunqiu (late 3rd century BC), where the Yellow Emperor's reign was seen to be governed by earth. The character huang 黃 ("yellow") was often used in place of the homophonous huang 皇 , which means "august" (in

13616-530: The concept of money , and cuju , an early Chinese version of football. He is also sometimes said to have been partially responsible for the invention of the guqin zither , although others credit the Yan Emperor with inventing instruments for Ling Lun 's compositions. There are other major traditions where Fuxi was the one who invented the calendar and the Yellow Emperor merely reformed and intercalated it. In traditional accounts, he also goads

13764-449: The course of several millennia (including his own where he traces the descent of the Sima family from legendary emperors in the distant past). However, archaeological discoveries in recent decades have confirmed aspects of the Shiji , and suggested that even if the sections of the Shiji dealing with the ancient past are not totally true, at least Sima wrote down what he believed to be true. In particular, archaeological finds have confirmed

13912-425: The courts, providing a broader history than the traditional court-based histories had done. Lastly, Sima broke with the traditional chronological structure of Chinese history. Sima instead had divided the Shiji into five divisions: the basic annals which comprised the first 12 chapters, the chronological tables which comprised the next 10 chapters, treatises on particular subjects which make up 8 chapters, accounts of

14060-431: The effective rulers of China during reigns Hui of the Han and Yi of Chu, respectively, so Sima placed both their lives in the basic annals. Likewise, Confucius is included in the fourth section rather the fifth where he properly belonged as a way of showing his eminent virtue. The structure of the Shiji allowed Sima to tell the same stories in different ways, which allowed him to pass his moral judgements. For example, in

14208-428: The end he lived to a great old age. For what virtue did he deserve this? ... I find myself in much perplexity. Is this so-called "Way of Heaven" right or wrong? To resolve this theodical problem, Sima argued that while the wicked may succeed and the good may suffer in their own life-times, it is the historian who ensures that in the end good triumphs. For Sima, the writing of history was no mere antiquarian pursuit, but

14356-713: The end of the Chinese Civil War , Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang (KMT) ruled that the Republic of China (ROC) would keep paying homage to the Yellow Emperor on April 4, the National Tomb Sweeping Day , but neither he nor the three presidents that succeeded him ever paid homage in person. In 1955, the KMT, which was led by Mandarin speakers and still poised on retaking the mainland from

14504-480: The entire Chinese court system where the Emperor preferred the lies told by his sycophantic advisors over the truth told by his honest advisors as inherently corrupt and depraved. The point is reinforced by the fact that Sima has Zhonghang speak the language of an idealized Confucian official whereas the Emperor's envoy's language is dismissed as "mere twittering and chatter". Elsewhere in the Shiji Sima portrayed

14652-575: The first ancestors of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, as well as the founders of the main ruling houses in the Zhou sphere – as descendants of Huangdi, giving the impression that Chinese history was the history of one large family. The Dai Dai Liji ( 大戴禮記 ), compiled by Dai De towards the end of the Western Han dynasty , carries a quote attributed to Confucius: 生而民得其利百年, 死而民畏其神百年, 亡而民用其教百年, 故曰三百年. When [the Yellow Emperor]

14800-494: The general, who was blamed for an unsuccessful campaign against the Xiongnu . Given the choice of being executed or castrated, he chose the latter in order to finish his historical work. Although he is universally remembered for the Records , surviving works indicate that he was also a gifted poet and prose writer, and he was instrumental in the creation of the Taichu calendar , which was officially promulgated in 104 BC. Sima

14948-416: The grave of Han dynasty general Han Xin , then continued north to Qufu , the hometown of Confucius , where he studied ritual and other traditional subjects. After his travels, Sima was chosen to be a Palace Attendant in the government, whose duties were to inspect different parts of the country with Emperor Wu in 122 BC. Sima married young and had one daughter. In 110 BC, at the age of 35, Sima Qian

15096-599: The greatest history book written in Asia. Sima is little known in the English-speaking world as a full translation of the Shiji in English has not yet been completed. His influence was derived primarily from the following elements of his writing: his skillful depiction of historical characters using details of their speech, conversations, and actions; his innovative use of informal, humorous, and varied language; and

15244-636: The historian Cangjie into creating the first Chinese character writing system, the Oracle bone script , and his principal wife Leizu invents sericulture and teaches his people how to weave silk and dye clothes. At one point in his reign the Yellow Emperor allegedly visited the mythical East sea and met a talking beast called the Bai Ze who taught him the knowledge of all supernatural creatures. This beast explained to him there were 11,522 (or 1,522) kinds of supernatural creatures. The Yellow Emperor and

15392-485: The ideal example of how history should be written, especially with regards to what he chose to include and to exclude, and his choice of words as indicating moral judgments. Seen in this light, the Spring and Autumn Annals are a moral guide to the proper way of living. Sima took this view himself as he explained:       夫春秋 ... 別嫌疑，明是非，定猶豫，善善惡惡，賢賢賤不肖，存亡國，繼絕世，補敝起廢。       It [ Spring and Autumn Annals ] distinguishes what

15540-417: The imperial court. The grand historian was a relatively low-ranking official whose main duty was to formulate the yearly calendar, identifying which days were ritually auspicious or inauspicious, and present it to the emperor prior to the new year . His other duties included traveling with the emperor for important rituals and recording daily events both at the court and around the country. By his account, by

15688-407: The latter case he was writing about his own times, he did not express his judgements frankly, but used subtle and guarded language. Bearing this in mind, not everything that Sima wrote should be understood as conveying didactical moral lessons. But several historians have suggested that parts of the Shiji , such as where Sima placed his section on Confucius's use of indirect criticism in the part of

15836-406: The latter is said to represent the body of the Yellow Dragon ( 黃龍 Huánglóng ), Huangdi's animal form. Huangdi was also referred to as "Youxiong" ( 有熊 ; Yǒuxióng ). This name has been interpreted as either a place name or a clan name. According to British sinologist Herbert Allen Giles (1845–1935), that name was "taken from that of [Huangdi's] hereditary principality". William Nienhauser,

15984-537: The legendary Yellow Emperor and extended to his own time, and covered not only China, but also neighboring nations like Korea and Vietnam . In this regard, Sima was significant as the first Chinese historian to treat the peoples living to the north of the Great Wall like the Xiongnu as human beings who were implicitly the equals of the Middle Kingdom, instead of the traditional approach which had portrayed

16132-437: The less fortunate. Sima analyzed the records and sorted out those that could serve the purpose of Shiji . He intended to discover the patterns and principles of the development of human history. Sima also emphasized, for the first time in Chinese history, the role of individual men in affecting the historical development of China and his historical perception that a country cannot escape from the fate of growth and decay. Unlike

16280-668: The main character's significance in different ways. According to Huangfu Mi (215–282), the Yellow Emperor was born in Shou Qiu ("Longevity Hill"), which is today on the outskirts of the city of Qufu in Shandong. Early on, he lived with his tribe near the Ji River – Edwin Pulleyblank states that "there seems to be no record of a Ji River outside the myth" – and later migrated to Zhuolu in modern-day Hebei . He then became

16428-415: The moment", that is advise the Emperor to carry policies such as conquests of other nations that bring a brief moment of glory, but burden the state with the enormous financial and often human costs of holding on to the conquered land. Sima was engaging in an indirect criticism of the advisors of the Emperor Wu who were urging him to pursue a policy of aggression towards the Xiongnu and conquer all their land,

16576-446: The more orderly succession of the Xiongnu kings. The American historian Tamara Chin wrote that though Zhonghang did exist, the dialogue is merely a "literacy device" for Sima to make points that he could not otherwise make. The favorable picture of the traitor Zhonghang who went over to the Xiongnu who bests the Emperor's loyal envoy in an ethnographic argument about what is the morally superior nation appears to be Sima's way of attacking

16724-472: The northern wilderness in search of pasture lands, and then in the Middle Kingdom they were mentioned as Xiongnu 匈奴.” Sima Zhen also quoted Zhang Yan (張晏)'s statement that “Chunwei, during the Yin era , fled to the northern borders.” However, Goldin (2011) points out chronological difficulties resulting from attempts to identify Chunwei 淳維 with Hunyu 葷粥 ~ Xunyu 獯粥. If one would literally interpret "since before

16872-451: The old home of Xiao He , Cao Can , Fan Kuai and Xiahou Ying , and learned much about the early days. How different it was from the stories one hears!" Reflecting the traditional Chinese reverence for age, Sima stated that he preferred to interview the elderly as he believed that they were the most likely to supply him with correct and truthful information about what had happened in the past. During one of this trips, Sima mentioned that he

17020-467: The old traditions of the world which were scattered and lost. I have examined the deeds and events of the past and investigated the principles behind their success and failure, their rise and decay [...] in one hundred and thirty chapters. I wished to examine into all that concerns heaven and man, to penetrate the changes of the past and present, completing all as the work of one family. But before I had finished my rough manuscript, I met with this calamity. It

17168-404: The power of rain and clouds, whereas his mythical rival Chiyou (or the Yan Emperor ) stood for fire and drought. Also disagreeing with Yang Kuan's hypothesis, Sarah Allan finds it unlikely that such a popular myth as the Yellow Emperor's could have come from a taboo character. She argues instead that pre-Shang "'history'," including the story of the Yellow Emperor, "can all be understood as

17316-485: The pretense that Prince Tan could via the use of magic make the clouds rain grain and horses grow horns. Sima constantly compared accounts found in the manuscripts with what he considered reliable sources like Confucian classics like the Book of Odes , Book of History , Book of Rites , Book of Music , Book of Changes and Spring and Autumn Annals . When Sima encountered a story that could not be cross-checked with

17464-526: The racial consciousness they thought was missing from their compatriots, and thus depicted the Manchus as racially inferior barbarians who were unfit to rule over Han Chinese . Chen's widely circulated pamphlets claimed that the "Han race" formed one big family descended from the Yellow Emperor. The first issue (Nov. 1905) of the Minbao 民報 ("People's Journal"), which was founded in Tokyo by revolutionaries of

17612-437: The reason I have not refused to bear these ills and have continued to live, dwelling in vileness and disgrace without taking my leave, is that I grieve that I have things in my heart which I have not been able to express fully, and I am shamed to think that after I am gone my writings will not be known to posterity. Too numerous to record are the men of ancient times who were rich and noble and whose names have yet vanished away. It

17760-470: The rebellion as a result of his friendship with Ren An and was executed as part of the purge of the crown prince's supporters in court; however, the earliest-attested record of this account dates from the 4th century. Moreover, it has also been pointed out that Sima Qian would have been reluctant to render substantive aid to Ren An, given the severe consequences that he suffered for supporting General Li Ling, as well as Ren An's failure to act on his behalf during

17908-514: The reign of Emperor Xuan . According to local legend, Sima Qian had two sons, the older named Sima Lin (司馬臨) and younger named Sima Guan (司馬觀), who fled the capital to Xu Village (徐村) in what is now Shanxi province during the Li Ling affair, for fear of falling victim to familial extermination . They changed their surnames to Tong (同 = 丨+ 司) and Féng (馮 = 仌 + 馬), respectively, to hide their origins while continuing to secretly offer sacrifices to

18056-469: The remainder". Reflecting these rigorous analytic methods, Sima declared that he would not write about periods of history where there was insufficient documentation. As such, Sima wrote "the ages before the Ch'in dynasty are too far away and the material on them too scanty to permit a detailed account of them here". In the same way, Sima discounted accounts in the traditional records that were "ridiculous" such as

18204-519: The rise of the legendary Yellow Emperor and the formation of the first Chinese polity to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han , during which Sima wrote. As the first universal history of the world as it was known to the ancient Chinese, the Records of the Grand Historian served as a model for official history-writing for subsequent Chinese dynasties and the Sinosphere in general until the 20th century. Sima Qian's father, Sima Tan , first conceived of

18352-530: The ruling families which take up 30 chapters, and biographies of various eminent people which are the last 70 chapters. The annals follow the traditional Chinese pattern of court-based histories of the lives of various emperors and their families. The chronological tables are graphs recounting the political history of China. The treatises are essays on topics such as astronomy , music, religion, hydraulic engineering and economics. The last section dealing with biographies covers individuals judged by Sima to have made

18500-607: The same current of historiography , noted that only in the Warring States period had the Yellow Emperor started to be described as the first ruler of China. Yang thus argued that Huangdi was a later transformation of Shangdi , the supreme god of the Shang dynasty 's pantheon . Also in the 1920s, French scholars Henri Maspero and Marcel Granet published critical studies of China's accounts of high antiquity. In his Danses et légendes de la Chine ancienne ["Dances and legends of ancient China"], for example, Granet argued that these tales were "historicized legends" that said more about

18648-473: The sense of 'distinguished') or "radiant", giving Huangdi attributes close to those of Shangdi, the Shang supreme god. The Records of the Grand Historian , compiled by Sima Qian in the first century BC, gives the Yellow Emperor's name as "Xuan Yuan" ( traditional Chinese : 軒轅 ; simplified Chinese : 轩辕 ; pinyin : Xuān Yuán < Old Chinese ( B-S ) * qʰa[r]-[ɢ]ʷa[n] , lit. "Chariot Shaft" ). Third-century scholar Huangfu Mi , who wrote

18796-470: The simplicity and conciseness of his style. Even the 20th-century literary critic Lu Xun regarded Shiji as "the historians' most perfect song, a ' Li Sao ' without the rhyme" ( 史家之絶唱，無韻之離騷 ) in his Outline of Chinese Literary History ( 漢文學史綱要 ). Sima's famous letter to his friend Ren An about his sufferings during the Li Ling Affair and his perseverance in writing Shiji is today regarded as

18944-419: The state of Qi, Robin D. S. Yates hypothesizes that Huang–Lao originated in that region. The cult of Huangdi became very popular during the Warring States period (5th century – 221 BC), a period of intense competition between rival states which ended with the unification of the realm by the state of Qin . In addition to his role as ancestor, he became associated with "centralized statecraft" and emerged as

19092-407: The statues became filled with the breath of creation and eventually began to move [after the 300 years]. Huang Di...received his magic powers when he was 100 years old. He [became a xian ] and, riding a dragon , rose to heaven where he became one of the five [ Wufang Shangdi ]. Huang Di himself rules over the fifth cardinal point, the centre." In traditional Chinese accounts, the Yellow Emperor

19240-598: The time of Tang [i.e. Emperor Yao] and Yu [i.e. Emperor Shun]" (唐虞以上) (when the Hunyu supposedly had been in existence) in Sima Qian's Shiji and would identify Chunwei 葷粥 with Hunyu 葷粥 ~ Xunyu 獯粥, those would result in Chunwei, allegedly a son of Jie of the Xia dynasty , living before instead of many generations after Yao and Shun, both of whom had lived and ruled before the Xia dynasty. Moreover, Goldin (2011) reconstructs

19388-469: The time when they were written than about the time they purported to describe. In the "middle of the [20th] century, a group of" Chinese "historians proposed the theory that [the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors ]" were originally Chinese gods who became thought of as human during the later period of the Zhou dynasty . Most scholars now agree that the Yellow Emperor originated as a god who

19536-415: The twentieth-century promoters of a universal calendar starting with the Yellow Emperor. Huangdi's cult is first attested in the Warring States period , and became prominent late in that same period and into the early Han dynasty , when he was portrayed as the originator of the centralized state, as a cosmic ruler, and as a patron of esoteric arts. A large number of texts – such as the Huangdi Neijing ,

19684-405: The two Japanese authors advocated. Anti-Manchu intellectuals and activists who searched for China's "national essence" ( guocui 國粹 ) adapted Sino-Babylonianism to their needs. Zhang Binglin explained Huangdi's battle with Chi You as a conflict opposing the newly arrived civilized Mesopotamians to backward local tribes, a battle that transformed China into one of the most civilized places in

19832-495: The world. Zhang's reinterpretation of Sima Qian's account "underscored the need to recover the glory of early China." Liu Shipei also presented these early times as the golden age of Chinese civilization. In addition to tying the Chinese to an ancient center of human civilization in Mesopotamia, Lacouperie's theories suggested that China should be ruled by the descendants of Huangdi. In a controversial essay called History of

19980-596: The writing style of other histories outside of China as well, such as the Goryeo (Korean) history the Samguk sagi . Sima adopted a new method in sorting out the historical data and a new approach to writing historical records. At the beginning of the Shiji , Sima declared himself a follower of Confucius's approach in the Analects to "hear much but leave to one side that which is doubtful, and speak with due caution concerning

20128-412: Was a variant Chinese character for huang 皇 ("august") or was used as a way to avoid the naming taboo for the latter. Yang's view has been criticized by Mitarai Masaru and by Michael Puett. Historian Mark Edward Lewis agrees that huang 黄 and huang 皇 were often interchangeable, but disagreeing with Yang, he claims that huang meaning "yellow" appeared first. Based on what he admits

20276-563: Was acutely aware of the importance of his work to posterity and its relationship to his own personal suffering. In the postface of the Records , he implicitly compared his universal history of China to the classics of his day, the Guoyu by Zuo Qiuming , " Li Sao " by Qu Yuan , and the Art of War by Sun Bin , pointing out that their authors all suffered great personal misfortunes before their lasting monumental works could come to fruition. Sima Qian

20424-414: Was alive, people benefited from his rule for a hundred years; after he died, people stood in awe of his spirit for a hundred years; after [his spirit] disappeared, people used his teachings for a hundred years. For this reason, people say [that the Yellow Emperor lived for] three hundred years. The Yellow Emperor was credited with an enormous number of cultural legacies and esoteric teachings. While Taoism

20572-418: Was composed and compiled, and gives brief justifications for the inclusion of the major topics, events, and individuals in the work. As part of the background, the postface provides a short sketch of the history of the Sima clan, from legendary times to his father Sima Tan. It also details the dying words of Sima Tan, tearfully exhorting the author to compose the present work, and contains a biographical sketch of

20720-550: Was first referred to as the ancestor of all Chinese people . Starting in 1903, radical publications started using the projected date of his birth as the first year of the Chinese calendar . Intellectuals such as Liu Shipei (1884–1919) found this practice necessary in order to "preserve the [Han] race" ( baozhong 保種 ) from both dominance by Manchu people and foreign encroachment. Revolutionaries motivated by Anti-Manchuism such as Chen Tianhua (1875–1905), Zou Rong (1885–1905), and Zhang Binglin (1868–1936) tried to foster

20868-616: Was forbidden in the People's Republic of China until the end of the Cultural Revolution. The prohibition was halted during the 1980s when the government reversed itself and resurrected the "Yellow Emperor cult". Starting in the 1980s, the cult was revived and phrases relating to the "Descendants of Yan and Huang" were sometimes used by the Chinese state when referring to people of Chinese descent. In 1984, for example, Deng Xiaoping argued for Chinese unification saying " Taiwan

21016-404: Was involved in the creation of the 104 BC Taichu Calendar 太初暦 (太初 became the new era name for Emperor Wu and means "supreme beginning"), a modification of the Qin calendar. This is the first Chinese calendar whose full method of calculation (暦法) has been preserved. The minor planet "12620 Simaqian" is named in his honour. Sima Qian is the son of court astrologer (太史令) Sima Tan , who

21164-451: Was later represented as a historical person. K. C. Chang sees Huangdi and other cultural heroes as "ancient religious figures" who were " euhemerized " in the late Warring States and Han periods. Historian of ancient China Mark Edward Lewis speaks of the Yellow Emperor's "earlier nature as a god", whereas Roel Sterckx , a professor at University of Cambridge , calls Huangdi a "legendary cultural hero". The origin of Huangdi's mythology

21312-433: Was only able to put together an outline of the work before he died. The postface of the completed Shiji , there is a short essay on the six philosophical schools that is explicitly attributed to Sima Tan. Otherwise, there are only fragments of the Shiji that are speculated to be authored by Sima Tan or based on his notes. Fueled by his father's inspiration, Sima Qian spent much of the subsequent decade authoring and compiling

21460-443: Was overcome with emotion when he saw the carriage of Confucius together with his clothes and various other personal items that had belonged to Confucius. Despite his very large debts to Confucian tradition, Sima was an innovator in four ways. To begin with, Sima's work was concerned with the history of the known world. Previous Chinese historians had focused on only one dynasty and/or region. Sima's history of 130 chapters began with

21608-515: Was rather a vital moral task as the historian would "preserve memory", and thereby ensure the ultimate victory of good over evil. Along these lines, Sima wrote:       蘇秦兄弟三人，皆游說諸侯以顯名，其術長於權變。而蘇秦被反閒以死，天下共笑之，諱學其術。 ... 夫蘇秦起閭閻，連六國從親，此其智有過人者。吾故列其行事，次其時序，毋令獨蒙惡聲焉。       Su Qin and his two brothers all achieved fame among the feudal lords as itinerant strategists. Their policies laid great stress upon stratagems and shifts of power. But because Su Qin died

21756-582: Was sent westward on a military expedition against some "barbarian" tribes. That year, his father fell ill due to the distress of not being invited to attend the Imperial Feng Sacrifice. Suspecting that his time was running out, he summoned his son back home to take over the historical work he had begun. Sima Tan wanted to follow the Annals of Spring and Autumn , the first chronicle in the history of Chinese literature . It appears that Sima Tan

21904-556: Was the first ROC president to celebrate the Tomb Sweeping Day rituals for Huangdi in person, on which occasion he proclaimed that both Chinese culture and common descent from the Yellow Emperor united people from Taiwan and the mainland. Later the same year, Lien Chan  – a former Vice President of the Republic of China who is now Honorary Chairman of the Kuomintang  – and his wife Lien Fang Yu paid homage at

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