26 replies to this topic

[Ghost_of_Han]

In Greek and Rome the people believed they where created by gods(I think). China on the other hand believe they are all children of great Chinese heroes. And thus over time they went from primitive people to a highly civilized one.

First one is,

Fu Xi, "The Ox-tamer", domesticated animals and invented the family. Also said to have given china fishing, invented music. His most important invention was the 8 trigrams.

Nu Wa was Fu Xi's wife. Interestingly enough some how they were also brother and sister. Reason that is so weird is Nu Wa was a god all her life and Fu Xi was not. She was the god of marriage, she granted children, She was credited for restoring the universe after a monster threw it into disorder. I have more on her that I'll bring it out later when its more fitting.

Shen Nong, "The Divine Farmer", invented the plough and hoe.

Huang Di, "The Yellow Lord", invented the bow and arrow, boats, carts, ceramics, writing, and silk. He was also said to have fought a great battle against alien tribes, thus securing the "Yellow River Plains" for china. He was the first of the five pre-dynastic rulers.

Later on the last 2 of the 5 rulers where Yao and Shun. Yao was first to come, he was credited for creating that calendar, and creating many rituals. Yao decided to put Shun as his successor, rather then his unworthy son. Shun summoned one of his most trusted officials(Yu) to learn of to cope with floods, he was so righteous, while he was working he would pass his house, and not stop to see his wife that's how dedicated he was. Eventually he learned how to cope with the floods.

I understand that a lot of my stuff is contradictory (can’t conjugate) and if its not now it will be later, but understand that's why these are Legends.


Anymore information on these subjects is always welcomed and wanted on my posts.

[Yun]

The Chinese culture heroes show a steady progression of society from primitive to advanced technology.

1. Suiren (Flint Man): taught them how to use fire.

2. Youchao (Has-nest): taught them how to build houses.

3. Fuxi (Ox-tamer): taught them animal husbandry, hunting and fishing. Also developed the Eight Trigrams used for divination.

4. Shennong (Divine Farmer): taught them agriculture, commerce, and the use of herbs for medicine.

5. Huangdi (Yellow Emperor): invented clothes, vehicles, writing, musical instruments and the calendar.

While the Christian tradition regards these aspects of society as being consequences of the Fall of Man (Adam and Eve being driven out of Eden and having to fend for themselves), the Chinese tradition regards them as representing the Rise (or Progress) of Man. The only part of Chinese culture that frowns on complex society and technology is the original Daoist philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, which sees them as corrupting and destructive.

[General_Zhaoyun]

There are many chinese legends, many of which reflected a progress from primitive stone age society, through neolithic tool age till bronze age. It represented important stages of inventions and progress of primitive chinese civilization.

Many of the chinese legends fell into the period of "3 clan-rulers 5 emperors" period (called "San Huang Wu Di" 三皇五帝 period). In fact the name "Huangdi 皇帝" (Emperor in chinese) was derived from the 3 "huang 皇 " (clan rulers) and 5 "Di帝 " (emperor). They are regarded as the fore-ancestors of chinese. Also during that time, there are also legendary figures such as Chao clan (巢氏), Nuwa (女娲) etc.

The 3 clan-rulers (3 Huang) are:

1. Suiren Clan (燧人氏) [Fire clan] - said to have invented the technique of creating fire from flint stones

2. Fuxi Clan (伏羲氏) [Fisherman clan] - said to have invented the fish net for fishing.

3. Shennong Clan (神农氏) [Farmers clan] - said to have invented agriculture and farming


The 5 emperor (5 Di) are:

1. Huangdi (黄帝) [Yellow Emperor]

2. Zhuanxu (颛顼)

3. Diku (帝喾)

4.Yao (尧)

5. Shun (舜)

[General_Zhaoyun]

I'll explain about the legend of Chao-clan and 3 clan-rulers (3 Huang) legend.

During the period of 3 clan-rulers time, it was legendary said that ancient chinese invented fire, hunting/fishing, farming. It reflected 3 stages of development involving the invention of and using fire, hunting/fishing and agriculture/farming.

In the pre-ancient times, the human population was very small and there were many beasts and animals. The people faced threats from these beasts, were often bitten or attacked. At that time, the world appeared a sacred person. He built a house that was like a nest on top of the tree, and allowed the people to live and protected them from attack by beast. Because of this merit, the people all requested that he ruled the tribe and called him the "Chao Clan"(巢氏), which means the "clan of the nest ".

After solving the problem of living, the problem of eating is still not solved. At that time, people eat fresh fruits obtained from the wild as well as animal meat from hunting. These were raw, often the taste was bad and also damage the health. Later appear another sacred person. He used the flint and produced fire by rubbing it with the wood, and allow the food to be cooked. This remove the raw smell and the food become tasty. Because the people love him, they requested that he ruled the tribe and he was called "Suiren Clan (燧人氏)", which means "the clan of the inventor of fire-producing tool".

The story of Suiren clan happened around 200,000 years ago (stone age), it signified that humans already know how to produce fire by rubbing the flintstone with the wood. The use of fire signifies a progress in the human civilization, it not only allowed food to be cooked, but also killed lots of germs in raw food. It was also used to warm up the people during winter as well as protect the humans from beasts, and allow human beings to be stronger and prolonged their survival.

After the Suiren clan, after 100,000 years, the world appeared another sacred person called "Fuxi Clan" (伏羲氏) [Ox-tamer]. He not only taught people how to hunt and collect food from the wild, but also teaches them how to make the fish net and used them for fishing, tapping the various resources of the wild. This signifies that humans had progressed from the primitive stage of collecting food towarsd fishing/hunting/rearing, progressing towards neo-lithic tool age.

And as for the "Shennong clan (神农氏)" [farmer's clan], it was said that by this period of time, humans have evolved into different kinds and population was rising. The foods of the wild that can be gathered from collection/fishing/hunting were rather limited. Hence, the Shennong clan taught the people how to sow the seeds using the 5 grains (五谷) for farming. He also taught them how to cut the woods from the tree and use the wood to produce different agricultural tools. When the Shennong clan saw that the items for living amongs the people was very scarce, he also taught them how to make procelain as well as weave clothings. When people had food and clothing, but find that their lives are inconvenient, the Shennong clan also taught them how to create a market, and about trading their own excess items for other items. This explained that by this period of time, humans had entered the neolithic period (tool age), because the primitive farming and the invention of agricultural tools all signified the period of tool age. China's Yangshao culture (仰韶文化) ruin reflected the economic and social conditions of Shennong clan period.

The Shennong clan were not only the god of farming, they were also the god of medicine. It was legendarily said that he possessed a god-whip called "Zhe Bian (赭鞭)", and he used it to whip and test various herbal medicine, whether they are poisonous or whether they belonged to the 'cold' or 'warm' nature. The Shennong clan, based on different characteristics of the herbal medicine, treat ill people with these medicine.

He also personally tasted various herbal medicine, in order to test their medicine power. The chinese saying "Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs" (神农尝百草) oriignated from this. There was once when Shennong was able to taste 70 different poisionous herbs and could nullify the poision. But one day, he was poisoned by a very venomous herb, and could not be cured and died.

Up to today, there was a mountain in Shanxi province (at Chenyang mountain region) called Shennong Yuan mountain. It was also called "Herbal Mountain", legend had it that this was the place where Shennong used his god-whip to test various herbs. In Shanxi province's Taiyuan city (Shen Fu Gang), there was also a legend about a pot that was used by Shennong for tasting medicine.

[Ghost_of_Han]

I was looking at your post that you are starting a ChinaHistoyinfo page and I like the idea, and figured this would be one of the first pieces in there. I remeber that one of these gods was given criedt for creating the whistle, anyone know. (I just don't want one of our first articles incomplete.

[Kulong]

Keep in mind that all these legends, be they true or not, originated from many thousands of years ago. It shouldn't be surprising that you'd run into different versions of the same stories as record keeping wasn't truly refined during that time. Heck, even today records get lost and/or manipulated. <_<

[rooster]

I took this picture at a Huang He scenic spot near Zhengzhou in Henan.
The sculptures on the hill appear very new.
I am not sure who they are, but suspect they are Fuxi and Shennong, rather than Fuxi and Nuwa
Can anyone confirm?

Edited by rooster, 25 March 2007 - 02:09 AM.

[JiG]

I took this picture at a Huang He scenic spot near Zhengzhou in Henan.
The sculptures on the hill appear very new.
I am not sure who they are, but suspect they are Fuxi and Shennong, rather than Fuxi and Nuwa
Can anyone confirm?

Those were sculpted in historical times? It looks the Chinese version of Mount Rushmore.

[bayonet]

they are Huangdi and Yandi, legendary ancestors of Chinese civilization. It is a new sculpture.

[MC420]

In reality we're much more closer than those legends tend to dictate! There are less diversity in genetic make-up among all Asians than in a single village of people in the Africa continent. Genetic Project has already proven that the Eve (per mt-DNA tracing) of all of us left the Africa continent merely 60,000 years ago while the Adam (Y-Chromosome tracing) went back a bit further (perhaps 150,000 years or so). The mutation of our Asian/Mongoloid race ... perhaps took place sometime around 30,000 years. There are few Chinese genetic scientists have formulated theories to indicate there were more than one source of our contemporary homo-sapien beings to be developed (other than Out of Africa theory); however, with the advancement and reliability of the genetic technology, it's becoming much easier to find out which route of migration our ancestors took merely few thousand years ago. I'm still awaiting for my own root to be traced via this project.

What about you?

[kaiselin]

Interesting picture. At first I thought,"too bad the sun was not behind you so that you could have gotten a clearer picture".
The sculptures are impressive.

As I was looking at the picture, I noticed that in the back ground was what looked like a huge pine tree.

I realized that this was an illusion caused by the position of the sun causing the building on the hilltop to be blurry as if in fog.

I'm sure there must be a logical and functional explanation for that development of the curve roof, but I wonder if part of the reason that particular style of curved roof developed was for that exact illusion.
I have read that in Chinese Symbolism that very old pine trees are thought of as turning into dragons. The curvy serpentine shape and the rough bark looks like scales.

I don't know whether the sun in this picture was rising or setting and it doesn't really make a difference.
It would be nice if the sun was rising as I read that the character for the word East was the sun rising up thru the trees on the horizon.

By accident or on purpose, how wonderful that you captured those images

Edited by kaiselin, 25 March 2007 - 04:54 PM.

[Publius]

I'm sure there must be a logical and functional explanation for that development of the curve roof, but I wonder if part of the reason that particular style of curved roof developed was for that exact illusion.
I have read that is Chinese Symbolism that very old pine trees are thought of as turning into dragons. The curvy serpentine shape and the rough bark looks like scales.

I've read in C.A.S. Wiliams' Outlines of Chinese Symbolism & Art Motives that a roof's pitch is greater at the top and slopes outward towards the eaves in order to throw rain water away from the building (19).

[Richard Lim]

I've read in C.A.S. Wiliams' Outlines of Chinese Symbolism & Art Motives that a roof's pitch is greater at the top and slopes outward towards the eaves in order to throw rain water away from the building (19).

Is the water runoff from these roofs then channeled into underground cisterns such as one finds in some Mediterranean (Roman) houses? Just curious.

[bayonet]

I have two questions herein:

1) have anyone heard about Pangu盘古? the warrior who chopped down the egg like universe with his divine axe. He helped created the world in which we live today. It seems he lived in an age much earlier than Nu Wa and Fu Xi. Then who is the one gave birth to him? Is there anyone else living in the same age with him? If there is, who is he/she?

2) Xi Wang Mu 西王母, the one who is constantly mentioned in diversed texts is a very mysterious figure. What's her relationship with Pangu? and Huangdi?

[kaiselin]

Is the water runoff from these roofs then channeled into underground cisterns such as one finds in some Mediterranean (Roman) houses? Just curious.

Richard ,
I do not know the answer to that, but I do have pictures of water vats in the Forbidden City.
They are called menhai / sea by door.

I can't tell if the menhai are under the eaves, but even if the are, they would not catch much of the water.