Yellow Emperor

Yellow Emperor 黃帝
The Yellow Emperor as depicted in a tomb from the mid 2nd century AD. The inscription reads: "The Yellow Emperor created and changed a great many things; he invented weapons and the well-field system; he devised upper and lower garments, and established palaces and houses."[1]
Predecessor	Fuxi
Successor	Zhuanxu or Shaohao
Born	Gongsun Xuanyuan
Spouse	Leizu Fenglei Tongyushi Momu
Issue	Shaohao Nüba Changyi
Names Ancestral name: Gongsun[2] Given name: Xuānyuán (軒轅)[2]
Father	Shaodian
Mother	Fubao
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	黃帝
Simplified Chinese	黄帝
Literal meaning	"Yellow Emperor" "Yellow Thearch"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Huángdìⓘ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Hwangdih Wade–Giles Huang2-ti4 IPA [xwǎŋtî] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Wòhng-dai Jyutping Wong4-dai3 Southern Min Tâi-lô N̂g-tè (col.) Hông-tè (lit.) Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *N-kʷˤaŋ tˤek-s

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, and an individual deity (shen) or part of the Five Regions Highest Deities (Chinese: 五方上帝; pinyin: Wǔfāng Shàngdì)^[3] in Chinese folk religion.^[4] Calculated by Jesuit missionaries, who based their work on various Chinese chronicles, and later accepted by the twentieth-century promoters of a universal calendar starting with the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi's traditional reign dates begin in either 2698 or 2697 BC, and span one hundred years exactly.

Huangdi's cult is first attested in the Warring States period,^[5] 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.^[6] Traditionally credited with numerous inventions and innovations – the lunar calendar (Chinese calendar), Taoism,^[7] wooden houses, boats, carts,^[8] the compass needle,^[9] "the earliest forms of writing",^[10] and cuju, a ball game – the Yellow Emperor is now regarded as the initiator of Han culture (later Chinese culture).^[11]