Shaohao

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One of the temples for Shaohao, at the assumed place of his grave site ( Qufu , Shandong)

Shaohao ( Chinese  少昊  /  少 皞 , Pinyin shǎo hào , also: Shao Hao , Jin Tian , Xuanxiao ) was one of the legendary rulers of China around 2600 BC. C. Shaohao is considered to be the son of the Yellow Emperor . In some traditions, such as the Book of Documents , he is counted among the three rulers and five emperors .

The historicity of Shaohao is controversial. The School of Doubts in Antiquity ( Gu Jiegang among others ) suspects that Shaohao was later entered into the canon of the ancient texts by Liu Xin as part of a campaign to revise history, probably as early as the first century AD.

Confucian tradition

The current version of his life story has only been documented since the 1st century AD, from the time of the Altan Han dynasty . It says that Shaohao is the son of the Yellow Emperor. He was the leader of the Dongyi tribe and moved the capital to Qufu in Shandong . He ruled for 84 years, followed by his nephew Zhuanxu .

In the older Shiji version , there was no ruler ( Chinese  帝 ) between the Yellow Emperor and Zhuanxu; Shaohao, however, is mentioned as a man who resented a dishonest son. He is also commonly identified with Xuanxiao (玄 囂), the eldest son of the Yellow Emperor. This could identify his son as Jiaoji (蟜 極), Xuanxiao's son, who was not included in the line of succession. Jiaoji's son, the Emperor Ku, and his grandsons Di Zhi and Yao became rulers instead.

Shaohao's tomb , which was probably built during the Song Dynasty , is traditionally located in Jiuxian ("Old Prefecture") in the eastern suburbs of Qufu. The park around the funerary monument also houses the Shou Qiu monument , where, according to legend, the Yellow Emperor was born.

Different legends

Another tradition says that Shaohao was not the son of the Yellow Emperor. Afterwards, his mother was a weaver goddess named Huang'e , who fell in love with the planet Venus ( Chinese  金星 , Jin Xing) while floating down the river of heaven (the Milky Way ). The two had several nights of love on the raft and their union gave birth to son Shaohao, who grew up to be a handsome young man with great skills. His great-uncle, the yellow emperor, was so impressed by him that he named him god of the western skies.

The legend also tells that he founded a kingdom in the Five Mountains of Eastern Paradise, where all kinds of birds lived. As the ruler of this bureaucratically administered country, he took the form of a vulture. Other birds were subject to his rule, such as the phoenix as chancellor, the falcon as executor of law and the dove as educator. The four seasons were designed to rule the other bird species.

Stone-clad pyramid as the tomb of Shaohao near Qufu .

After a successful reign he went back west and let his son Chong rule. He and another son, Ru Shou , took up residence on Mount Changliu , from where he ruled the western skies. Together they were responsible for the daily sunset. Shaohao is also revered as the inventor of the 25-string lyre.

Controversy over historical credibility

Whether Shaohao existed is controversial. The Yigupai (especially Gu Jiegang) assume that Shaohao ers was introduced into the Han dynasty by the imperial librarian Liu Xin . According to this theory, Liu Xin tried to create a narrative of the succession of legendary kings and succession of dynasties that legitimized the theory of the "succession of the five elements" for the succession of dynasties, thereby also legitimizing the succession of Han and Xin dynasties has been.

Scientific consensus is that a Shaohao was a ruler of the Dongyi , a tribe in east China. It is believed that the worship of Shaohao from the west was introduced by Qin (秦) state when they moved west. Historical evidence is found in the Zuozhuan , but the lineage cited there does not appear in contemporary or older texts.

Shaohao and Kim Yu-sin

The Korean Samguk Sagi writes that Kim Yu-sin was one of the descendants of Shaohao.

Literary allusions

In the MMORPG World of Warcraft there is a character "Shaohao".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patricia Buckley Ebrey: Women and the family in Chinese history . Routledge, 2003, ISBN 0-415-28823-1 , pp. 171 .
  2. ↑ 三國 史記 / 卷 41 ( Wikisource )
    『三國 史記』 列傳 第一 ： 金 庾信 上
    金 庾信 王 京 人 也 十二 世祖 首 露 不知 何許 人 也 也 以後 漢 建武 十八 年 壬寅 登 龜峯 望 駕 洛 九 村 遂至其 地 開國 號曰 加耶 後 改爲 金官國 其 子孫 相承 至九 世孫 仇 亥 或 云 仇 次 休 於 庾信 爲 曾祖 羅 羅 人 自 謂 少昊 金天氏 之後 故 姓 金 庾信 碑 亦云 軒轅 之 裔少昊 之 胤 則 南加耶 始祖 首 露 與 新 羅 同姓 也
predecessor Office successor
Huangdi Mythical Emperor of China
2575-2500 BC Chr. 		Zhuanxu