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The Myth of the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou

The Yellow Emperor’s battle with Chiyou is a typical representative of ancient Chinese mythology. It belongs to the category of ancient war mythology. This battle is very fierce, involving the gods such as Feng Bo and Yu Shi, and the weather such as wind, rain, drought and fog has also become a weapon to attack each other. .

This myth not only involves ancient rain praying and rain-stopping witchcraft, but also involves some culturally significant inventions with rich connotations.

Because the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou belong to the mythology of the ancient times, there is no historical research, so many versions are circulating at present. Below I love history (www.pp1234.com) to tell you about two more detailed versions.

Version one

Thousands of years ago, many clans and tribes lived in the Yellow River and Yangtze River valleys of China. Among them, the Yellow Emperor is the most famous tribal leader in the Yellow River Basin. Another famous tribal leader was Emperor Yan. Huangdi and Yandi were brothers (two said to be close relatives).

The tribe headed by the Yellow Emperor first lived near Jishui in the northwest of my country, and later moved to Zhuolu (now Zhuolu and Huailai, Hebei Province) to develop animal husbandry and agriculture and settle down. Emperor Yan first lived near Jiangshui in northwest my country. The Yandi clan is gradually declining, while the Yellow Emperor clan is flourishing. At this time, there was a Jiuli tribe in the Yangtze River basin. Their leader, Chiyou, was very powerful.

Chiyou has eighty-one brothers, all of them are beast-shaped and human-faced, with copper heads and iron arms. They are good at making a variety of weapons such as knives, halberds, bows and crossbows. Chiyou often led his powerful tribes to invade and harass other tribes.

Once, when Chiyou invaded Emperor Yan’s place, Emperor Yan raised an army to resist, but he was not Chiyou’s opponent and was killed by Chiyou. Emperor Yan had no choice but to flee to Zhuolu, where the Yellow Emperor was, and asked for help. The Yellow Emperor wanted to remove the scourge of this tribe for a long time, so he united the leaders of various tribes to start a decisive battle with Chiyou in the fields of Zhuolu, which is the famous “Battle of Zhuolu”.

At the beginning of the war, with good weapons and brave soldiers, Chiyou won again and again. Later, the Yellow Emperor invited dragons and other strange beasts (Note 1) to assist in the battle. Although Chiyou’s soldiers were ferocious, they could not resist the Yellow Emperor’s army and this group of beasts, and they all fled.

Chiyou used magic to create a fog, causing the Yellow Emperor’s soldiers to lose their way. Taking advantage of the phenomenon that the Big Dipper always points to the north in the sky, the Yellow Emperor built a “compass car” to guide the soldiers out of the fog.

Huang Di led his soldiers to chase after the victory, but suddenly it was dark, dense fog, strong winds, thunder and lightning, and torrential rain fell in the sky, and Huang Di’s soldiers could not continue to chase. It turned out that Chi You invited “Fengshen” and “Rain God” to help. Not to be outdone, the Yellow Emperor invited the “God of Drought” (a goddess) in the sky to help disperse the wind and rain. In an instant, the wind stopped and the rain stopped, and the sky was clear. Seeing that Chiyou was really difficult to deal with, the Yellow Emperor ordered Yinglong to spray water.

Yinglong opened his huge mouth, and the river-like water jetted out from top to bottom. Chi You was unprepared, and was swept up on his back. He also hurriedly ordered Feng Bo Yushi to set off a violent storm to hit the Yellow Emperor’s formation, only to see the flood on the ground skyrocketing and the waves to the sky, the situation was very urgent. At this time, the maiden went into battle, and she cast a magical gift, and a rolling heat wave radiated from her in an instant. Wherever she went, the wind stopped and the rain disappeared, and the scorching sun was on the front.

Feng Bo and Yu Shi had nothing to do and hurriedly lost. The Yellow Emperor led his army to catch up and killed Chiyou for a while. After many fierce battles, the Yellow Emperor killed 81 of Chiyou’s brothers. Chiyou’s head was as hard as bronze, and he used iron and stone as his food. He could fly in the air, walking on the cliffs and cliffs as if on the ground, and the Yellow Emperor could not catch him. When chasing the middle of Jizhou, Huang Di’s inspiration suddenly appeared, and he ordered people to beat Kui Niu Drum vigorously for nine times.

At this time, Chi You suddenly lost his soul and was unable to walk, and was caught by Huang Di. The Yellow Emperor ordered Chiyou to be put on a shackle and killed. Fearing that he would do something wrong after his death, he buried his body and head in two places. After Chiyou died, the shackles on his body were taken off and thrown on the barren mountain, turning into a maple forest, and every maple leaf was bloodstained on Chiyou shackles.

After Huangdi defeated Chiyou, all the feudal lords honored him as the emperor, this is Xuanyuan (the name of Huangdi) Huangdi. Xuanyuan Huangdi led the people to reclaim farmland and settled in the Central Plains, laying the foundation of the Chinese nation. The Yellow Emperor was versatile and had many inventions and creations, such as building palaces, cars, ships, and five-color clothes (Note 3). The Yellow Emperor had a wife named Zhu Zu (pronounced léi), who was also an inventor, and she also participated in labor herself. Originally, silkworms were only wild, and people didn’t know the use of silkworms.

It was Leizu who taught people to raise silkworms, reel silk, and weave silk. From then on, China began to have a silk civilization. After Huangdi invented the pavilion, she also invented the pavilion that can move in rainy days – the umbrella. . The Yellow Emperor ordered Chiyou to be shackled and then executed. Fearing that Chi You would do something wrong after his death, he buried his head and body in two distant places. The shackles that Chiyou wore were thrown on the barren mountain and turned into a maple forest. Every blood-red maple leaf was bloodstained by Chiyou.

After Chiyou’s death, his heroic image was still feared, and the Yellow Emperor painted his image on the military flag to encourage his troops to fight bravely, and to intimidate tribes who dared to oppose him. Later, Huangdi was supported by many tribes and gradually became the leader of all tribes. (Note 2)

The Yellow Emperor also had a historian, Cangjie (pronounced cāngjié), who created ancient characters. We have not seen the writings of that period, nor can we examine them.

Ancient Chinese legends highly respect the Yellow Emperor, and the descendants believe that the Yellow Emperor is the ancestor of the Huaxia people, and he himself is the descendant of the Yellow Emperor. Because the Yandi and Yellow Emperors were originally close relatives and later merged together, the Chinese often refer to themselves as the descendants of Yan and Huang.

To commemorate this legendary common ancestor, the Chinese also built a “Huangdi Mausoleum” on Qiaoshan in the north of Huangling County, Shaanxi Province, on the edge of the Yellow River. Every spring, Chinese representatives from all over the world gather here to worship the ancestor of the Chinese nation.

Version 2

After the Yellow Emperor defeated the Yan Emperor, many princes wanted to support him as the Son of Heaven. However, the descendants of Emperor Yan were unwilling to submit to the Yellow Emperor and provoked wars several times, especially Chi.

Chi You is the grandson of Emperor Yan. It is said that Chiyou is cruel and warlike by nature. He has eighty-one brothers, all of them can speak human beasts, each with copper heads and iron foreheads, and eats stones and iron blocks. Chiyou originally belonged to the Yellow Emperor, but after the defeat of Emperor Yan, Chiyou discovered copper mines at the foot of Mount Lu.

They made the copper into swords, spears, halberds, shields and other weapons, and the military was so powerful that they became ambitious to avenge Emperor Yan. . Chi You united Feng Bo, Yu Shi and the Kuafu tribe, and came to challenge the Yellow Emperor aggressively.

The Yellow Emperor was born to love the people and did not want to fight, and always wanted to persuade Chiyou to truce. But Chi You did not listen to the advice and repeatedly violated the boundary. Huang Di had no choice but to sigh: “If I lose the world and Chiyou takes over the world, my subjects will suffer. If I tolerate Chiyou, it will be a disaster for raising tigers. Now he is not benevolent, he just violates, and I have no choice but to punish him. Righteousness!” So the Yellow Emperor personally led his troops to fight against Chi You.

The Yellow Emperor first sent the general Yinglong to fight. Yinglong can fly and spray water from its mouth. As soon as it goes into battle, it will fly into the sky and spray water into Chiyou’s formation commandingly. In an instant, the water was turbulent, and the waves rushed towards Chi You.

Chi You was busy sending Feng Bo Yu Shi to go into battle. Feng Bo and Yu Shi, one blew a gust of wind all over the sky, the other collected the water sprayed by Yinglong, and in turn, the two of them exerted divine might, the wind and rain were blowing, and the violent storm was sent to the Yellow Emperor’s formation. Yinglong could only spray water but not collect it. As a result, the Yellow Emperor was defeated.

Soon, the Yellow Emperor reorganized his army, revitalized his military prestige, and confronted Chiyou again. The Yellow Emperor took the lead, leading his troops into Chiyou’s formation. Chiyou cast a spell this time, breathing smoke and mist, covering the Yellow Emperor and his army.

The Yellow Emperor’s army was unable to discern the direction, could not see the enemy, and was trapped in the smoke, unable to kill the siege. At this critical juncture, Huang Di had an idea and suddenly raised his head to see the Big Dipper in the sky. The handle of the bucket turned but the head of the bucket remained motionless. Based on this principle, he invented a compass car and identified a direction. Only then did Huang Di lead the army out. encircled.

In this way, Huangdi and Chiyou fought seventy-one battles one after another, and the result was that Huangdi won less and lost more, and Huangdi was very anxious. On this day, Huangdi thought hard about the method of defeating Chiyou, and fell asleep unconsciously, dreaming that Jiutian Xuannv handed him a military book, saying: “Take it back and memorize the military talisman by heart, you will defeat the enemy in battle!”,

After all, float away. When Huang Di woke up, he found that he really had a copy of the “Yang Fu Jing” in his hand. When I opened it, I saw a few hieroglyphs painted on it: “Tianyi is in front, Taiyi is in the back.” , The two escapes of Yin and Yang are controlled, and the exercise changes, becoming one thousand eight hundred formations, called “Tianyi Dunjia” formation. Huang Di was familiar with the drill, and he led his troops to fight Chiyou again.

In order to boost the military might, the Yellow Emperor decided to use the military drum to boost morale. He inquired about a Liubo Mountain in the East China Sea. On the mountain lived a slow beast called Kui, whose roar sounded like thunder. The Yellow Emperor sent someone to capture Kui and peel off its skin to make a drum surface. The Yellow Emperor also sent someone to capture the thunder beast in Lei Ze, and took the largest bone from it as a drumstick. Legend has it that the Kui Niu Drum can vibrate for 500 li when it is struck, and it can vibrate for 3,800 li in a row. The Yellow Emperor also made eighty drums out of cowhide, which made the army more powerful.

In order to completely defeat Chiyou, the Yellow Emperor specially summoned his daughter, Nyu, to help him in the battle. The nun is a god of drought, who knows how to harvest clouds and relieve rain. Usually live in the remote Kunlun Mountains.

Huang Di arranged a good lineup and fought Chiyou again. When the two armies confronted each other, the Yellow Emperor ordered the battle drums to be beaten, and the eighty cowhide drums and Kui cowhide drums sounded, and the sound was earth-shattering. The soldiers of the Yellow Emperor were more courageous when they heard the drums; Chiyou’s soldiers lost their souls when they heard the drums. Seeing that he was about to lose, Chiyou and his eighty-one brothers exerted divine might and fought fiercely and bravely. The two armies were killed together, until the mountains shook, the sun shook and the stars fell, and it was indistinguishable.

Seeing that Chiyou was really difficult to deal with, the Yellow Emperor ordered Yinglong to spray water. Yinglong opened his huge mouth, and the river-like water jetted out from top to bottom. Chi You was unprepared, and was swept up on his back. He also hurriedly ordered Feng Bo Yushi to set off a violent storm to hit the Yellow Emperor’s formation, only to see the flood on the ground skyrocketing and the waves to the sky, the situation was very urgent.

At this time, the maiden went into battle, and she cast a magical gift, and a rolling heat wave radiated from her in an instant. Wherever she went, the wind stopped and the rain disappeared, and the scorching sun was on the front. Feng Bo and Yu Shi had nothing to do and hurriedly lost. The Yellow Emperor led his army to catch up and killed him for a while, but Chiyou was defeated and fled.

Chiyou’s head was as hard as bronze, and he used iron and stone as his food. He could fly in the air, walking on the cliffs and cliffs as if on the ground, and the Yellow Emperor could not catch him. When chasing the middle of Jizhou, Huang Di’s inspiration suddenly appeared, and he ordered people to beat Kui Niu Drum vigorously for nine times. At this time, Chi You suddenly lost his soul and was unable to walk, and was caught by Huang Di.

The Yellow Emperor ordered Chiyou to be put on a shackle and killed. Fearing that he would do something wrong after his death, he buried his body and head in two places. After Chiyou died, the shackles on his body were taken off and thrown on the barren mountain, turning into a maple forest, and every maple leaf was bloodstained on Chiyou shackles.

After Huangdi defeated Chiyou, all the feudal lords honored him as the emperor, this is Xuanyuan (the name of Huangdi) Huangdi. Xuanyuan Huangdi led the people to reclaim farmland and settled in the Central Plains, laying the foundation of the Chinese nation.

Note 1: It is said that the Yellow Emperor usually domesticated six wild beasts, namely bear, zi (pronounced pí), pi (pronounced pí), 貅 (pronounced xiū), 貙 (pronounced chū), and tiger, and released these beasts during wars. Come out to help (some believe that the legendary six beasts are actually six clans named after the beasts).

Note 2: It is said that the tribes were very happy to see the Yellow Emperor defeated Chiyou. The Yellow Emperor was embraced by many tribes. However, the Yandi clan and the Huangdi clan also clashed, and the two sides fought a battle in Banquan (now southeast of Zhuolu County, Hebei), and the Yandi failed. From then on, Huang Di became the leader of the tribal alliance in the Central Plains.

Note 3: The above-mentioned inventions of the legendary Yellow Emperor era were not invented by one person, but later people recorded them on the account of the Yellow Emperor.

There are also three simple versions, you are interested to see:

The version is as in “Historical Records: The Chronicles of Five Emperors”: “Xuanyuan was a man who cultivated morality and mobilized troops, controlled the five qi and five kinds of arts, comforted the people, saved the four directions, taught the bears, the Pixiu and the tigers, so as to fight against the Emperor Yan in the wild of Banquan. After the three battles, he got his will. Chiyou was in chaos and did not need the emperor’s orders.

It was the Yellow Emperor who was the lord of the army, and he fought with Chiyou in the wild of Zhuolu, and then killed Chiyou.” Taishi Gong said that Huangdi was named Xuanyuan, and the country name has Xiong Xuanyuan, which originally means chariot. , should refer to the name of the clan and its leader named after the invention of the technology of making vehicles. For example, the technology of making farming tools is called Shennong, the technology of making fishing tools is called Fuxi, and the technology of drilling fire and fire is called Suiren.

There is a bear country number. The “country” at that time was actually a tribe. Bear, scorpion, pixiu, yao, yao, and tiger are the names of six kinds of beasts, which should be the names of six clans in the bear tribe, or totems. Banquan, the name of the water, is located in Yanqing County, Beijing today. Zhuolu, the name of the mountain, is located in present-day Zhuolu County, Hebei Province, not far from Banquan.

Version 2

Seen in “Book of Yizhou·Changmai Jie”: “Chiyou chases the emperor and fights against Zhuolu, and there are no corners left. The land of Guangping is called Ah. The battle took place in the open area under Zhuolu Mountain. The corners refer to the corners, and “nine” means many, not limited to the specific number of eight plus one.

“Nine corners have no emptiness” means that Chiyou expelled the Chidi (that is, Yandi) tribe without leaving behind. Ji refers to Jizhou in the Central Plains. “Erya · Shidi”: “The two rivers are called Jizhou”. Guo Pu’s note: “From the East River to the West River”.

At that time, the place where the Yellow River flows into the sea is called the East River, and the place where the Hetao flows southward is called the West River. “Zhou Li·Zhifang” records: “The north is called Bingzhou”, which belongs to Taiyuan in Shanxi and Baoding in Hebei; “Youzhou in the northeast” belongs to Beijing today. Jizhou in ancient times was located in the south of You and Bing, in the southwestern part of today’s Shanxi and the southwestern part of Hebei. Legend has it that Chiyou was killed in Xiezhou, Yuncheng, today’s Shanxi Province.

Version 3

For example, “The Book of Mountains and Seas: The Great Wilderness of the North” contains: “Chiyou attacked the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow Emperor ordered the Yinglong to attack the wild of Jizhou. After the rain stopped, Chiyou was killed.” Feng Bo Yu Shi was a sorcerer specializing in meteorology in the farming Chiyou tribe, and later became the god of agricultural meteorology.

“Han Feizi: Ten Passes” said: “In the past, the Yellow Emperor and the ghosts and spirits were on Mount Tai… Chiyou was in the front, Feng Bo entered the sweep, and Yu Shi sprinkled the road”, reflecting the close relationship between Feng Bo Yu Shi and the Chiyou tribe, because agriculture The harvest of tribal production is inseparable from good weather. There is no possibility or necessity to investigate which of the three is right.

For such prehistoric legends that were recorded in Shanghai after a thousand years, the focus of historians’ attention is the historical shadows revealed in them; and the issues that ethnologists are concerned about are the types of ethnic groups reflected in the legends, Cultural characteristics and the process of their formation and evolution.

The above is the myth of the Yellow Emperor fighting Chiyou, I hope you can understand it after reading it.