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93-486: Ku's lineage is derived from descent from the legendary Yellow Emperor , then through the line of Shaohao (as opposed to the line through Changyi , which led to Zhuanxu ). He was the son of Jiaoji ( 蟜極/蟜极 ), and thus grandson to Shaohao, and great-grandson to Yellow Emperor. According to speculative dates calculated after 100 BC by Liu Xin , he is supposed to have ruled from c. 2436 BC to c. 2366 BC, though other dates are also mentioned. When he became emperor, Ku added

186-541: A culture hero in China and Vietnam. In Vietnamese, he is referred to as Thần Nông . Shennong has at times been counted amongst the Three Sovereigns (also known as "Three Kings" or "Three Patrons"), a group of ancient deities or deified kings of prehistoric China. Shennong has been thought to have taught the ancient Chinese not only their practices of agriculture , but also the use of herbal medicine. Shennong

279-710: 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

372-524: 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

465-405: 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

558-554: 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

651-571: 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

744-579: A grandchild of Yellow Emperor . In the Bamboo Annals , one of the earliest sources, it is mentioned that when Emperor Zhuanxu died, a descendant of Shennong named Shuqi(術器) organized a rebellion, but was destroyed by a descendant of Huangdi, Ku (of the Gaoxin lineage) the Prince of Xin; Ku then ascended to the throne. It also states that Ku "was born with double rows of teeth, and had the wisdom of

837-577: 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

930-484: 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,

1023-479: 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

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1116-582: 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

1209-701: 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

1302-421: A sage", and that he "made blind men beat drums, and strike bells and sounding stones, at which phoenixes flapped their wings and gambolled". The Annals further record that in the 16th year of his reign, he sent his general Chong(重) to defeat the state of Yukwai(有鄶). In the 45th year, Ku designated the prince of Tang (his son Yao) as his successor, however upon his death in the 63rd year, his elder son Zhi then took

1395-564: A son ( Houji , Xie , Zhi , and Yao , respectively) Ku had a diviner foretell for him which of the sons was destined to rule the empire, and he received the answer that all four would. Another source mentions a lady with whom he had eight sons, each one born after she had dreamed of swallowing the sun ; although her name is uncertain, she was said to be from Zoutu. Shiji also recorded the lineage names of Zhi's mother as Juzi ( 娵訾氏 ) and Yao's mother as Chenfeng ( 陳鋒氏 ). According to some traditions, each of these four sons inherited Ku's empire or

1488-495: A specimen of every single plant that existed in the time of the Hundred Schools to find which ones were edible by humans. In the third century BCE, during times of political crisis and expansionism and wars among Chinese kingdoms, Shennong received new myths about his status as an ideal prehistoric ruler who valued laborers and farmers and "ruled without ministers, laws or punishments." Sima Qian ( 司馬遷 ) mentioned that

1581-639: 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,

1674-463: 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

1767-403: 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

1860-444: 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

1953-418: Is a book on agriculture and medicinal plants, attributed to Shennong. Research suggests that it is a compilation of oral traditions, written between about 200 and 250 AD. Reliable information on the history of China before the 13th century BC can come only from archaeological evidence because China's first established written system on a durable medium, the oracle bone script , did not exist until then. Thus,

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2046-437: 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

2139-527: Is also thought to be the father of the Huang Emperor ( 黃帝 ) who carried on the secrets of medicine, immortality, and making gold. According to the eighth century AD historian Sima Zhen 's commentary to the second century BC Shiji (or, Records of the Grand Historian ), Shennong is a kinsman of the Yellow Emperor and is said to be an ancestor , or a patriarch , of the ancient forebears of

2232-497: 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

2325-548: 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

2418-540: 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

2511-442: Is never at all appropriate; instead pigs and sheep are acceptable. Fireworks and incense may also be used, especially at the appearance of his statue on his birthday, lunar April 26, according to popular tradition. Under his various names, Shennong is the patron deity of farmers, rice traders, and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. Many temples and other places dedicated to his commemoration exist. As noted above, Shennong

2604-544: 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 ),

2697-567: 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 ,

2790-627: Is said in the Huainanzi to have tasted hundreds of herbs to test their medical value. The most well-known work attributed to Shennong is The Divine Farmer's Herb-Root Classic ( simplified Chinese : 神农本草经 ; traditional Chinese : 神農本草經 ; pinyin : Shénnóng Běncǎo Jīng ; Wade–Giles : Shen -nung Pen -ts'ao Ching ), first compiled some time during the end of the Western Han Dynasty — several thousand years after Shennong might have existed. This work lists

2883-428: 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

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2976-541: 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

3069-802: 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

3162-547: 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

3255-836: 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

3348-580: 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

3441-728: 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

3534-628: The King of Qin , upon conquering his neighboring kingdoms and forging them into the first historically known empire of China . It is said in the book of rites that he ruled winter and was in charge of things with large shells and water was the foremost element of the season kidneys were the foremost sacrifice his attending spirit was hsuan ming and other changes during the three months of winter. Ku had several wives . The best-known of his consorts are four ladies: Jiang Yuan , Jiandi , Changyi (常宜), and Qingdu (庆都). Once each of these ladies had given birth to

3627-807: 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

3720-484: 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 ),

3813-491: 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

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3906-699: 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

3999-577: 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 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

4092-717: 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

4185-473: 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

4278-464: 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

4371-496: The Chinese. After the Zhou dynasty , Shennong was thought to have existed within it by some "ancient Chinese historians" and religious practitioners as the "deified" form of "mythical wise king" Hou Ji who founded the Zhou. As an alternative to this view, Shennong was also thought of in the era of the Hundred Schools of Thought as a culture hero rather than a god, but one with a supernatural digestive system who ate

4464-549: 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

4557-428: 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

4650-509: 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

4743-516: 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

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4836-407: 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

4929-605: 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

5022-591: 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

5115-646: The book popularly known in English as I Ching . Here, he is referenced as coming to power after the end of the house (or reign) of Paoxi ( Fu Xi ), also inventing a bent-wood plow, a cut-wood rake, teaching these skills to others, and establishing a noonday market. Another reference is in the Lüshi Chunqiu , mentioning some violence with regard to the rise of the Shennong house, and that their power lasted seventeen generations. The Shénnóng Běn Cǎo Jīng

5208-406: 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

5301-470: 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

5394-659: The concrete existence of even the Xia dynasty , said to be the successor to Shennong, is yet to be proven, despite efforts by Chinese archaeologists to link that dynasty with Bronze Age Erlitou archaeological sites. However, Shennong, both the individual and the clan, are very important in Chinese cultural history , especially in regards to mythology and popular culture . Indeed, Shennong figures extensively in historical literature . Model humanity: Main philosophical traditions: Ritual traditions: Devotional traditions: Salvation churches and sects : Confucian churches and sects: According to some versions of

5487-463: The development of traditional Chinese medicine . Legend holds that Shennong had a transparent body, and thus could see the effects of different plants and herbs on himself. He is also said to have discovered tea , which he found it to be acting as an antidote against the poisonous effects of some seventy herbs he tested on his body. Shennong first tasted it, traditionally in ca. 2437 BC, from tea leaves on burning tea twigs, after they were carried up from

5580-413: The disorder within his realm, the Yellow Emperor took up arms to establish his domination over various warring factions. Shennong Shennong ( 神農 ), variously translated as "Divine Farmer" or "Divine Husbandman", born Jiang Shinian ( 姜石年 ), was a mythological Chinese ruler known as the first Yan Emperor who has become a deity in Chinese and Vietnamese folk religion . He is venerated as

5673-404: 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

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5766-460: The fire by the hot air, landing in his cauldron of boiling water. Shennong is venerated as the Father of Chinese medicine. He is also believed to have introduced the technique of acupuncture . Shennong is said to have played a part in the creation of the guqin , together with Fuxi and the Yellow Emperor . Scholarly works mention that the paternal family of famous Song dynasty General Yue Fei traced their origins back to Shennong. Shennong

5859-452: 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]

5952-400: The footprint of a god , became a predynastic founder of the lineage of the Zhou dynasty . According to Samguk Sagi , the kings of Goguryeo regarded themselves as a descendant of Chinese heroes because he called his surname "Go" ( Hanja : 高 ) as they were the descendant of Gao Yang ( Hanja : 高陽 ) who was a grandchild of the Yellow Emperor and Gaoxin ( Hanja : 高辛 ) who was also

6045-532: 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

6138-406: 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,

6231-442: 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

6324-500: The myths about Shennong, he eventually died as a result of his researches into the properties of plants by experimenting upon his own body, after, in one of his tests, he ate the yellow flower of a weed that caused his intestines to rupture before he had time to swallow his antidotal tea: having thus given his life for humanity, he has since received special honor through his worship as the Medicine King ( 藥王 Yàowáng ). The sacrifice of cows or oxen to Shennong in his various manifestations

6417-417: The orders of Ku, by his subordinate Youchui(有倕); Ku's lyrics had musical scores(titles were 九招(jiuzhao),六列(liule),六英(liuying, meaning snowflake)) composed by his assistant Xianhei(咸黑); and by a further imperial command, a dance accompaniment was provided by a phoenix. Although Ku held the title Di , it is unclear what territory, if any, his empire might have consisted of. The same title Di was later assumed by

6510-404: 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

6603-422: 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

6696-694: The rulers directly preceding the Yellow Emperor were of the house (or societal group) of Shennong. Sima Zhen , who added a prologue for the Records of the Grand Historian ( 史記 ), said his surname was Jiang ( 姜 ), and proceeded to list his successors. An older and more famous reference is in the Huainanzi ; it tells how, prior to Shennong, people were sickly, wanting, starved and diseased; but he then taught them agriculture, which he himself had researched, eating hundreds of plants — and even consuming seventy poisons in one day. Shennong also features in

6789-607: 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

6882-473: 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

6975-419: 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

7068-407: 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

7161-502: The therapeutic understanding of taking pulse measurements, acupuncture , and moxibustion , and to have instituted the harvest thanksgiving ceremony ( zhaji (蜡祭) sacrificial rite, later known as the laji (腊祭) rite). "Shennong" can also be taken to refer to his people, the Shennong-shi ( Chinese : 神農 氏 ; pinyin : Shénnóngshì ; lit. 'Shennong Clan'). In Chinese mythology , Shennong taught humans

7254-652: The throne instead, ruling 9 years before being deposed and replaced by Yao. Samguk Sagi volume 28 — 三國史記 卷二十八 百濟本紀 第六 [REDACTED]  Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article: 三國史記/卷28 Three Exalted Ones: Suiren · Fuxi · Taihao · Nüwa · Zhurong · Shennong · Yandi · Gonggong · Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) Four Perils: Gonggong · Huandou · Gun · Sanmiao · Hundun · Qiongqi · Taowu · Taotie Five Primal Emperors: Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) · Shaohao · Zhuanxu · Ku · Zhi · Yao · Shun Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor , also known as

7347-403: 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

7440-445: The title Di , meaning "Thearch" (commonly translated as "Emperor"), in front of his name. After achieving the imperial title, Ku was said to travel seasonally by riding a dragon in spring and summer , and a horse in autumn and winter. Among other things, Ku was said to be an inventor of musical instruments and composer of songs. According to the Lüshi Chunqiu , drums, bells, chimes, pipes, ocarinas, and flutes were all invented, on

7533-415: 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 ,

7626-405: 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

7719-402: The use of the plow, aspects of basic agriculture, and the use of cannabis . Possibly influenced by the Yan Emperor mythos or the use of slash-and-burn agriculture, Shennong was a god of burning wind. He was also sometimes said to be a progenitor to, or to have had as one of his ministers, Chiyou (and like him, was ox -headed, sharp-horned, bronze-foreheaded, and iron-skulled). Shennong

7812-408: The various medicinal herbs, such as lingzhi ,and marijuana that were discovered by Shennong and given grade and rarity ratings. It is considered to be the earliest Chinese pharmacopoeia , and includes 365 medicines derived from minerals, plants, and animals. Shennong is credited with identifying hundreds of medical (and poisonous) herbs by personally testing their properties, which was crucial to

7905-495: 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

7998-412: 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

8091-414: 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

8184-486: Was ancestral founder of a Chinese dynasty . The first of Ku's sons to rule the kingdom was Emperor Zhi , who was the son of Changyi. Another of his sons later became the Emperor Yao . Ku's son Xie, born miraculously to Jiandi after she swallowed the egg of a black bird, became the predynastic founder of the ruling family of the Shang dynasty . Ku's son Houji , born miraculously to Jiang Yuan after she stepped in

8277-414: Was credited with various inventions: these include the hoe , plow (both leisi ( 耒耜 ) style and the plowshare ), axe , digging wells , agricultural irrigation, preserving stored seeds by using boiled horse urine (to ward off the borers), trade , commerce, money , the weekly farmers market , the Chinese calendar (especially the division into the 24 jieqi or solar terms), and to have refined

8370-550: 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

8463-616: 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

8556-451: 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

8649-614: 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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