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 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 are 2697–2597 or 2698–2598 BC.

Huangdi's cult is first attested in the Warring States period,^{[citation needed]} 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 Chinese nationalism modernly.^[5] Traditionally credited with numerous inventions and innovations – ranging from the lunar calendar (Chinese calendar), Taoism,^[6] wooden houses, boats, carts,^[7] the compass needle,^[8] "the earliest forms of writing",^[9] and/or an early form of football – the Yellow Emperor is now regarded as the initiator of Han culture (later Chinese culture).^[10]