Zhuanxu

Zhuanxu (Chinese: trad. , simp. 颛顼, pinyin Zhuānxū), also known as Gaoyang (t , s 高阳, p Gāoyáng), was a mythological emperor of ancient China. In the traditional account recorded by Sima Qian, Zhuanxu was a grandson of the Yellow Emperor. At the age of ten with Shaohao, he was said to have led the Shi clan in an eastward migration to present-day Shandong, where intermarriages with the Dongyi clan enlarged and augmented their tribal influences. He also was associated with a religious reform of the Jiuli(九黎) people, banishing witchcraft practised by the people. Zhuanxu was the grandson of the Yellow Emperor and his wife Leizu by way of his father Changyi (昌意). His mother was named Changpu (昌僕) from the Shushan clan(蜀山氏), according to Sima Qian, and Niuqu (女樞) according to the Bamboo Annals. Zhuanxu is also alternatively said to be the son of Hanliu (韓流) in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. However, it is recorded in suspicious part Haineijing(海內經) that was written last. Zhuanxu was claimed as an ancestor by many of the dynasties of Chinese history, including the Mi of Chu and Yue, the Yíng of Qin, and the Cao of Wei. Zhuanxu is held by many sources to be one of the Five Emperors. Some sources say that at age twenty, he became their sovereign, going on to rule for seventy-eight years until his death. According to Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), upon the death of the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu's uncle Shaohao never reigned as king, as he was purported to do in other documents. Rather, Gaoyang was chosen as the tribe's new leader, with the regnal name Zhuanxu, in preference to his father and all his uncles. Zhuanxu defeated Gonggong, a descendant of the Emperor Yan. However, the account in the Bamboo Annals states that Zhuanxu became an assistant to his uncle, Emperor Shaohao, at the age of ten, and became king in his own right at the of age 20. Zhuanxu was credited with introducing the practice of sacrifice to soil and grain, which was essential to Chinese government until the fall of the Qing.