The Chinese people regard Suiren, Fuxi and Shennong as the earliest rulers and are collectively known as the Three Sage Kings. They made important contribution to improve the lives of the Chinese people.
The first sage King was Suiren (approx. 16,000 BC) who reputedly discovered how to make fire by drilling wood. With fire mankind could eat cooked food, keep warm and protect themselves from wild animals.
Fuxi taught people to domesticate animals and make nets to catch fish, birds and wild animals, ensuring a continuous supply of food. He also laid down marriage laws and invented a 35 string musical instrument. However most important of all, he create the Eight Trigram or Bagua which became the basis of the I Ching or Books of Changes.
Shennong alias Yandi was credited with the invention of the rake, spade, plough and sickle. He taught people how to grow five types of cereals and he formulated barter trade. He was also credited for modifying Fuxi's 35 strings musical instrument into a 5 strings one.
However he was best remembered for tasting hundreds of wild herbs to find remedies to treat illnesses. In the process he suffered continually from poisoning and eventually die from eating one too many.
After the Three Sage Kings, come the Five Legendary Emperors, Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Diki, Yao and Shun.
Huangdi was a great leader. He understands how to select able men and motivate them to help him rule the country and come out with innovations.
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.
Huangdi was a peaceful man who did not like war. During his rule, his people enjoyed peace, stability and prosperity and it ushered in an age of civilization for the Chinese people.
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.
Like his great grandfather, Diku who succeeded Zhuanxu, was a benevolent king who took care of the interest of his people. To better manage the growing population, he created additional ministry with properly demarcated duties such as the Ministry of Land, Water, Metal Ores, Fire and Forestry. He conducted personal visits to ensure that that the country was well run.
Diku was succeeded by his son Yao. Yao was very much like his father - benevolent and industrious. He improved the calendar system and modified planting to produce bigger harvests.
After Yao come Shun who was his son in law. Shun was ill treated by his step mother and father when he was a child. Despite this he continued to be filial and this earned him a lot of respect and fame. King Yao summoned Shun to his court to assist him. Shun eventually 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 succeeded by Yu who founded the Xia Dynasty. Yu was famed for his ability to control flooding but that is another story for another time.
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