2.1 The Cradle of Chinese Civilization

To answer the first question, any Chinese person, no matter where he or she lives throughout the world, will definitely say that I am the descendent of the Yellow Emperor. Even though many historians, both Chinese and foreigners, consider Yellow Emperor a mythological figure, people in China are unequivocally certain that the Yellow Emperor is their ancestor. On May 6,2005, the Chairman of Taiwan's People First Party — Song Chuyu came to the mainland for an official visit after more than half a century separation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The very first stop of his delegation was Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province. Upon his arrival at the Xi'an Airport, Song delivered an emotional speech, in which he emphasized the importance of why he chose Shaanxi as his first leg: “First and foremost, I'm a descendent of the Yellow Emperor. ”The following day, he and his delegation went to the Mausoleum of Yellow Emperor, located in the Huangling County. In the midst of the yellow-soil hills and valleys emerges a green wooded area. This is where the Mausoleum is located. Outside the Mausoleum stand more than 60,000 mature cypress trees, more than half of which are over one or two thousand years old. Inside, there is the tomb of the Yellow Emperor where tens and thousands of people come to pay homage to the legendary emperor each year. One may wonder why people throughout China come to pay tribute to a legendary figure. Who was he and what did he do to deserve such an honor?

Even though Yellow Emperor is commonly considered a legendary figure, his deeds and achievements have been chronicled and recorded in history books. The earliest one is Records of Grand Historian written by one of the great historians in Chinese history — Sima Qian (135-86 BCE) of the West Han Dynasty (202-9 BCE). In fact, the book, completed around 109 BCE, consists of 130 volumes with a total of 520,000 words. It depicts the historical figures and events stretching for 3,000 years, commencing with the book of“The Book of Five Emperors. ”The very first is the record of the Yellow Emperor, in which the author presented minute details of his childhood, youth, what he had achieved and how he became the man whom people regard as their sole ancestor. As the Book begins, Yellow Emperor's family name is“Gongsun, ”and his full name is Gongsun Xianyuan. He was a smart kid, being able to talk when he was barely 70 days old. In his childhood, he was lucid in thinking, quick wit and eloquent in speech. When he grew up into a young man, he had a disposition of sincerity and honest, and at the same time, a determined and decisive individual. His time was plagued by the incessant wars among different tribes, which had plunged the populace into endless misery. As a man of great compassion, he could not bear to see the suffering of his people, so he called for the other tribes to combat the evil forces. His military talent was fully exemplified in his ability to mobilize his army to win a number of decisive battles, and eventually unified China. When the long-awaited peace finally came, he was crowned as the first emperor in China —the Yellow Emperor.

With their lives settled, many tribal people did not quite know how to live a settled life since many of them used to be nomads. So, Yellow Emperor taught them how to cultivate land and domesticate wild animals. With the corporative weather, people were pleased to see the fruits of their labor with bumper harvests for years to come. While teaching his people how to till land, Yellow Emperor also warned his subjects of never abusing or overusing land so that there would be a harmony between land and the people who live on it. This is the earliest notion of the indigenous Daoism with its central idea of man living naturally and harmoniously with nature. Another great contribution that Yellow Emperor made to the Chinese culture is a medical text called“Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon, ”a book in the format of questions and answers for the cure of various diseases. It is allegedly composed by Yellow Emperor in consultation with his ministers. The book has laid the foundation for Chinese medicine with its principles and methodologies practiced by Chinese doctors for more than two millenniums. Apart from agriculture and medicine, there is another invention that is equally important to the Chinese culture — Chinese language or the formation of Chinese characters. Yellow Emperor is said to be the first person to regulate the Chinese written system so that all the literates throughout China can communicate despite their dialectal differences. Like Jesus who, according to the Old Testament, creates the universe in seven days, Yellow Emperor is the creator of the Chinese culture. But unlike Jesus, Yellow Emperor is a secular sage, worshipped by the Chinese people for what he bestowed them with the cultural legacy that has been perpetuated from ancient times up to the present day. Throughout Chinese history for over two millenniums, sovereigns and commoners alike, come to his Mausoleum to pay their respects to Yellow Emperor. Among the most notable dignitaries who came to worship him were Ying Zheng, the Emperor of the first Chinese unified dynasty in 220 BCE, Liu Che, the most powerful emperor of the Han Dynasty in 110 BCE. The successive emperors of various Chinese dynasties followed suit by making sacrificing ceremonies at the Mausoleum. For instance, during the Tang Dynasty, Chinese emperors issued decrees to make sacrificial ceremony an official rite so that it became a national law to pay tribute to Yellow Emperor. During the Song Dynasty (9-1127), emperors decreed massive planting of cypress trees around his Mausoleum, which have been growing there for over 1,000 years. It is worth mentioning that in the 20th century, both Mao Zedong, the late Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and his counterpart — Chiang Kai-sheik, Chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party, sent envoys to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum to conduct sacrificial services. Politically, Mao and Chiang were arch enemies, but they were both regard themselves as the descendents of the Yellow Emperor, who remains permanently in Shanbei, the land that gives birth to the Chinese culture.