Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were two groups of mythological rulers or deities in ancient northern China. The Three Sovereigns lived before The Five Emperors, who have been assigned dates in a period from circa 2852 BC to 2070 BC. Today they may be considered culture heroes.
The dates of these mythological figures may be fictitious, but according to some accounts and reconstructions, they preceded the Xia Dynasty.
Description
The Three Sovereigns, sometimes known as the Three August Ones, were said to be god-kings, demigods or god emperors who used their abilities to improve the lives of their people and impart to them essential skills and knowledge. The Five Emperors are portrayed as exemplary sages who possessed great moral character and lived to a great age and ruled over a period of great peace. The Three Sovereigns are ascribed various identities in different Chinese historical texts.These kings are said to have helped introduce the use of fire, taught people how to build houses and invented farming. The Yellow Emperor's wife is credited with the invention of silk culture. The discovery of medicine, the invention of the calendar and Chinese script are also credited to the kings. After their era, Yu the Great founded the Xia Dynasty.
According to a modern theory with roots in the late 19th century, the Yellow Emperor is supposedly the ancestor of the Huaxia people. The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor was established in Shaanxi Province to commemorate the ancestry legend.
The Chinese word for emperor, huángdì, derives from this, as the first user of this title Qin Shi Huang considered his reunion of all of the lands of the former Kingdom of Zhou to be greater than even the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
Shi
A related concept appears in the legend of the Four shi who took part in creating the world. The four members are Youchao-shi, Suiren-shi, Fuxi-shi, and Shennong-shi. The list sometimes extends to one more member being Nüwa-shi, making Five shi. Four of these five names appear in different lists of the Three Sovereigns. shi is the meaning of clan or tribe in china, so none of them are a single person in prehistoric times.There is a saying that the Three Sovereigns are Suiren-shi, Youchao-shi, Shennong-shi. The Suiren taught people to drill wood for fire so people could easily migrate. The Youchao taught people to build houses with wood, so that people could leave caves to expand into the plains. After the number of people grew, Shennong tried a variety of grasses to find suitable cereals to solve people's food problems. The tribes also used the sovereigns' respective contributions as the name of the tribes.
Variations
Depending on the source, there are many variations of who classifies as the Three Sovereigns or the Five Emperors. There are at least six to seven known variations. Many of the sources listed below were written in much later periods, centuries and even millennia after the supposed existence of these figures, and instead of historical fact, they may reflect a desire in later time periods to create a fictitious ancestry traceable to ancient culture heroes. The Emperors were asserted as ancestors of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.The following appear in different groupings of the Three Sovereigns: Fuxi, Nüwa, Shennong, Suiren, Zhurong, Gong Gong, Heavenly Sovereign, Earthly Sovereign, Tai Sovereign, Human Sovereign, and even the Yellow Emperor.
The following appear in different groupings of the Five Emperors: Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu, Emperor Ku, Emperor Yao, Emperor Shun, Shaohao, Taihao, and Yan Emperor.
| Source | Date of source | Three Sovereigns | Five Emperors |
| Records of the Grand Historian edition by Sima Qian | 94 BCE | Heavenly Sovereign or Fu Xi Earthly Sovereign or Nüwa Tai Sovereign or Shennong | Yellow Emperor Zhuanxu Emperor Ku Emperor Yao Emperor Shun |
| Sovereign series | Fu Xi Shennong Yellow Emperor | Shaohao Zhuanxu Emperor Ku Emperor Yao Emperor Shun | |
| Shiben | 475-221 BCE according to the Book of Han | Fu Xi Shennong Yellow Emperor | |
| Baihu Tongyi | Fu Xi Shennong Zhurong or Suiren | ||
| Fengsu TongYi | 195 CE | Fu Xi Nüwa Shennong | |
| Yiwen Leiju | 624 CE | Heavenly Sovereign Earthly Sovereign Human Sovereign | |
| Tongjian Waiji | Fu Xi Shennong Gong Gong | ||
| Chunqiu yundou shu Chunqiu yuanming bao | Fu Xi Nüwa Shennong | ||
| Shangshu dazhuan | Fu Xi Shennong Suiren | ||
| Diwang shiji | Fu Xi Shennong Yellow Emperor | ||
| I Ching | 800s BCE | Taihao Yan Emperor Yellow Emperor Emperor Yao Emperor Shun | |
| Comments of a Recluse, Qianfulun | Taihao Yan Emperor Yellow Emperor Shaohao Zhuanxu | ||
| Zizhi tongjian waiji, | Yellow Emperor Shaohao Zhuanxu Emperor Ku Emperor Yao |