Yu the Great- Chinese HeroHero"Tamer of Floods"

The Flood and Gun's Failure

In the age of Emperor Yao, the waters rose. The Shanhaijing traces the disaster to Gonggong, the water god, who crashed into Mount Buzhou, one of the pillars holding up the sky. The sky tilted. The waters poured across the earth and did not recede.

Yao appointed Gun, Yu's father, to stop the flooding. Gun built dams. For nine years he raised levees higher and higher, and for nine years the water rose above them. The Shujing records that he stole divine soil called Xirang from heaven to build his barriers. It was not enough. When Emperor Shun succeeded Yao, he judged Gun a failure and had him executed. The flood remained.

Thirteen Years

Yu inherited his father's task. He did not repeat his father's method. Where Gun had built walls against the water, Yu dug channels to guide it. The water wanted the sea. Yu would give it a path.

For thirteen years he labored. He dug channels and organized armies of workers to cut through mountains. He walked the length of the flooded realm with his surveying tools. He measured the depth of waters and the slope of land.

During those thirteen years, he passed his own home three times and never entered. He could hear his son crying inside and his wife calling his name. The flood threatened every family. He could not stop for his own.

The work wrecked his body. His calves were worn nearly off from wading through mud. His fingernails broke from digging. His skin went black from sun and rain. He walked with a shambling gait so distinctive it became known as the Yu step, and Daoist priests later adopted it as a ritual movement.

The Turtle and the Dragon

Yu received help. A great turtle surfaced in the Luo River carrying a diagram on its shell: the Luo Shu, a grid of numbers where every row and column and diagonal sums to fifteen. Yu used this pattern to organize his hydraulic works according to cosmic principles.

A yellow dragon dragged its tail through the earth to carve new channels. Yu also fought what the flood had set loose. He confronted Gonggong and forced the demon Wuzhiqi to submit. The work was drainage and monster-slaying both.

The Nine Cauldrons

With the flood controlled, Yu divided the realm into nine provinces based on the geography he had walked for thirteen years. The Shujing preserves his survey in the Yu Gong chapter: nine provinces, each with its rivers and tributes catalogued.

He cast nine great bronze tripod cauldrons, one for each province. The cauldrons were inscribed with maps of their territories and images of the demons that lurked within them, so that future rulers would know what they governed. Possession of the nine cauldrons meant the right to rule. They passed from the Xia to the Shang to the Zhou, and when the Zhou fell, the cauldrons sank into the Si River and were lost.

The Xia

Emperor Shun named Yu his successor. When Shun died, Yu became emperor and founded the Xia dynasty. Both Yao and Shun had chosen successors by merit. Yu broke the pattern: his son Qi succeeded him, and the hereditary principle held for four thousand years of Chinese dynasties after.