Huandou

Huandou
驩兜
17th Century, bird-like depiction of Huandou based on the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
Ruler of the Sanmiao tribe
Reign? - c. 2247 BCE
PredecessorGonggong
Bornc. 21st Century BCE
Sanmiao tribe
DiedMt. Chong (崇山)
Modern-day Liyang County, Henan
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese驩兜
Simplified Chinese欢兜
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHuāndōu

Huandou or Huantou was a Miao ruler of the Sanmiao tribe in ancient Chinese tradition, known for his exile and branding as one of the Four Criminals during the reign of Emperor Shun of the Youyu clan. Later texts regard Huandou as a mythical creature or state. Little is known about Huandou beyond posthumous accounts, particularly in the Chinese classics and Confucian texts.

Name and identification

Huandou's name is recorded in several ways, all of which generally read the same: 歡/讙兜 Huandou, 讙/驩頭 Huantou,[1] 鴅兜 Huandou,[2] and 鴅吺 Huandou.[3]

Zhang Shoujie identifies Huandou as a being synonymous with Hundun, a mythical creature symbolising the primordial chaos.[4] Lüshi Chunqiu identifies Huandou as the name of a state (驩兜之國) rather than a person, something echoed in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, which synthesises this with the person narrative.[5][1] However, this could be interpreted as "Huandou's Kingdom" or something similar given the use of (之) zhi.

Reign

Huandou ruled during a time where the Miao people maintained shaky relations with the neighbouring Taotang and Youyu clans. At the same time, a great flood devastated the region, and Emperor Yao sought to find someone to bring them under control. Huandou recommended Gonggong, at the time the ruler of his clan, to which Yao rejected him, believing him to be a rebellious and flawed leader.[6] Gonggong was eventually banished to Youzhou.[7]

Huandou would resist the rule of Emperor Yao on two occasions. First, he resisted a military expedition led by Shun, and then one by Yu the Great.[8][9] The invasion by Yu led to Huandou retreating to Mt. Chong (崇山), where he was branded as one of the Four Criminals, and the Youyu clan gained hegemony over the region.[10][11]

During a second invasion from Yu the Great, Huandou would finally be defeated, leading to the destruction of the Sanmiao, who would not appear again in the historical record for another 1,000 years.[12][13]

Ancestry

Some classics, such as the Zuo Zhuan, list Hundun as a member of the Di Hong clan (帝鴻氏), which was identified by Ming scholars as referring to Huandou under the tradition of Zhang Shoujie.[14] The Classic of Mountains and Seas records Huandou as a descendant of Zhuanxu, the progenitor of the Youyu clan and himself a descendant of the Yellow Emperor. Another account from the same text claims he is the grandson of Gun, Earl of Chong.[1]

Legacy

The Classic of Mountains and Seas describes a "Huandou Country" (驩頭之國) which appears to have appeared after his death. It also mythologises Huandou, depicting him as a bird-beaked man with wings, eating fish from the sea.[1] Huandou, along with Chi You, is claimed by the modern Miao people as their progenitor.[15]

Historicity

As Huandou is known from transmitted early Chinese texts, there is no contemporary evidence of Huandou's existence, as there is little to no evidence of literary prior to the Shang dynasty. Although texts such as the Book of Documents and Records of the Grand Historian treat them as a figure of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period, no contemporaneous inscription, excavated document, or archaeological find has been identified that verifies him as a historical individual. Since the earliest securely attested Chinese writing belongs to the Late Shang period, figures placed in the earliest received history cannot be confirmed. For example, the Great flood narrative that indirectly led to the Xia dynasty's foundation is severely disputed on geological grounds.[16][17][18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Sturgeon, Donald (ed.). 山海經 (in Literary Chinese). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  2. ^ 《神異經》南荒經云：「南方有人，人面鳥喙而有翼，手足扶翼而行，食海中魚，有翼不足以飛，一名鴅兜。書曰：『放鴅兜於崇山。』一名驩兜。」
  3. ^ 錢仲聯集釋：「《史記》『鴅吺』，即『驩兜』字。古文《尚書》亦以『驩兜』為『鴅吺』，堯放之於崇山，靳尚、鴅吺皆在南方，恐其為鬼為祟，故欲沉射之也。」韓愈《遠遊聯句》：「繫石沉靳尚，開弓射鴅吺 。」
  4. ^ Shiji Zhengyi "Volume 1" Siku Quanshu version, Zhejiang university's copy p. 133 pf 156
  5. ^ Lü, Buwei. "恃君". 呂氏春秋 (in Literary Chinese). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved 16 June 2026. 非滨之东，夷、秽之乡，大解、陵鱼、其、鹿野、摇山、扬岛、大人之居，多无君；扬、汉之南，百越之际，敝凯诸、夫风、馀靡之地，缚娄、阳禺、驩兜之国，多无君；氐、羌、呼唐、离水之西，僰人、野人、篇笮之川，舟人、送龙、突人之乡，多无君
  6. ^ Fu, Sheng. "堯典". In Sturgeon, Donald (ed.). 尚書 [Book of Documents] (in Literary Chinese). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved 16 June 2026. 帝曰：「疇咨若予采？」驩兜曰：「都！共工方鳩僝功。」帝曰：「吁！靜言庸違，象恭滔天。」
  7. ^ Meng, Ke. "萬章上". In Sturgeon, Donald (ed.). 孟子 [Mencius] (in Literary Chinese). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved 16 June 2026. 萬章曰：「舜流共工于幽州，放驩兜于崇山，殺三苗于三危，殛鯀于羽山，四罪而天下咸服，誅不仁也。象至不仁，封之有庳。有庳之人奚罪焉？仁人固如是乎？在他人則誅之，在弟則封之。
  8. ^ Yüeh-hwa, Lin (1941). "The Miao–Man Peoples of Kweichow". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 5 (3/4): 261–345. doi:10.2307/2717915. JSTOR 2717915.
  9. ^ Sturgeon, Donald (ed.). "帝舜有虞氏". 竹書紀年 (in Literary Chinese). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved 16 June 2026. 三十五年，帝命夏后征有苖，有苖氏來朝。
  10. ^ Fu, Sheng. "舜典". In Sturgeon, Donald (ed.). 尚書 (in Literary Chinese). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved 16 June 2026. 象以典刑，流宥五刑，鞭作官刑，扑作教刑，金作贖刑。眚災肆赦，怙終賊刑。欽哉，欽哉，惟刑之恤哉！流共工于幽洲，放驩兜于崇山，竄三苗于三危，殛鯀于羽山，四罪而天下咸服。
  11. ^ Sima, Qian. "五帝本紀，夏本紀". In Sturgeon, Donald (ed.). 史記 [Records of the Grand Historian] (in Literary Chinese). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  12. ^ Guo, Qiyong (2024). The Spirit of Chinese Confucianism. Fudan University Press. p. 91. doi:10.1007/978-981-99-4799-7. ISBN 978-981-99-4798-0.
  13. ^ Cha, Ya Po (2014). An Introduction to Hmong Culture. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786459889.
  14. ^ Chen 陳, Yumo 禹謨; Lin 林, Yongping 永平; Jiang 江, He 和 (1615). 經言枝旨. Great Ming: Shidianguji. Retrieved 16 June 2026. 左傳：帝鴻氏有不才子，掩義隱賊，好行凶德，醜類惡物，頑囂不友，是與比周，天下之民謂之渾敦。杜預云：即驩兜也。帝鴻，黄帝也。國名紀云：以嬖臣狐攻，專權亡國。今弘農有地名兜志爲驩兜之都。
  15. ^ Indigenous experience today. London: New York Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 2020. ISBN 978-1-84520-519-5.
  16. ^ Wu, Qinglong; Zhao, Zhijun; Liu, Li; Granger, Darryl E.; Wang, Hui; Cohen, David J.; Wu, Xiaohong; Ye, Maolin; Bar-Yosef, Ofer; Lu, Bin; Zhang, Jin; Zhang, Peizhen; Yuan, Daoyang; Qi, Wuyun; Cai, Linhai; Bai, Shibiao (5 August 2016). "Outburst flood at 1920 BCE supports historicity of China's Great Flood and the Xia dynasty". Science. 353 (6299): 579–582. doi:10.1126/science.aaf0842. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  17. ^ Han, Jian-Chiu (31 March 2017). "Comment on "Outburst flood at 1920 BCE supports historicity of China's Great Flood and the Xia dynasty"". Science. 355 (6332): 1382–1382. doi:10.1126/science.aal1369.
  18. ^ Ding, Ke; Li, Siyang; Ding, Aijun; Lu, Houyuan; Zhang, Jianping; Xi, Dazhi; Huang, Xin; Lou, Sijia; Tang, Xiaodong; Qiu, Xin; He, Lejun; Ma, Yue; Lin, Haoxian; Zhang, Shiyan; Zhou, Derong; Zhou, Xiaolu; Tan, Zhe-Min; Fu, Congbin; Ge, Quansheng (6 March 2026). "Archeological data with AI- and physics-based modeling explain typhoon-induced disasters in inland China around 3000 yr B.P." Science Advances. 12 (10). doi:10.1126/sciadv.aeb1598. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
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