Huangdi (Yellow Emperor)黄帝

Style & Daoist names

Xuanyuan Clan, Youxiong Clan, Xuanyuan, the Yellow Emperor, Yellow Emperor of the Center

Period

Legendary era

Dates

? (legendary figure) — ? (legendary figure)

School

Huang–Lao Daoism, Fangxian Dao (Way of the Fangshi and Immortality-seekers)

Role

Daoism-Venerating EmperorsLegendary progenitorVenerated deity of Daoism

Birthplace

(traditionally) Youxiong (around present-day Xinzheng, Henan)

Places of activity

Mount Kongtong

Life

Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) is a tribal leader and cultural progenitor of Chinese high antiquity in legend, not a verifiable historical individual: accounts of his name and deeds are first concentrated in Warring States-period texts, and the Records of the Grand Historian places him first in its "Basic Annals of the Five Emperors," though Sima Qian himself already noted that "the writings [about him] are not refined and reliable"; scholars generally regard him as a legendary figure built up in layers from the Warring States period onward. In the history of Daoism, Huangdi's status is highly distinctive. The Huang-Lao learning of the Warring States through the early Han paired Huangdi with Laozi, and many writers composed works under his name (the Mawangdui silk manuscript Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor being representative), making "Huang-Lao" the banner of early Han political and life-nourishment thought; the Fangxian Dao of the Qin and Han further took Huangdi as the model of the earliest ruler to attain immortality — the "Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices" in the Records of the Grand Historian records the fangshi Gongsun Qing persuading Emperor Wu of Han with the tale that "Huangdi cast a tripod at Mount Jing and rode a dragon up to Heaven," directly spurring Emperor Wu's quest for immortality. Afterward a great many Daoist texts were composed under Huangdi's name, such as the Huangdi Neijing (Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor), the Yellow Emperor's Scripture of the Hidden Talisman, the Instructions on the Yellow Emperor's Nine-Tripod Divine Elixir, the Huangdi Suwen (Basic Questions) and the Huangdi longshou jing (Scripture of the Yellow Emperor's Dragon Head), covering medicine, alchemy, the arts of war and numerology. Daoism venerates him as the "Central Huangdi" and "Xuanyuan Huangdi," and from the Tang dynasty onward sacrifices at the Mausoleum of Huangdi on Qiaoshan in Huangling, Shaanxi, became a state ceremony that continues to this day.

Contributions & Influence

• Paired with Laozi as the nominal core of "Huang-Lao" learning
• As the model of the earliest ruler to ascend and become an immortal, provided a mythic prototype for the Fangxian Dao and external alchemy
• A great many Daoist texts on medicine, alchemy and numerology were composed in his name, forming the "Huangdi corpus"
• Incorporated into the Daoist pantheon; sacrifices at his mausoleum continue to this day

Works

• (attributed to) the Yellow Emperor's Yinfu jing
• (attributed to) the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon (Huangdi Neijing)
• (attributed to) Instructions on the Yellow Emperor's Nine-Tripod Divine Elixir
• (attributed to) the Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor (Mawangdui silk manuscripts)

Legends

Casting a tripod at Mount Jing; when the tripod was complete, a dragon lowered its whiskers to receive Huangdi and bear him up to Heaven, and the ministers who clung to the dragon's whiskers fell to the ground (as told by the fangshi Gongsun Qing, quoted in the "Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices" of the Records of the Grand Historian); seeking instruction on the Dao from Guang Chengzi at Mount Kongtong (the "Zaiyou" chapter of the Zhuangzi); receiving the Scripture of the Hidden Talisman from the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens and defeating Chiyou — all of these are mythological and religious legends, not historical fact.