The Great Yu and the terrible Flood
Legend has it that some four or five thousand years ago there occurred
once in the Yellow River valley a terrible flood which washed away whole
villages with their houses and inundated large areas of cropland. Many
people lost their lives in the flood and those who were fortunate enough
to survive were forced to abandon their homes and go and live on hillsides
or migrate to places far, far away.
At that time, the leader of the confederation of tribes was a man named
Yao who at once summoned together the chieftains of all the tribes to
discuss how to get the flood under control. At the meeting, a man named
Gun was elected by unanimous vote to take charge of the fight against
the flood.
Under Gun's leadership, the people spent nine long years building dams
and dykes to stop the flow of the rivers. All the efforts however ended
only in more disastrous floods. It happened more than once that no sooner
was a dam or dyke built than it was destroyed by flood which carried sands
and mud downstream until the mouth of the Yellow River was choked up and
the afflicted areas became larger and larger while the number of victims
increased.
By this time Yao himself was getting very old and so he yielded his place
to one named Shun who attached great importance to flood control and went
to the work sites for a personal inspection. When he found that Gun had
failed in his mission, he first had him incarcerated on Feather Hill and
then killed. After that he gave orders that Gun's son Yu should carry
on the work of fighting the flood.
There have been many mythical stories about Yu's birth. One is that three
years after Gun was killed, his dead body still showed no signs of putrefaction
and when someone cut it open, out bounded the boy Yu. Another has it that
Yu's mother gave birth to him after eating a kind of wild fruit. Anyway,
in ancient times everyone seemed to believe that Yu was the son of a god,
an ingenious, capable and peerless hero.
It was barely four days after he got married when Yu received Shun's order.
Determined to have the flood under control and remove the menace to the
people, he left his wife behind and set off for the work site.
Yu first made a study of the causes that had led to his father's failure.
Then he made a careful survey of the afflicted areas and asked for advice
from experienced workers. Knowing that water tends to flow from higher
to lower regions, he abandoned Gun's method of building dams and dykes
to stop the flow of waters. Instead he led his men in digging ditches
and canals to divert the flood and also in dredging the river channels
so as to provide outlets for the floods into the sea. In those days there
was a high mountain, Mount Longmen, in the upper reaches of the Yellow
River that blocked the way of the river. When the turbulent waters reached
the mountain, it overflowed the banks, causing floods in the vicinity.
In order to cut a canal into the mountain, Yu turned himself into a bear
and stole into the mountains to do the digging. He also enlisted the help
of Ying Long, Huang Di's brave warrior. Eventually, he succeeded in cutting
a canal through Mount Longmen and thus made it possible for the floods
to flow by way of this canal and the dredged rivers into the sea.
Rain or shine, Yu worked in the midst of his men, digging and taking earth
away all through the four seasons of a year. His face became sun-burnt
and his body spare and thin. Even the hair on his calves was worn away.
But he was so dedicated that it was said that he had three times refrained
from entering the door of his home when he was passing by. One story has
it that he happened to be passing the door when his wife was giving birth
to his son Qi. He heard the baby crying, but in order to get the flood
under control as early as he could he turned away from his door.
Thus after thirteen long years of continuous efforts, Yu and his men succeeded
in dredging all the rivers, big and small, and in doing away with the
evil of flood. Those who had gone to live on hillsides or had migrated
to remote places now came back to their native places. Under Yu's leadership,
they tilled the land and planted crops and developed agricultural production.
As a result, people were beginning to lead a good life.
Yu was held in great reverence by all the tribes who now addressed him
as Yu the Great. Shun was convinced that Yu had both fine qualities and
great competence and so recommended him as his successor. After the death
of Shun, Yu became the head of the tribal confederation. Later his own
son Qi set himself as the successor and it was Qi that set up the first
slave-owning state in Chinese history - the Xia Dynasty.