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Fu Hsi or Fuxi (伏羲; pinyin fú xī; Pao-hsi), traditional dates 2852 BCE-2738 BCE), was the mythical First sovereign of ancient China. He is a culture hero and 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. There is a legendary account that Fu Hsi had the arrangement of the trigrams (八卦 bā gùa) of the I Ching revealed to him supernaturally.

See also: Nuwa, Chinese mythology, Sanhuangwudi

• Chinese gods