Suiren

Suiren, from: The Dragon, Image, and Demon by Hampden C. DuBose, London 1886

Suiren (Chinese: , pinyin: suì rén), was included on some ancient lists of the legendary Three August Ones who lived long before Emperor Yao, Emperor Shun, and the emperors of the earliest historical Chinese dynasty (Xia), and even before Yellow Emperor & Yandi.

He is mentioned in ten books from the Han dynasty or earlier, five of which credit him with introducing the practice of drilling wood for fire. These five sources include three Confucian works (Bai Hu Tong, Zhong Lun, and Fengsu Tongyi), a legalist book Han Feizi, and the historical text book Gu San Fen. The other five texts which mention Suiren are Zhuangzi (aka Chuang-tzu) in two of the “Outer Chapters”, two Confucian books, Xunzi and Qian fu lun, a legalist book Guanzi, and an early etymological dictionary Shuo Wen Jie Zi.

Suiren’s innovation may have been the bow drill which dates back at least to the Indus Valley Civilization.

The character Sui 燧 includes the character for fire 火 on its left side, while the character Ren 人 means "people", or "person".

Suiren
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Nüwa
Emperor of China Succeeded by
Fuxi
Preceded by
Youchao
Emperor of China Succeeded by
Fuxi
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.