Yellow Emperor 黃帝 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Predecessor | Fuxi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Successor | Zhuanxu or Shaohao | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Gongsun Xuanyuan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Issue | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Father | Shaodian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mother | Fubao | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 黃帝 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 黄帝 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Yellow Emperor | |
---|---|
Member of Wufang Shangdi | |
Major cult centre | Mount Song |
Predecessor | Chidi (Wuxing cycle, also political with the Flame Emperor) |
Successor | Baidi (Wuxing cycle, also political with Shaohao) |
Planet | Saturn |
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (/ˈhwɑːŋ ˈdiː/), is a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, (shen). He is revered as a deity individually or as part of the Five Regions Highest Deities (Chinese: 五方上帝; pinyin: Wǔfāng Shàngdì)[3] in Chinese folk religion.[4] Regarded as the initiator of Chinese culture,[5] he is traditionally credited with numerous innovations – including the lunar calendar (Chinese calendar), Taoism,[6] wooden houses, boats, carts,[7] the compass needle,[8] "the earliest forms of writing",[9] and cuju, a ball game.[5] 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 the twentieth-century promoters of a universal calendar starting with the Yellow Emperor.
Huangdi's cult is first attested in the Warring States period,[10] 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, 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.[11]
:0
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).:100273
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).The Yellow Emperor, who was believed to be the ancestor of the Chinese people and who was – and remains – a symbol of Chinese nationalism.