Yu the Great

Summary

This story tells the legend of Yu the Great, a Chinese hero from the twenty-first century BC. Some scholars believe Yu actually existed and that he founded the Xia Dynasty (ca. 2100-1700 BC), the first Chinese empire described in historical records. Some later Chinese texts describe Yu as a kind and strong emperor whose engineering projects saved China from frequent floods by using magical soil to plug underwater springs, with the help of a tortoise, an owl, and a dragon!