Da Yu circa Taming the long and wild rivers of China
3 min readDa Yu，or Yu the Great，was a legendary hero who tamed the rivers in central and east China，which flooded frequently，to make the areas habitable for people.He then founded the Xia Dynasty（21st century-16th century BC），the first dynasty in Chinese history.
The family name of Da Yu was Si.But in Chinese mythology，he was the great grandson of the God of Heaven.According to the story，one day，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 there-fore, your great grandson.”The God of Heaven was shocked by the unexpected arri-val 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 ordered the execution of Gun after he stole the Magic Soil from heaven to build dikes and dams to contain a big flood that had plagued lands in the east for sever-al decades.
But the God of Heaven was worried his dead grandson might be transformed into some kind of demon to avenge himsince the corpse hadn’t decomposed after three years. So, he sent a deity to the east to destroy Gun’s corpse. However, when the deity slashed open Gun’s belly,a small dragon jumped out with dazzling golden rays and flew into the sky.
The young man then told the God of Heaven that he would like to continue his father’s mission to harness thefloods, but he wanted to borrow some of the Magic Soil from heaven.
The God of Heaven thought 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 out-come would be.
So instead, he accepted Yu’s offer and granted him a small amount of the Magic Soil, entrusting him with the task of controlling the floods. He also sent another deity to go along with Yu and provide some assistance.
However, in the records of history, such as Sima Qian’s “Records of the Grand Historian,”Yu was entrusted by a group of tribe chiefs with the task of controlling the flooding rivers in central and east China, including the Yellow River, now the second longest river in China and often referred to as the “Cradle of Chinese Civilization.”
Yu first traveled along the flooding rivers and tried hard to figure out why all his predecessors had failed to tame them. And he found out that they all built dams to control the flood-ing. But in fact, dams only blocked the flow of the flood water and turned it into bigger floods.
Therefore, Yu tried the dredging method to direct the flood water to flow all the way into the East Sea. It worked.
Yu spent 13 years bringing the flooding rivers under con-trol and turned central and east China into a land of abundance and prosperity.
Throughout those years, Yu lived and worked with ordi-nary farmers and workers. It was said he passed his home three times, but he didn’t enter to see his family until he completed his task of controlling the waters.
To show their appreciation for Yu’s great achievement, people called him”Yu the Great,”and Shun,a legendary em-peror, abdicated his throne to Yu.
Around 2070 BC, Yu the Great established the Xia Dy-nasty, the first in Chinese history.
