Home to Spirit of Yellow Emperor

At the top of Mount Qiaoshan, surrounded by lush green ancient cypress trees, is buried the ancestor of the Chinese nation.

Every April when people pay homage to their ancestors and relatives during the Qingming Festival, Chinese people around the world focus their worship and thoughts on the mausoleum of Xuanyuan Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor. The tomb stands at the top of Mount Qiaoshan in Huangling County, about 180 kilometres north of Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Huangdi, the legendary ancestor of the Chinese nation, is believed to have lived 5,000 years ago in Xianglongxia next to the Jushui River at the foot of Qiaoshan.

With the surname Gongsun and given name Xuanyuan, Huangdi was clever as a boy according to Sima Qian, a historian of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25). At that time, the Yellow River valley was an agricultural centre , benefiting from a warm climate, fertile land, forests and abundant water sources, said He Minglin, a researcher with Huangling County Culture and History Information Office.

Then the region was inhabited by a number of tribes, of which Huangdi's was the largest one, He said. "Huangdi was a great tribal chief at the time when China's primitive era was drawing to a close. He initiated the Chinese civilization and is said to have invented jade weapons, carts, boats, bows and arrows. And his wife Luo Zu was supposedly good at raising silkworms," the researcher said.

Under the leadership of Huangdi, the tribe grew powerful and many of his officials contributed to the development of the Chinese civilization.

Cang Jie, an imperial historian, created the Chinese pictograph; Da Rao, one of his officials invented the first heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch calendar and Ling Lun, his official composer, made musical instruments, according to He.

The brilliant achievements of Huangdi and his tribe were indispensable to the later success of China as one of the world's great civilizations.

Huangdi's achievements went down in history also because he punished the evil and unified the Chinese nation for the first time, the researcher said. "During that period, Chinese people laboured, lived and multiplied on the vast land around the Yellow River valley. Yandi, the Emperor Yan, and the Qiang people inhabited the middle, Taiqiao and his people of Yi group lived in the east, Chiyou and his people of Man tribe in the south, and Qiang, Di and Rong tribes in the north and west," the researcher said. "Huangdi and his tribe were nomads in the west and later migrated south to the middle of the country."

In a battle launched by Chiyou's tribe to take control of Central China, Yandi was defeated and turned to Huangdi for help. Their combined forces defeated Chiyou and Huangdi unified China after 52 battles.

Then Huangdi established his reign to complete the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, turning China into a civilized society, the researcher claimed.

"Because Huangdi was born on the Loess Plateau and the nation was divided by the Yellow River, he was called Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor," He said.

Huangdi was said to have lived until the age of 118. Legend has it, during an inspection tour to Henan, Huangdi heard a sudden bolt from the sky and a yellow dragon descended in front of him. The dragon said to Huangdi: "You have accomplished your mission. Now, please return to heaven with me." Huangdi knew he was not in a position to dispute to God's will and went with the dragon, according to the legend.

When flying over Mount Qiaoshan, Huangdi is said to have asked the dragon to land so that he could appease his subjects. And at the news, people hurried to the mountain weeping bitterly.

The yellow dragon took Huangdi away, however, leaving only his shoes and clothes, which the people buried on the top of Mount Qiaoshan in a mausoleum.

"That is how the legend goes, but some people believe Mount Qiaoshan is actually the great ancestor's final resting place," the researcher said.

The burial area of the mausoleum is about four square kilometres, surrounded by mountains and rivers and woods. Qiaoshan is covered with more than 60,000 cypress trees, some of which are over 1,000 years old. At the foot of the mountain is the Xuanyuan Temple.

When entering the gate of the temple, visitors can see a huge cypress with a height of 19 metres and 6 metres in circumference in the middle and 10 at the base. It takes seven or eight people to encircle the tree with out-stretched arms. It is called the "father of world cypresses" by some scholars, the researcher said. "Legend goes that the tree was planted by Huangdi himself, which would make it over 4,000 years old," he said. North of the gate are a hall and a pavilion with 47 stone steles on display.

Above the door of the magnificent main hall is a large horizontal tablet with a four-character inscription: renwen chuzu - founder of human civilization. Inside the hall is a shrine and drawings displayed along the side wall give an introduction to the temple and the mausoleum.

According to Sima Qian's "Records of the Historian," Qin Linggong, duke of Qin offered a sacrifice to Huangdi at the tomb in 442 BC, which is known as the first memorial ceremony held for this great Chinese ancestor. "From then on, emperors of a successive dynasties - whether they were of Han or other ethnic groups in China, all held memorial ceremony to offer sacrifices to Huangdi, thus proving that Huangdi is the ancestor of all ethnic groups in China," the researcher said.

For thousands of years, Huangdi has been the symbol of Chinese civilization, and today he represents the desire for the reunification of the nation.

To carry forward traditional Chinese culture and unify the Chinese nation, a fund for the Mausoleum of Huangdi was established in Beijing in October 1992. A State project for renovating the mausoleum was started in 1998 with a planned investment of 150 million yuan (US$18 million).

At present, the first stage of the project has been completed, including the grand gate of the Xuanyuan Temple, the front square of the temple and the road to the mausoleum on Mount Qiaoshan, according to Shao Xiaoqiang, director of the project administrative office.

Before this year's memorial ceremony during the Qingming Festival, some 200 people from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao donated 130,000 yuan (US$15,663) for the renovation project, Shao said.

On April 5, 1998, the first Qingming Festival after Hong Kong returned to the motherland, a monument to Hong Kong's return was erected at the Xuanyuan Temple. During this year's Qingming Festival, a monument to Macao's return was also built in the temple.

"In addition to the monuments to the return of Hong Kong and Macao, space has been left for a monument commemorating Taiwan's reunification with the motherland. Our nation must be reunified and no one can stop it," Shao said.





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