Gender Masculine
Scripts 颛顼(Chinese, Japanese Kanji)
Meaning & History
In Chinese mythology, Zhuanxu is the grandson of the Yellow Emperor (Xuanyuan) and one of the Five Emperors, sage-kings who ruled in the early days of Chinese civilization. He fought and won a war against Gonggong, instituted laws and calendrical systems, and commanded the gods Chong and Li to cut the connections between Heaven and Earth, thus ending the era of widespread shamanism. After his death, he became deified as the Black Emperor of the North. A cryptic passage in the Shanhaijing (山海经) or Classic of Mountains and Seas implies that his spirit might have gone on to inhabit the bodies of fish. He is also known as Gaoyang (高阳) and Qianhuang (乾荒).