Which is our ancestor, the Yellow Emperor or Yan Di?

Which is our ancestor, the Yellow Emperor or Yan Di? What does it matter? To know who our ancestors were, Huangdi and Yandi, we must first know something about them.

According to legend, the Yellow Emperor was able to speak soon after his birth and succeeded to the throne at the age of 20. After he succeeded to the throne, he quickly developed his own tribe and established the Huangdi tribe. Emperor Yan was the leader of the ancient tribe named Jiang, whose name was Shennong. According to legend, the bull's head and snake body of Emperor Yan were called Emperor Yan because they knew how to use fire. He invented slash-and-burn farming and made pottery. Also lead their own tribe to develop rapidly.

There were not only two tribes, but also Chiyou in the period of the Yellow Emperor and Yan Di, which formed a tripartite confrontation. The Yellow Emperor ruled his tribe in the Central Plains and Chiyou in the East. Emperor Yan once competed with Chiyou for territory in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. However, Emperor Yan was defeated and turned to the Yellow Emperor for help when he fled, so the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou fought nine battles without results. Then came the battle of Zhuolu, where the Yellow Emperor and Yan Di joined hands to fight Chiyou in Zhuoxian. With the support of the Xuan Daughter State, the Yellow Emperor also used the dusty climatic conditions at that time to confuse the Chiyou people. So the Yellow Emperor took the opportunity to defeat the Chiyou clan, unify the Central Plains and build Zhuolu as its capital. When the Yellow Emperor held a meditation ceremony, a yellow earthworm suddenly appeared in the sky, so it was called the Yellow Emperor. During the reign of the Yellow Emperor, the country was prosperous, the people were safe and developed rapidly. He calculated the calendar, taught the people to sow seeds, made heavenly stems and earthly branches, and practiced the system of per mu. According to legend, Yao, Shun, Yu and others are all his descendants.

From this point of view, if Yao Shunyu and others are his descendants, and because of his great contribution and promotion to cultural progress, they can be called our ancestors, but at that time, the Yellow Emperor and Yan Di defeated Chiyou jointly, otherwise the Yellow Emperor alone could not unify the Central Plains, so we generally say that we are descendants of the Yellow Emperor.