China’s Emperors - The Early Years
Suiren, Fuxi and Shennong are known as the Three Sage Kings. They are the leaders of their time and they made many contributions and sacrifices to improve the lives of the people of ancient China.
The first sage King was Suiren (approx. 16,000 BC) who reputedly discovered how to make fire by drilling wood. With fire mankind could eat cooked food, keep warm and protect themselves from wild animals.
Fuxi taught people to domesticate animals and make nets to catch fish, birds and wild animals, ensuring a continuous supply of food. He also laid down marriage laws and invented a 35 string musical instrument. However most important of all, he create the Eight Trigram or Bagua which became the basis of the I Ching or Books of Changes.
Shennong was the third Sage King. He taught people farming and to grow five types of cereals namely rice, wheat, beans and two types of millets. He invented barter trading and was responsible for inventing a 5 strings musical instrument.
Most people remember Shennong for his relentless effort to find remedies for illness by tasting hundreds of wild berries. Eventually one of these berries took his life.
Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao and Shun succeeded The Sage Kings. They were collectively known as the Five Legendary Emperors.
Huangdi was a good leader. He knows how to maximize the ability of those around him to rule the country and come out with innovations that benefit his people.
Many contributions were credited to Huangdi. They include the development of a symbol based written language which became the foundation of the present day Chinese language. He also commissioned the compilation of, The Yellow Emperor’s Medicine Classic?as well as the Farmer’s Calendar which aided greatly in agriculture.
Emperor Huangdi preferred peace over war. During his time, the people experience stability and prosperity. It ushered an age of civilization in ancient China.
Zhuanzu was not Huangdi’s son but he was chosen over Huangdi’s other son because of his ability. He is best remembered for bring law and order to his people and for concentrating power within the central authority.
Diku who succeeded Zhuanxu was a benevolent king. He was also the great grandson of Huangdi. Diku reorganized the government and created new ministries with clearly specified duties. They include the ministry of Land, Forestry, Water, Minerals and Fire. His other contribution included improving the Farmer’s calendar system.
After Diku come Yao, his son. Yao was very like his father ?industrious and benevolent. He contributed by enhancing the calendar and making changes to planting that yielded bumper harvests.
Shun succeeded Yao. Shun’s mother died when he was a young boy. His step mother and father treated him badly. Despite that he remained filial to them and this virtue gained him famed. He was summoned to Yao’s service at 30 and eventually married Yao’s daughter.
During Shun reign, he divided the country into 12 independent states each with their own administrator. He made further changes to the department of land, water, works, music, farming and rites. He was credited with drafting many rules and regulations including the five rules of etiquette.
Shun was the last of the Five Legendary Kings. After Shun come Yu who founded the Xia dynasty. Today we remember Yu most for his skills in controlling flooding that wreak havoc on his people.