Great Flood (China)

The Great Flood of China (Traditional Chinese:大洪水; Simplified Chinese:大洪水; Pinyin: Dà​ Hóng​shuǐ) (also known as the Gun-Yu mythYang, 74) was a major flood event that continued for at least two generations, which resulted in great population displacements among other disasters, such as storms and famine: according to mythological and historical sources, it is traditionally dated to the Third Millennium, BCE, during the reign of the Emperor Yao. Treated either historically or mythologically, the story of the Great Flood and the heroic attempts of the various human characters to control it and to abate the disaster is a narrative fundamental to Chinese culture. Among other things, the Great Flood of China is key to understanding the history of the founding of both the Xia Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty, it is also one of the main flood motifs in Chinese mythology, and it is a major source of allusion in Classical Chinese poetry.
==Literary history==
Chinese history as a continuously recorded literary tradition begins with the ancient documents transmitted to posterity through the Records of the Grand Historian, of Sima Qian, which begin this narrative with the reign of the Yellow Emperor,Wu, 49 and incorporate two discourses by Confucius.Wudide and Dixixing, Wu, 55 According to these, the great-grandson (or fourth successor) of the Yellow Emperor was Yao. Beginning with the reign of Yao, additional literary sources become available, including the Book of History (collected and edited by Confucius), which begins with the "Canon of Yao", describing the events of Yao's reign.Wu, 65 Although, the "Canon of Yao" is problematic in regards to textual transmission, at best it seems to represent an early textual reconstruction and at worst a fabrication based on available knowledge or sources from the 3rd or 4th centuries CE. "The Counsels of Great Yu" is considered to be one of the reliably transmitted pre-Qin texts. In any case, these and other texts of the preserved literature mark the beginnings of the Chinese historical tradition. Other important texts include the poem "Heavenly Questions" (Tianwen) collected in the Chuci which is attributed to Qu Yuan and the famous mythological compendium "Classic of the Mountains and Seas" (Shanhaijing). Furthermore, centuries of scholarship have gone into piecing together a narrative from the bits, pieces, and occasionally longer sections found in these and other early sources, sometimes being subjected to heavy editorial handling in terms of viewpoint.
==Collected mythology==
The mythological stories besides having been preserved in various literary forms, have also been collected from various oral traditions. Some of them continue to be told. Some of these sources are from people of the Han ethnicity and some from other ethnic groups.
==Overview==
The story of the Great Flood plays a dramatic role in Chinese mythology, and its various versions represent one of a number of examples of a motif of flood myth from around the world. There are a number of flood narratives in Chinese mythology, which while somewhat lacking in internal consistency as well as incorporating various magical transformations and including the interventions of various divine or semi-divine beings, nevertheless share certain common features.Christie, 83–91 As opposed to myths involving the flooding of specific riversfor example, the Yellow River and the Count thereof, Christie, 79–83 or Ma Gu and the periodic alteration of sea and mulberry orchards; as a whole, it seems that the myths centered around the Great Flood share certain similar outlooks, such as a certain emphasis on the flood being from natural causes, rather than the result of "universal punishment for human sin".Christie, 83 Another common feature seems to be the alleviation of the flooding by constructing dikes and dams, digging canals, together with widening or deepening existing channels, as well as teaching these skills to others, as in the cases of Nüwa, Gun, and Yu the Great. So, one of the distinct motifs of the myth of the Great Flood of China is an emphasis on the heroic and praiseworthy efforts made in order to mitigate the disaster.Yang, 117 Another key motif is the development of civilization and bettering the human situation despite the disaster of the deluge.Yang, 117 During the course of fighting, surviving, and eventually getting the inundation problems under control, much progress was also made in terms of land management, beast control, and agricultural techniques: these and other developments are integral to the narrative, and exemplify a wider approach to human health and societal well being rather than just dealing with emergency management of the flood and its immediate effects. According to legend, a comprehensive approach to societal development resulted in both the wide scale cooperation and effort by much of the population in many localities necessary to get the flood under control and also lead to the establishment of the first state of China, the Xia Dynasty (ca. 2070 – ca. 1600 BCE).
==Narrative==
===Flood begins===
It was during the reign of Emperor Yao that the Great Flood began, a flood so vast that no part of Yao's territory was spared, and both the Yellow River and the Yangzi valleys flooded.Wu, 69 The alleged nature of the flood is shown in the following quote:
:::::::::::-- Emperor Yao, as quoted in the Book of History, describing the floodWu, 69. Translation by Wu.
According to both historical and mythological sources, the flooding continued relentlessly. Yao sought to find someone who could control the flood, and turned for advice to his special adviser, or advisers, the Four Mountains (四嶽 or 四岳, Sì​yuè); who, after deliberation, gave Emperor Yao some advice which he did not especially welcome.
===Yao appoints Gun===
Upon the insistence of Four Mountains, and over Yao's initial hesitation, the person Yao finally consented to appoint in charge of controlling the flood was Gun, the Prince of Chong, who was a distant relative of Yao's through common descent from the Yellow Emperor.
===Gun's efforts===
According to the main mythological tradition, Gun's plan of flood control was through the use of a miraculously continuously self-expanding soil, known as Xirang.Yang, 74. So, Gun chose to obtain the Xirang by stealing it from the Supreme Divinity, which he did; however, the Supreme Divinity became quite angered at this importunity.Yang, 74 Year in and year out, many times, and to great extents, Gun applied the magical Xirang earth, attempting to block and barricade the flood waters with dams, dikes, and embankments which he built facilitated by utilizing the special powers of the magic soil, yet Gun was never able to abate the problems of the Great Flood. Whether Gun's failure to abate the flood was due to divine wrath against him or to defects in his approach to hydrological engineering remains an unanswered question -- although one pointed out over two thousand years ago by Qu Yuan, in his "Heavenly Questions".Yang, 127-128
===Shun in power===
Even after nine years of the efforts of Gun, the flood continued to rage on, leading to the increase of all sorts of social disorders. The administration of the empire was becoming increasingly difficult; so, accordingly, at this point, Yao offered to resign the throne in favor of his special adviser(s), Four Mountains: however, Four Mountains declined, and instead recommended Shun – another distant relative to Yao through the Yellow Emperor; but one who was living in obscurity, despite his royal lineage.Wu, 70-71 Yao proceeded to put Shun through a series of tests, beginning with wiving Shun with his two daughters and ending by sending him down from the mountains to the plains below where Shun had to face fierce winds, thunder, and rain.Wu, 74–76 After passing all of Yao's tests, not the least of which being establishing and continuing a state of marital harmony together with Shun's two daughters, Shun took on administrative responsibilities as co-emperor.Wu, 76–77 Among these responsibilities, Shun had to deal with the Great Flood and its associated disruptions, especially in light of the fact that Yao's reluctant decision to appoint Gun to handle the problem had failed to fix the situation, despite having been working on it for the previous nine years. Shun took steps over the next four years to re-organize the empire, in such a way as to solve immediate problems and to put the imperial authority in a better position to deal with the flood and its effects. Although Shun's organization (or re-organization) of the flooded and increasingly flooded lands into zhou or islands (the political ancestors of the modern zhou or provinces, both of which may be written with the same character, 州) alleviated some of the administrative difficulties as a work around to various problems, the fact remained that despite the additional four years of effort, Gun still had not only failed to achieve any success towards solving the main problem of the ongoing flooding, but the water even kept on rising. Gun insisted on staying the course with the dikes, insisting that despite the overwhelming failure so far that the people work even harder and to continue to build more and higherWu, 85 Not only that, but Gun questioned the legitimacy of Shun as a ruler due to his modest background.Wu, 86
===Acts of Shun===
After the solemnities of his final accession to power, the first thing Shun did was to reform the calendar.Wu, 77 Next, for the period of a month, Shun convoked a series of meetings, ceremonies, and interviews at the imperial capital with the Four Mountains and the heads, lords, or princes of the realm's houses, clans, surnames, tribes, and nations.Wu, 77 Shun then went to Mount Tai (Taishan), as the beginning of his tour of inspection of the flood-ravaged realmWu, 77-78 Here, at Taishan, he met with the princes of the eastern regions; and, after certain religious ceremonies, he standardized weights, measures, and ritual.Wu, 78 Then he went on to do the same to the South, the West, and the North, meeting at the sacred mountains of each region with the princes and leaders of each region, and standardizing their rules, measures, and practices.Wu, 82 All of these acts can be seen as preparatory to the fighting of the flood, as this was an effort requiring extraordinary levels of synchronized and coordinated activity over a relatively large territory: the timing was synchronized through the calendar reform and the engineering measures were made possible by standardizing the weights and measures.Wu, 78-79 Towards the end of the year, Shun returned to the imperial seat, and after a sacrificial offering of a bullock at his ancestral temple, he then put into action the plan that he had developed during his working tour of inspection.Wu, 82 One of these was to divide the empire into twelve administrative units (zhou), each one administered from the highest mountain within that area.Wu, 82 This was doubtlessly a useful expedient in the face of the rising and unpredictable flood waters. Another of Shun's acts was administrative reform.
===Gun's demise===
With Gun's overwhelming failure to control the flood waters and his question the legitimacy of Shun's rule, he became labeled as an intransigent. Accordingly, as part of his administrative reforms, Shun had Gun banished to Feather Mountain. Accounts vary considerably about the details of Gun's demise; but, in any case he met his death, at Feather Mountain.
===Gun's son Yu===
Somehow, Gun had a son Yu. Various myths suggest that this occurred under circumstances that would not meet the normal criteria for historical fact.
===Great Yu controls the flood===
Yu tried a different approach to the project of flood control; which in the end having achieved success, earned Yu renown throughout Chinese history, in which the Gun-Yu Great Flood is commonly referred to as "Great Yu Controls the Waters" (Traditional Chinese:大禹治水; Pinyin: Dà Yǔ Zhì Shuǐ). Yu's approach seems to have involved an approach more oriented toward drainage and less towards containment with dams and dikes. According to the more fancily embellished versions of the story it was also necessary for him to subdue various supernatural beings as well as recruit the assistance of others, for instance a channel-digging dragon and a giant mud-hauling tortoise (or turtle).
:::::::::::-- Yu the Great, quoted according to tradition,Cotterell and Cotterell, 24 describing his work in regard to the flood.
==Acquisition of agricultural civilization==
Besides the motif of controlling the flood waters another motif is particularly characteristic of the Chinese Gun Yu flood myth, namely the acquisition of the agricultural civilization.Yang, 116-117 In some versions, this includes the appointment of Ji Qi (later called Houji) as Minister of Agriculture. Other versions go into the details of how a tiny remnant of people consisting of only two or a few individuals managed to survive the flood and the re-population/civilization process following the worldwide disaster, and/or how grain seeds or fire were obtained.Yang, 114-117
==See also==
*Chinese mythology
*Deluge myth
*Emperor Yao
*Gong Gong
*Shun (Chinese leader)
*Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
*Yu the Great
==Notes==
==References==
*Classic of History (書經), traditionally first compiled and edited by Confucius (孔夫子), in about fifth to sixth century BCE, in what is now China. (ISBN of original unavailable.)
*Christie, Anthony (1968). Chinese Mythology. Feltham: Hamlyn Publishing. ISBN 0600006379.
*Cotterell, Yong Yap and Arthur Cotterell (1975). The Early Civilization of China. New York: G.P.Putnam's Sons. ISBN 399-11595-1
*Wu, K. C. (1982). The Chinese Heritage. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-54475X.
*Yang, Lihui, et al. (2005). Handbook of Chinese Mythology. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533263-6
==External links==
*The Flood Myths of Early China
Category:Chinese mythology
Category:Flood myths