Chinese myth · 声匠改编 · 4:05
Yu the Great Tames the Flood
A great flood drowns the land. Yu digs rivers instead of building walls, works thirteen years, and passes his own door three times without going in.
Narrator
Yu
King Shun
Nüjiao
Qi
Yinglong the Winged DragonOther languages · 2 languages
About this story
Yu the Great Tames the Flood is one of China's most famous ancient legends, told in the Book of Documents (Shangshu), the Mencius and Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji). This version keeps the details those books give: Gun's nine years of failed walls, Yu leaving four days after his wedding with his measuring tools in hand, thirteen years away and three times passing his own door. The winged dragon Yinglong drawing channels with its tail comes from the ancient poem Heavenly Questions (Tianwen) and Wang Yi's commentary on it, and the three visits home follow the way the story is popularly told.
What it teaches
Working with nature beats fighting it: Yu learned how water behaves before he tried to control it. The story is also about duty and sacrifice, and it honours the family who waited at home as much as the hero who went away.
Suits
Ages 5–12
Tips for telling it
- Show blocking versus guiding with a tray of water: dam it and it spills over, draw it a channel and it runs away.
- Let each of the three visits home grow more tender; slow down and lower your voice when Qi grabs his father's sleeve.
- Ask afterwards: if you were Yu, would you have gone in the third time? Why or why not?
Questions people ask
- Where does the story of Yu the Great come from?
- It appears in several ancient Chinese books, including the Book of Documents (Shangshu), the Mencius and Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian. The Classic of Mountains and Seas adds that Yu's father Gun stole a magic, ever-growing soil from the Lord of Heaven to dam the flood.
- How did Yu the Great stop the flood?
- Instead of building walls to block the water, as his father Gun had done for nine years, Yu dug channels and led the rivers downhill into the sea. Chinese people still sum up the lesson as 堵不如疏 (dǔ bù rú shū): guiding is better than blocking.
- Who passed his own house three times without going in?
- Yu the Great. The Mencius says Yu spent eight years away and passed his door three times without entering, while the Records of the Grand Historian says he lived away for thirteen years. The phrase 三过家门而不入 (sān guò jiā mén ér bù rù) now means putting public duty before your own comfort.
- Was Yu the Great a real person?
- Chinese tradition names Yu as the founder of the Xia, the first dynasty in Chinese histories, but historians still debate how much of his story is history and how much is legend.
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