Fuxi
Chinese · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Serpent-bodied culture hero, brother-consort of Nüwa, inventor of the trigrams.
Domains
- civilization
- divination
Powers
- Devise the eight trigrams
- Teach nets, fishing, and animal-rearing
- Institute the rites of marriage
- Replace knotted cords with the first written signs
Epithets
- 太昊 The Great Brilliant One; one of the Three SovereignsZuozhuan 左傳; Baihu tong 白虎通 (the Three Sovereigns) (primary)
- 庖犧 The Animal-Tamer; inventor of husbandryYijing 易經, Xici zhuan (Fuxi/Paoxi inventing the trigrams); Hanshu 漢書 (primary)
- 伏羲 the Subduer of Beasts / Hidden SacrificeYijing, Xici commentary (primary)
- 羲皇 the August Xi (Sovereign Fuxi)Standard appellation in later literature (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: NüwaFuxi and Nuwa as the primal brother-and-sister couple who marry and engender humanity.Li Rong, Duyi Zhi (Tang); Han Wuliang Shrine reliefs depicting the intertwined Fuxi-Nuwa pair (primary); Birrell, Chinese Mythology: An Introduction (1993), pp. 33-35 (secondary)
- sibling: NüwaBrother-consort relationship; the two are siblings in the Han and Tang strata.Li Rong, Duyi Zhi (Tang) (primary); Lewis, The Flood Myths of Early China (2006) (secondary)
Sources
- existence: Xici (Great Commentary to the Yijing), c. 4th–3rd c. BCE (primary); Sima Qian, Shiji, c. 94 BCE (primary)