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| Yellow Emperor (Huangdi, or Huang Ti) |
The first ones were Fuxi (Fu-hsi) the Ox Tamer and Shengnong (Sheng-nung) the Divine Farmer, who taught people to domesticate animals, instituted family life and settled agriculture, and established markets for trading. Their inventions or innovations denoted advancement of ancient peoples from the Paleolithic age to the Neolithic age.
A period of chaos ensued after Fuxi and Shengnong’s rule until Huangdi (Huang Ti), or the Yellow Emperor, established most of the trappings of kingship. Many advances resulted from his reign. People began to live in wooden houses, built walled towns, traveled in boats and carts, and made pottery.
His wife taught women to raise silkworms and spin and weave silk. His ministers taught the art of divination by the Sun, Moon, and stars and invented musical notations, arithmetic, and established the calendar. They also invented writing. Fuxi, Shengnong, and the Yellow Emperor are culture heroes.
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Huangdi was also credited with winning a great battle against "barbarian" tribes somewhere in modern-day Shanxi (Shansi) Province in northern China, consolidating his kingdom and beginning the history of China as a nation. Later legendary rulers Yao, Shun, and Yu (founders of the Xia [Hsia] dynasty) and the founders of the Shang dynasty and Zhou (Chou) dynasty were all reputedly his descendants.
Since the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties together constituted the formative age of Chinese civilization, and their rulers all claimed descent from the Yellow Emperor, by extension the Chinese people have regarded him as their common ancestral hero and called themselves his descendants. Thus, the legend of the Yellow Emperor is important to the Chinese civilization.