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Fu Hsi or Fuxi (伏羲; pinyin fú xī; Pao-hsi, traditional dates 2852 BC – 2738 BC) was the first of the mythical Three Sovereigns of ancient China. He is a culture hero reputed to be the inventor of writing, fishing, and trapping.

There is no archaeological or reliable historiographical evidence for his existence. However, many traditional dictionaries or out-dated sources give dates for his existence:

• 2852 BC by Wing-tsit Chan (Chan, Wing-tsit, ed. and trans., A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy NJ: Princeton University Press: 1963.)
• 3322 BC by James Legge (Van Over, Raymond: Editor The I CHING. New York: Mentor Books: 1971.)

The Yi Jing (or I Ching) is attributed to his reading of the Ho Map, also known as The Yellow River Map. According to tradition Fu Hsi had the arrangement of the trigrams (八卦 bā gùa) of the I Ching revealed to him supernaturally. This arrangement precedes the compilation of the I Ching during the Chou dynasty. Fu Hsi is said to have discovered the arrangement in markings on the back of a mythical dragon-horse that emerged from the river Lo. This discovery is also said to have been the origin of caligraphy.

The following passage, describing Fu Hsi's significance, is from the Pai Hu T'ung by Pan Ku (32 CE – 92 CE) at the beginning of the Later Han dynasty:

In the beginning there was as yet no moral or social order. Men knew their mothers only, not their fathers. When hungry, they searched for food; when satisfied, they threw away the remnants. They devoured their food hide and hair, drank the blood, and clad themselves in skins and rushes. Then came Fu Hsi and looked upward and contemplated the images in the heavens, and looked downward and contemplated the occurrences on earth. He united man and wife, regulated the five stages of change, and laid down the laws of humanity. He devised the eight trigrams, in order to gain mastery over the world.

—Pan Ku. Pai Hu T’ung. Quoted in the I Ching, Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baines, translators (1967).

Fu Hsi taught his subjects to cook, to fish with nets, and to hunt with weapons made of iron. He instituted marriage and offered the first open air sacrifices to heaven. A stone tablet, dated 160 CE shows Fu Hsi with Nu Kua, who was either his wife or his sister.

See also: Nuwa, Chinese mythology, Sanhuangwudi

• Chinese gods