Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms, Volume 32

Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms: Volume 12, Figures

Page Eight

Panhu originates from the palace of Emperor Ku of the Gaoxin clan Emperor Ku (or Gaoxin) is one of the Five legendary Emperors of high antiquity, traditionally said to have reigned in the 3rd millennium BCE. An elderly woman in the palace suffered from an ear ailment; when she picked at it, she removed an object shaped like a silk cocoon. She placed it inside a gourd original: "hu" shell and covered it with a plate original: "pan".

Before long, the object transformed into a dog with five-colored fur. Because of the circumstances of its birth, it was named Panhu.

At that time, there was an invasion by the Quanrong Quanrong; literally "Dog-Barbarians," a nomadic group who were historical rivals of the early Zhou and Han peoples. None of the Emperor’s soldiers could capture the enemy leader, General Fang. The Emperor issued a decree that he would grant his daughter’s hand in marriage to anyone who could bring him the head of the General.

Soon after, the Panhu dog arrived at the palace gates carrying a human head in its mouth; it was indeed the head of General Fang. The Emperor was overjoyed but was unsure how to proceed with the reward, given the victor was a dog. However, the Princess, hearing the Emperor's decree, insisted that his word could not be broken for the sake of royal credibility and requested to follow through with the marriage.

The Emperor had no choice but to give the Princess to the dog as his wife. Panhu carried the woman on his back into the stone caves of the Southern Mountains Nanshan; likely referring to the mountainous regions of modern-day Hunan or Guangdong. After three years, they had six sons and six daughters. Their mother later reported their situation to the Emperor.

Upon welcoming the children to court, it was found that their speech was unintelligible original: "zhuru," literally meaning "dwarf-like," used here to describe a language or dialect that sounded like gibberish to the central court. The Emperor granted them the rocky mountains and the great marshes. Their descendants eventually multiplied and spread; they are the ancestors of the Man Man; a general historical term for various non-Han ethnic groups of southern China of the Changsha and Wuling regions.