Yu, Da Yu ("great Yu"), Xia Yu ("Xia Yu") - in ancient Chinese mythology, a cultural hero, a flood suppressor. There is an assumption that the cult of Yu developed mainly in the Yangtze River basin, because Many of Yu's deeds are associated with various localities in the modern provinces of Zhejiang and Sichuan. There is reason to believe that etymologically the name Yu is related to amphibious creatures.
According to myth, Yu was born from the body of his father Gun, who before his death took the form of a three-legged turtle (according to another version, a yellow dragon). Coming out of the womb of his deceased father, Yuya had the appearance of a two-horned dragon Qiu.
In the monuments of the beginning of AD. the mother gives birth to Yuya from the wonderful pearl she swallowed in the Stone Hollow - Shiyao. Yuya's father failed while fighting the flood and was executed for it.
Yu put the wonderful earth on the shell of a black turtle, and it obediently crawled after him and the dragon Yinglong to the ground flooded with water. Where there were lowlands flooded with water, Yu threw a handful of earth, and the fields were revived. The dragon's tracks became the beds of rivers and canals. And where the riverbeds abutted the mountains, Yu made gorges through which the water rushed east into the Great Ocean. Year after year Yu worked, and the end of the work
was not visible.
One day he thought: “I am already many years old, but I am still lonely...” He looked around and on the top of the mountain he saw a beautiful girl named Nujiao. He really liked the girl, and Yu decided to take her as his wife. But he didn’t have time to tell her about his feelings, because he was in a hurry to build canals to the south. The girl also became inflamed with love for the great creator, whom all people revered. She sat down on a stone and began to look in the direction from which Yu was supposed to return. In melancholy and sadness, she composed a song: “Oh, how long I’ve been waiting for my beloved!” — and sang it quietly every day.
Having finished fighting the flood in the south, Yu returned. But the hardworking husband did not stay at home for long after the wedding. He went to continue fighting the flood. Yu himself worked with a shovel and a basket. He walked ahead, not paying attention to the wind and rain, and led all the people behind him. In the end, he defeated the flood that caused so much trouble to people. But this work took him thirteen long years. Many times he passed by his home, but could not go in because he was very busy. First he heard the cry of a newborn, then the babbling of a baby, the high voice of a boy...
Hard calluses formed on Yu's hands and feet, and his nails were polished to a shine. He was not yet old, but he looked exhausted from working in the damp and steam. For many years the sun burned it and the wind blew around it. His skin turned black. He was thin, with a long neck and a sunken mouth. But even so Yuya was immediately recognized in the family.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru