Yu-huang Shang Ti

"That stubborn old man simply refuses to die."

- Osiris

Yu Huang Shang-Ti, the Jade Emperor, also known as Yu the Great or simply Yu, was one of the oldest Goa'uld System Lords.

Biography
He was part of the delegation that negotiated Earth's entry into the Asgard's Protected Planets Treaty, along with Cronus and Nirrti. He partially favored the treaty, as his interests no longer resided in that area of the Milky Way. After SG-1 revealed Nirrti's treachery, Yu was convinced to allow Earth into the treaty, and also let them keep the Stargates.

During the aftermath of the deaths of Apophis and Cronus, Yu was among those who engaged in combat with the others to come to dominate the power vacuum. He made strides against Olokun, but soon began to suffer attacks by an unknown adversary. When the System Lords gathered to end the conflict, Osiris arrived and revealed that Anubis was the one behind the attacks. Yu was the only one of the seven System Lords who voted against allowing Anubis to regain his former rank of System Lord, and was the only one among the High Council of System Lords that had banished him in the first place. Daniel Jackson, posing as his lo'taur Jarren, attempted to use Yu's tel'tak to kidnap Osiris, but Yu stumbled upon them. Osiris stabbed Yu with a knife, but Yu survived.

Yu then spent the next year campaigning against Anubis, and finally managed to rally the System Lords against Anubis. However, the sarcophagus began failing to fully restore him, and he was at a point where he was no longer able to take a host. Yu began to suffer from senility. His First Prime Oshu had to take control of his Empire to keep it from falling into anarchy. Ba'al took leadership of the United Alliance of System Lords.

When Ba'al took control of the Kull warriors, Yu was accompanied Camulus and Amaterasu to Earth to seek their help in defeating Ba'al. Yu and Amaterasu left empty handed, while Camulus sought asylum. over the next year, Amaterasu and Yu campaigned against Ba'al, while the rest of the System Lords fell, fled, or surrendered. At a meeting in the Hasara space station, Ba'al sent a a representative to negotiate their surrender. Replicator Carter arrived, posing as Samantha Carter, and she killed Yu, running him through with a blade.

Alernate realities
''In an alternate timeline where Stargate Command never existed, Yu was one of many Goa'uld that allied under the banner of Lord Ba'al and fought against the resisting rebel System Lords. He was promised a domain on Earth by Lord Ba'al upon the successful conquest of the planet.''

Personality
Yu is notable in that while Goa'uld are generally megalomaniacal and obsessed with total domination, Yu is a pragmatic villain. While certainly no friend of Earth, Yu is mostly concerned with strengthening his hold on the territory he already controls, while other Goa'uld will often haphazardly waste resources trying to conquer the entire galaxy. Yu is also often fairly willing to negotiate with Earth (as opposed to other System Lords which view all humans as just livestock) and achieve a diplomatic solution and actually more or less co-existent with Earth (Much like the Wraith known as 'Todd' is willing to co-operate with the Atlantis expedition when facing a mutual foe). However, it is stated that this is due in no small part to the fact that the territories Yu controls are on the opposite side of the Milky Way Galaxy, and thus most of the other System Lords are located between Yu and Earth: allowing Earth to survive helps destabalize Yu's Goa'uld enemies located between the two.

Another factor is simply the persona that Yu took as one of China's early emperors, which was not really considered a "god" per se. Like many other Goa'uld, Yu does generally seem to believe their own propaganda that they are gods (unlike Ba'al who privately acknowledges the falsehood of this claim and is rather flippant about it). However, Yu does not seem particularly obsessed with this and does not frequently assert it or endeavor to force others to acknowledge it (as opposed to Apophis and Sokar, who were rather self-obsessed with their status as "gods").

Behind the scenes
Two references in the series to the historical basis of Yu show a clear contradiction on the persona Yu assumed. In a briefing at the SGC, Daniel Jackson introduced Yu as "Yu the Great. He did not assume the role of a god, per se. But may have been one of China's earliest emperors... He founded the first recorded dynasty". Later, Jackson, impersonating Yu's servant, announced Yu's full title as "the Jade Emperor, the exalted Lord Yuhuang Shangti". The first reference refers to Yu the Great, founder of the Xia Dynasty, a mortal who lived in 21st century BC, and "Yu" would be written as 禹 in Chinese. The second reference refers to the Jade Emperor, a deity of Taoism developed much later on, and "Yu" would be written as 玉 in Chinese (additionally, the "u" should be pronounced more like the German pronunciation of the letter "ü" ).

It is possible, however, that Yu assumed both personas at different times.