Gongsun Xuanyuan
Gongsun Xuanyuan (公孫軒轅), better known as Huangdi (黃帝) or the Yellow Emperor,[note 1] was the legendary progenitor of the Han Chinese people. The Han historian Sima Qian credited him as the earliest attestable leader of China, beginning his Record of the Grand Historian with a biography of his life as a tribal chief.[1][2][3]
By the third century BCE, the Yellow Emperor had practically attained the mythical status of a god in the people's memory. Tales of his exploits included his beheading of a divinity named Xingtian in battle. According to the legend, Xingtian revived himself and transformed his nipples into eyes to continue his challenge, but the Yellow Emperor paid him no more heed, forcing him to forever roam the battleground in insatiable rage.[4]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations (first mentioned)
- Assassin's Creed: Jade (mentioned in Database entry only)
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ The popular translation of Huangdi as the Yellow Emperor is inaccurate. Huáng (黃) means 'yellow' while dì (帝) was the title held by the legendary five forefathers of the Chinese people, who from Sima Qian's account were more akin to ancient tribal chiefs. Dì (帝) also meant 'deity', being used to refer to the supreme god (上帝) of the Shang dynasty and other regional gods. Qin Shi Huangdi later combined the two legendary divine titles huáng (皇)—homophonic to but distinct from huáng (黃; 'yellow')—and dì (帝) together to form the new title huángdì, i.e. Emperor. After this, dì (帝) became a short-hand for huangdi ('emperor'), so Gongsun Xuanyuan's popular name Huangdi is retrospectively translated as the Yellow Emperor, but his position was not the same as the later role of the Chinese emperors.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Revelations
- ↑ Sima Qian (91 BCE). 太史公書: 五帝本紀 [Record of the Grand Historian: Annals of the Five Emperors, Scroll 1, lines 1–5.]. Chinese Text Project. Retrieved on 7 January 2024.
- ↑ Lewis, Mark Edward. (2007). "Literature". In The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 206–226
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Jade – Youxia Handbook: Great Foes