The founder of the Chinese race

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>]

    The founder of the Chinese race : Yellow Emperor.

    The Chinese always proudly consider themselves as the descendants 
of Huang Di (Yellow Emperor).

    The North China Plain along the Yellow River was the cradle of Chinese
civilization. It was particularly suited to agriculture because of the
light rainfall and there was no forest cover to be removed before crops
could be planted.

  According to Chinese historical records, about 4700 years ago there were
four clan-like societies living in this region. They were the Xia, Jiang,
Li and the Yi. Plunder, pillage and  war was constantly waged among them.

   The leader of the Xia clan was Xuan Yuan (later was called Yellow
Emperor) who defeated the Jiang clan and later formed an alliance with 
the clans of Jiang and Yi. Their main enemies were the Li which was a 
clan consisting of nine tribes headed by a paramount leader, the 
belligerent Chi You. The leader of each tribe had many brothers. Together
they formed a very powerful group.

   The weapons used in wars during the ancient time were merely by 
throwing stones.

   Xuan Yuan had twenty five sons. His fifth son called Hui who invented a
weapon by tying a vine to the two ends of a bamboo stick. He called it
Gong (bow). Later he invented the arrows made of bamboo stips. According
to legend Hui was the first man in China by using bow and arrows to shoot
and kill animals. Xuan Yuan invented spears made of wood.
   
   Historical annals recorded that in 2698BC Xuan Yuan, with the helps 
from the clans of Jiang and Yi, fought a decisive battle with the united 
forces of Li at Zhou Lu (present day Huai Lai county in Hebei province). 
During the battle the weapons used by the Li were just merely by throwing 
stones. Whereas Xuan Yuan's troops were using wooden spears and bows and 
arrows. The battle waged on for three days and three nights. With better
weapons the troops under the command of Xuan Yuan defeated the Li even
though the Li were stronger and more numerous. Chi You, the leader of 
the Li alliance, was killed in the battle.

   After the victory over the Lis, the people elected Xuan Yuan as the
leader of the united clans. His title was Huang Di (Yellow Emperor). He
encouraged exogamy as he wanted to create a melting pot of mixed blood
people in his domain. This vision made him highly respected throughout the
course of Chinese history. He was and still is regarded as the founder of
the Chinese race. He established his capital in You Xiong (present day Xin
Zheng in Henen province) and was the leader of the united clans for many
years.

    His importance throughout the history of China extended beyond
nation-making. He was credited with numerous inventions, from social reform
and formation of a government to such minor things as cooking utensils, tea, 
chopsticks and many other articles. The most important inventions of all
were the compass, clothing, weapons (ancient time weapons were throwing
stones), using mud bricks to build houses, wooden dingy and music. His
wife Lei Zu developed sericulture. 

   There was an occasion when Hui went hunting with his father, Yellow
Emperor and his entourage. After the hunt at the end of the day they were
tired and were resting under a tree. Some of the attendants were boiling
water for him to drink.

   Along flew a big bird and it perched on the tree top. Hui used his
bow and arrow and shot it down. At the same time he shot down some leaves
from the tree. Coincidentally the leaves fell into the boiling hot water.
Immediately the boiling hot water turned into brownish colour. The
attendants wanted to throw away the brownished boiled water. But one      
of them took a sip of it. He screamed out in excitement,
      
   "It tastes very good".
 
   The attendant went and informed Yellow Emperor who had a sip of the
brownished boiled water. Yellow Emperor liked the taste too. He ordered 
his followers to pluck a large quantity of the leaves from that particular 
tree and took them back to the palace. The tree was a tea tree. The leaves 
were the tea leaves.

   From then on every day Yellow Emperor ordered hot water with the leaves 
to be served as his drink instead of wine. Later the officials in his 
palace followed him drinking hot water with leaves. It was called 
drinking tea. 

   This habit of drinking tea soon after spread far and wide in China and 
later to the whole world.

   Historical records revealed that in 2598BC he left his capital and went
on a tour-cum-inspection of his empire. He arrived at the foot of a mountain
called Qiao (present day Huang Ling county in Shaanxi province). He made a
huge tripod cauldron to cook food as he intended to invite the leaders of
all the tribes to a great feast. 

   The ancient Chinese superstitiously believed that a yellow dragon came 
down from the sky and took the Yellow Emperor and his entourage, seventy 
people in all, to heaven. Legends had it that Yellow Emperor did not die
but ascended to heaven. Those who missed the heavenly chariot gathered the
yellow robes he previously wore and buried them in the spot where he had
ascended to heaven. That is the present day graveyard of Yellow Emperor in
Huang Ling city in Huang Ling county in Shaanxi province.

   On 1st January 1912, China was proclaimed the Republic of China at
Nanking and Dr Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as its first President. The
infant Republic decreed the adoption of Western solar calendar to replace
the ancient Chinese Lunar calendar. Dr Sun also proclaimed that the 13th
day of the 11th moon of 4609 of Huang Di (Yellow Emperor) to be the 1st
day of the fledgeling Republic.

   Later it was also edicted that on the 4th of April every year, 
Government representatives would worship and honour the founder of the
Chinese race, Huang Di, in a  ceremony to be conducted at Huang Ling city,
Shaanxi province, where Huang Di's grave is located. The Government also
proclaimed that day would also be Children's Day.

   In the 1930's even while civil war was going on between the Kuomintang
(Nationalist) government and the Chinese Communist Party, representatives 
of both opposing parties would meet on the 4th of April at Huang Ling to
conduct a joint ceremony in honour of Huang Di.

   Before the establishment of the Republic, traditionally, the Chinese 
believed that the day before Ching Ming was the birthday of Huang Di. He 
was born 4746 years ago and, at the age of 52 (in 2698BC), became the leader
of all the tribes in China. By calculation or by coincidence Ching Ming was
always either on 4th or 5th or 6th of April every year in the solar calendar
while the date in Lunar calendar changed every year. When there is a leap
year in the solar calendar Ching Ming would be on 4th of April (for example
the year 1996). 

  These changes were necessary due to the intercalary month (Run4 Yue4) in
the lunar calendar. Every three years there would be one intercalary month
and every five years there would be another intercalary month. There would
be seven intercalary months in every 19 years. The leap year in the lunar
calendar has 13 moons or months (just like the year, 1995) where there were
two 8th moons and  Ching Ming fell on the 6th day of the third moon
and the solar was the 5th of April. The year 1996, being a leap year, saw in
Ching Ming on the 17th day of the 2nd moon and the solar calendar was the
4th of April as there were 29 days in Feburary.

   Since the date of Ching Ming was almost always on the 5th or 6th of 
April in the solar calendar, the 4th day of April was appropriated as 
the birthday of Huang Di. However the new Republic Government wanted the 
children to celebrate Huang Di's birthday as well so it proclaimed that 
that day as Children's Day too.

   Some people even suggested that the calendar year for the new Republic
should start from the 4th of April 1912. But Dr Sun Yat Sen rejected the idea.

   Every year millions of Chinese children celebrate the Children's Day
on the 4th of April. To them Huang Di was only a legendary leader whereas
Children's Day meant a day of fun and food. As time passed Children's Day
superseded Huang Di's birthday in significance and at times his birthday
tends to be forgotten.

   Ching Ming is an important custom observed by the Chinese and is also
unique because on that day the two systems, solar and lunar, met.

Note:  On 4th April 1938, Chang Kuo-tao (Zhang Guo-Tao in pinyin), one of
the ten founders of the Chinese Communist Party, went to Huang Ling  which
is half way between the Yenan headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party
and Xi An city, as the representative of the communists to join in the
ceremony which also included a few overseas Chinese representatives. He
was then the Chairman of the Government of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia
Border Region. Chang was ahead in seniority to Mao Tse-tung who was at
that time the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. After the ceremony
Chang defected to Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists. After the defeat of the
Nationalists, Chang emigrated to Canada and died there at an old age. 
 
  CHUNG Yoon-Ngan.  chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au