Pre-Xia Chinese people

Xia Dynasty king and founder

The legendary ruler of China, one of the five emperors

Zhuanxu (), also known as Gaoyang (), was a mythological emperor of ancient China.

Chinese mythological archer

Shaohao (), also known as Jin Tian (), was a legendary Chinese sovereign, usually identified as a son of the Yellow Emperor. According to some traditions, such as that within the Book of Documents, Shaohao is one of the Five Emperors. His place in the mythical lineage of the Yellow Emperor has been subject to controversy. Members of the 19th–20th century Doubting Antiquity School of historians posited that Shaohao was added to the orthodox succession legend by Liu Xin as part of a politically motivated campaign revising ancient texts .

Cangjie is a legendary figure in Chinese mythology, said to have been an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes, and that when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained millet. He is considered a legendary rather than historical figure, or at least not considered to be the sole inventor of Chinese characters. Cangjie was the eponym for the Cangjiepian proto-dictionary, the Cangjie method of inputting characters into a computer, and a Martian rock visited by the Mars rover Spirit, and

thumb|Illustration of Leizu teaching people to cultivate silkworms.

Chiyou () is a mythological being that appears in Chinese mythology. He was a tribal leader of the Nine Li tribe () in ancient China. He is best known as a king who lost against the future Yellow Emperor during the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors era in Chinese mythology. According to the Song dynasty history book Lushi, Chiyou's surname was Jiang (), and he was a descendant of the Flame Emperor.

Youchao (, lit. "Nest-Owner") is the inventor of houses and buildings, according to ancient Chinese mythology. He is said to have been one of The Three August Ones in ancient China. He is an obscure figure, also known as Da Chao (). Tradition holds that he ruled over China for 200 years from 3162–2962 BC. It is unknown why he ruled China, but a close theory behind this is that Youchao did not "rule" China in a historical sense. According to Han Feizi, people could avoid harm from animals with the help of buildings made from wood, which was taught by Youchao.

figure in Chinese mythology

ancestor of the Chinese Zhou dynasty

ancestor of the kings of the Shang dynasty

thumb|Jingwei as depicted in the 1597 edition of the Shanhaijing

legendary Chinese minister

culture hero in Chinese mythology

Jiandi (), also with variants and , is an important figure in Chinese history and Chinese mythology. She was the second wife of Emperor Ku, who was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor. Jiandi was the mother of , the predynastic founder of the Shang dynasty (Xie's name is also written as whose Mandarin Chinese reflexes are either also Xie or Qi, the latter of which should not be confused with "abandoned", the birth-name of Houji, son of Ku's first wife Jiang Yuan and predynastic founder of the Zhou dynasty). Her pregnancy miraculously occurred following her swallowing or holding in her bosom the

thumb|Xingtian as drawn by Jiang Yinghao, 17th century Xingtian (, also '''Hsing T'ien''') is a Chinese deity who fights against the Supreme Divinity, not giving up even after he was decapitated. Losing the fight for supremacy, he was beheaded and his head buried in Changyang Mountain. Nevertheless, headless, with a shield in one hand and a battle axe in the other, he continues the fight, using his nipples as eyes and his belly button as a mouth. ==Description== Xingtian was an official under Yandi. Yandi fought against Huangdi for the position of supreme god, but he lost the conflict. Xingtia

hermit

Legendary Chinese minister of the Yellow Emperor, variously credited with inventing music or creating flutes that fully identified the 5 notes of the pentatonic scale

Shaodian () was the father of the Yellow Emperor (黄帝), he was the ninth great grandfather of the Yellow Emperor according to the Records of the Grand Historian. He started the Youxiong clan (有熊氏), whilst his wives were Fubao and Nüdeng of the Youjiao clan. Fubao later gave birth to Ji Xu Qi (8th great grandfather of Huangdi the Yellow Emperor) and Nüdeng (女登) gave birth to Yandi.

Fangfeng () is a character from Chinese mythology as well as a god in Chinese popular religion. As a mythological figure, Fangfeng is mostly known for arriving late for an assembly called by Yu the Great after the end of the Great Flood and then being executed at the orders of Yu. Because Fangfeng was a giant (of nearly 33 feet), the executioner had to build a large dike in order to reach his head. Modern myths and legends regarding Fangfeng in China tend to emphasize that Fangfeng was wrongly executed; that the reason Fangfeng was late for the assembly was that on his way there he encountered

Yuqiang (, alternatively Yujiang 禺疆 or Yujing 禺京), in Chinese mythology is one of the descendants of Huang Di, the "Yellow Emperor". Yuqiang was also the god of the north sea and a wind god. His father was Yuhao, another sea god. Some accounts (Shanhaijing chapters 8 and 17) describe Yuqiang as having the body of a bird and the face of a human being, with a serpent mount for each foot that facilitated his travels.

Danzhu (), surname Qi (祁) and given name Zhu (朱), was given the Fengjian state in Danyuan (丹淵), therefore got the honorable title in reference to the state. As the eldest son of the legendary Chinese monarch Emperor Yao (Tang Yao) who reigned traditionally c. 2356 – 2255 BCE, Danzhu studied Weiqi from his father.

Chinese nobleman

Shang tribe leader

The Xiangshuishen or Xiang River Goddesses are goddesses (or spirits and sometimes gods) of the Xiang River in Chinese folk religion. The Xiang flowed into Dongting Lake through the ancient kingdom of Chu, whose songs in their worship have been recorded in a work attributed to Qu Yuan. According to the Shanhaijing, the Xiang River deities were daughters of the supreme deity, Di. According to a somewhat later tradition, the Xiang goddesses were daughters of Emperor Yao, who were named Ehuang (; Fairy Radiance) and Nüying (; Maiden Bloom) who were said to have been married by him to his chosen s

Changyi (? – ?) was the second son of the legendary Yellow Emperor and the father of Zhuanxu.

Shang tribe leader