Zhurong

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Zhurong (disambiguation).
Zhurong riding two dragons, depicted in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, 1597 edition

Zhurong (Chinese: 祝融), also known as Chongli (Chinese: 重黎)[citation needed], is an important personage in Chinese mythology and Chinese folk religion. According to the Huainanzi and the philosophical texts of Mozi and his followers, Zhurong is a god of fire and of the south.[citation needed]

The

Nüwa Mends the Heavens), Gonggong, and the Great Flood.[2] Chinese mythology has in the past been believed to be, at least in part, a factual recording of history. Thus, in the study of historical Chinese culture, many of the stories that have been told regarding characters and events which have been written or told of the distant past have a double tradition: one tradition which presents a more historicised and one which presents a more mythological version.[3] This is also true in the case of Zhurong. In Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji), Zhurong is portrayed as a historical person, who held the governmental office of Minister of Fire.[4]

Zhurong was said to be the son of Gaoyang (also known as

Qin Dynasty also claimed descent through Gaoyang (but not Zhurong). Zhurong was also claimed to be an ancestor to the eight lineages of the royal families of the Chu state
.

Genealogy

Character genealogy

One aspect of the traditional Chinese characters used in the case of Zhurong's name is that the character 融 is composed by combining the character 鬲 which refers to a ritual

David Hawkes
makes a connection between the characters in Zhurong's name and the culture and ceramic technology in ancient China.

Mythical ancestry

The

Chuci material.[6]

Description

The

Wu Liang Shrine
inscriptions describe Zhurong as:

「祝誦〔融〕氏：無所造為，未有嗜欲，刑罰未施。」
"[...]: He did nothing. He was addicted to nothing and desired nothing. And punishment were not in [his] practice."[7]

However, in one myth, Zhurong was interested in physical power and fought against Gonggong for days in a contest to see who was stronger.[8] According to the Haineijing, Gonggong is a descendant of Zhurong.[9] This raises suspicions that Haineijing(海內經)'s record was distorted in Han era for Chinese political purposes.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Yang, An & Anderson Turner 2008, p. 248.
  2. ^ Yang, An & Anderson Turner 2008, p. 124.
  3. ^ Yang, An & Anderson Turner 2008, pp. 12–13.
  4. ^ Hawkes 2011, p. 81.
  5. ^ Hawkes 2011, pp. 21 and 79.
  6. ^ a b Hawkes 2011, p. 23.
  7. ^ Barbieri, Anthony (2019). Virtual Tour of Wuzhai Shan Site, 2nd Century CE (v. 2.0). University of California, Santa Barbara. The entry for Zhurong is located at "Wu Liang" > right wall > second row of reliefs > second relief from the right
  8. OCLC 27192394
    .
  9. ^ 山海經 > 海內經 > 炎帝之妻，赤水之子聽訞生炎居，炎居生節竝，節竝生戲器，戲器生祝融，祝融降處於江水，生共工。共工生術器，術器首方顚，是復土穰，以處江水。共工生后土，后土生噎鳴，噎鳴生歳十有二

References

External links


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