The Yellow Emperor or Huangdi (also transliterated as Huang-ti and Hwang-ti) is a legendary Chinese sovereign and culture hero, included among the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. Tradition holds that he reigned from 2697–2597 or 2696–2598 BC. His cult became prominent in the late Warring States and early Han period, when he was portrayed as the originator of the centralized state, a patron of esoteric arts and a cosmic ruler. Traditionally credited with numerous inventions and innovations, he is regarded as the initiator of Chinese civilization and said to be the ancestor of all Huaxia Chinese.
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Famous quotes containing the words yellow and/or emperor:
“He will watch from dawn to gloom
The lake-reflected sun illume
The yellow bees in the ivy-bloom,
Nor heed nor see, what things they be;
But from these create he can
Forms more real than living man,
Nurslings of immortality!”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)