The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a
deity
A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers grea ...
(''
shen'') in
Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and
culture heroes included among the mytho-historical
Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were two groups of mythological rulers in ancient north China. The Three Sovereigns supposedly lived long before The Five Emperors, who have been assigned dates in a period from 3162 BC to 2070 BC. Today ...
and cosmological
Five Regions' Highest Deities (). Calculated by
Jesuit missionaries on the basis of Chinese chronicles and later accepted by the twentieth-century promoters of a universal calendar starting with the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi's traditional reign dates are 2697–2597 or 2698–2598 BC.
Huangdi's cult became prominent in the late
Warring States and early
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
, 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'', 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
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...
attempts to overthrow the rule of the Qing dynasty, which they considered foreign because its emperors were
Manchu people
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and Q ...
. To this day the Yellow Emperor remains a powerful symbol within
Chinese nationalism
Chinese nationalism () is a form of nationalism in the People's Republic of China (Mainland China) and the Republic of China on Taiwan which asserts that the Chinese people are a nation and promotes the cultural and national unity of all C ...
. Traditionally credited with numerous inventions and innovations – ranging from the lunar calendar (
Chinese calendar) to
an early form of football – the Yellow Emperor is now regarded as the initiator of Han culture (later
Chinese culture
Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...
).
Names
"Huangdi": Yellow Emperor, Yellow Thearch
Until 221 BC when
Qin Shi Huang of the
Qin dynasty coined the title ''huangdi'' () – conventionally translated as "
emperor" – to refer to himself, the character ''di'' 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 (), 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 the color yellow represents the
earth phase
The Earth phase, Terra phase, terrestrial phase, or phase of Earth, is the shape of the directly sunlit portion of Earth as viewed from the Moon (or elsewhere extraterrestrially). From the Moon, the Earth phases gradually and cyclically change ...
, 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'' ("yellow") was often used in place of the
homophonous ''huang'' , which means "august" (in the sense of 'distinguished') or "radiant", giving Huangdi attributes close to those of Shangdi, the Shang supreme god.
Xuanyuan and Youxiong
The ''
Records of the Grand Historian'', compiled by
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 ...
in the first century BC, gives the Yellow Emperor's name as "Xuan Yuan" ( <
Old Chinese (
B-S) *''qʰa
a
', lit. "Chariot Shaft"). Third-century scholar
Huangfu Mi, who wrote 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, tails twisting above their heads;
Yuan Ke, a contemporary scholar of early Chinese mythology, "noted that the appearance of these people is characteristic of gods and suggested that they may reflect the form of the Yellow Thearch himself". The
Qing dynasty scholar Liang Yusheng (, 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 the latter is said to represent the body of the Yellow Dragon ( ''Huánglóng''), Huangdi's animal form.
Huangdi was also referred to as "Youxiong" (). 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
uangdi'shereditary principality". William Nienhauser, 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 the
Dangun legend.
Other names
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 ...
's ''
Records of the Grand Historian'' describes the Yellow Emperor's ancestral name as
Gongsun ().
In
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
texts, the Yellow Emperor is also called upon as the "Yellow God" ( ''Huángshén''). Certain accounts interpret him as the incarnation of the "Yellow God of the
Northern Dipper
The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" ...
" ( ''Huángshén Běidǒu''), another name of the universal god (''
Shangdi'' or ''
Tiandi'' ). According to a definition in apocryphal texts related to the ''
Hétú'' , 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" ( ''Zhōngyuè Dàdì''), and in the ''
Shizi'' as the "Yellow Emperor with Four Faces" ( ''Huángdì Sìmiàn''). In old accounts the Yellow Emperor is identified as a deity of light (and his name is explained in the ''
Shuowen jiezi'' to derive from ''guāng'' , "light") and thunder, and as one and the same with the "Thunder God" ( ''Léishén''), who in turn, as a later mythological character, is distinguished as the Yellow Emperor's foremost pupil, such as in the ''
Huangdi Neijing''.
Historicity
The Chinese historian
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 ...
and much Chinese historiography following himconsidered 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.
[, and chapter endnotes.]
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 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 the same current of
historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...
, 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
Marcel Granet (29 February 1884 – 25 November 1940) was a French sociologist, ethnologist and sinologist. As a follower of Émile Durkheim and Édouard Chavannes, Granet was one of the first to bring sociological methods to the study of Chi ...
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 the time when they were written than about the time they purported to describe.
Most scholars now agree that the Yellow Emperor originated as a god who was later represented as a historical person.
K.C. Chang
Kwang-chih Chang (15 April, 1931 – January 3, 2001), commonly known as K. C. Chang, was a Chinese / Taiwanese-American archaeologist and sinologist. He was the John E. Hudson Professor of archaeology at Harvard University, Vice-President of the ...
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
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, calls Huangdi a "legendary cultural hero".
Origin of the myth
The origin of Huangdi's mythology 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 → Huang Shangdi → Huangdi → Huangdi , in which he claims that ''huang'' ("yellow") either was a
variant Chinese character for ''huang'' ("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'' and ''huang'' were often interchangeable, but disagreeing with Yang, he claims that ''huang'' meaning "yellow" appeared first. Based on what he admits is a "novel etymology" likening ''huang'' to the phonetically close ''wang'' (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 the power of rain and clouds, whereas his mythical rival
Chiyou (or the
Yan Emperor
The Yan Emperor () or the Flame Emperor was a legendary ancient Chinese ruler in pre-dynastic times. Modern scholarship has identified the Sheep's Head Mountains (''Yángtóu Shān'') just north of Baoji in Shaanxi Province as his homeland and ...
) 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 a later transformation and systematization of Shang
mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
." 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
ensuns, birds, east, life,
ndthe Lord on High" (i.e., Shangdi), had defeated an earlier people associated with "the underworld, dragons, west." After the
Zhou dynasty
The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by ...
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
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 ...
'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 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
The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by ...
culture sphere" shared common ancestry.
History of Huangdi's cult
Earliest mention
Explicit accounts of the Yellow Emperor started to appear in Chinese texts during the
Warring States period. "The most ancient extant reference" to Huangdi is an
inscription on a bronze vessel made during the first half of the fourth century BC by the royal family (surnamed Tian ) of the
state of Qi, a powerful eastern state.
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
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 the state of Qi, Robin D. S. Yates hypothesizes that Huang–Lao originated in that region.
Warring States period
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
Qin () was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Traditionally dated to 897 BC, it took its origin in a reconquest of western lands previously lost to the Rong; its position at the western edge of Chinese civilization permitted ex ...
. In addition to his role as ancestor, he became associated with "centralized statecraft" and emerged as a figure paradigmatic of emperorship.
The state of Qin
In his ''
Shiji'',
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 ...
claims that the
state of Qin
Qin () was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Traditionally dated to 897 BC, it took its origin in a reconquest of western lands previously lost to the Rong; its position at the western edge of Chinese civilization permitted ex ...
started worshipping the Yellow Emperor in the fifth century BC, along with
Yandi, the Fiery Emperor. The altars were established at Yong (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 a unified China in 221 BC, Huangdi had become by far the most important of the four "thearchs" (''di'' ) who were then worshiped at Yong.
The ''Shiji'' version
The figure of Huangdi had appeared sporadically in Warring States texts.
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 ...
'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 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().
[Chinareviewnews.com]
"The ugliest among the empresses and consorts of past ages"
. Retrieved on August 8, 2010. The Yellow Emperor had four wives. His first wife
Leizu
Leizu (), also known as Xi Ling-shi (, Wade–Giles Hsi Ling-shih), was a legendary Chinese empress and wife of the Yellow Emperor. According to tradition, she discovered sericulture, and invented the silk loom, in the 27th century BC.
Myths
A ...
of
Xiling bore him two sons.
His other three wives were his second wife Fenglei (), third wife Tongyu () and fourth wife Momu ().
The emperor had 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
Qingyang () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Gansu province, China.
Geography and climate
Qingyang is the easternmost prefecture-level division of Gansu and is thus sometimes referred to as "Longdong" (). It forms an administrative penins ...
by the
Yangtze River.
Changyi, the second son, lived by the
Ruo River
Ruo River is the largest tributary of the Shire River in southern Malawi and Mozambique. It originates from the Mulanje Massif (Malawi) and forms of the Malawi-Mozambique border. It joins the Shire River at Chiromo.
The Ruo River watershe ...
. 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, 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.
Imperial era
The Yellow Emperor was credited with an enormous number of cultural legacies and esoteric teachings. While
Taoism is often regarded in the West as arising from
Laozi
Laozi (), also known by numerous other names, was a semilegendary ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher. Laozi ( zh, ) is a Chinese honorific, generally translated as "the Old Master". Traditional accounts say he was born as in the state
...
, Chinese Taoists claim the Yellow Emperor formulated many of their precepts.
The ''
Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon
''Huangdi Neijing'' (), literally the ''Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor'' or ''Esoteric Scripture of the Yellow Emperor'', is an ancient Chinese medical text or group of texts that has been treated as a fundamental doctrinal source for Chines ...
'' ( ''Huángdì Nèijīng''), which presents the doctrinal basis of
traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logica ...
, was named after him. He was also credited with composing the
Four Books of the Yellow Emperor ( ''Huángdì Sìjīng''), the ''
Yellow Emperor's Book of the Hidden Symbol'' ( ''Huángdì Yīnfújīng''), and the "Yellow Emperor's Four Seasons Poem" included in the
Tung Shing fortune-telling almanac.
[, pp. 59 and 107.]
"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
The Forbidden City () is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples including the Zhongshan Park, the sacrific ...
, there is also a mirror called the "Xuanyuan Mirror".
In Taoism
In the second century AD, Huangdi's role as a deity was diminished because of the rise of a deified
Laozi
Laozi (), also known by numerous other names, was a semilegendary ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher. Laozi ( zh, ) is a Chinese honorific, generally translated as "the Old Master". Traditional accounts say he was born as in the state
...
. 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, but to a "yellow Laozi". Nonetheless, Huangdi kept being considered as an immortal: he was seen as a master of longevity techniques and as a god who could reveal new teachings – in the form of texts such as the sixth-century ''
Huangdi Yinfujing'' – to his earthly followers.
Twentieth century
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 (1911–49). The early twentieth century is also when the Yellow Emperor was first referred to as the
ancestor of all Chinese people.
Late Qing
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
anrace" (''baozhong'' ) from both dominance by
Manchu people
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and Q ...
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 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
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...
. 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'' ("People's Journal"), which was founded in Tokyo by revolutionaries of 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 the Yellow Emperor as a reaction to the theories of French scholar
Albert Terrien de Lacouperie
Albert Étienne Jean-Baptiste Terrien de Lacouperie (23 November 1844 – 11 October 1894) was a French orientalist, specialising in comparative philology. He published a number of books on early Asian and Middle-Eastern languages, initia ...
(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
Sino-Babylonianism is a theory now rejected by most scholars that in the third millennium B.C. the Babylonian region provided the essential elements of material civilization and language to what is now China. Albert Terrien de Lacouperie (1845–1 ...
" posited that Huangdi was a
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
n tribal leader who had led a massive migration of his people into China around 2300 BC and founded what later became Chinese civilization. European
sinologist
Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...
s 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 the two Japanese authors advocated.
Anti-Manchu intellectuals and activists who searched for China's "national essence" (''guocui'' ) 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 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 the Yellow Race'' (''Huangshi'' ), which was published serially from 1905 to 1908,
Huang Jie (; 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.
Republican period
The Yellow Emperor continued to be revered after the
Xinhai Revolution of 1911, 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
Description
This principle emphasized harmony between what were considered the five major ethnic groups in China, as represented by the colored stripes of the Flag of the Republic of China, Five-Colored Flag of the Republic: the Han Chinese, Han ( ...
, Huangdi became the common ancestor of the
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...
, the
Manchu people
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and Q ...
, the
Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
, the
Tibetans, and the
Hui people
The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the ...
, 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" () and even "the founding ancestor of human civilization" ().
Modern significance
The cult of the Yellow Emperor 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
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...
is rooted in the hearts of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor," whereas in 1986 the PRC acclaimed the Chinese-American astronaut
Taylor Wang
Taylor Gun-Jin Wang (; born June 16, 1940) is a Chinese-born American scientist and in 1985, became the first person of Chinese origin to go into space. While an employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Wang was a payload specialist on the Sp ...
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, the
Chinese Academy of Social Science, and the
Central Nationalities Institute
Minzu University of China (MUC, ) is a national public university in Haidian District, Beijing, China designated for ethnic minorities in China.
MUC was selected as one of national key universities to directly receive funding from Double ...
, 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
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
and Taiwanese compatriots and overseas Chinese compatriots".
After retreating to Taiwan in late 1949 at the end of the
Chinese Civil War,
Chiang Kai-shek and the
Kuomintang (KMT) ruled that the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
(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 the Communists, sponsored the production of the movie ''Children of the Yellow Emperor'' (''Huangdi zisun'' ), 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 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
Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...
and common descent from the Yellow Emperor united people from
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...
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 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
Xuanyuandao (軒轅道 "Way of Xuanyuan"), also known as Xuanyuanism (軒轅教) or Huangdiism (黄帝教), is a Confucian folk religion of China which was founded in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1952.Goossaert, Palmer. 2011. p. 295 The founder was Wang Ha ...
based on Taiwan represents an organised form of Yellow Emperor worship married to Confucian orthodoxy.
Elements of Huangdi's myth
As with any myth, there are numerous versions of Huangdi's story, emphasizing different themes and interpreting the main character's significance in different ways.
Birth
According to
Huangfu Mi (215–282), the Yellow Emperor was born in
Shou Qiu ("Longevity Hill"),
[, note 6.] 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
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...
. He then became a farmer and tamed six different special beasts: the bear (), the
brown bear (), the ''pí'' () and ''xiū'' () (which later combined to form the mythical
Pixiu), the ferocious ''chū'' (), and the tiger ().
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 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.
Achievements
In traditional Chinese accounts, the Yellow Emperor is credited with improving the livelihood of the nomadic hunters of his tribe. He teaches them 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 (), throne rooms (), the
bow sling, early
Chinese astronomy
Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categorized in the t ...
, the
Chinese calendar, math calculations, code of sound laws (),
[.] 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.
In traditional accounts, he also goads the historian
Cangjie into creating the first
Chinese character
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as '' kan ...
writing system, the
Oracle bone script
Oracle bone script () is an ancient form of Chinese characters that were engraved on oracle bonesanimal bones or turtle plastrons used in pyromantic divination. Oracle bone script was used in the late 2nd millennium BC, and is the earliest kno ...
, and his principal wife
Leizu
Leizu (), also known as Xi Ling-shi (, Wade–Giles Hsi Ling-shih), was a legendary Chinese empress and wife of the Yellow Emperor. According to tradition, she discovered sericulture, and invented the silk loom, in the 27th century BC.
Myths
A ...
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
Bái Zé (), or in Japanese language, Japanese is a mythical cow-like beast from Chinese legend. Its name literally means "white marsh".
The ''Bái Zé'' was encountered by the Yellow Emperor or ''Huáng Dì'' while he was on patrol in the east. ...
who taught him the knowledge of all supernatural creatures.
[iFeng.com]
"The traitor Bai Ze"
; from . Retrieved on 2010-09-04.[.] This beast explained to him there were 11,522 (or 1,522) kinds of supernatural creatures.
Battles
The Yellow Emperor and the
Yan Emperor
The Yan Emperor () or the Flame Emperor was a legendary ancient Chinese ruler in pre-dynastic times. Modern scholarship has identified the Sheep's Head Mountains (''Yángtóu Shān'') just north of Baoji in Shaanxi Province as his homeland and ...
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 the disorder within his realm, the Yellow Emperor took up arms to establish his domination over various warring factions.
According to traditional accounts, the Yan Emperor meets the force of the "
Nine Li
Chiyou (蚩尤, ) is a mythological being that appears in East Asian mythology.
Individual
According to the Song dynasty history book '' Lushi'', Chiyou's surname was Jiang (), and he was a descendant of flame.
According to legend, Chiyou had a ...
" () under their bronze-headed leader,
Chi You, and his 81 horned and four-eyed brothers
[.] and suffers a decisive defeat. He flees to Zhuolu and begs the Yellow Emperor for help. During the ensuing
Battle of Zhuolu the Yellow Emperor employs his tamed animals and Chi You darkens the sky by breathing out a thick fog. This leads the emperor to develop the
south-pointing chariot, which he uses to lead his army out of the miasma.
He next calls upon the drought demon
Nüba to dispel Chi You's storm.
He then destroys the Nine Li and defeats Chi You. Later he engages in battle with the Yan Emperor,
defeating him at Banquan and replacing him as the primary ruler.
Death
The Yellow Emperor was said to have lived for over a hundred years before meeting a
phoenix and a
qilin and then dying. Two tombs were built in
Shaanxi within the
Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, in addition to others in
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
, Hebei and
Gansu
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tib ...
.
Modern-day Chinese people sometimes refer to themselves as the "
Descendants of Yan and Yellow Emperor", although non-Han minority groups in China may have their own myths or not count as descendants of the emperor.
Meaning as a deity
Symbol of the centre of the universe
As the Yellow Deity with Four Faces ( Huángdì Sìmiàn) he represents the centre of the universe and vision of the unity which controls the four directions. It is explained in the ''
Huangdi Sijing'' ("Four Scriptures of the Yellow Emperor") that regulating "heart within brings order outside". In order to reign one must "reduce himself" abandoning emotions, "drying up like a corpse", never allowing oneself to be carried away, as according to the myth the Yellow Emperor himself did during his three years of refuge on Mount Bowang in order to find himself. This practice creates an internal void where all the vital forces of creation gather, and the more indeterminate they remain and the more powerful they will be.
It is from this centre that equilibrium and harmony emanate, equilibrium of the vital organs which becomes harmony between the person and the environment. As sovereign of the centre, the Yellow Emperor is the very image of the concentration or re-centering of the self. By self-control, taking charge of his own body one becomes powerful outside. The centre is also the vital point in the microcosm by means of which the internal universe viewed as an altar is created. The body is a universe, and by going into himself and by incorporating the fundamental structures of the universe, the sage will gain access to the gates of Heaven, the unique point where communication between Heaven, Earth and Man can occur. The centre is the convergence of within and outside, the contraction of chaos on the point which is equidistant from all directions. It is the place which is no place, where all creation is born and dies.
The Great Deity of the Central Peak ( ''Zhōngyuèdàdì'') is another epithet representing Huangdi as the hub of creation, the ''
axis mundi'' (which in Chinese mythology is
Kunlun) that is the manifestation of the divine order in physical reality, that opens to immortality.
As ancestor
Throughout history, several sovereigns and dynasties claimed (or were claimed) to descend from the Yellow Emperor. Sima Qian's ''
Shiji'' presented Huangdi as ancestor of the two legendary rulers
Yao and
Shun
Shun may refer to one of the following:
*To shun, which means avoiding association with an individual or group
*Shun (given name), a masculine Japanese given name
* Seasonality in Japanese cuisine (''shun'', 旬)
Emperor Shun
* Emperor Shun (舜 ...
, and traced various lines of descent from Huangdi to the founders of the
Xia,
Shang
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and f ...
, and
Zhou dynasties. He claimed that
Liu Bang, the first emperor of the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
, was a descendant of Huangdi. He believed that the ruling house of the
Qin dynasty was originated also from the Yellow Emperor, but by stating that
Qin Shihuang was in fact the child of Qin chancellor
Lü Buwei, he perhaps meant to leave the First Emperor out of Huangdi's descent.
Claiming descent from illustrious ancestors remained a common tool of political legitimacy in the following ages.
Wang Mang (c. 45 BC – 23 AD), of the short-lived
Xin dynasty, claimed to descend from the Yellow Emperor in order to justify his overthrow of the Han. As he announced in January of 9 AD: "I possess no virtue,
utI rely upon the fact that] I am a descendant of my august original ancestor, the Yellow Emperor..." About two hundred years later a ritual specialist named Dong Ba , who worked for at the court of the
Cao Wei, which had recently succeeded the Han, promoted the idea that the Cao family was descended from Huangdi via Emperor
Zhuanxu.
During the
Tang dynasty, non-Han rulers also claimed descent from the Yellow Emperor, for individual and national prestige, as well as to connect themselves to the Tang. Most Chinese noble families also claimed descent from Huangdi. This practice was well established in Tang and Song times, when hundreds of clans claimed such descent. The main support for this theory – as recorded in the ''
Tongdian'' (801 AD) and the ''
Tongzhi'' (mid 12th century) – was the ''Shiji''s statement that Huangdi's 25 sons were given 12 different surnames, and that these surnames had diversified into all Chinese surnames. After
Emperor Zhenzong (r. 997–1022) of the Song dynasty dreamed of a figure he was told was the Yellow Emperor, the
Song imperial family started to claim Huangdi as its first ancestor.
A number of
overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese people, Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese.
Terminology
() or ''Hoan-kheh'' () ...
clans that keep a genealogy also trace their family ultimately to Huangdi, explaining their different surnames as name changes claimed to have derived from the fourteen surnames of Huangdi's descendants. Many Chinese clans, both overseas and in China, claim Huangdi as their ancestor to reinforce their sense of being Chinese.
Gun, Yu, Zhuanxu, Zhong, Li, Shujun, and
Yuqiang Yuqiang (, alternatively Yujiang 禺疆 or Yujing 禺京), in Chinese mythology is one of the descendants of Huang Di, the "Yellow Emperor". Yuqiang was also the god of the north sea and a wind god. His father was Yuhao, another sea god. Some accoun ...
are various emperors, gods, and heroes whose ancestor was also supposed to be Huangdi. The Huantou, Miaomin, and
Quanrong peoples were said to be descended from Huangdi.
Traditional dates
Although the traditional
Chinese calendar did not mark years continuously, some
Han-dynasty astronomers tried to determine the years of the life and reign of the Yellow Emperor. In 78 BC, under the reign of
Emperor Zhao of Han, an official called Zhang Shouwang () calculated that 6,000 years had passed since the time of Huangdi; the court refused his proposal for reform, countering that only 3,629 years had elapsed. In the
proleptic Julian calendar, the court's calculations would have placed the Yellow Emperor in the late 38th century BC rather than in the 27th century BC that is conventional nowadays.
During their
Jesuit missions in China
The history of the missions of the Jesuits in China is part of the history of Foreign relations of China, relations between China and the Western world. The missionary efforts and other work of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, between the 16th a ...
in the seventeenth century, the
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
tried to determine what year should be considered the
epoch of the Chinese calendar. In his ''Sinicae historiae decas prima'' (first published in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
in 1658),
Martino Martini (1614–1661) dated the royal ascension of Huangdi to 2697 BC, but started the Chinese calendar with the reign of
Fuxi, which he claimed started in 2952 BCE.
Philippe Couplet
Philippe or Philip Couplet (1623–1693), known in China as Bai Yingli, was a Flemish Jesuit missionary to the Qing Empire. He worked with his fellow missionaries to compile the influential ''Confucius, Philosopher of the Chinese'', published in ...
's (1623–1693) "Chronological table of Chinese monarchs" (''Tabula chronologica monarchiae sinicae''; 1686) also gave the same date for the Yellow Emperor. The Jesuits' dates provoked great interest in Europe, where they were used for comparisons with
Biblical chronology. Modern Chinese chronology has generally accepted Martini's dates, except that it usually places the reign of Huangdi in 2698 BC (see next paragraph) and omits Huangdi's predecessors Fuxi and
Shennong, who are considered "too legendary to include."
Helmer Aslaksen, a mathematician who teaches at the
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...
and specializes in the Chinese calendar, explains that those who use 2698 BC as a first year probably do so because they want to have "a year 0 as the starting point", or because "they assume that the Yellow Emperor started his year with the Winter solstice of 2698 BC", hence the difference with the year 2697 BC calculated by the Jesuits.
Starting in 1903, radical publications started using the projected date of birth of the Yellow Emperor as the first year of the
Chinese calendar. Different newspapers and magazines proposed different dates. ''Jiangsu'', for example counted 1905 as year 4396 (making 2491 BC the first year of the Chinese calendar), whereas the ''Minbao'' (the organ of the
Tongmenghui) reckoned 1905 as 4603 (first year: 2698 BC).
Liu Shipei (1884–1919) created the Yellow Emperor Calendar to show the unbroken continuity of the Han race and Han culture from earliest times. There is no evidence that this calendar was used before the 20th century. Liu's calendar started with the birth of the Yellow Emperor, which was reckoned to be 2711 BC. When
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...
declared the foundation of the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
on January 2, 1912, he decreed that this was the 12th day of the 11th month of year 4609 (epoch: 2698 BCE), but that the state would now be using the solar calendar and count 1912 as the first year of the Republic. Chronological tables published in the 1938 edition of the ''
Cihai'' () dictionary followed Sun Yat-sen in using 2698 as the year of Huangdi's accession; this chronology is now "widely reproduced, with little variation."
Cultural references
* The emperor appears as an ''ancestor hero'' in the
strategy game ''
Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom'' made by
Sierra Entertainment. In the game, he is a patron of acupuncturist and silk weaver, and has the skills needed for leading men into battle, especially the Chariot-Fort soldiers.
* The emperor serves as the hero in
Jorge Luis Borges's story, "The Fauna of the Mirror". British fantasy writer
China Miéville
China Tom Miéville ( ; born 6 September 1972) is a British speculative fiction writer and Literary criticism, literary critic. He often describes his work as ''weird fiction'' and is allied to the loosely associated movement of writers called ...
used this story as the basis for his novella ''
The Tain'', which describes a post-apocalyptic London. "The Tain" was included in Miéville's short-story collection "Looking For Jake" (2005).
*The popular Chinese
role-playing video game
A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...
series for the
PC, ''
Xuanyuan Jian'', revolves around the legendary sword used by the emperor.
* The emperor is an important
NPC in the
action RPG
An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre.
Definition
The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...
''
Titan Quest'', The player must reach the emperor to learn the truth about
Typhon's imprisonment. He also reveals a bit of information about the war between the gods and the titans, while also revealing that he has been following the players actions since the beginning of the
Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
.
* A 2016 Chinese drama film about the story of the Yellow Emperor is titled "Xuan Yuan: The Great Emperor" ().
(2016)
/ref>
* In the Shin Megami Tensei games, Huang Di is a summonable ally. He's created in various means depending on which game he is in.
See also
* Chinese folk religion
Chinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be fill ...
* Chinese theology
* Emperors Yan and Huang (monument)
* Jiutian Xuannü, goddess of war, sex, and longevity as well as teacher of the Yellow Emperor
* Simianshen
* Tianxia
* Xuanyuanism
Xuanyuandao (軒轅道 "Way of Xuanyuan"), also known as Xuanyuanism (軒轅教) or Huangdiism (黄帝教), is a Confucian folk religion of China which was founded in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1952.Goossaert, Palmer. 2011. p. 295 The founder was Wan ...
* Jade Emperor
The Jade Emperor or Yudi ( or , ') in Chinese culture, traditional religions and myth is one of the representations of the first god ( '). In Daoist theology he is the assistant of Yuanshi Tianzun, who is one of the Three Pure Ones, the three ...
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
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{{Authority control
Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
Guqin players
People from Qufu
Health gods
Saturnian deities
Legendary progenitors
Founding monarchs
Wufang Shangdi