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Three Chinese Ancestors Hall (Huang Di,Yan Di and
Chiyiu) |
Yan Di (abbreviated Yan)
and Huang Di (abbreviated Huang), two emperors in ancient Chinese legends,
are said to be the earliest ancestors of the Chinese nation. All the Chinese,
whether they live in the mainland or in Taiwan, or in Hongkong and Macao, or in
other countries, regard themselves as the descendants of Yan and Huang.
Sometimes, the term “Yan Huang Zi Sun” or “Descendants of Yan and Huang” is used
to mean “The Chinese Nation”.
The origin of the term “Yan
Huang Zi Sun” is closely related to ancient Hebei.
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The ruins of Huang Di
City | It is said that over 4,000 years ago
there lived along the Changjiang River (the Yangtze River) and Huanghe River
(the Yellow River) valleys many clan tribes. Of them, the Huang, Yan and Chiyou
were the most famous. The Huang tribe lived first in the northwestern part of
China (now Shaanxi Province), then moved eastward, and remained at last in the
mountain valleys in present-day Zhuolu County, Hebei Province. Still, they led a
nomadic life. The Yan tribe lived in an area from the Weihe River valley to the
middle reaches of the Huanghe River. The Chiyou tribe, also known as “Jiuli”
nationality, lived in the eastern part of China (now the area of Shandong
and Henan provinces). In their long years of communications, big wars between
the three tribes broke out several times in the northern part of today's Hebei.
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Huang Di Spring |
After the Yan tribe moved from the Weihe
River valley to the middle reaches of the Huanghe River, long-drawn-out
conflicts between the Yan and Chiyou tribes began. Defeated by the Chiyou tribe,
the Yan tribe fled to Zhuolu, Hebei and joined the Huang tribe. Afterwards, the
Yan and Huang tribes fought shoulder to shoulder in a big battle against the
Chiyou tribe in Zhuolu. The Chiyou tribe was defeated, and Chiyou himself was
killed by the victor, the Huang tribe. This is the well-known “Zhuolu Battle”
recorded in Chinese history books.
Huang,
chief of the Huang tribe, took measures to pacify the members from the Chiyou
tribe, so other Chiyou members in the north came and joined the Huang tribe.
Hearing that Chiyou had been killed, other tribes came to admire Huang and
supported him as emperor. Afterwards, Huang set up his capital in Zhuolu.
After defeating Chiyou, the Yan tribe,
with a view to obtaining hegemony, began a full-scale war against the Huang
tribe. The war was fought at Banquan (now Huailai County bordering Zhuolu,
Hebei). The Yan, however, failed and finally yielded to the Huang tribe. Later
on, their descendants moved southward from Hebei to the Huanghe River valley and
settled down in the Central Plains. For a long time they lived, multiplied and
mixed together, and became the ancient inhabitants in the area of the Central
Plains of China. They laid the historical foundation of the Huaxia nationality.
In the long process of history, the Huang tribe was comparatively strong and
developed a fairly advanced civilization, so many inventions and creations made
by the laboring people living in primitive society were marked in Huang's name.
Thus, Huang became the representative of the civilization of the Central Plains.
As the Huang tribe developed gradually in later times, those inhabitants living
in the Central Plains who were from different ancestors took themselves to be
the descendants of Huang. Since the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B. C.),
these inhabitants had claimed to be the Huaxia nationality, which was renamed
the Han nationality in the Han Dynasty. From then on, all people from the Han
nationality worshipped Huang as their own ancestor and claimed to be the
“Descendants of Yan and Huang”.
Early in
the Western Zhou Dynasty (in the 11th Century B. C.), Zhougongdan, younger
bother of Zhouwuwang (the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty), began to build Luoyi
(now the city of Luoyang, Henan Province). He thought the area of the Central
Plains was located in the middle of the lands in all directions and was the
center of China. So, he named the Central Plains the “Central Land”. Because the
people living in the Central Plains were from the Huaxia nationality, the area
was named “Zhong Hua”, meaning “Central China”. After that, the Huaxia
nationality mixed gradually with other nationalities and enlarged their areas of
activity. As a result, the highly developed culture of the Huaxia nationality
was spread step by step all over the country, and “Zhong Hua” by and by became
the name of the whole country. Subsequently, the term “Descendants of Yan and
Huang” had a broader concept than before.
The mixing and forming of
the Zhong Hua nationality at its early stage had close relations with the
ancient land of Hebei and its early inhabitants. And contributions were made as
well by the ancestors in the land of Hebei to the development of the culture of
the Central Plains. So Hebei is one of the birthplaces of the Chinese nation and
the cradle of the “Descendants of Yan and Huang”.
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