Huángdì

Biography

According to the Shiji , it would be wire of Shaodian (1) and would have for Gongsun family name (2) and a first name Xuanyuan (3), also name of the hill where it lived. The specialists in the Association of the old cities of China (4) consider that it is about the Xuanyuan hill located close to the town of Zhengzhou (5) at the Henan, site of the capital of the antique State de Youxiong (6) whose Shaodian would have been the sovereign. Youxiong is sometimes indicated like its family name.

According to the religious tradition, it would have been born the second day from the lunar second month in the Throat of the descent of the dragon (7) with the Master key of Juyuan (8) on the yellow ground Plate (9) where his/her mother lived, who would have conceived it by seeing the light of pole star. He lived on the mount Kunlun from where four rivers went down. Under the name of Fenglong, creature with body of main snake of the thunder and rain, it also had its residence in the Marsh of the thunder. His wife is known under the name of Luozu (10) or Leizu (11), two characters including/understanding the element Soie (semi 糸) whose she would have taught manufacture with the women.

Always according to the Shiji , in addition to Luozu, it would have had three secondary wives, ten concubines and 25 wire. It would have been buried with the mount Qiao (12) in the current county of Huangling (13) to the Shaanxi, in the tumulus which bears its name (14). The religious tradition claims that on the end of its life it dissolved a tripod, enfourcha a dragon and flew away towards the west. One of its ministers, wanting to retain it, stripped an arrow with the dragon. Wounded, this one had to be posed in Qiao and therefore its tumulus is there.

The name of Huangdi expresses its bond with the Earth, because the Chinese associated the yellow color ( huang ) with this element. Certain legends claim that it must instead of its birth, the yellow ground Plate, others with the fact that it carried out an itinerant life, marking its way of an ocher dust. In the most frequent version of the group of the Five emperors where each one of them is associated with the East, Huandi represents the center, like the ground and the yellow color.

(1) 少典 (2) 公孫 (3) 軒轅 (4) 中國古都學會 (5) 鄭州 (6) 有熊國 (7) 降龍峽 (8) 沮源關 (9) 黃土高原 (10) 螺祖 (11) 累祖 (12) 橋山 (13) 黃陵縣 (14) 黃帝陵

Ancestor of the Han ethnos group

In the Shiji and other sources as the Book of the mounts and seas (1), Huangdi is engaged in battles which represent the wars between various ethnos groups which occupied the North of China. It beats Chiyou, that the Hmongs or Miao S of the Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei assert like ancestor, in Zhuolu (2) (between Hebei and Liaoning according to the old sources, with the Shanxi according to Qian Mu (3)), where it fixes its capital. Chiyou (4) having created a thick fog to mislay the army of the Yellow Emperor, this one would have found again its way thanks to the tank-compass (5), invention of Huangdi.

It takes the succession of another civilizing hero also introduced like the ancestor of the Qiangs, the Red Emperor Chidi (6) or Yandi (7) (or beats it in Panquan (8), according to the sources). Yandi and are to him chiefs of Huaxia (9) that the Hans of today regard as their ancestors. One of the literary terms designating Hans is " descendants of Yandi and Huangdi" (10); another, " descendants of the dragon" , refers also to Huangdi whose emblem, fusion of the various animals totems of the overcome tribes, was a dragon. Certain archeologists associate his time with the culture of Qijia (11) (Gansu and Shaanxi). Several clans or ethnos groups will be attached to Huangdi, like Ji (12), founders of the dynasty Zhou. One still lends to him a victory against Hunzhou (13), name of one of cruel people the “of the North” of Han Western.

Chiyou, the adversary of Huangdi, seems to be become a warlike god révéré until the whole beginning of Han. Sima Qian mentions that Liu Bang returned a worship to him before a battle against Xiang Yu. In addition to its place in the myths of certain ethnos groups of Chinese South-west, he is occasionally asserted like ancestor by Korean , with a patriotic connotation of opposition to Chinese nationalism.

(1) Shanhaijing 山海經 (2) 涿鹿 (3) 錢穆 (4) 蚩尤 (5) 指南车 (6) 赤帝 (7) 炎帝 (8) 阪泉 (9) 華夏 (10) yanhuang zisun 炎黃子孫 (11) 齊家 (12) 姬 (13) 葷粥

Civilizing

Huangdi belongs to the civilizing heroes of antiquity, like Yandi, Fu Xi, Shennong, Yu Large etc the Chinese allot to him the invention of the Feng Shui, the Monnaie, the metallurgy, the sexagesimal cycle or of the division of the government in six ministries. He would have taught with the men the culture of five basic food, the manufacture of the arcs and the flêches, the boats and tanks (including the tank indicating the south). He would have written the first treaty of medicine, the Neijing suwen , which probably dates from Han Occidentaux. Its minister Linglun (1) would have invented the instruments and the notes of music and Cang Jie (2), another minister, the writing. His Leizu wife would have taught with the women the breeding of the worms with silk.

(1) 伶倫 (2) 倉頡

Place in philosophy and the religion

He was regarded as the cofounder with Lao Tseu of the current Huanglao CAD , the " Sees (or Doctrines) of Huangdi and Lao Tseu" , political theory of inspiration mainly legist and taoist born under the Kingdoms combatants and particularly influential with the beginning of the Dynasty Han. The bibliography of the Livre of Han mentions many works allotted to Huangdi, covering subjects as various as the art of warfare, philosophy, the techniques of debate, the law, the divination, of which only reached us, the Neijing Suwen on medicine. Towards the end of the dynasty, the huanglao will become current primarily a taoist and monk, in whom Huangdi is the Master of the esoteric and magic practices, Lao Tseu being the founder of the mystic.

The Yellow Emperor had to be rather early divinized. In the Zhuangzi it is known as that it became immortal. The historical mentions relate to primarily the official worship. As of the Period of Springs and Falls the Wen dukes and Ling of Qin offer ceremonies to the site of sound tumulus. Under Han Western, Xuandi returned in person a solemn worship in to him -73; its worship was then reserved for the emperor or his delegates. The usurper Wang Mang removed this restriction, and it is considered that it is starting from its reign that the Yellow Emperor popularized himself. In 59, Mingdi ordered the foundation of temples in the various areas of the empire. In 770, the emperor Taizong (599-649) of the Tang made register the ceremonies with the temple of Huangdiling (tumulus) in the register of the imperial worships. Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming, made restore the temple in 1371. It is under the Qing that there were the most ceremonies, 36 on a total of 70 since Tang. In 1912, with the advent of the republic, Sun Yat-SEN sent to him also a delegation with Huangdiling.

Influence tokharienne

Certain specialists as Serge Papillon think that elements of the myth of Huangdi point out that of the god of the Thunder of the Tokhariens, Ylaiñäkte, which evokes itself that of other Indo-European divinities , such as the Germanic god Wotan, the Greek god Apollon or the Celtic god Lug. Thus, Huangdi fought Chiyou, creature sometimes represented with a body of snake, at a place called the " Source of the talus" , as Apollon killed the snake Python which kept a source on the site of Delphes. It was suggested that Luozu , name of his wife, could be an erroneous transcription of Leizu (雷祖), Thunder-Ancestor. The mount Kunlun, located at the south-west of the current province of the Xinjiang, area occupied by Tokhariens, could be their crowned mountain. Moreover, according to certain texts, after its combat with Chiyou, Huangdi would have left towards the West.

See too

Chinese Mythology
Sanhuangwudi: three majestic sovereigns and the Five emperors
Taoism
Huanglao
Chinese Dragon

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