Ye or Yeh the Great () was a figure in

Chinese mythology Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions. Much of t ...

. In the ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...

'',

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). 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 b ...

's account of the origin of the

House of Ying This is a family tree of Chinese monarchs during the Warring States period. Warring States period In 771 BC, a coalition of feudal lords and the Western Rong tribes overthrew King You and drove the Zhou out of the Wei valley. During ...

made him the son of

Lady Xiu Lady Xiu (), formerly romanized as Lady Hsiu, is a figure in Chinese mythology. In the ''Records of the Grand Historian'', Sima Qian's account of the origin of the House of Ying states that she became pregnant with Ye the Great after eating the ...

and the egg of a black bird. He was said to have been the father of

Fei the Great Yi (Chinese language, Chinese: , ''Yì''; millennium BCE) was a tribal leader of Longshan culture and a culture hero in Chinese mythology who helped Shun (Chinese leader), Shun and Yu the Great control the Great Flood (China), Great Flood; ...

, who later became known as Boyi, by the

Lady Hua Lady Hua () was a figure in Chinese mythology. In the ''Records of the Grand Historian'', Sima Qian's account of the origin of the House of Ying says that she was the wife of Ye the Great and the mother of Fei the Great, who was later known as ...

. ''

''. Some Chinese scholars have argued that his name was a title or epithet of Gao Yao, who served under

Emperor Shun Emperor Shun () was a legendary leader of ancient China, regarded by some sources as one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors being the last of the Five Emperors. Tradition holds that he lived sometime between 2294 and 2184 BC. Tradition a ...

and was counted as the ancestor of some Li and Zhou families.

Sources

Characters in Chinese mythology Qin (state) {{China-myth-stub Legendary progenitors