Do Huangdi and Yandi really exist in history? Why are most things about them legends?

The Yellow Emperor is a real figure, regarded as the ancestor of the Chinese nation and the head of the Five Emperors in China's historical legends. His surname is Gongsun (said to be Ji) and his first name is Xuanyuan. No. Xuanyuan family, Youxiong family. The Yellow Emperor is also honored as the ancestor of Taoism, and has a special position in Taoism.

According to Records of the Five Emperors in Historical Records, "Huangdi is the son of Shaodian, surnamed Gongsun, named Xuanyuan, and Huangdi lives in the hill of Xuanyuan". China Ancient Capital Society (the confirmation organization of the seven ancient capitals in China) believes that Xuanyuan Mountain is located in Xuanyuan Mountain, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. It was the capital of Xiongguo in ancient times, and its father Shaodian was the monarch of Xiongguo. The Yellow Emperor was born on the second day of the second lunar month in China's northwest Juyuan Guanlongjiang Gorge. According to legend, the mother of the Yellow Emperor was a girl on the Loess Plateau. One evening (or night), she suddenly saw the Northern Lights, and then she got pregnant and gave birth to the Yellow Emperor.

According to China's historical records, in the later period of Emperor Yan Shennong's rule, tribes in the Central Plains attacked each other and wars continued. Huangdi took the opportunity to defeat different tribes, and the leaders of other tribes joined in one after another, thus forming a tripartite confrontation between Yandi, Huangdi and Chiyou. Huangdi lives in the Central Plains. Emperor Yan is in the west and lives in the west of Taihang Mountain. Chiyou is the king of Jiuli, living in the east. Emperor Yan and Chiyou compete for the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Emperor Yan failed and fled north, asking the Yellow Emperor for help. The Yellow Emperor fought against Chiyou nine times in three years, but he didn't win. Finally, the Yellow Emperor gathered on Zhuolu to fight Chiyou, and the battle was very fierce. With the help of generals Hou Feng and Li Mu, the Yellow Emperor finally captured and killed Chiyou and won the victory. , unified the tribes in China. Its capital is Zhuolu. After the war, the Yellow Emperor led an army into the Jiuli area, and immediately at the top of Mount Tai, he joined forces with all the tribes in the world to hold a grand meditation ceremony. Suddenly, a big bug and a big cockroach appeared in the sky, and the color was still yellow. People say that he regards Tude as the emperor, so he calls himself the Yellow Emperor.

Earlier, Emperor Yan was defeated by Chiyou and made an alliance with the Yellow Emperor. After the failure of Chiyou, Emperor Yan was dissatisfied with the fact that Huangdi became the master of the world, trying to regain his lost position and rise up against it. Yandi and Huangdi fought a decisive battle in Hanquan, and Huangdi won. Since then, the Yellow Emperor's position as the master of the world has finally been established.

It is said that after the Yellow Emperor laid the foundation of the world, he established a national official system, such as the central official in the name of cloud, Qingyun in charge of ethnic affairs, and Jinyun in charge of military affairs, and set up left and right prisons to supervise all tribes in the world. Hou Feng, Li Mu, Chang Xian and Da Hong were appointed ministers to govern the people. He often makes sacrifices to mountains and rivers and ghosts. He calculated and worked out the calendar according to the gods. He regularly travels to various places to learn about people's living conditions, so he is deeply loved by the people.

In addition, the Yellow Emperor became a * * *, not far from ancient times, and the people's lives were simple and simple. So the Yellow Emperor taught people to make a fire to cook and eat cooked food, and created textile technology to make clothes crowns to keep out the cold. He also appointed ministers to be responsible for different technological innovations. How to observe the sun and the moon and the planets in remote areas with Chang Yi respectively? Ling Lun created Jiazi, and Li Shou invented arithmetic, and combined the above six technologies to make music and calendars. The Yellow Emperor also ordered Ling Lun and Cui to make musical instruments, such as chimes, chimes, to recite and create words in Cang Xie, to learn painting, to make a happy life, to make an arrow, to wave a bow, and to make a boat with drums and goods.

The Yellow Emperor has four concubines and ten concubines. The first princess was Lei Zu of Xiling family. She taught people to raise silkworms and weave silk to make clothes, so she was named "the first silkworm" and the second princess was named mother frog. She is ugly, but virtuous and respected by the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow Emperor * * * has twenty-five sons, fourteen of whom have been given surnames. These fourteen people got twelve surnames, namely: Ji, You, Qi, Ji, Teng, Gao, Ren, Xun, Nuo, Yi and Yi. The monarchs of Zhuan Xu, Di Ku, Tang Yao, Yu Shun and Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties are all descendants of the Chinese people.

According to legend, Huangdi was also familiar with medical skills. It is said that two medical books in Huangdi Neijing were written by Huangdi. But it is actually a work by later generations under the guise of the name of the Yellow Emperor.

Today, there is a mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor in Qiaoshan, Shaanxi. According to legend, when the Yellow Emperor was old, he cast a tripod and Lapras ascended to heaven. The courtier put an arrow to stop it, and the dragon was shot and injured. When he flew over the bridge country, he dropped a boot and buried it here.

The Yellow Emperor and Yandi are considered as the ancestors of the Chinese nation, so China people sometimes call themselves "descendants of the Yellow Emperor".

Later generations gradually deified the Yellow Emperor. In Zhuangzi, it is mentioned that the Yellow Emperor attained enlightenment and became immortal. The Yellow Emperor in Biography of Immortals can also exorcise immortals.

Yan Di, the name of the tribal leader of Shennong (said to be a descendant of Shennong), is called Yan Di because it is the king of fire. According to legend, he was the * * * owner of the Chiang tribe in Shaanxi and Hubei in the ancient legend of China. It is said that Yan Di was born on the coast of Jiang Shui (now Baoji, Shaanxi) and is called Shennong.

biography

Jiang is a branch of Xirong, originally a nomadic people, and entered the Central Plains from the west very early. At that time, at the junction of Shaanxi and Henan, there lived the Jiuli nationality headed by Chiyou (an independent Miao nationality). Because of the long-term conflict between the two sides, Emperor Yan retreated to Hebei. It is said that "Emperor Yan wanted to invade the princes", and then he fought three fierce battles with Huang Di, the surname of Xuanyuan, which was considered as the first large-scale war of the Chinese nation, and it was called the Battle of Hanquan (Hanquan refers to Hanquan Village in Yanqing, Beijing). Facing the leader of the bear, scorpion, scorpion, scorpion and tiger are powerful opponents of the totem tribe, but Emperor Yan finally lost, allied with it and surrendered to it, and the Yellow Emperor ended the war with victory.

With the expansion of the Yanhuang alliance, more and more tribes submitted to it, but Chiyou refused to accept it all the time, and a big war was inevitable. Chiyou led Jiu Li to fight against the alliance in Zhuolu (now Zhuolu Village, Hebei Province), which was the second war in the legendary era and was called the Battle of Zhuolu. Finally, Chiyou was defeated. Since then, the surname Jiang and the Yellow Emperor have settled in the Central Plains. The word "descendants of the Yellow Emperor" refers to people's tracing and respect for the ancestors of Chinese civilization, Emperor Yan and Yellow Emperor.

Emperor Yan is one of the human ancestors recognized by the Chinese nation, also known as Shennong. In pre-Qin works, Shennong and Yan Di are still two people. Later in the Western Han Dynasty, Yan Di was regarded as the son of Shennong, and then Yan Di was regarded as Shennong. The legendary ancient emperor, surnamed Jiang, was called Emperor Yan because he attacked the king with fire. It probably ruled before the Yellow Emperor, so the history books say that "Xuanyuan was in power and Shennong declined." But the so-called' decline' does not refer to Shennong itself, but to his tribe. "Emperor Century" says:' Shennong's surname is Jiang, her mother is Renyi, and she has a tall daughter and a famous daughter. As a young woman, I swam in Huayang, having a leading role and feeling like Emperor Yan. As an ox head, he is longer than Jiang Shui. With virtue, fire wins the king, so it is called Emperor Yan. My name was Chen, and I was a disciple of Lu. Also known as Kuikun, Lianshan and Lieshan. "Emperor Yan made five major contributions in his life: First, he made two kinds of farm tools out of wood to teach farmers to reclaim land. Second, invent agriculture and grow food crops. Third, people didn't have pottery and cookers for eating before, and Emperor Yan began to make them when he was alive. Fourth, if you taste a hundred herbs, you will encounter seventy poisons a day. The purpose of tasting herbs is to know their medicinal properties, and then develop the technology of treating diseases with herbs, so Emperor Yan contributed a great life. Fifth, Lei Zu, who invented spinning, spinning hemp and sericulture with spinning cloth, is a descendant of Emperor Yan. Yan Di is regarded as the God of agriculture, the God of the sun and the God of medicine among the people in our country, and is also called the ancestor of Chinese humanities with the Yellow Emperor.

One legend is that ...

Because there is no complete text in the Yanhuang era, most of them are legends passed down from mouth to mouth. There are also many legends about Emperor Yan. But some ancient books mentioned some things about Emperor Yan in a mythical way.

I ching? The copula "Shennong's work, wood as coffin, wood as coffin, the benefit of coffin, teach the world."

"The Legend of the White Tiger" "People in ancient times all ate animals. As for Shennong, there are many people and not enough animals. Even when Shennong was in heaven, he shared the benefits of the land and made a system to teach the people to farm. "

Zhou Shu was quoted in Taiping Yu Lan as saying that "God cultivates and makes pottery".

Historical records? Supplement Huang San's biography that "Shennong began to taste a hundred herbs and had medicine".

The Book of the World, Shennong and Medicine Helping People.

"Huainanzi" "Taste a hundred herbs, the sweetness and bitterness of a spring ... and encounter seventy poisons a day".

The following legends are the deeds of Emperor Yan (or his ancestors):

Teach people to farm.

According to legend, Emperor Yan invented this farming method. He ordered people to collect grain seeds and sow them on cultivated land. After that, the people cultivated grain according to this method, hence the name Shennong.

Invented mine

Emperor Yan initiated wooden barricades, which is regarded as the beginning of agricultural invention.

eyrir

Emperor Yan had a magic whip called ochre whip, which was used to whip all kinds of flowers and plants, so that the characteristics of medicine, poison, cold and heat of flowers and plants were revealed.

Changbai grass

According to legend, Emperor Yan personally tried to distinguish various herbs, and finally tried a highly toxic herb, which was insoluble in water and finally gave his life.

Invent pottery

Emperor Yan also invented pottery, which appeared at the same time as farming, and was hailed as another great pioneering work after using fire.

The ancestors of Emperor Yan

According to ancient books, Shennong lived 500 years before the Yellow Emperor. Modern scholars generally believe that Shennong is a clan. Before the merger with the Yellow Emperor, an agricultural nation had lived and developed in the Yellow River basin for 500 years. They have entered the end of primitive society and have a high level of education. The so-called Sui people, Fu people, Youchao people and Shennong people actually refer to four different evolutionary stages in the process of human development. Shennong's surname is Jiang, which may indicate that it used to take sheep as its main meat (according to legend, it was born in), and it also shows that it still relies on the tradition of matriarchal society, and sheep and women are combined into one (in addition, Ji, Yi, Yao and Ying all have this feature).

People after Emperor Yan

After the defeat of Emperor Yan, the tribes dispersed, some were driven out of Middle-earth, and some were ruled by the Yellow Emperor. The cultural level of the driven Shennong tribe was originally higher than that of the Huangdi tribe, but after a long time, the culture did not progress, was suppressed and degraded, and instead became a foreigner. Miao people live in Hubei, Hunan and Guizhou. Because their ancestors used to farm, they are called Miao people. So some people think that they are descendants of the Shennong tribe. In the mountainous area of western Hubei, there is another place called Shennongjia, which may also be related to this.

It is said that Shennong is called Emperor Yan because of burning forest to open up wasteland. In ancient times, it was called "burning mountains", and the people of Shennong were also called "Shanshi Lie" and "Gong Shi", and were regarded as the gods of millet and Du by later generations.