A Study of the Image of the Yellow Emperor in Early Chinese Literature and Archaeological Materials   Su Xiaowei

   In early Chinese literature and archaeological materials, the Yellow Emperor exists in three systems of genealogy, ancient emperors, and sacrifice. The Yellow Emperor in genealogical system should be the earliest, and then transformed into the emperor as primogenitor, i.e. the legendary human king from an ancestral emperor, which reflected the process of the Yellow Emperor entering the imperial system from the genealogical system, and a tremendous change from the system of enfeoffment based on blood kinship gradually to the system of prefectures and counties based on geographical relationship. The image of the Yellow Emperor in sacrificial system was well-knit with the theory of yin-yang and five elements in the late Warring States period, and entered certain Taoist rite in later development, thus gained the value of belief. Correspondingly, the books on tales of the Yellow Emperor with different themes in Taoist literature presented different systems of the image of the Yellow Emperor.