The Yellow Emperor or Huáng Dě (黄帝) is a legendary Chinese sovereign and cultural hero who is said to be the ancestor of all Chinese.
One of the Five Emperors, the Yellow Emperor is said by tradition to have reigned from 2696 - 2598 B.C.
The legend of his retreat to west in the war against the eastern Emperor Chī Yóu(蚩尤 ) at the Battle of Zhuōlù (涿鹿) is seen as the establishment of the Han Chinese nationality.
Among his other accomplishments, the Yellow Emperor has been credited with the invention of the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Nèijīng (内經, The Medical Canon of the Yellow Emperor), was supposedly composed in collaboration with his physician Qí Bó (岐伯). However, modern historiographers generally consider it to have been compiled from ancient sources by a scholar living between the Zhou and Han dynasties, more than 2000 years later.
In the legend, his wife Luózǔ (螺祖 ) taught the Chinese how to weave silk from silkworms, and his historian Cāng Jié(倉頡 ) created the first Chinese characters.
