Zhurong

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 Classic of Mountains and Seas gives alternative genealogies for Zhurong, including descent from both the Yan Emperor and Yellow Emperor.^[1] However, it is recorded in the suspicious part of Dahuangjing (大荒經) and Haineijing (海內經) that were written last. Some sources associate Zhurong with some of the principal early and ancient myths of China, such as those of Nüwa (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, 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 Zhuanxu), a sky god.^[5] (Again, the more historicised versions of the mythology portray Zhuanxu as a historical person; in this case an "Emperor of China"). Gaoyang also had a son, Gun, who fathered Yu the Great. The imperial clan of the 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 state of Chu.