Yellow Emperor (黃帝)

Overview

The translated histories identify Yellow Emperor as an astronomer and ruler. This record brings together 2 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Yellow Emperor	黃帝	Huangdi
Personal	Yellow Emperor	黃帝	Huángdì
Title	Yellow Emperor	黃帝

Identity

Historicity: Legendary
Identification: Named
Sex: Uncertain

Roles

Astronomer
Ruler

Life and dates

Attested activity

Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · shiji:026:s0014

Works and attributed material

Kind: speech · Role: subject · Quoted: false · Note: praised in edict for calendrical work
Explicit · shiji:026:s0053

Events and relationships

Kind: administrative · Role: founder · Action: established-five-officials
Explicit · shiji:026:s0014
Kind: calendrical · Role: reformer · Action: examined-and-fixed-stellar-calendar
Explicit · shiji:026:s0014

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: attained unity and did not die · Provenance: Mode: quoted-speech · Speaker Person Id: Emperor Wu of Han (漢武)
Explicit · shiji:026:s0053

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 26Treatise on the Calendar · 2 passages

Open chapter

蓋黃帝考定星歷，建立五行，起消息，正閏餘，於是有天地神祇物類之官，是謂五官。 The Yellow Emperor examined and fixed the stellar calendar, established the five phases, set the cycles of waxing and waning in motion, and corrected intercalary remainders. There were then officials for heaven, earth, spirits, and the categories of things; these were called the five officials.

蓋聞昔者黃帝合而不死，名察度驗，定清濁，起五部，建氣物分數。 I have heard that in antiquity the Yellow Emperor joined with the Way and did not die; he named, examined, and verified the degrees, fixed the clear and the turbid, established the five divisions, and set up the numerical measures of qi and things.