大禹治水　(dà yǔ zhì shuǐ)

Yu Harnesses Flooding

When the God of Heaven was having a meeting with other deities, a small dragon flew into the palace and immediately transformed into a tall young man. He pointed a finger at the God of Heaven and shouted: “Don’t be surprised. My name is Yu. I’m the son of Gun and therefore, I’m your great grandson.”

The God of Heaven was certainly shocked by the unexpected arrival of Yu because he had just sent a deity to destroy the corpse of Gun, his grandson, whose body remained intact for three years after he was killed.

The God of Heaven had ordered the execution of Gun after he stole the Magic Soil from the Heaven to build dikes to contain an overwhelming flood that had plagued lands in the east for more than 22 years.

But the God of Heaven was worried that his dead grandson might be transformed into some kind of demon to avenge himself since his corpse didn’t deteriorate for three years. So, he sent a deity to the east to destroy Gun’s corpse.

But when the deity slashed open Gun’s belly, a small dragon jumped out of it with dazzling golden rays and then immediately levitated into the sky.

The young man then told the God of Heaven that he would like to continue his father’s mission to harness the flood, but he wanted to borrow some of the Magic Soil from the heaven.

The God of Heaven thought that he had killed his grandson Gun three years ago, and now out of the blue came Yu, his great grandson. If he killed Yu, he didn’t know what the outcome would be.

So instead, he decided to accept Yu’s offer and granted him a small amount of the Magic Soil, entrusting him with the task of controlling the flood. Also, he sent another deity to go along with Yu to provide some assistance.

Armed with the Magic Soil, which could propagate into dikes and hills when it was thrown into water, Yu travelled around the lands in the east to carefully inspect the flood situation.

He first tried his father’s method of building levees to block the water, but it didn’t seem to work. This was because when the water was blocked, it began to accumulate and form a bigger flood leading to more disasters.

So Yu adopted the dredging method to direct the flood waters to flow all the way into the East Sea.

He worked day and night with people living in the deluged areas to dredge rivers and build water canals.

It was said that during the 13 years Yu spent taming the floods he passed by his home three times, but didn’t enter until he completed his task of harnessing the waters.

Also during his travels around the land, Yu met a beautiful young woman near Tu Mountain and fell in love with her. They soon got married, but Yu had to leave his bride three days after their wedding to continue his task to control the floods.

Yu eventually succeeded in bringing the situation under control. To show their appreciation, people bestowed on Yu the title “Yu the Great” and Emperor Shun also yielded his throne to him.

Around 2070 BC, Yu the Great established the Xia Dynasty, the first in Chinese history.