The Yan Emperor (or Flame Emperor) was the legendary chief of a tribal alliance in Central China. The Chinese people count the Yan Emperor and the Yellow Emperor as their earliest ancestors, and regard themselves as the descendants of these two sovereigns. Legends have it that Shaodian married Youjie and gave birth to the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor. The Yellow Emperor lived in an area by the Jishui River lying between present-day Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai provinces, also known as the Qijia Cultural Zone; while Yandi lived in an area by the Jiangshui River, which empties into the Weishui River at a point near Qishan and Wugong in present-day Shaanxi Province. This is why Huangdi also got the surname Ji while Yandi came to be known by the surname Jiang. They are typically mentioned as a pair in history. Legends have it that the Yan Emperor ruled by virtue of fire, hence his name. It was alleged after the Warring States Period that Yandi was actually the same person as the legendary Shennong. He also came to be worshipped as the God of Agriculture, probably because of his relationship with farming tribes. His tribe originally lived on the Loess Plateau, and later moved eastward to Banquan, an area southeast of Zhuolu in present-day Hebei Province. There he was defeated by the Yellow Emperor, which resulted in the annexation of his tribe into the Yellow Emperor’s, forming a tribal coalition strong enough to beat Chiyou, their common foe. Neither the Yan Emperor nor the Yellow Emperor was an actual person; rather, they embody the historical period when primitive society was collapsing and class society was taking shape. At that time, China’s society, economy, and culture were developing at a fast pace, and tribal wars resulting in the integration of defeated peoples were ubiquitous. The merger of the Flame Emperor’s and the Yellow Emperor’s tribes brought about a tribe of even greater prominence. With the development of history, the Yan Emperor and the Yellow Emperor were invented as personifications of the legendary leaders and earliest ancestors of the Chinese nation.
Tomb of Yan Emperor
The Tomb (or mausoleum) of the Yan Emperor was a monumental structure in Chinese history, located near Wangjiadu, fifteen kilometers southwest of Yanling County (Hunan Province). In legend, he was believed to be an ancient Chinese chieftain surnamed Jiang. After death, he was buried in Hunan Province. Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song dynasty, found the site of the mausoleum through exploration in Hunan Province. A shrine was built at the site in 967 ce for commemoration and sacrificial offering. In front of the mausoleum, a large-scale temporary imperial palace, shrine, workshop, and other structures once existed. On one side of the mausoleum are also the sites of imperial sacrifice archways and “the Yan Emperor’s pond for herb cleaning,” erected during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The extant mausoleum was built during the Ming dynasty and then reconstructed with the rear palace and two verandas during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing dynasty.