7 Yu

Yu the Great Conquered the Flood

Yu was a household name for his achieving a historical mission of “harnessing the flood”. During Emperor Shun’s time, there happened a worst-known nation-wide flood plagued all over the land. Shun at first appointed Kun, Yu’s father, to fight the flood. Kun only tried to “block” up the water by building many dikes that were burst down by fiercely lashing currents. Shun then appointed Yu as the successor. Yu took a way of “dredging”, instead of “blocking”, by removing obstacles to let water run into the sea. It took ten years for Yu to tackle the unprecedented and dangerous task. It was said, through out ten years, Yu had passed by his home for three times but never entered. So people always cherished a memory of Yu’s favor as well as his moral integrity.

Then Emperor Shun ceded the crown to Yu. Yu became the founder of Xia Dynasty, and people called him Yu the Great. But Yu ceded the throne to his son Qi, starting for the first time the hereditary system in history.

Some historians believed that Yu’s adoption of hereditary system had something to do with the development of agricultural production. Yu divided lands into private and public ones. When peasants were granted to cultivate private lands, they must at the same time voluntarily cultivate the public ones. Yu also appointed officials to manage the affair. So, there must begin to appear the situation: “Someone became physical workers, while someone became mental workers; mental workers were governors, while physical workers were the governed. The governors always lived off the governed” Mencius once said.