Fu Hsi
Encyclopedia
In Chinese mythology
, Fu Xi or Fu Hsi ), mid 29th century BCE, was the first of the Three Sovereigns
(三皇 sānhuáng) of ancient China
. He is a culture hero
reputed to be the inventor of writing
, fishing
, and trapping
. However, Cangjie
is also said to have invented writing.
in a place called Chengji (possibly modern Lantian
, Shaanxi
province or Tianshui
, Gansu
province).
survived. They retired to Kunlun Mountain, where they prayed for a sign from the Emperor of Heaven. The divine being approved their union and the siblings set about procreating the human race. In order to speed up the process, Fu Xi and Nüwa used clay to create human figures, and with the power divine entrusted to them made the clay figures come alive. Fu Xi then came to rule over his descendants, although reports of his long reign vary between sources, from 115 years (2852–2737 BCE) to 116 years (2952–2836 BCE).
(who, according to some sources, was also his wife and/or sister), society was matriarchal and primitive. Childbirth was seen to be miraculous, not requiring the participation of the male, and children only knew their mothers. As the reproductive process became better understood, ancient Chinese society moved towards a patriarchal system and Fu Xi assumed primary importance.
Fu Xi taught his subjects to cook, to fish with nets, and to hunt with weapons made of iron. He instituted marriage and offered the first open-air sacrifices to heaven. A stone tablet, dated 160 CE, shows Fu Xi with Nüwa.
Traditionally, Fu Xi is considered the originator of the I Ching
(also known as the Yi Jing or Zhou Yi), which work is attributed to his reading of the He Map (or the Yellow River Map). According to this tradition, Fu Xi had the arrangement of the trigrams
(八卦 bāgùa) of the I Ching revealed to him supernaturally. This arrangement precedes the compilation of the I Ching during the Zhou dynasty
. He is said to have discovered the arrangement in markings on the back of a mythical dragon horse
(sometimes said to be a turtle
) that emerged from the Luo River
. This discovery is said to have been the origin of calligraphy. Fu Xi is also credited with the invention of the Guqin
, together with Shennong
and Huangdi.
The Figurist
s viewed Fu Xi as Enoch
, the biblical patriarch. According to Mirza Tahir Ahmad
, the fourth Caliph
of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
, all Chinese religions are derived from the teachings of Fu Xi.
(modern Huaiyang, Henan
), where his mausoleum can still be found and visited as a tourist attraction.
Chinese mythology
Chinese mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written tradition. These include creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state...
, Fu Xi or Fu Hsi ), mid 29th century BCE, was the first of the Three Sovereigns
Three August Ones and Five Emperors
The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were a group of semi- mythological rulers and culture heroes from ancient China during the period circa 2500 BC to 2100 BC. This period preceded the Xia Dynasty....
(三皇 sānhuáng) of ancient China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. He is a culture hero
Culture hero
A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group who changes the world through invention or discovery...
reputed to be the inventor of writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
, fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
, and trapping
Trapping (Animal)
Animal trapping, or simply trapping, is the use of a device to remotely catch an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including food, wildlife management, hunting, and pest control...
. However, Cangjie
Cangjie
Cangjie is a very important figure in ancient China , claimed to be an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes and four pupils, and that when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained...
is also said to have invented writing.
Early life
Fu Xi was born on the lower-middle reaches of the Yellow RiverYellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...
in a place called Chengji (possibly modern Lantian
Lantian
Lantian may refer to:*Lantian technology, a term coming from the show Stargate Atlantis. It refers to technology created by the Ancients that used to live in Atlantis*Lantian County , of Xi'an, Shaanxi, China*Lantian Man, subspecies of Homo erectus...
, Shaanxi
Shaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
province or Tianshui
Tianshui
Tianshui is the second largest city in Gansu province in northwest China. Its population is approximately 3,500,000.Tianshui lies along the route of the ancient Northern Silk Road at the Wei River, through which much of trade occurred between China and the west...
, Gansu
Gansu
' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
province).
Creation legend
According to legend, the land was swept by a great flood and only Fu Xi and his sister NüwaNüwa
Nüwa is a goddess in ancient Chinese mythology best known for creating mankind and repairing the wall of heaven.-Primary sources:...
survived. They retired to Kunlun Mountain, where they prayed for a sign from the Emperor of Heaven. The divine being approved their union and the siblings set about procreating the human race. In order to speed up the process, Fu Xi and Nüwa used clay to create human figures, and with the power divine entrusted to them made the clay figures come alive. Fu Xi then came to rule over his descendants, although reports of his long reign vary between sources, from 115 years (2852–2737 BCE) to 116 years (2952–2836 BCE).
Social importance
On one of the columns of the Fu Xi Temple in Henan Province, the following couplet describes Fu Xi's importance: "Among the three primogenitors of Hua-Xia civilization, Fu Xi in Huaiyang Country ranks first." During the time of his predecessor NüwaNüwa
Nüwa is a goddess in ancient Chinese mythology best known for creating mankind and repairing the wall of heaven.-Primary sources:...
(who, according to some sources, was also his wife and/or sister), society was matriarchal and primitive. Childbirth was seen to be miraculous, not requiring the participation of the male, and children only knew their mothers. As the reproductive process became better understood, ancient Chinese society moved towards a patriarchal system and Fu Xi assumed primary importance.
Fu Xi taught his subjects to cook, to fish with nets, and to hunt with weapons made of iron. He instituted marriage and offered the first open-air sacrifices to heaven. A stone tablet, dated 160 CE, shows Fu Xi with Nüwa.
Traditionally, Fu Xi is considered the originator of the I Ching
I Ching
The I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...
(also known as the Yi Jing or Zhou Yi), which work is attributed to his reading of the He Map (or the Yellow River Map). According to this tradition, Fu Xi had the arrangement of the trigrams
Bagua (concept)
The bagua are eight diagrams used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each line either "broken" or "unbroken," representing yin or yang, respectively...
(八卦 bāgùa) of the I Ching revealed to him supernaturally. This arrangement precedes the compilation of the I Ching during the Zhou dynasty
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...
. He is said to have discovered the arrangement in markings on the back of a mythical dragon horse
Longma
Longma was a fabled winged horse with dragon scales in Chinese mythology. Seeing a longma was an omen of a legendary sage-ruler, particularly one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.-Name:...
(sometimes said to be a turtle
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
) that emerged from the Luo River
Luo River (Henan)
The Luo River is a tributary of the Yellow River in China. It rises in the southeast flank of Huashan in Shaanxi province and flows east into Henan province, where it eventually joins the Yellow River at the city of Gongyi...
. This discovery is said to have been the origin of calligraphy. Fu Xi is also credited with the invention of the Guqin
Guqin
The guqin is the modern name for a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family...
, together with Shennong
Shennong
Shennong , which names mean "Divine Farmer", but also known as the Emperor of the Five Grains , was a legendary ruler of China and culture hero reputed to have lived some 5,000 years ago...
and Huangdi.
The Figurist
Figurist
Figurism was an intellectual movement of Jesuit missionaries at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, whose participants viewed the I Ching as a prophetic book containing the mysteries of Christianity,...
s viewed Fu Xi as Enoch
Enoch (ancestor of Noah)
Enoch is a figure in the Generations of Adam. Enoch is described as Adam's greatx4 grandson , the son of Jared, the father of Methuselah, and the great-grandfather of Noah...
, the biblical patriarch. According to Mirza Tahir Ahmad
Mirza Tahir Ahmad
Mirza Tahir Ahmad was Khalifatul Masih IV, Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and fourth successor to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad...
, the fourth Caliph
Khalifatul Masih
Khalifatul Masih sometimes simply referred to as Khalifah is the elected spiritual leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and is the successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian...
of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
, all Chinese religions are derived from the teachings of Fu Xi.
Death
He lived for 197 years altogether and died at a place called ChenChen (state)
Chen was a minor Zhou Dynasty vassal state during the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese History. It was a relatively minor state based on a single urban centre near what is now Huaiyang County in the plains of eastern Henan province...
(modern Huaiyang, Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
), where his mausoleum can still be found and visited as a tourist attraction.
Modern references
- Fu Xi makes an appearance in the Hong Kong television series My Date with a Vampire 2. He is also called Ren Wang (or King of Humanity) in the series, with a magical bow and arrow as his weapons. He was sent down from heaven and it is on him whom Nüwa based her creations and humanity.
- Fu Xi and NüwaNüwaNüwa is a goddess in ancient Chinese mythology best known for creating mankind and repairing the wall of heaven.-Primary sources:...
appear as unlockable characters in the video game Dynasty Warriors 3Dynasty Warriors 3is a hack and slash video game developed by Omega Force and published by Koei. It is third in the Dynasty Warriors series in North America and the second in the Shin Sangokumusou series in Japan. It is a spin-off from the video game Romance of the Three Kingdoms and based around a series of books...
. They also appear in Koei's Warriors Orochi 2Warriors Orochi 2is a video game developed by Koei and Omega Force for the Sony PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to Warriors Orochi, a crossover video game of the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors series. The game was released on September 23 in North America and September 19 in Europe...
, a crossover between Dynasty WarriorsDynasty Warriorsis a series of tactical action video games created by Omega Force and Koei. The award-winning series is a spin-off of Koei's turn-based strategy Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, based loosely around the Chinese classical novel of the same name. The first game titled Dynasty Warriors,...
and Samurai WarriorsSamurai Warriorsis the first title in the series of video games created by Koei's Omega Force team based loosely around the Sengoku period of Japanese history and it is a spinoff of the Dynasty Warriors series...
.
- Fu Xi is featured in the "Conversation on Information Technology over 5000 Years", sculptural panels at the Norwalk Community College Center for Information Technology, near New Haven, ConnecticutNew Haven, ConnecticutNew Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
. They were sculpted by the facility's architect, Barry SvigalsBarry SvigalsBarry Svigals, FAIA is a Connecticut-based architect and sculptor. He is the founder and Managing Partner of Svigals + Partners, an architectural design firm in New Haven, Connecticut...
.
- He appears (as Fu-Hsi) on a mural on a wall in PeterboroughPeterboroughPeterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
, East AngliaEast AngliaEast Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
.
- In the manga Hoshin Engi, he is referenced as Fukki, one of the important characters to appear near the end of the storyline.