An ancient painting of Nuwa and Fuxi unearthed in Xinjiang.

In Chinese mythology, Fu Xi or Fu Hsi (Chinese: 伏羲; pinyin: fúxī), also known as Paoxi (simplified Chinese: 庖牺; traditional Chinese: 庖犧; pinyin: páoxī), mid 29th century BCE, was the first of the Three Sovereigns (三皇 sānhuáng) of ancient China. He is a culture hero reputed to be the inventor of writing, fishing, and trapping. However, Cangjie is also said to have invented writing.

Early life[link]

Fu Xi was born on the lower-middle reaches of the Yellow River in a place called Chengji (possibly modern Lantian, Shaanxi province or Tianshui, Gansu province).^[1]

Creation legend[link]

According to legend, the land was swept by a great flood and only Fu Xi and his sister Nüwa survived. They retired to Kunlun Mountain, where they prayed for a sign from the Emperor of Heaven. The divine being approved their union and the siblings set about procreating the human race. In order to speed up the process, Fu Xi and Nüwa used clay to create human figures, and with the power divine entrusted to them made the clay figures come alive.^[1] Fu Xi then came to rule over his descendants, although reports of his long reign vary between sources, from 115 years (2852–2737 BCE) to 116 years (2952–2836 BCE).

Social importance[link]

Fu Xi, with the 8 trigrams and a turtle, as imagined by the Song painter Ma Lin

On one of the columns of the Fu Xi Temple in Henan Province, the following couplet describes Fu Xi's importance: "Among the three primogenitors of Hua-Xia civilization, Fu Xi in Huaiyang Country ranks first."^[1] During the time of his predecessor Nüwa (who, according to some sources, was also his wife and/or sister), society was matriarchal and primitive. Childbirth was seen to be miraculous, not requiring the participation of the male, and children only knew their mothers. As the reproductive process became better understood, ancient Chinese society moved towards a patriarchal system and Fu Xi assumed primary importance.^[1]

In the beginning there was as yet no moral or social order. Men knew their mothers only, not their fathers. When hungry, they searched for food; when satisfied, they threw away the remnants. They devoured their food hide and hair, drank the blood, and clad themselves in skins and rushes. Then came Fu Xi and looked upward and contemplated the images in the heavens, and looked downward and contemplated the occurrences on earth. He united man and wife, regulated the five stages of change, and laid down the laws of humanity. He devised the eight trigrams, in order to gain mastery over the world.

— Ban Gu, Baihu tongyi^[2]

Fu Xi taught his subjects to cook, to fish with nets, and to hunt with weapons made of iron. He instituted marriage and offered the first open-air sacrifices to heaven. A stone tablet, dated 160 CE, shows Fu Xi with Nüwa.

Traditionally, Fu Xi is considered the originator of the I Ching (also known as the Yi Jing or Zhou Yi), which work is attributed to his reading of the He Map (or the Yellow River Map). According to this tradition, Fu Xi had the arrangement of the trigrams (八卦 bāgùa) of the I Ching revealed to him supernaturally. This arrangement precedes the compilation of the I Ching during the Zhou dynasty. He is said to have discovered the arrangement in markings on the back of a mythical dragon horse (sometimes said to be a turtle) that emerged from the Luo River. This discovery is said to have been the origin of calligraphy. Fu Xi is also credited with the invention of the Guqin, together with Shennong and Huangdi.

The Figurists viewed Fu Xi as Enoch, the biblical patriarch. According to Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the fourth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, all Chinese religions are derived from the teachings of Fu Xi.^[3]

Death[link]

Fu Xi is said to have lived for 197 years altogether and died at a place called Chen (modern Huaiyang, Henan), where a monument to him can still be found and visited as a tourist attraction.^[1]

Modern references[link]

• Fu Xi makes an appearance in the Hong Kong television series My Date with a Vampire 2. He is also called Ren Wang (or King of Humanity) in the series, with a magical bow and arrow as his weapons. He was sent down from heaven and it is on him whom Nüwa based her creations and humanity.

• Fu Xi and Nüwa appear as unlockable characters in the video game Dynasty Warriors 3. They also appear in Koei's Warriors Orochi 2, a crossover between Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors.

• Fu Xi is featured in the "Conversation on Information Technology over 5000 Years", sculptural panels at the Norwalk Community College Center for Information Technology, near New Haven, Connecticut. They were sculpted by the facility's architect, Barry Svigals.

• He appears (as Fu-Hsi) on a mural on a wall in Peterborough, East Anglia.

• In the manga Hoshin Engi, he is referenced as Fukki, one of the important characters to appear near the end of the storyline.

References[link]

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