Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲) is a culture hero in Chinese mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking, as well as the Cangjie system of writing Chinese characters around 2900 BC or 2000 BC. Fuxi was counted as the first mythical emperor of China, "a divine being with a serpent's body" who was miraculously born, a Taoist deity, and/or a member of the Three Sovereigns at the beginning of the Chinese dynastic period.
Fuxi and Nüwa. Hanging scroll. Color on silk. Located at the Chinese History Museum.
Fuxi temple in Hebei
Painting of Fuxi looking at a trigram sketch, painted by Guo Xu(郭詡) of the Ming dynasty
Emperor Fuxi, woodcut print by Gan Bozong of the Tang dynasty
Chinese mythology is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature throughout the area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology encompasses a diverse array of myths derived from regional and cultural traditions. Populated with engaging narratives featuring extraordinary individuals and beings endowed with magical powers, these stories often unfold in fantastical mythological realms or historical epochs. Similar to numerous other mythologies, Chinese mythology has historically been regarded, at least partially, as a factual record of the past.
Nine Dragons, handscroll section, by Chen Rong, AD 1244, Song dynasty, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Bronze mirror with cosmological decoration from the Belitung shipwreck, including Bagua.
The creation of the River of Heaven (Milky Way) across the sky.
Ming dynasty Water and Land ritual painting of celestial deities