Chapter 4 3 The Yellow Emperor vs. Chiyou

About four thousand years ago, many clans and tribes lived along the Yellow River and Yangtze River valleys in my country.The Yellow Emperor is the most famous tribal leader in the legend.The tribe headed by the Yellow Emperor first lived near Jishui in the northwest of my country, and later moved to Zhuolu (now Zhuolu and Huailai, Hebei Province), and began to develop animal husbandry and agriculture, and settled down. Another tribal leader at the same time as Huangdi was called Yandi, who first lived near Jiangshui in the northwest of my country.It is said that they are close relatives of the Yellow Emperor family.The Yandi clan is gradually declining, while the Huangdi clan is flourishing.

At this time, there was a leader of the Jiuli tribe named Chiyou (sound chiyou), who was very powerful.Legend has it that Chi You has eighty-one brothers. They are all beasts with bronze heads and iron foreheads, and they eat sand and stones. They are extremely ferocious.They also manufacture various weapons such as knives, halberds, bows and crossbows, and often lead their tribes to invade other tribes. Once, Chi You invaded Emperor Yan's place, and Emperor Yan raised his troops to resist, but he was not Chi You's opponent, and was defeated by Chi You.Emperor Yan was helpless, so he fled to Zhuolu and asked Huangdi for help.The Yellow Emperor had long wanted to get rid of the scourge of the tribes, so he united the tribes, prepared troops, and launched a decisive battle with Chi You in the fields of Zhuolu.

There are many mythical legends about this great war.It is said that the Yellow Emperor domesticated six wild beasts: bear, 罴 (sound pi), pi (sound pi), xiu (sound xiu), 貙 (sound chu), and tiger, and released these beasts to help in battles (someone believe that the legendary six beasts are actually six clans named after beasts).Although Chi You's soldiers were ferocious, they couldn't resist Huangdi's army and this group of fierce tigers and beasts, and they fled one after another. The Yellow Emperor led the soldiers to chase after the victory. Suddenly, it was dark, thick fog, strong winds, thunder and lightning, so that the soldiers of the Yellow Emperor could not catch up.It turned out that Chi You invited "Fengbo Yushi" to help him in the battle.Not to be outdone, the Yellow Emperor asked the goddess to help dispel the wind and rain.In an instant, the wind stopped and the rain stopped, and the sky was clear, finally defeated Chi You.There is also a legend that Chi You used sorcery to create a thick fog, which made the soldiers of the Yellow Emperor lose their way.Huang Di used the "compass chariot" to guide, led the soldiers, and pursued Chi You in the direction where Chi You was escaping, and finally caught and killed Chi You.These myths reflect that the war was very intense.

All the tribes were very happy to see that the Yellow Emperor had defeated Chi You.The Yellow Emperor was supported by many tribes.However, the Yandi clan and the Huangdi clan also clashed. The two sides fought a battle in Banquan (southeast of Zhuolu County, Hebei today), and Emperor Yan lost.From then on, the Yellow Emperor became the leader of the tribal alliance in the Central Plains. In the legendary era of the Yellow Emperor, there were many inventions and creations, such as building palaces, cars, boats, and making five-color clothes, etc. Of course, these were not invented by one person, but later people recorded it in the account of the Yellow Emperor. .

Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor had a wife named Kun (sound lei) Zu, who personally participated in the labor.Originally, silkworms were only wild, and people didn't know the usefulness of silkworms. The ancestors taught women to raise silkworms, reel silk, and weave silk.Since then, there have been silk and silk. The Yellow Emperor also had a historian, Cangjie (sound cangjie), who created ancient characters.We have not seen the text of that period, and we have no way to check it. The legends in ancient China highly respected the Yellow Emperor, and the descendants all believed that the Yellow Emperor was the ancestor of the Huaxia tribe, and he himself was the descendant of the Yellow Emperor.Because the Yandi clan and the Huangdi clan were originally close relatives, and later merged together, we often call ourselves descendants of Yan and Huang.In order to commemorate this legendary common ancestor, descendants also built a "Yellow Emperor Mausoleum" on Qiaoshan Mountain in the north of Huangling County, Shaanxi Province.