Fuxi

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Infobox Chinese Template:Chinese folk religion Fuxi or Fu Hsi (Template:Lang-zh)Template:Efn<ref>Theobald, Ulrich. Fu Xi 伏羲 ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art</ref> is a culture hero in Chinese mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> hunting, fishing, domestication,<ref name=":122">Template:Cite book</ref> and cooking, as well as the Cangjie system of writing Chinese characters around 2900 BC<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref> or 2000Template:NbspBC. He is also said to be the be the originator of bagua (the eight trigrams) after observing that there were eight fundamental building blocks in nature: heaven, earth, water, fire, thunder, wind, mountain, and lake. These eight are all made of different combinations of yin and yang, which are what came to be called bagua.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Fuxi was counted as the first mythical emperor of China, "a divine being with a serpent's body" who was miraculously born,<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> a Taoist deity, and/or a member of the Three Sovereigns at the beginning of the Chinese dynastic period. Some representations show him as a human with snake-like characteristics, "a leaf-wreathed head growing out of a mountain", "or as a man clothed with animal skins."<ref name=":0" />

NamesEdit

He is also known as Bao Xi ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) and Mi Xi ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).<ref name=":0" />

OriginEdit

Pangu was said to be the creation god in Chinese mythology. He was a giant sleeping within an egg of chaos. As he awoke, he stood up and divided the sky and the earth. Pangu then died after standing up, and his body turned into rivers, mountains, plants, animals, and everything else in the world, among which is a powerful being known as Huaxu ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). Huaxu gave birth to a twin brother and sister, Fuxi and Nüwa. Fuxi and Nüwa are said to be creatures that have faces of human and bodies of snakes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

However, in some myths, Fuxi was held to be the creator, not Pangu, who worked alone and not with Nüwa.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Fuxi was known as the "original god", and he was said to have been born in the lower-middle reaches of the Yellow River in a place called Chengji ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) (possibly modern Lantian, Shaanxi province, or Tianshui, Gansu province).<ref name="flp1">Template:Cite book</ref>

A possible historical interpretation of the myth is that Huaxu (Fuxi's mother) was a leader during the matriarchal society (Template:C.Template:NbspBC) as early Chinese developed language skill while Fuxi and Nüwa were leaders in the early patriarchal society (Template:C.Template:NbspBC) while Chinese began the marriage rituals.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

A divinity Taihao ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "The Great Bright One") appears, vaguely, in sources before the Han dynasty, independent from Fuxi. Later, Fuxi is identified with Taihao, the latter being his courtesy or formal<ref name=":0" /> name.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

According to legend, the goddess of the Luo River, Mifei, was the daughter of Fuxi. Additionally, some versions of the legend state that she is Fuxi's consort. She drowned in the Luo River while crossing it and became the spirit of the Luo River.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Creation legendEdit

According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Fuxi and Nüwa were the original humans who lived on the mythological Kunlun Mountain (today's Huashan). One day they set up two separated piles of fire, and the fire eventually became one. Under the fire, they decided to become husband and wife. Fuxi and Nüwa used clay to create offspring, and with the divine power they made the clay figures come alive.<ref name="flp1"/> These clay figures were the earliest human beings. Fuxi and Nüwa are commonly recognized by Chinese as two of the Three Sovereigns (along with Shennong) in the early patriarchal society in China (Template:C.Template:NbspBC), based on the myth about Fuxi establishing marriage ritual in his tribe. The creation of human beings was a symbolic story of having a larger family structure that included the figure of a father.

Social importanceEdit

On one of the columns of the Fuxi Temple in Gansu Province, the following couplet describes Fuxi's importance: "Among the three primogenitors of Huaxia civilization, Fu Xi in Huaiyang Country ranks first."<ref name="flp1"/> During the time of his predecessor Nüwa, society was matriarchal.

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
In the beginning there was as yet no moral (Sangang) or social order. Men knew their mothers only, not their fathers.
[Missing translation of the following three sentences: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} They could only know/trace their offsprings but not their progenitors (promiscuous without family concept), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} They slept whenever they wanted (non-circadian without concept of time), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} When awoke, they started yue-ing (repeating/using a single sound to express emotions or communicate without language).]
When hungry, they searched for food; when satisfied, they threw away the remnants. They devoured their food hide and hair, drank the blood, and clad themselves in skins and rushes. Then came Fu Xi and looked upward and contemplated the images in the heavens, and looked downward and contemplated the occurrences on earth. He united man and wife, regulated the five stages of change, and laid down the laws of humanity. He devised the eight trigrams, in order to gain mastery over the world. {{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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Fuxi taught his subjects to cook and various methods of hunting and fishing,<ref name=":122" /> including fishing with nets and hunting with weapons made of bone, wood, or bamboo. He instituted the basic family structure,<ref name=":122" /> as well as marriage, and offered the first open-air sacrifices to heaven. A stone tablet, dated AD 160, shows Fuxi with Nüwa.

Traditionally, Fuxi is considered the originator of the methods of divination that were passed down through the ages before the I Ching.<ref name=":3" /> In other versions of the story, he is credited to the writing of some of the I Ching itself. His divination powers are attributed to his reading of the He Map (or the Yellow River Map). According to this tradition, Fuxi had the arrangement of the trigrams of the I Ching revealed to him in the markings on the back of a mythical dragon horse (sometimes said to be a tortoise) that emerged from the Luo River. This arrangement precedes the compilation of the I Ching during the Zhou dynasty. This discovery is said to have been the origin of calligraphy. Fuxi is also credited with the invention of the Guqin musical instrument, though credit for this is also given to Shennong and Yellow Emperor.

The Figurists viewed Fuxi as Enoch, the Biblical patriarch.<ref name="Mungello Enoch">Template:Harvcolnb</ref> Alexander Catcott, a Hutchinsonian, identified Fuxi with the Biblical Noah (A Treatise on the Deluge).

Fuxi and Nüwa were also thought to be gods of silk.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

DeathEdit

File:Fuxi temple.JPG

Fuxi temple in Hebei

Fuxi is said to have lived for 197 years altogether and died at a place called Chen (modern Huaiyang, Henan), where a monument to him can still be found and visited as a tourist attraction.<ref name="flp1"/>

GalleryEdit

Anonymous-Fuxi and Nüwa.jpg

Tang dynasty painting of Fuxi (right) and Nüwa (left) unearthed in the Astana Cemetery, Xinjiang.
Ma-Lin-Fuxi-and-turtle.jpg

Seated portrait depicting Fuxi, painted by Ma Lin of the Song dynasty
Guo Xu album dated 1503 (1).jpg

lang}}) of the Ming dynasty
Chinese woodcut, Famous medical figures; Emperor Fuxi Wellcome L0039312.jpg

Emperor Fuxi, woodcut print by Gan Bozong of the Tang dynasty
Fuxi, Qiu Ying (painting).jpeg

Fuxi, painted by Qiu Ying of the Ming dynasty, as depicted in Orthodoxy of Rule Through the Ages
Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi, wearing traditional costume, Wellcome V0018487.jpg

Chinese emperor Fuxi, wearing a traditional costume, holding the yin yang symbol, 19th century
Fu Xi at Peterborough.jpg

Picture along with various scientists at Peterborough, UK
Imperial Encyclopaedia - Education and Conduct - pic134 - 伏羲太極圖.svg

Fuxi's Taijitu diagram (from the Gujin Tushu Jicheng by Chen Menglei)