Fuxi, Animal Keeping and the Name Paoxi
Links between Fuxi, animal keeping and cookery grow from variant names and later explanations of a culture hero.
Historical setting
Fuxi is at once a culture hero, ancestral deity and figure in royal genealogy. Trigrams, nets, animal keeping, marriage and paired Fuxi–Nüwa images belong to different periods and media rather than one contemporary biography.
Texts and material evidence
Forms such as Baoxi and Paoxi were associated by commentators with domestic animals and the kitchen, but no single etymology is conclusive.
What the sources show
Reading “Fuxi, Animal Keeping and the Name Paoxi” requires separating its narrative role, the date of the surviving wording, and whether images or sites independently support the same conclusion. Details without a traceable witness remain later interpretation rather than early evidence.
Comparative reading
Yijing: Xici II preserves the influential accounts of trigrams and hunting nets. Han visual culture pairs Fuxi with Nüwa, while later genealogies and local worship add further roles.
Cultural significance
The interpretations show how written names generated further achievements.
Continue reading
Why Are Nets and Hunting Attributed to Fuxi? · Did Fuxi Establish Marriage?
References
- The Fuxi passage in Yijing: Xici II
- Three Sovereigns material in Baihu Tongyi and related works
- Han reliefs, bricks and paintings of Fuxi and Nüwa