Era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors ? | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 2852 BCE-c. 2070 BCE | |||||
 | |||||
| Status | Legendary Kingdom | ||||
| Capital | Qufu | ||||
| Common languages | Old Chinese, Sinitic Languages | ||||
| Government | Tribal kingship, Chiefdom | ||||
| Di | |||||
o 2698-2598 BCE | Huangdi | ||||
o 2514-2436 BCE | Zhuanxu | ||||
o 2436-2366 BCE | Kù | ||||
o 2366-2358 BCE | Zhì | ||||
o 2356-2255 BCE | Yáo | ||||
o 2255-2208 BCE | Shùn | ||||
| History | |||||
o Established | c. 2852 BCE | ||||
o Disestablished | c. 2070 BCE | ||||
| |||||
| Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | ???? | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANCIENT | ||||||||
| Neolithic c. 8500 - c. 2070 BC | ||||||||
| Xia c. 2070 - c. 1600 BC | ||||||||
| Shang c. 1600 - c. 1046 BC | ||||||||
| Zhou c. 1046 - 256 BC | ||||||||
| Western Zhou | ||||||||
| Eastern Zhou | ||||||||
| Spring and Autumn | ||||||||
| Warring States | ||||||||
| IMPERIAL | ||||||||
| Qin 221-207 BC | ||||||||
| Han 202 BC - 220 AD | ||||||||
| Western Han | ||||||||
| Xin | ||||||||
| Eastern Han | ||||||||
| Three Kingdoms 220-280 | ||||||||
| Wei, Shu and Wu | ||||||||
| Jin 266-420 | ||||||||
| Western Jin | ||||||||
| Eastern Jin | Sixteen Kingdoms | |||||||
| Northern and Southern dynasties 420-589 | ||||||||
| Sui 581-618 | ||||||||
| Tang 618-907 | ||||||||
| (Wu Zhou 690-705) | ||||||||
| Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 907-979 |
Liao 916-1125 | |||||||
| Song 960-1279 | ||||||||
| Northern Song | Western Xia | |||||||
| Southern Song | Jin | Western Liao | ||||||
| Yuan 1271-1368 | ||||||||
| Ming 1368-1644 | ||||||||
| Qing 1636-1912 | ||||||||
| MODERN | ||||||||
| Republic of China on mainland 1912-1949 | ||||||||
| People's Republic of China 1949-present | ||||||||
| Republic of China on Taiwan 1949-present | ||||||||
The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were two groups of mythological rulers or deities in ancient northern China. The Three Sovereigns lived before The Five Emperors, who have been assigned dates in a period from circa 2852 BCE to 2070 BCE. Today they may be considered culture heroes.[1]
The dates of these mythological figures may be fictitious, but according to some accounts and reconstructions, they preceded the Xia Dynasty.[2]
Description
The Three Sovereigns, sometimes known as the Three August Ones, were said to be god-kings, demigods or god emperors[3] who used their abilities to improve the lives of their people and impart to them essential skills and knowledge. The Five Emperors are portrayed as exemplary sages who possessed great moral character and lived to a great age and ruled over a period of great peace. The Three Sovereigns are ascribed various identities in different Chinese historical texts.
These kings are said to have helped introduce the use of fire, taught people how to build houses and invented farming. The Yellow Emperor's wife is credited with the invention of silk culture. The discovery of medicine, the invention of the calendar and Chinese script are also credited to the kings. After their era, Yu the Great founded the Xia Dynasty.[2]
According to a modern theory with roots in the late 19th century, the Yellow Emperor is supposedly the ancestor of the Huaxia people.[4] The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor was established in Shaanxi Province to commemorate the ancestry legend.[4]
The Chinese word for emperor, huángdì (), derives from this, as the first user of this title Qin Shi Huang considered his reunion of all of the lands of the former Kingdom of Zhou to be greater than even the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
Shi
A related concept appears in the legend of the Four shi () who took part in creating the world. The four members are Youchao-shi (), Suiren-shi (), Fuxi-shi (), and Shennong-shi (). The list sometimes extends to one more member being Nüwa-shi (), making Five shi ().[5] Four of these five names appear in different lists of the Three Sovereigns. Shi (?) means clan or family, so none of them are a single person in prehistoric times.
There is a saying that the Three Sovereigns are Suiren-shi (), Youchao-shi (), Shennong-shi (). The Suiren taught people to drill wood for fire so people could easily migrate. The Youchao taught people to build houses out of wood, so that people could leave caves to expand into the plains. After the number of people grew, Shennong tried a variety of grasses to find suitable cereals to solve people's food problems. The tribes also used the sovereigns' respective contributions as the name of the tribes.
Variations
Depending on the source, there are many variations of who classifies as the Three Sovereigns or the Five Emperors. There are at least six to seven known variations.[6] Many of the sources listed below were written in much later periods, centuries and even millennia after the supposed existence of these figures, and instead of historical fact, they may reflect a desire in later time periods to create a fictitious ancestry traceable to ancient culture heroes. The Emperors were asserted as ancestors of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.[7] The following appear in different groupings of the Three Sovereigns: Fuxi (), Nüwa (), Shennong (), Suiren (), Zhurong (), Gong Gong (), Heavenly Sovereign (), Earthly Sovereign (), Tai Sovereign (), Human Sovereign (), and even the Yellow Emperor ().
The following appear in different groupings of the Five Emperors: Yellow Emperor (), Zhuanxu (), Emperor Ku (?), Emperor Yao (?), Emperor Shun (?), Shaohao (), Taihao (), and Yan Emperor ().
Family tree of ancient Five Emperors
| Family tree of ancient Five Emperors |
|---|
Gallery
See also
References
- ^ Sima Qian only lists the names of the Three Sovereigns fleetingly in the "Basic Annals of Qin Shihuang" (): "?,,". Details were supplied by the "Basic Annals of the Three Sovereigns" (?), written centuries later by Sima Zhen as a supplement to the Records ().
The ? has sometimes been conflated with the Records proper (e.g., by the Gujin Tushu Jicheng), but the original Records begins with the Basic Annals of the Five Emperors (?), without mentioning the Three Sovereigns.
- ^ Hucker, Charles (1995). China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture. Stanford University Press. p. 22. ISBN 9780804723534.
- ^ a b Morton, W. Scott; Lewis, Charlton M. (2005). China: its history and culture. McGraw-Hill. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-07-141279-7.
- ^ Eliade, Mircea; Adams, Charles J., eds. (1987). The Encyclopedia of religion. 9, Liu-Mith. Macmillan. p. 133. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ^ a b (2005). Zhongguo li shi jiang tang #1 Yuan gu zhi Chun Qiu #1 [Chinese History Lectures #1: Ancient times to Spring and Autumn period]. ?. p. 13. ISBN 962-8885-24-3.
- ^ (2005). Zhongguo li shi jiang tang #1 Yuan gu zhi Chun Qiu #1 [Chinese History Lectures #1: Ancient times to Spring and Autumn period]. ?. pp. 4-7. ISBN 962-8885-24-3.
- ^ a b c d e f g (2002). Yuan shi she hui [Chinese civilization in a new light]. Commercial press publishing. p. 142. ISBN 962-07-5314-3.
- ^ Soothill, William Edward; Hosie, Dorothea Lady; Hudson, G. F. (2002). The Hall of Light: A Study of Early Chinese Kingship. James Clarke & Co. pp. 146-. ISBN 978-0-227-17123-3.
- ^ a b Ulrich Theobald. "Sanhuang wudi ?, the Three Augusts and Five Emperors". ChinaKnowledge.de.
- ^ Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian
Further reading
- . Translated by Allen, Herbert J. "Ss?ma Ch'ien's Historical Records, Introductory Chapter". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 26 (2): 269-295. 1894. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00143916.
- "The Annals of the Bamboo Books: The reigns of Huang-te, Che, Chuen-heuh and Hëen-Yuen; The reigns of Yaou and Shun". The Chinese Classics, volume 3, part 1. Translated by Legge, James. 1865. pp. 108-116.
| Preceded by None known |
Dynasties in Chinese history 2852-2205 BC |
Succeeded by Xia dynasty |
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