In the first annal of the Records of the Grand Historian, the opening few words of the first paragraph give the identity of the Yellow Emperor. Sima Qian, author of the records, gave considerable weight to the historicity of the emperor. For example, the Three Sovereigns has Fu Xi, Nüwa, and Yan emperor/Shennong, but he carefully chose to begin with the Yellow Emperor. He refrained from beginning the records with any of the other legendary figures of claimed greater antiquity.