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Chinese history remembers Suiren, Fuxi and Shennong as the Three Sage Kings. While not exactly kings, they are the leaders of their generation and are remembered today for their personal sacrifices and the many unique contributions to mankind. Suiren was best remembered for discovering how to make fire by drilling wood. It allowed mankind to eat cooked food, and use fire to keep warm during the colder months and to ward off wild animals. Fuxi was best remembered for creating the Bagua (or Eight Trigram). It became the foundation of the all important Chinese Classic I Ching or the Book of Changes. He also taught people to domesticate animals and made traps to catch fishes, birds and other wild animals. He was also credited with laying down marriage laws and the invention of an ancient 35 strings musical instrument. Shennong, also known as Yandi, invented the ancient rake, spade, plough and sickle and taught people to grow five types of cereals, rice, two types of millet, wheat and beans. He also invented barter trade and further modified Fuxi's 35 strings musical instrument into a 5 strings one. Most people remember Shennong for his relentless effort to find remedies for illness by tasting hundreds of wild berries. Eventually one of these berries took his life. The emperors after Shennong were Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao and Shun and they are collectively known as the Five Legendary Rulers. Huangdi had strong management skills. He knows how to select the right people and motivate them to rule the country and to come out with innovations that benefit the people. Many great achievements were attributed to him. Many contributions were credited to Huangdi. They include the development of a symbol based written language which became the foundation of the present day Chinese language. He also commissioned the compilation of, the Yellow Emperor's Medicine Classic?as well as the Farmer's Calendar which aided greatly in agriculture. During Huangdi's reign, the people experienced stability and prosperity. It ushered in an age of civilization for the Chinese people. This was mainly due to Huangdi's preference for peace and his dislike for war. Zhuanxu who succeeded Huangdi was not his son. He was chosen over Huangdi's many sons because of his outstanding ability. Zhuanxu greatest contribution was to bring law and order to the people plus consolidating the power of the central authority. Diku who succeeded Zhuanxu was a benevolent king. He was also the great grandson of Huangdi. Diku reorganized the government and created new ministries with clearly specified duties. They include the ministry of Land, Forestry, Water, Minerals and Fire. His other contribution included improving the Farmer's calendar system. After Diku come Yao, his son. Yao was very like his father ?industrious and benevolent. He contributed by enhancing the calendar and making changes to planting that yielded bumper harvests. Yao was followed by Shun, his son in law. Shun was a filial son and this is despite the fact that he was ill-treated by his step mother and father. This virtue earned him a lot of fame and soon Yao came to know about it. He summoned Shun to his court and became his trusted assistant. He later married Yao's daughter. Shun made many organizational changes. For example he divided the country into 12 states each with their own administrator. He also set the department of farming, music, rites, works, water and land. For the dukes and princes, he drafted many rules and regulations including the five rules of etiquette. Shun was the last of the Five Legendary Kings. After Shun come Yu who founded the Xia dynasty. Today we remember Yu most for his skills in controlling flooding that wreak havoc on his people.
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Henry Fong is a Feng Shui Master. To find out more on Pa Kua, visit his web site at www.absolutelyfengshui.com
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