Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in the context of "Hou Ji"

The Xia dynasty (/ʃiɑː/; Chinese: 夏朝, romanized: Xià cháo) is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, it was established by the likely legendary figure Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In traditional historiography, the Xia dynasty was succeeded by the Shang dynasty.

There are no contemporaneous records of the Xia, and they are not mentioned in the oldest Chinese texts, the earliest oracle bone inscriptions dating from the Late Shang period (13th century BC). The earliest mentions occur in the oldest chapters of the Book of Documents, which report speeches from the early Western Zhou period and are accepted by most scholars as dating from that time. The speeches justify the Zhou conquest of the Shang as the passing of the Mandate of Heaven and liken it to the succession of the Xia by the Shang. That political philosophy was promoted by the Confucian school in the Eastern Zhou period. The succession of dynasties was incorporated into the Bamboo Annals and Shiji and became the official position of imperial historiography and ideology. Some scholars consider the Xia dynasty legendary or at least unsubstantiated. Others identify it with the archaeological Erlitou culture (c. 1900–1700 BC), although there is no firm evidence, such as surviving written records, to support such a linkage.

The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or Huangdi (traditional Chinese: 黃帝; simplified Chinese: 黄帝), was a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. He is revered as a deity individually or as part of the Five Regions Highest Deities (Chinese: 五方上帝; pinyin: Wǔfāng Shàngdì) in Chinese folk religion. Regarded as the initiator of Chinese culture, he is traditionally credited with numerous innovations – including the traditional Chinese calendar, Taoism, wooden houses, boats, carts, the compass needle, "the earliest forms of writing", and cuju, a ball game. Calculated by Jesuit missionaries, as based on various Chinese chronicles, Huangdi's traditional reign dates begin in either 2698 or 2697 BC, spanning one hundred years exactly, later accepted by the twentieth-century promoters of a universal calendar starting with the Yellow Emperor.

Huangdi's cult is first attested in the Warring States period, and became prominent late in that same period and into the early Han dynasty, when he was portrayed as the originator of the centralized state, as a cosmic ruler, and as a patron of esoteric arts. A large number of texts – such as the Huangdi Neijing, a medical classic, and the Huangdi Sijing, a group of political treatises – were thus attributed to him. Having waned in influence during most of the imperial period, in the early twentieth century Huangdi became a rallying figure for Han Chinese attempts to overthrow the rule of the Qing dynasty, remaining a powerful symbol within modern Chinese nationalism.

The Twenty-Four Histories, also known as the Orthodox Histories (正史; Zhèngshǐ), are a collection of official histories detailing the dynasties of China, from the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in the 4th millennium BC to the Ming dynasty in the 17th century.

The Han dynasty historian Sima Qian established many conventions of the genre, though its form was not standardized until much later. Starting with the Tang dynasty, each dynasty established an official office to write the history of its predecessor using official court records, partly in order to establish its own link to the earliest times. As fixed and edited in the Qing dynasty, the whole set contains 3,213 volumes and about 40 million words. It is considered one of the most important sources on Chinese history and culture.

Emperor Shun (Chinese: 帝舜; pinyin: Dì Shùn) was a legendary leader of ancient China, regarded by some sources as the last of the Five Emperors among the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. Tradition holds that he lived sometime between 2294 BC and 2184 BC. Tradition also holds that those with the surname Hu (胡) are descendants of Emperor Shun. Subsequent rulers of the Chen state and the Chen dynasty claimed descent from Shun.

China was a monarchy from prehistoric times up to 1912, when a republic was established. The succession of legendary monarchs of China were non-hereditary. Dynastic rule began c. 2070 BC when Yu the Great established the Xia dynasty, and monarchy lasted until 1912 when dynastic rule collapsed together with the monarchical government. Various attempts at preserving and restoring the Chinese monarchy occurred during and following the 1911 Revolution, but these regimes were short-lived and lacked widespread recognition.

The monarchy of China took the form of absolute monarchy during most of its existence, even though the actual power of the ruler varied depending on his/her ability to consolidate the rule and various other factors. On 3 November 1911, the Qing dynasty issued the constitutional Nineteen Creeds which limited the power of the emperor, marking the official transition to a constitutional monarchy. However, after only 3 months, the monarchy was abolished.

The Chinese monarchs were the rulers of China during Ancient and Imperial periods. The earliest rulers in traditional Chinese historiography are of mythological origin, and followed by the Xia dynasty of highly uncertain and contested historicity. During the subsequent Shang (c. 1600–1046 BCE) and Zhou (1046–256 BCE) dynasties, rulers were referred to as Wang 王, meaning king. China was fully united for the first time by Qin Shi Huang (r. 259–210 BCE), who established the first Imperial dynasty, adopting the title Huangdi (皇帝), meaning Emperor, which remained in use until the Imperial system's fall in 1912.

At no point during Ancient or Imperial China was there a formalized means to confer legitimate succession between rulers. From the Zhou dynasty onwards, monarchs justified their reigns by claiming the Mandate of Heaven (天命; Tiānmìng). The mandate held that a ruler and their successors had permission from the heavens to rule as long as they did so effectively. It also declared a ruler the Son of Heaven (天子; Tiānzǐ), giving them the right to rule "all under heaven" (天下; Tiānxià). Given the Mandate's subjective nature, rulers also utilized a variety of methods to retain support and justify their accession. This ranged from military enforcement, political patronage, establishing peace and solidity, institutional reform, and historical revisionism to legitimize the dissolution of previous dynasties and their own succession. For most of Imperial China, the wuxing (五行; "Five Elements") philosophical scheme was also central to justify dynastic succession.

Nüwa, also read Nügua, is a mother goddess, culture hero, and/or member of the Three Sovereigns of Chinese mythology. She is a goddess in Chinese folk religion, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven.

As creator of mankind, she molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay. In other stories where she fulfills this role, she only created nobles and/or the rich out of yellow soil. The stories vary on the other details about humanity's creation, but it was a tradition commonly believed in ancient China that she created commoners from brown mud. A story holds that she was tired when she created "the rich and the noble", so all others, or "cord-made people", were created from her "dragg[ing] a string through mud".

Shennong (Chinese: 神農; pinyin: Shénnóng), variously translated as "Divine Farmer" or "Divine Husbandman", born Jiang Shinian (姜石年), was a mythological Chinese ruler known as the first Yan Emperor who has become a deity in Chinese folk religion. He is venerated as a culture hero in China.

Shennong has at times been counted amongst the Three Sovereigns (also known as "Three Kings" or "Three Patrons"), a group of ancient deities or deified kings of prehistoric China. Shennong has been thought to have taught the ancient Chinese not only their practices of agriculture, but also the use of herbal medicine. Shennong was credited with various inventions: these include the hoe, plow (both leisi (耒耜) style and the plowshare), axe, digging wells, agricultural irrigation, preserving stored seeds by using boiled horse urine (to ward off the borers), trade, commerce, money, the weekly farmers market, the Chinese calendar (especially the division into the 24 jieqi or solar terms). He is also attributed to have refined the therapeutic understanding of taking pulse measurements, acupuncture, and moxibustion, as well as having instituted the harvest thanksgiving ceremony (zhaji (蜡祭) sacrificial rite, later known as the laji (腊祭) rite).