Chinese folklores has many stories about heroes who makes contributions to the improvements of the life of the ancient Chinese people, with their outstanding wisdom, courage or perseverance. Sui Ren is one of them. As his name suggests, he taught people the way to make a fire. 

People living in the times barely had any knowledge on fire, not to mention using it. When night falls, the people were surrounded by endless darkness and the cries of fierce beasts. They could only clang together in the forest and shiver with fear. Without fire, they could only eat the raw meat and drink the unboiled water. Therefore, illness and death frequented them often and their living span was short.

The pains and hardships of these earthly people dreaded a god in heaven called Fuxi. He wanted to teach them the use of fire. So he made a heavy rain to the forest where these people lived. Lightness cracked on the trees and soon the woods began to burn. The fire and the lightness frightened people. When the rain was over, people gathered again to their living place, still frightened by the burning sticks. But a young man noticed that the cries of the beats surrounded them every day was gone. Are they driven away by these shining things, he asked himself. Gathering enough courage, he went closer to the fire and felt the warmness of it was especially welcoming in the cold wetness of the forest. He called over his folk people to let them enjoy the warmness. Even excitedly, they found the burnt dead bodies of the beasts tasted much better than the raw ones. Afterwards, they began to feel the comfort of fire; they tried to keep the fire burning with wood sticks. They sent people to keep the fire every day. But one day, the man on duty fell asleep and the fire was down. People were again surrounded by cold and darkness.

Seeing this, the God Fuxi came into the dream of the young man and told him there was a fire source in a far away country called Suming Country. The young man woke up and decided to find the fire. Determined to find the fire, he climbed over mountains, went through rivers, dangerous forests, and endured many hardships. At last, he arrived at the said Suming Country. To his disappointment, he found no shining fire, only endless darkness, day and night. However, when the exhausted young man lay himself down a tree called Sui Mu, for a rest, he saw a small light flashed once, than again. The flashing light came from the Sui Mu trunk where the woodpecker pecked. This enlightened him. He tried various kinds of small wood sticks to drill the Sui Mu trunk. Finally, smoke came out, then fire.

The young man came back home with his fire-making method. From then on, man does not have to live in the cold and fear any longer. They were by his intelligence and perseverance and made him their chief. He was given the name Suren, literally means the man who brings the fire.