Showing posts with label Huangdi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Huangdi. Show all posts

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Gods And Goddesses: Yellow Emperor

The Yellow Emperor, better known as Huang Di (also spelt Huangdi), is the man said to be the ancestor of all Chinese, the founder of Chinese civilization and the first of a group known as the Three Sovereigns where he ruled from 2697 to 2587 BC or 2696 to 2598 BC. The name of the Yellow Emperor is Gongsun Xuanyuan and his birth is said to be in Shou Qiu (which is modern day Qufu found within the Shandong Province), becoming first a farmer then later founder of Chinese civilisation.

Before Huang Di became an emperor, order and government is said to be unknown to the world, which he is credited for. During his reign as emperor, Huang Di is said to have been challenged by a rebel god, aided by the Yellow Emperor’s son Fei Lian, whom sent fog and rain to drown imperial armies. However, Huang Di’s daughter, Ba, used her powers to dry up the rain and helped greatly with defeating the rebel god and Fei Lian.

Huang Di is said to have has many achievements, including teaching how to build shelters, how to tame wild animals and how to grow what is known as the five cereals. Huang Di is also known as an inventor, having credit for the invention of carts, boats, bow sling, Chinese astronomy, the Chinese calendar, sound laws, a type of football and clothing. Huang Di also requested a historian, Cang Jie, to create the first Chinese character writing system, with such a request being taken and done. Huang Di also had a wife, Leizu, who taught how to weave silk from Bombyx mori silkworms and how to dye clothes.

Along with gods Fu Xi and Shennong, Huang Di took part in the creation of the musical instrument  known as the guqin.
Huang Di is said to have had an interest with medicine and introduced one of the earliest forms of martial arts in China due to this interest, seeing martial arts as a source of good health and self-defence.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Gods And Goddesses: Fu Xi

Fu Xi is a god said to have been born with a body of a serpent but a head of a human occurring in the 29th century BC. Fu Xi is the first of the San Huang, a group of three sovereigns of China who taught mankind many important skills and is said to have ruled from 2952BC to 2836BC or from 2852BC to 2737BC.

Besides being described as a man with a head of a man and the body of a serpent, Fu Xi is at times described as a man wearing animal skins and with long hair. Often in Taoist temples Fu Xi is often with the symbol known as the baqua.

Many things are attributed to Fu Xi which include creating the well known symbol called baqua (or Eight Trigrams) that is used in divination, the creation of casting oracles using yarrow stalks, the breeding of silk worms, and the taming of wild animals.

Fu Xi is said to have created the basis of Chinese writing itself and invented the many Chinese family names with the decree that only those with differing family names shall marry.
Fu Xi also taught how to hunt with weapons of iron, while also how to fish with nets in which fishing nets were inspired by a spider weaving a web.

One time, this god came across a tortoise with cosmic numbers on its shell. This lead to Fu Xi’s invention of the Magic Square where all lines add up to fifteen:
4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6

Fu Xi, along with the gods Shennong and Huangdi created an instrument called guqin that is also referred as “the father of Chinese music” and “the instrument of the sages”.

A marriage between Fu Xi and his sister, Nu Wa, occurred after approval from Heaven using smoke from fire. Both Fu Xi and Nu Wa appear in the Dynasty Warriors games after Dynasty Warriors 3 with Fu Xi being depicted as a 180cm tall eighteen year old.