The Emperor Zhi (, ''Dì Zhì''; ) was a legendary emperor of ancient China.

Legend

Zhi is recorded as one of the quasihistorical prehistoric rulers of

ancient China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

between the mythological era of the

Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors According to Chinese mythology and traditional Chinese historiography, the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors () were a series of sage Chinese emperors, and the first Emperors of China. Today, they are considered culture heroes, but they wer ...

and the firmly historical Zhou. His title ''di'' is usually translated into English as

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

but was shared by

Shangdi Shangdi (), also called simply Di (), is the name of the Chinese Highest Deity or "Lord Above" in the Chinese theology, theology of the classical texts, especially deriving from Shang dynasty, Shang theology and finding an equivalent in the lat ...

, the "high

god In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

" of the earliest known Chinese writing. Much later Chinese historians like

Sima Qian Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...

reported the surviving accounts that Zhi was a son of

Emperor Ku Kù (, variant graph ), usually referred to as Dì Kù (), also known as Gaoxin or Gāoxīn Shì () or Qūn (), was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor. He went by the name Gaoxin until receiving imperial authority, when he took the name Ku and t ...

, succeeding him for nine years roughly placed between 2366 and 2358. The Annals of the Five Emperors in Sima's ''

Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...

'' say that Zhi reigned badly but was succeeded by his younger half-brother Fang Xun, who as King Yao became proverbial for the wisdom and success of his rule. According to the

Bamboo Annals The ''Bamboo Annals'' ( zh, t=竹書紀年, p=Zhúshū Jìnián), also known as the ''Ji Tomb Annals'' ( zh, t=汲冢紀年, p=Jí Zhǒng Jìnián), is a chronicle of ancient China. It begins in the earliest legendary time (the age of the Yellow E ...

written earlier but rediscovered later, a descendant of

Shennong Shennong ( zh, c=神農, p=Shénnóng), variously translated as "Divine Farmer" or "Divine Husbandman", born , was a mythological Chinese ruler known as the first Yan Emperor who has become a deity in Chinese and Vietnamese folk religion. H ...

named Shu Qi attempted to rebel upon the death of the Emperor Zhuanxu. Gao Xin, the prince of Xin and descendant of the

Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch, or Huangdi ( zh, t=黃帝, s=黄帝, first=t) in Chinese, is a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. He is revered as ...

, defeated him and established himself as Emperor Ku. In the 45th year of Ku's reign, he named his son Prince Yao of Tang as his successor but, upon his death in the 63rd year of his reign, the older son Ku took the through instead. The Bamboo Annals agree that Zhi ruled for nine years but states that he was then deposed and replaced by his brother Yao.

References

Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors Legendary monarchs {{China-royal-stub

Legend

See also

References