Yu the Great Yu the Great (Chinese: 大禹; pinyin: Dà Yǔ, c. 2200 on the slopes of Mount Song, just south of the Yellow – 2100 BC)*[1] was a legendary ruler in ancient China River.*[13] He later married a woman from Mount Tu famed for his introduction of flood control, inaugurating (Chinese: 塗山) who is generally referred to as Tushan- dynastic rule in China by founding the Xia Dynasty, and shi (塗山氏; “Lady Tushan”).*[14] They had a son for his upright moral character.*[2]*[3] named Qi, a name literally meaning “revelation”.*[14] The dates proposed for Yu's reign precede the oldest The location of Mount Tu has always been disputed. known written records in China, the oracle bones of the The two most probable locations are Mount Tu in Anhui late Shang dynasty, by nearly a millennium.*[4] No in- Province and the Tu Peak of the Southern Mountain in scriptions on artifacts from the supposed era of Yu, nor Chongqing Municipality. the later oracle bones, make any mention of Yu; he does not appear in inscription until vessels dating to the Western Zhou period (c. 1045–771 BC). The lack of any- 2 Great Yu Controls the Waters thing remotely close to contemporary documentary evi- dence has led to some controversy over the historicity of Yu. Proponents of the historicity of Yu theorise that sto- ries about his life and reign were transmitted orally in var- ious areas of China until they were recorded in the Zhou dynasty,*[5] while opponents believe the figure existed in legend in a different form - as a god or mythical animal - in the Xia dynasty, and morphed into a human figure by the start of the Zhou dynasty. Many of the stories about Yu were collected in Sima Qian's famous Records of the Grand Historian. Yu and other “sage-kings”of Ancient China were lauded for their virtues and morals by Confucius and other Chinese teachers.*[6] Yu is one of the few Chinese rulers posthumously hon- ored with the epithet "the Great". 1 Ancestry and early life For a family tree, see: Family tree of ancient Chinese emperors According to several ancient Chinese records, Yu was the 8th great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor: Yu's father Gun was the 5th great-grandson of Emperor Zhuanxu; Zhuanxu's father, Changyi, was the second son of the Yel- low Emperor.*[7]*[8]*[9]*[10] Yu was said to have been born at Mount Wen (汶 山), in modern-day Beichuan Han Dynasty depiction of Yu. County, Sichuan Province,*[11] though there are debates as to whether he was born in Shifang instead.*[12] Yu's mother was of the Youxin clan named either Nüzhi (女 Main article: Great Flood (China) 志) or Nüxi (女嬉). When Yu was a child, his father Gun moved the people During the reign of king Yao, the Chinese heartland was east toward the Central Plain. King Yao enfeoffed Gun frequently plagued by floods that prevented further eco- as lord of Chong, usually identified as the middle peak nomic and social development.*[15] Yu's father, Gun, of Mount Song. Yu is thus believed to have grown up was tasked with devising a system to control the flooding. 1 2 3 THE NINE PROVINCES He spent more than nine years building a series of dikes rendering countless number of people homeless, he could and dams along the riverbanks, but all of this was ineffec- not rest.*[14]*[18] tive, despite (or because of) the great number and size of Yu supposedly killed Gong Gong's minister Xiangliu, a these dikes and the use of a special self-expanding soil. nine-headed snake monster. As an adult, Yu continued his father's work and made a careful study of the river systems in an attempt to learn why his father's great efforts had failed. 3 The Nine Provinces Collaborating with Houji, a semi-mythical agricultural master about whom little is concretely known, Yu suc- Main articles: Yu Gong, Nine Provinces (China) and cessfully devised a system of flood controls that were cru- Nine Tripod Cauldrons cial in establishing the prosperity of the Chinese heart- land. Instead of directly damming the rivers' flow, Yu made a system of irrigation canals which relieved flood- King Shun, who reigned after Yao, was so impressed by water into fields, as well as spending great effort dredging Yu's engineering work and diligence that he passed the the riverbeds.*[9] Yu is said to have eaten and slept throne to Yu instead of to his own son. Yu is said to have with the common workers and spent most of his time initially declined the throne, but was so popular with other personally assisting the work of dredging the silty beds local lords and chiefs that he agreed to become the new of the rivers for the thirteen years the projects took to emperor, at the age of fifty-three. He established a capital complete. The dredging and irrigation were successful, at Anyi (Chinese: 安邑), the ruins of which are in mod- and allowed ancient Chinese culture to flourish along the ern Xia County in southern Shanxi Province, and founded Yellow River, Wei River, and other waterways of the Chi- what would be called the Xia Dynasty, traditionally con- nese heartland. The project earned Yu renown through- sidered China's first dynasty.*[19] out Chinese history, and is referred to in Chinese history Yu's flood control work is said to have made him inti- 大禹治 as “Great Yu Controls the Waters” (Chinese: mately familiar with all regions of what was then Han 水 ; pinyin: Dà Yǔ Zhì Shuǐ). In particular, Mount Long- Chinese territory. According to his Yu Gong treatise in men along the Yellow River had a very narrow channel the Book of Documents, Yu divided the Chinese“world” which blocked water from flowing freely east toward the into nine zhou or provinces. These were Jizhou (冀 ocean. Yu is said to have brought a large number of work- 州), Yanzhou (兗 州), Qingzhou (青 州), Xuzhou (徐 ers to open up this channel, which has been known ever 州), Yangzhou (揚州), Jingzhou (荊州), Yuzhou (豫州), “ ” 禹門口 * since as Yu's Gateway (Chinese: ). [9] Liangzhou (梁州) and Yongzhou (雍州).*[20] According to the Rites of Zhou there was no Xuzhou 2.1 Apocryphal stories or Liangzhou, instead there were Youzhou (幽州) and Bingzhou (并州), but according to the Erya there was In a mythical version of this story, presented in Wang Jia's no Qingzhou or Liangzhou, instead there was Youzhou 4th century AD work Shi Yi Ji, Yu is assisted in his work (幽州) and Yingzhou (營州).*[20] Either way there were by a yellow dragon and a black turtle (not necessarily re- nine divisions. Once he had received bronze from these lated to the Black Tortoise of Chinese mythology).*[16] nine territories, he created ding vessels called the Nine Another local myth says that Yu created the Sanmenxia Tripod Cauldrons.*[21] Yu then established his capital at "Three Passes Gorge" of the Yangzi River by cutting a Yang City (陽城).*[22] According to the Bamboo An- mountain ridge with a divine battle-axe to control flood- nals, Yu killed one of the northern leaders, Fangfeng (防 ing.*[17] 風) to reinforce his hold on the throne.*[23]*[24] Traditional stories say that Yu sacrificed a great deal of his body to control the floods. For example, his hands were said to be thickly callused, and his feet were com- pletely covered with callus. In one common story, Yu had only been married four days when he was given the task of fighting the flood. He said goodbye to his wife, saying that he did not know when he would return. During the thirteen years of flooding, he passed by his own family's doorstep three times, but each time he did not return in- side his own home. The first time he passed, he heard that his wife was in labor. The second time he passed by, his son could already call out to his father. His family urged him to return home, but he said it was impossible as the flood was still going on. The third time Yu was pass- ing by, his son was older than ten years old. Each time, Yu refused to go in the door, saying that as the flood was Yu mausoleum in Shaoxing 5.2 Modern 3 4 Death morphed into the first man, who could control water, and it was only during the Zhou Dynasty that the legendary figures that now precede Yu were added to the orthodox legendary lineage. 5.2 Modern In the Republic of China era Sun Yat-sen envisioned great plans for water control like Yu the Great, includ- ing a 30 million horsepower dam across the Yangtze River.*[28] However the plans did not come into be- ing as the Kuomintang were at war with Japan and the Communist Party of China.*[28]*[29] Beichuan, Wenchuan and Dujiangyan towns in Sichuan have all made claims to be the birthplace of Yu the great.*[30] Yu temple in Yu mausoleum According to the Bamboo Annals, Yu ruled the Xia Dy- nasty for forty-five years and, according to Yue Jueshu (越 6 See also 絕書), he died from an illness.*[24]*[25] It is said that he died at Mount Kuaiji, south of present-day Shaoxing, • Chinese emperors family tree (ancient) while on a hunting tour to the eastern frontier of his • empire, and was buried there.