The Yellow Emperor (Huángdì 黄帝)

China’s greatest mythological emperor was the Yellow Emperor (Huángdì 黄帝, reign 01a-3, not to be confused with the homonymous word huángdì 皇帝, meaning simply “emperor”).

The Yellow emperor was named Xuānyuán 轩辕, and he was born able to speak immediately. He was selected emperor after Shénnóng 神农 (reign 01a-2) partly because he was a clever man and partly because he had cleverly conquered many barbarians. As emperor he reigned not only over people, but over gods and demons as well, with the power to jail obnoxious spirits under mountains or to feed them to tigers.

People say the Yellow Emperor had four faces, so that he could look to all sides without moving his head.

The Yellow Emperor spent much of his time in heaven, but maintained an earthly residence high in the Kūnlún 昆仑 mountains, guarded by a human-headed tiger with eight tails. Four hundred lǐ 里 to the east of his palace lay his garden, guarded by immense, human-headed birds.

In those days, proper clothes had not been invented, and people covered themselves with leaves (or anyway the better sorts of people did). It was the Yellow Emperor who invented clothes.

One day, the Yellow Emperor’s wife raised some pet silk worms, and discovered that thread could be made from the silk. Using this thread, she made exquisite clothing, which was widely admired and widely imitated.

Meanwhile the Yellow Emperor also taught people to hunt and how to build houses so that they would no longer need to live in trees.

When he saw people walking wearily, he invented wheeled vehicles. When he saw them take sick he invented medicine.

The Yellow Emperor was the inventor of ships, and of armor, and of astronomy and geology, and (some say) of pottery.

The Yellow Emperor determined the times to sow and harvest, and some say he taught men to farm with plows. Of course, the same is said of Shénnóng (神农, reign 01a-2) and of Hòujì 后稷.