We all know these are legendary characters. I want to know how they were invented, who invented them and why.
I remember vaguely that ShenNong was the god of Tai people (as the word order suggests Shen Nong instead of Nong Shen, god of agriculture).
HuangDi was the chieftain of Huaxia tribes.
Sometimes ShenNong was equated with YanDi, and YanDi was half-brother of HuangDi.
The problem is the battle of Julu which was fought between Chiyou, leader of Miao tribes in Hubei and Huangdi, the leader of Hua tribes in Henan. But Julu is located in Hebei. Why is this?
People still say: we are descendants of Yan Huang, but only Huangdi was glorified and was built a tomb. North Chinese will often speak only of Huangdi while South Chinese speak of both.
Huangdi was one of three Huangs, and also one of five Dis. How could this be?

They were passed down as "legends" by people from their era (around 2500 BC) through generations. They were actually not invented. These figures could have existed historically, just that currently it hasn't been verified by achaeological findings. It was said that Huangdi (黄帝) was the chieftain of the tribe-alliance in the region of Yellow river. During that time, people like to mythify or make their leaders into a legend embowed with great godly power due to superstition, so many of these stories are actually exaggerated account, and thus dismissed as legends.

For instance, Huangdi was said to have summoned the Han-shen Ba (旱神魃), who was a demon capable of clearing the storm with his heat, thus defeating Chiyou's forces at the battle of Zhuo Lu (涿鹿之战). This kind of accounts are clearly legendary saying.




Shennong clan (神农氏) was actually more correctly transliterated as "godly farmer". It's correctly translated as "farmer's clan". It was said that Shennong has invented agriculture.

Yandi (炎帝) was the sworn brother of Huangdi. His tribe was actually annexed by that of Huangdi and after joining these two tribes together, they formed a tribal alliance of "Yan-huang", in which Huangdi was the chieftain and Yandi was co-chieftain.




The decisive battle fought between Huangdi and Chiyou (蚩尤) was at the battle of Zhuolu (涿鹿之战), not Julu. Chiyou was not the leader of Miao tribes in Hubei, but rather he was the leader of "9 Li" or "Jiu Li" tribe (九黎部落), which happened to be part of the "Dong Yi" tribal-alliance (东夷集团) in the eastern part of China.

The Dong Yi tribal alliance was later conquered by the Yan-huang tribal alliance led by Huangdi. Huangdi also conquered the "Miao Man" tribal-alliance (苗蛮集团) in the South and after these series of conquest, it later developed and established the Xia dynasty (2100 BC) whose first ruler was Yu (禹).




Huangdi was glorified because he was the chief leader of the "Yan Huang" tribal alliance. Still Yandi was the co-leader and thus, the chinese spoke of the fact that Yan Huang are their ancestors and thus they are descendants of Yan Huang (referring to both).




Huangdi was NOT one of the 3 huangs. He was one of the 5 di.

The 3 huangs (clans-ruler) are Suiren, Fuxi and Shennong, while the 5 di (emperor) are Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao and Shun.

Please refer to this thread http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=3307 for more information on "3 Huang 5 Di" and battle of Huangdi against Chiyou.

Ok, I got the answer from a website:
Yan Di and Huang Di, Ancestors of the Chinese Nation


Three Chinese Ancestors Hall (Huang Di,Yan Di and Chiyiu)

Yan Di (abbreviated Yan) and Huang Di (abbreviated Huang), two emperors in ancient Chinese legends, are said to be the earliest ancestors of the Chinese nation. All the Chinese, whether they live in the mainland or in Taiwan, or in Hongkong and Macao, or in other countries, regard themselves as the descendants of Yan and Huang. Sometimes, the term “Yan Huang Zi Sun” or “Descendants of Yan and Huang” is used to mean “The Chinese Nation”.

The origin of the term “Yan Huang Zi Sun” is closely related to ancient Hebei.



The ruins of Huang Di City

It is said that over 4,000 years ago there lived along the Changjiang River (the Yangtze River) and Huanghe River (the Yellow River) valleys many clan tribes. Of them, the Huang, Yan and Chiyou were the most famous. The Huang tribe lived first in the northwestern part of China (now Shaanxi Province), then moved eastward, and remained at last in the mountain valleys in present-day Zhuolu County, Hebei Province. Still, they led a nomadic life. The Yan tribe lived in an area from the Weihe River valley to the middle reaches of the Huanghe River. The Chiyou tribe, also known as “Jiuli” nationality, lived in the eastern part of China (now the area of Shandong and Henan provinces). In their long years of communications, big wars between the three tribes broke out several times in the northern part of today's Hebei.

Huang Di Spring



After the Yan tribe moved from the Weihe River valley to the middle reaches of the Huanghe River, long-drawn-out conflicts between the Yan and Chiyou tribes began. Defeated by the Chiyou tribe, the Yan tribe fled to Zhuolu, Hebei and joined the Huang tribe. Afterwards, the Yan and Huang tribes fought shoulder to shoulder in a big battle against the Chiyou tribe in Zhuolu. The Chiyou tribe was defeated, and Chiyou himself was killed by the victor, the Huang tribe. This is the well-known “Zhuolu Battle” recorded in Chinese history books.

Huang, chief of the Huang tribe, took measures to pacify the members from the Chiyou tribe, so other Chiyou members in the north came and joined the Huang tribe. Hearing that Chiyou had been killed, other tribes came to admire Huang and supported him as emperor. Afterwards, Huang set up his capital in Zhuolu.

After defeating Chiyou, the Yan tribe, with a view to obtaining hegemony, began a full-scale war against the Huang tribe. The war was fought at Banquan (now Huailai County bordering Zhuolu, Hebei). The Yan, however, failed and finally yielded to the Huang tribe. Later on, their descendants moved southward from Hebei to the Huanghe River valley and settled down in the Central Plains. For a long time they lived, multiplied and mixed together, and became the ancient inhabitants in the area of the Central Plains of China. They laid the historical foundation of the Huaxia nationality. In the long process of history, the Huang tribe was comparatively strong and developed a fairly advanced civilization, so many inventions and creations made by the laboring people living in primitive society were marked in Huang's name. Thus, Huang became the representative of the civilization of the Central Plains. As the Huang tribe developed gradually in later times, those inhabitants living in the Central Plains who were from different ancestors took themselves to be the descendants of Huang. Since the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B. C.), these inhabitants had claimed to be the Huaxia nationality, which was renamed the Han nationality in the Han Dynasty. From then on, all people from the Han nationality worshipped Huang as their own ancestor and claimed to be the “Descendants of Yan and Huang”.

Early in the Western Zhou Dynasty (in the 11th Century B. C.), Zhougongdan, younger bother of Zhouwuwang (the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty), began to build Luoyi (now the city of Luoyang, Henan Province). He thought the area of the Central Plains was located in the middle of the lands in all directions and was the center of China. So, he named the Central Plains the “Central Land”. Because the people living in the Central Plains were from the Huaxia nationality, the area was named “Zhong Hua”, meaning “Central China”. After that, the Huaxia nationality mixed gradually with other nationalities and enlarged their areas of activity. As a result, the highly developed culture of the Huaxia nationality was spread step by step all over the country, and “Zhong Hua” by and by became the name of the whole country. Subsequently, the term “Descendants of Yan and Huang” had a broader concept than before.

The mixing and forming of the Zhong Hua nationality at its early stage had close relations with the ancient land of Hebei and its early inhabitants. And contributions were made as well by the ancestors in the land of Hebei to the development of the culture of the Central Plains. So Hebei is one of the birthplaces of the Chinese nation and the cradle of the “Descendants of Yan and Huang”.

But this is legend. What I want to know is history. This story is like Abraham's story. It is hard to believe HuangDi could lead his tribes from Shaanxi to Hebei without trespassing territory of other tribes.

some contradictory information:
This was a great battle that took place in legendary times between the Yellow Emperor and Ci-you, leader of the Jiuli Tribe at Zhuolu. Zhuolu is now located in Zhuolu County, Hebei Province.

The Jiuli Tribe first settled in the south then migrated northward to the Central Plain where it confronted the tribe led by the Yellow Emperor at Zhuolu. Ci-you's army was better equipped, so the Yellow Emperor took up a defensive position at the start of the conflict. During the battle, Ci-you took advantage of the thick fog to confuse the Yellow Emperor's troops. The Yellow Emperor solved this by inventing the south-pointing chariot to locate his position. The Yellow Emperor eventually captured Ci-you at Jizhou and executed him. He became the acknowledged leader of all the tribes of the Central Plain, laying the foundation of the Huaxia Nationality.

According to King Chi You follower, Chi You was the leader of Hmong people.
And where the hell did i get Julu? Oh my! Of course it is ZhuoLu. where does this come from 巨鹿 ?I guess they are both located in Hebei and I obviously mistook ZhangJue for HuangDi.

The battle of Julu ( 巨鹿之战) was actually referring to that victorious battle of Xiangyu against Qin army towards the late period of Qin dynasty.

AhMan, thanks for your detail post on the battle of Zhuo lu, and about Huangdi, Chiyou and Yandi. That's really informative.

How do we know this? For example, what evidence do we have from 2500 BC?

Anything is possible.

So, again, how do we know they weren't invented? What is our reason, if any, to conclude they were real?

I ask because everything I've read about very early Chinese history says--more or less--that the very early rulers were "legendary". Further, they were either (a) not real, not historical or (b) may have been loosely based on real men but no clear evidence exists to conclude this at this time.

Here's a typical example of position (b). After briefly discussing many of the traditional stories about very early China, the author observes:

"The historicity of the Three Sovereigns, the Five Emperors, the Three Sages, the Three Dynasties, and other aspects of the legendary past were not questioned through most of China's imperial history. . . .

"Twentieth-century archeologists have verified, in a most impressive way, what China's written traditions tell about the Shang dynasty. . . . it may become possible to suggest that such legendary culture heroes as Shun and Yao and perhaps even Huang-ti were dimly remembered early chiefs of other North Chinese neolithic cultures. But for the time being, at least, archeology reveals a different and more believable pre-Shang development in North China than do the legends just summarized."

--Charles O. Hucker, China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture.

Of course, perhaps the books I've read have been wrong?