Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors

The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors (Chinese: 三皇五帝; pinyin: sānhuáng wǔdì) were a group of mythological rulers and sheng (sages) from ancient China. Today, they are considered culture heroes, but they were widely worshipped as divine "ancestral spirits" in ancient times. According to received history, the period they existed in preceded the Xia dynasty, although they were thought to exist in later periods to an extent in incorporeal forms that aided the Chinese people, especially with the stories of Nüwa existing as a spirit in the Shang dynasty and Shennong being identified as the godly form of Hou Ji and a founder of the Zhou.

In myth, the Three Sovereigns were demigods who used their abilities to help create mankind and impart to them essential skills and knowledge. The Five Emperors were exemplary sages who possessed great moral character, and were from a golden age when "communications between the human order and the divine were central to all life" and where the sages were embodiments of the divine or aided humans in messaging divine forces.

In this period the abdication system was used before Qi of Xia violently seized power and established a hereditary monarchy.