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Yu the Great

 
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Yu ( (21st century BCE), born Sì Wénmìng ), often regarded with legendary status as Yu the Great (?? Dà-Yu), was the first ruler and founder of the Xia Dynasty
Xia Dynasty

The Xia Dynasty of China is the first dynasty to be described in ancient historical records such as Records of the Grand Historian and Bamboo Annals....
. He was born the year 2059 BCE, said to be on the Year of the Tiger. Occasionally identified as one of The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, he is best remembered for teaching the people flood
Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land, a deluge. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide....
 control techniques to tame China's rivers and lakes.

Yu established his capital at Yang City.






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Yuthegreat
Yu ( (21st century BCE), born Sì Wénmìng ), often regarded with legendary status as Yu the Great (?? Dà-Yu), was the first ruler and founder of the Xia Dynasty
Xia Dynasty

The Xia Dynasty of China is the first dynasty to be described in ancient historical records such as Records of the Grand Historian and Bamboo Annals....
. He was born the year 2059 BCE, said to be on the Year of the Tiger. Occasionally identified as one of The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, he is best remembered for teaching the people flood
Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land, a deluge. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide....
 control techniques to tame China's rivers and lakes.

Yu established his capital at Yang City. According to the Bamboo Annals
Bamboo Annals

The Bamboo Annals is a chronicle of ancient China. It begins at the earliest legendary times and extends to the Warring States Period , particularly the history of the Wei State....
, in the second year of his reign, the prime minister of the previous king of Shun
Shun

Shun was a legendary 23rd century BC-22nd century BC leader of ancient China, among the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, whose half-century of rule was one of the longest in Chinese history....
 died. In the 5th year, he held the first meeting with all the leaders of the states at Tushan. In the 8th year, he held a second meeting with all the leaders of states at Kuaiji, and in order to reinforce his hold on the throne, killed one of northern leaders, Fangfeng. Yu is one of only two Chinese rulers posthumously honored with the appellation "the Great," the other being Kangxi The Great Emperor of Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, followed the Ming Dynasty in History of China, and was the last ruling Chinese Dynasties of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 ....
.

Birth and ancestry

Traditionally, Yu is regarded as a descendant of Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor. Yu's father, Gun, was enfeoffed at Shiniu of Mount Wen, in modern day Beichuan County, Sichuan
Sichuan

is a Province in western China proper with its capital in Chengdu. The current name of the province, ?? , is an abbreviation of ??? , or "Four circuit #Circuits in East Asia of rivers", which is itself abbreviated from ???? , or "Four circuits of rivers and gorges", named after the division of the existing circuit into four during the Song...
 province. Yu was born there, but moved at a young age with his family to Chong, which is modern-day Mount Song
Mount Song

Mount Song, known in Mandarin as Song Shan , is one of the Taoism Sacred Mountains of China and is located in Henan province on the south bank of the Yellow River in China....
shan.

Yu and the flood

During China's Great Flood
Chinese mythology

File:Nine-Dragons1.jpgChinese mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written form....
, Yu's father, Gun
Gun (Chinese)

Gun was the father of Yu the Great, the founder of the Xia Dynasty. He was appointed by Yao to control the flooding rivers. He used dikes to stop the rivers from flooding, but they eventually collapsed after nine years and killed many people....
, was assigned by King Yao
Yao (ruler)

Yao was a legendary China ruler, one of the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors. Also known as Taotang-shi , he was born Yi Fangxun or Yi Qi as the second son to Emperor Ku and Qingdu ....
 to tame the raging waters. In 9 years, Gun had built earthen dikes all over the land in the hope of containing the waters. But in a even large flooding, the earthen dikes collapsed everywhere and the project failed miserably. Gun was executed by King Shun, to whom Yao had handed the rulership. Shun recruited Yu as successor to his father's flood-control efforts. Instead of building more dikes, Yu began to dredge new river channels, to serve both as outlets for the torrential waters, and as irrigation conduits to distant farm lands. Yu spent a backbreaking thirteen years at this task, with the help of some 20,000 workers.

"Passing his own door three times" is a tale of Yu's dedication. It is said that when Yu was given the task of fighting the flood, he had been married only five days. He then said goodbye to his wife, saying that he does not know when he will return. His wife then asked him what name to give if a son is born. Yu replied, Qi, a character meaning five days in ancient Chinese. During his thirteen years of fighting the flood, Yu passed by his own family's doorstep three times. The first time he passed by hearing that his wife was in labor
Childbirth

Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the delivery of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus. The process of normal human childbirth is categorized in three stages of labour: the shortening and dilation of the cervix, descent and delivery of the infant, and delivery of the placenta.....
. The second time he passed by, his wife was holding his son's hand as he was learning his first steps. The third time, his son greeted him and enjoined him to come in for rest. Each time, Yu refused to go in the door, saying that the flood was rendering countless people homeless, he could not rest in his own.

For this engineering feat, Yu has been remembered as an examplar of perseverance and determination and revered as the perfect civil servant. Stories continue to dwell on his single-minded dedication. In spite of passing his own house three times during those thirteen years, he never once stopped in for a family visit, reasoning that a personal reunion would distract him from dealing with the public crisis at hand.

King Shun was so impressed by Yu's engineering work and diligence that he passed the throne to Yu instead of to his own son, following King Yao's example in rewarding merit. At the end of Great Yu's life, however, his ministers favoured passing the throne to Yu's son, Qi, instituting a hereditary monarchy. This created China's first hereditary dynasty, the Xia Dynasty
Xia Dynasty

The Xia Dynasty of China is the first dynasty to be described in ancient historical records such as Records of the Grand Historian and Bamboo Annals....
 (ca.2070 BCE - 1600 BCE).

Death

According to historical texts, Yu died at Mount Kuaiji (south of present day Shaoxing
Shaoxing

Shaoxing is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Zhejiang province of China, People's Republic of China. Lying on the south bank of the Qiantang River mouth, it borders Ningbo to the east, Taizhou, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jinhua to the southwest, and Hangzhou to the west....
) while on a hunting tour on the southern frontier of his empire, and was buried there. A mausoleum
Mausoleum

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons....
 was built in his honor. A number of emperors in imperial times have travelled there to perform ceremonies in his honour, notably Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huang , personal name Ying Zheng , was king of the Chinese Qin from 246 BCE to 221 BCE during the Warring States Period. He became the first emperor of a unified China in 221 BCE....
. A temple, Dayu Ling, has been built on the traditional site where the ceremonies are performed. He ruled China for 45 years according to the Bamboo Annals.

Yu the Mythology Figure

In many versions of the Flood mythology, Yu seems to be in possession of god-like characteristics. For example, his brilliant engineering idea was, according to some, caused by the "Divine Favour" of the "responding dragon and turtle." Yu is further mythologized when it is claimed that he was born from the corpse of his father, Gun.

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