Yu the Great
Yu the Great 大禹 | ||
---|---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin Dà Yǔ | | |
Gwoyeu Romatzyh | Dah Yeu | |
Wade–Giles | Ta4 Yü3 | |
IPA | [tâ ỳ] | |
Yue: Cantonese | ||
Yale Romanization | Daaih Yúh | |
Jyutping | Daai6 Jyu5 | |
IPA | [taːi˨ jyː˩˧] | |
Southern Min | ||
Hokkien POJ | Tāi-í/Tāi-ú | |
Old Chinese | ||
Baxter–Sagart (2014) | *lˤat-s ɢʷraʔ |
Yu the Great (
There is no contemporary evidence of Yu's existence as traditionally attested in the Records of the Grand Historian. Yu is said to have ruled as sage-king during the late 3rd millennium BCE, which predates the oracle bone script used during the late Shang dynasty—the oldest known form of writing in China—by nearly a millennium.[5] Yu's name was not inscribed on any artifacts which were produced during the proposed era in which he lived, nor was it inscribed on the later oracle bones; his name was first inscribed on vessels which date back to the Western Zhou period (c. 1045–771 BCE).
Name
The Shuowen Jiezi (c. 121 CE) gives the earliest Chinese dictionary definition of yu 禹: "a 'bug, reptile', under the ⽱ 'TRACK' radical, a pictograph.[6]
Historical linguist Axel Schuessler reconstructs 禹's
Ancestry and early life
Transmitted sources uniformly asserted that Yu was the son of
Yu's father, Gun, was enfeoffed at Shiniu of Mount Wen (汶山), in modern-day
When Yu was a child, Emperor
The location of Mount Tu has always been disputed. The two most probable locations are Mount Tu in
A separate legend of Yu's birth is attested in an excavated manuscript with provenance provisionally assigned to the Warring States period. In this legend, Yu's mother became pregnant after consuming the grains of a Job's tears plant, and gave birth to him through her back after a three-year gestation period.[24]: 132–133, 145
Great flood legend
During the reign of Emperor Yao, the Chinese heartland was frequently plagued by floods that prevented further economic and social development.[25] Yu's father, Gun, was tasked with devising a system to control the flooding. He spent more than nine years building a series of dikes and dams along the riverbanks, but all of this was ineffective, despite (or because of) the great number and size of these dikes and the use of a special self-expanding soil. 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.
Collaborating with Hou Ji, a semi-mythical agricultural master, Yu successfully devised a system of flood controls that were crucial in establishing the prosperity of the Chinese heartland. Instead of directly damming the rivers' flow, Yu made a system of irrigation canals which relieved floodwater into fields, as well as spending great effort dredging the riverbeds.[12] Yu is said to have eaten and slept with the common workers and spent most of his time personally assisting the work of dredging the silty beds of the rivers for the thirteen years the projects took to complete. The dredging and irrigation were successful, and allowed ancient Chinese culture to flourish along the Yellow River, Wei River, and other waterways of the Chinese heartland. The project earned Yu renown throughout Chinese history, and is referred to in Chinese history as "Great Yu Controls the Waters" (大禹治水; Dà Yǔ zhì shuǐ; Daai3 Jyu5 zi6 seoi2). In particular, Mount Longmen along the Yellow River had a very narrow channel which blocked water from flowing freely east toward the ocean. Yu is said to have brought a large number of workers to open up this channel, which has been known ever since as "Yu's Gateway" (禹門口).[12]
In a retold version of this story as presented in Wang Jia's 4th-century CE work Shi Yi Ji, Yu is assisted in his work by a yellow dragon and a black turtle (not necessarily related to the Black Tortoise in Chinese mythology).[26] Another local myth says that Yu created the Sanmenxia in the Yellow River by cutting a mountain ridge with a divine battle-axe to control flooding.[27] This is perhaps a reference to a meteorite stone—something hard enough to etch away at the hard bedrock of Mount Longmen.
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 completely covered with calluses. 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 inside 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 passing by, his son was more than ten years old. Each time, Yu refused to go in the door, saying that as the flood was rendering countless number of people homeless, he could not rest.[23][28]
Yu supposedly killed Gonggong's minister Xiangliu, a nine-headed snake monster.
Nine Provinces
Emperor Shun, who reigned after Yao, was so impressed by Yu's engineering work and diligence that he passed the throne to Yu instead of to his own son. Yu is said to have initially declined the throne, but was so popular with other local lords and chiefs that he agreed to become the new emperor, at age 53. He established a capital at Anyi (安邑), the ruins of which are in modern Xia County in southern Shanxi and founded what would be called the Xia dynasty, traditionally considered China's first dynasty.[29]
Yu's flood control work is said to have made him intimately familiar with all regions of what was then
According to the
Death
According to the
Historicity
Because no contemporary documentary evidence about Yu survives, only a body of accumulated myth and legend, there is significant doubt as to the historicity of this figure. No inscriptions on artifacts dated to the supposed era of Yu, or the later oracle bones, contain any mention of Yu. The first archeological evidence of Yu comes from vessels made about a thousand years after his supposed death, during the Western Zhou dynasty.[40]: 77
The Doubting Antiquity School of early-20th-century historians, for example, theorized that Yu was not a person in the earliest legends, but rather a god or mythical beast who was connected with water and possibly with the mythical legend Dragon Kings and their control over water. According to this theory, Yu (as god or beast) was represented on ceremonial bronzes by the early Xia people, and by the start of the Zhou dynasty, the legendary figure had 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. According to the Chinese legend Yu the Great was a man-god.
Archaeological evidence of a large outburst flood at Jishi Gorge on the Yellow River has been dated to about 1920 BCE. This coincides with new cultures all along the Yellow River. The water control problems after the initial flooding could plausibly have lasted for some twenty years. Wu and coauthors suggest that this supports the idea that the stories of Yu the Great may have originated from a historical person.[41]
Legacy
Yu was long regarded as an ideal ruler and kind of philosopher king by the ancient Chinese. Beichuan, Wenchuan, and Dujiangyan in Sichuan have all made claims to be his birthplace.[42]
Owing to his involvement in China's mythical Great Flood, Yu also came to be regarded as a
His personal name is written identically to a Chinese surname, a simplification of the minor polity of Yu (鄅國, in present-day Shandong). Its people carried this lineage name forward after Yu was conquered by the state of Lu during the Spring and Autumn period.[44]
See also
- Family tree of ancient Chinese emperors
- Flood myth
- Great Flood (China)
- Natural disasters in China
- Yubu
- Rishu
- Xi Zhong, the minister claimed to have served for the emperor and invented the chariot according to some Chinese sources
References
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- ISBN 9780742557987. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
- ^ Dai & Gong (2003), p. 40
- ^ Dai & Gong (2003), p. 36
- ISBN 978-1-4443-3529-3. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2016-10-20.
- ^ Xu Shen. "15 - Radical 厹". Shuowen Jiezi. Archived from the original on 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ Schuessler, Axel (2007). ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese. University of Hawai'i Press. p. 588
- ^ Sidwell, Paul (2015). The Palaungic Languages: Classification, Reconstruction and Comparative Lexicon. München: Lincom Europa. p. 103
- ^ Kangxi Dictionary, vol. 15 "魚 radical 7" Archived 2021-12-06 at the Wayback Machine quote: "鯀:《唐韻》《集韻》《正韻》𠀤古本切,音袞。《說文》魚也。《玉篇》大魚也。又《書·堯典》於,鯀哉。《傳》鯀,崇伯之名。《釋文》禹父也。《廣韻》亦作鮌。"
- ^ Shiji, Annals of Xia "Annals of Xia" Archived 2021-07-09 at the Wayback Machine quote: "禹之父曰鯀,鯀之父曰帝顓頊,顓頊之父曰昌意,昌意之父曰黃帝。禹者,黃帝之玄孫而帝顓頊之孫也。禹之曾大父昌意及父鯀皆不得在帝位,為人臣。"
- ^ Book of Generations' Origins (世本) "Xia" Archived 2020-11-11 at the Wayback Machine quote: "顓頊生鯀。…… 鯀為顓頊子。…… 顓頊生𩩌,𩩌生高密,是為禹也。
- ^ a b c Dai & Gong (2003), p. 38
- ^ Zynews.com. "Zynews.com Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine." Xia dynasty brief history. Retrieved on 2010-09-18.
- Hanshu. Archivedfrom the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-07-09. text: "伯禹帝系曰,顓頊五世而生鯀,鯀生禹"
- ^ Shanhaijing vol. 18 Archived 2021-07-09 at the Wayback Machine "黄帝生駱明,駱明生白馬,白馬是為鯀。"
- ^ "Jiangsu.gov.cn Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine." 四川省汶川縣情及人文地理. (Chinese) Retrieved on 2010-09-18.
- ^ Scta.gov.cn. "Scta.gov.cn Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine." (Chinese) Retrieved on 2010-09-18.
- ^ Shiji, Annals of Xis"夏禹,名曰文命。" Archived 2021-07-09 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Sima Qian's discussion Archived 2021-12-27 at the Wayback Machine on "Annals of Xia" in Records of the Grand Historian: "禹爲姒姓,其後分封,用國爲姓,故有夏后氏、有扈氏、有男氏、斟尋氏、彤城氏、襃氏、費氏、杞氏、繒氏、辛氏、冥氏、斟戈氏/斟灌氏" translation: "Yu was surnamed Si, he later was enfeoffed [and] used the nation['s appellation] as surname. Thence [we] have the surnames: Xiahou, Youhu, Younan, Zhenxun, Tongcheng, Bao, Fei, Qi, Zeng, Xin, Ming, Zhenge/Zhenguan"
- ^ Shiji "Annals of the Five Emperors" Archived 2022-05-10 at the Wayback Machine "帝禹為夏后而別氏,姓姒氏。"
- ^ Hubeiwater.gov.cn. Hubeiwater.gov.cn 大禹三过家门而不入与洪湖抗洪十字歌的精神浅谈. Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine (Chinese). Retrieved on 2010-09-18.
- ^ Shiji 禹爲人敏給克勤;其惪不違,其仁可親,其言可信;聲爲律,身爲度,稱以出
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- better source needed]
- ^ Wang (2006), p. 19
- ^ Wang (2006), p. 21
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- ^ a b Bamboo Annals Xia chapter
- ^ a b 大禹祭典. Chinaculture.org. Archived from the original on 2010-09-11. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
- ^ a b China.org.cn. "China.org.cn Archived 2012-07-17 at the Wayback Machine." Yu Mausoleum. Retrieved on 2010-09-26.
- ^ lvyou.eco.gov.cn. "lvyou.eco.gov.cn Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine." 治水英雄大禹的葬地:大禹陵. Retrieved on 2010-09-26.
- ^ "Yu mausoleum". Archived from the original on 2022-12-06. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
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- ^ The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland[page needed]
Sources
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- Sima Qian; Sima Tan. "34.4: 燕召公世家". Records of the Grand Historian 史記. Archived from the original on 2023-04-18. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
- 王恆偉 (Wang Hengwei) (2006). "Yuan Gu Zhi Chunqiu" 遠古至春秋 [Ancient times to the Spring and Autumn period]. Zhongguo Lishi Jiangtang 中國歷史講堂 [Chinese history lectures]. Zhonghua Book Company (中華書局). ISBN 962-8885-24-3.