Di Ku

Also Known As: 帝嚳, Emperor Ku; also called Gaoxin, 高辛, or Gaoxin Shi, the lord of Gaoxin
Region/Culture: East Asia
Mythos: Chinese Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Heroes and Mortals
Mythical Attributes: Di Ku is the legendary sage ruler who spoke his own name at birth, had music and instruments made for his court, and set phoenixes dancing to them.
Role in Mythos: He is the third of the Five Emperors in the Shiji, a great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor, and the ancestor to whom the Shang and Zhou royal houses and the sage king Yao were all traced.
Relation to Humans: He is remembered as a ruler who took what the land gave, used it sparingly and kept nothing for himself. Later dynasties valued him mostly as a forefather, since descent from him was a claim to the right to rule.

The first thing the baby did was say his own name. Nobody had given him one yet. He lay there, newly born, and announced who he was, and the household understood that this child was not going to be ordinary.

That is how the historian Sima Qian opens his account of Di Ku, in the first chapter of the Shiji, written around 100 BCE. The child was called Gaoxin. He was a great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor, through a branch that had gone two generations without holding power. His grandfather Xuanxiao never ruled. His father Jiaoji never ruled. Gaoxin did, coming to the throne after his kinsman Zhuanxu, and as ruler he is known as Ku, with the title Di in front of it. He is the third of the Five Emperors, the line of perfect kings that Chinese tradition placed at the start of its history.

Sima Qian’s portrait is all virtue and very little event. Ku gave widely and kept nothing back for himself. His hearing reached far and his sight caught small things. He took the wealth of the soil and spent it with care. He taught the people, reckoned the days by the sun and moon and went out to greet each as it came round, and served the spirits with respect. He was kind but carried weight, generous but kept his word. His face was bright. His clothes were those of a plain gentleman. Wherever sunlight fell and rain blew, the account says, people followed him. It is a fine character reference. It is not a story.

The stories are elsewhere. The Lushi Chunqiu, a compendium finished in 239 BCE, has a chapter on the origins of music, and Ku has a part in it. He orders a man named Xianhei to compose songs, and three are named: the Nine Summons, the Six Ranks and the Six Blossoms. A craftsman called Chui builds the instruments for them, hide drums and bronze bells, hanging chime stones, pipes, clay ocarinas, bamboo flutes and hand drums. Then Ku has his people clap and beat the drums, strike the bells and stones, and blow the pipes. The hall fills with it, the thud of hide and the long cold ring of bronze. And he commands the phoenix and the sky pheasant to dance. They do. The emperor, the text says, is delighted.

A ritual text of the Han age adds that he rode a dragon in spring and summer and a horse in autumn and winter. A later chronicle, the Bamboo Annals, gives him a double row of teeth and a reign of sixty-three years, and has blind musicians at the drums while the phoenixes beat their wings.

His household was less harmonious than his orchestra. In the Zuo Zhuan, a statesman named Zichan explains an illness of the ruler of Jin by telling an old tale. Gaoxin had two sons, Ebo the elder and Shichen the younger. They lived in a great forest and could not stand each other. Every day they reached for shield and spear. In the end the brothers were sent to opposite ends of the world. Ebo went to Shangqiu and was given charge of the star of the Shang people. Shichen went to Daxia and was given charge of the star Shen. Those two stars, in Scorpius and Orion, are never in the sky together. One sets as the other rises, so the brothers have not seen each other since.

Then there is the dog. The Hou Hanshu, a history of the fifth century CE, tells how Gaoxin was troubled by raiders and promised gold, land and his own daughter to whoever brought him the head of their general. His five-coloured dog Panhu trotted in with the head in his jaws. The emperor hesitated. The princess held him to his word, went off into the southern hills with the dog, and became the mother of peoples there.

What made Ku matter, though, was his children by other wives, and the texts had to work to fit them in. The Shiji gives him two wives outright. A woman of the Chenfeng clan bore Fangxun, and a woman of the Juzi clan bore Zhi. When Ku died, Zhi took the throne and ruled badly. He died in turn, and his brother Fangxun followed him. Fangxun is the sage king Yao. Other chapters of the same history attach two more queens. Jiang Yuan, called his first consort, stepped in a giant’s footprint in the fields and conceived Houji, lord of millet and founder of the Zhou line. Jiandi, called his second, swallowed the egg of a dark bird and conceived Xie, founder of the Shang. Neither child is his by blood in those tales. A footprint and an egg did the work. He is the husband standing nearby, which was enough to bring two rival royal houses into one family under the Yellow Emperor.

So Ku’s strength is of an odd kind. He can make a phoenix dance and a newborn speak, and his rule reaches as far as the weather. His name at the head of a genealogy is worth a kingdom. But he could not keep two of his sons from fighting or stop a third from ruling badly, and he could not get out of a promise made to a dog. In the oldest accounts of his most famous children he is not even the father. He holds the family tree together and does very little else in it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Di Ku in Chinese mythology?

Di Ku, also called Gaoxin, is a legendary sage ruler of early China and the third of the Five Emperors in Sima Qian’s Shiji. He is described as a great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor who took the throne after Zhuanxu. He is the father of the sage king Yao.

What is Di Ku known for?

Di Ku is known for speaking his own name at birth and for ruling with generosity and restraint. The Lushi Chunqiu says he had Xianhei compose songs and Chui build drums, bells, chime stones, pipes and flutes, and then ordered phoenixes to dance to the music. He is also remembered as the ancestor of the Shang and Zhou royal houses.

Who were the children of Di Ku?

The Shiji names two sons, Zhi and Fangxun, and Fangxun became the sage king Yao after Zhi ruled badly. Houji, founder of the Zhou line, and Xie, founder of the Shang, are counted as sons through his consorts Jiang Yuan and Jiandi, though each was conceived by a miracle. The Zuo Zhuan adds two quarrelling sons, Ebo and Shichen.

What is the story of Ebo and Shichen?

Ebo and Shichen were two sons of Gaoxin who lived in a great forest and fought each other every day. They were separated, with Ebo sent to Shangqiu to tend the star of the Shang people and Shichen sent to Daxia to tend the star Shen. The two stars are never seen in the sky at the same time.

How is Di Ku connected to the dog Panhu?

In the Hou Hanshu, Gaoxin promised his daughter to whoever brought him the head of an enemy general, and his five-coloured dog Panhu brought it. The princess insisted the promise be kept and went with Panhu into the southern hills. Their children became the ancestors of peoples there.