Huangdi (), the "yellow di", was one of the latter. To emphasize the religious meaning of di in pre-imperial times, historians of early China commonly translate the god's name as "Yellow Thearch" and the first emperor's title as "August Thearch", in which "thearch" refers to a godly ruler. In the late Warring States period, the Yellow Emperor was integrated into the cosmological scheme of the Five Phases, in which the color yellow represents the earth phase, the Yellow Dragon, and the center. The correlation of the colors in association with different dynasties was mentioned in the Lüshi Chunqiu (late 3rd century BCE), where the Yellow Emperor's reign was seen to be governed by earth.
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Their schools mutually denied each > other, stopping (only) after several generations: but all were trapped in > selfishness. Heaven, thearch, sovereign, monarch, governor, lord: all are > (words for) "ruler." Immense, wide open, vast, wide, broad, large, spacious, > encompassing, supreme, eminent, big: all are (words for) "great." More than > ten names but the actuality is one.
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The Church of Xuanyuan subsumes all the ways of worship to local deities under one national god, Xuanyuan Huangdi (軒轅黄帝 "Xuanyuan the Yellow Deity"). According to the Shiji, Xuanyuan was the name of Huangdi,Clart, Jones. 2003. p. 60 and he is traditionally considered the thearch (progenitor god) of the Han Chinese race.Clart, Jones. 2003. p.
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Huangdi is also known as the Yellow Emperor, Yellow Thearch, or Xuanyuan, among other names. Well known as a culture hero in Chinese culture, part of the mythology surrounding him involves his martial prowess and the use of mythological arms and apparatus of war. One example is the south-pointing chariot. Another example is the use of water as an elemental weapon (for example, see Birrell 2003, 130-137).
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Because of the god-like powers of the Huang, the folk worship of the Di, and the latter's use in the name of the God of Heaven Shangdi, however, the First Emperor's title would have been understood as implying "The Holy" or "Divine Emperor". On that account, some modern scholars translate the title as "thearch".Nadeau, Randall L. The Wiley- Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions, pp. 54 ff.
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The term properly refers to the head of a thearchy (a kingdom of gods), but the more accurate "theocrat" carries associations of a strong priesthood that would be generally inaccurate in describing imperial China. Others reserve the use of "thearch" to describe the legendary figures of Chinese prehistory while continuing to use "emperor" to describe historical rulers.Nadeau, Randall L. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions, pp. 54 ff.
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In Chinese language there is a terminological distinction between shén, dì and xiān. Although the usage of the former two is sometimes blurred, it corresponds to the distinction in Western cultures between "god" and "deity", Latin genius (meaning a generative principle, "spirit") and deus or 'Deva' ( sanskrit ) and 'divus; dì, sometimes translated as "thearch", implies a manifested or incarnate "godly" power. It is etymologically and figuratively analogous to the concept of di as the base of a fruit, which falls and produces other fruits. This analogy is attested in the Shuowen Jiezi explaining "deity" as "what faces the base of a melon fruit".
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After their overthrow by the Zhou, the royal clan of Shang were not eliminated but instead moved to a ceremonial capital where they were charged to continue the performance of their rituals. The titles combined by Shi Huangdi to form his new title of emperor were originally applied to god-like beings who ordered the heavens and earth and to culture heroes credited with the invention of agriculture, clothing, music, astrology, etc. Even after the fall of Qin, an emperor's words were considered sacred edicts () and his written proclamations "directives from above" (). As a result, some Sinologists translate the title huangdi (usually rendered "emperor") as thearch.
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Sire Deerskin > swallowed jade blossoms and the maggots streamed out his door; Youngest Son > Qiu gulped the gold fluid and the stench was smelled a hundred Ii away. The > Yellow Thearch, who fired the nine cauldrons [elixir] on Mount Jing, still > has a tomb at Qiao Peak; Sima Jizhu, who consumed mica powder to make a > covert ascent, still [left his] head and feet in different places. Mo Di > gulped rainbow elixir to throw himself into a river; Young Ning consumed > stone brains and rushed into a fire. Wu Guang cut leeks to enter Qingling > Pool; Bocheng Zigao absorbed pneumas, and his guts rotted three times.
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Although the usage of the former two is sometimes blurred, it corresponds to the distinction in Western cultures between "god" and "deity", Latin genius (meaning a generative principle, "spirit") and deus or divus; dì, sometimes translated as "thearch", implies a manifested or incarnate "godly" power. It is etymologically and figuratively analogous to the concept of di as the base of a fruit, which falls and produces other fruits. This analogy is attested in the Shuowen jiezi explaining "deity" as "what faces the base of a melon fruit". The latter term xiān unambiguously means a man who has reached immortality, similarly to the Western idea of "hero".
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