One of the legendary Chinese
emperors (see: Wu-di), literally translated as the "Yellow Emperor".
He is said to have lived some time around 2697 - 2597 BC or possibly 2674
- 2575 BC. He is venerated as one of the founders of religious Taoism (tao-jiao)
and the alleged author of the Huang-di nei-jing, the first medical treatise
in the history of China. Furthermore Huang-di is credited with the creation
of mankind, the invention of writing, the compass, the pottery wheel, and
the breeding of silkworms. He is also considered to have been a determining
influence in establishing Chinese social order, in that he allocated a name
to each family.
According to one tradition, Huang-di spontaneously came into being as a
result of the fusion of energies that marked the beginning of the world.
He created man by placing earthen statues at the cardinal points of the
world, leaving them exposed to the breath of the world's beginning for three
hundred years. When they were totally pervaded by the energy of that breath,
the statues were able to speak and move. In this way the various races of
mankind came into being.