In the primordial dawn of Chinese civilization, during the period known as the era of the Five Emperors, the world was not a place of order but of watery chaos. The Great Flood, a cataclysmic inundation that rose to the very heavens, threatened to submerge the mountains and drown the fledgling settlements of the Middle Kingdom. For years, the people suffered under the reign of Emperor Yao and later Emperor Shun, as the waters refused to recede. The first to attempt the containment of these waters was Gun, the father of Yu, who used a magical 'breathing earth' called Xirang to build dams. However, Gun’s efforts failed because he sought to block the water rather than guide it, leading to his eventual execution or exile. It was his son, Yu, who was then commissioned to succeed where his father had faltered. Yu was a man of indomitable will and singular focus, a figure who would become the paragon of the selfless civil servant in the Chinese consciousness.
Yu’s approach was revolutionary. Instead of building walls to fight the water, he spent thirteen years crisscrossing the landscape, digging channels and dredging riverbeds to allow the floodwaters to flow out to the sea. He worked alongside the laborers, his body becoming worn and his legs shriveled from years of standing in the mud. It is said he developed a specific, labored walk known as the 'Pace of Yu,' a limping gait that would later be imitated by Taoist priests in their rituals. During these thirteen years of grueling labor, Yu was so dedicated to his mission that he famously passed by the door of his own home three times without ever entering, even though he could hear the cries of his wife and the eventually the wails of his newborn son. His duty to the empire surpassed his duty to his family, a theme that resonates deeply in Confucian ethics. However, the story of how his son Qi actually entered the world is one of the most supernatural and tragic episodes in the entire mythic cycle.
While working in the region of what is now Anhui province, Yu arrived at the foot of Mount Tu, also known as Tushan. It was here that he met a woman of the Tushan clan named Nü Jiao. Legend suggests that a nine-tailed white fox appeared to Yu, which he interpreted as a divine sign that he should marry into this local tribe to stabilize the region. They were wed, but their union was brief. Only four days after their marriage, Yu was called away once again to manage the rising waters of the Huai River. Nü Jiao was left behind, pregnant and longing for her husband. As the months passed, Nü Jiao could not bear the separation and decided to seek out Yu at his work site on the slopes of Mount Tu. She wanted to bring him food and see the man who was reshaping the very earth.
Yu, meanwhile, was engaged in a feat of Herculean proportions. To cut through the hard rock of the mountain to create a path for the river, he utilized his divine powers of transformation. He would frequently shift his shape into that of a massive, powerful black bear, whose claws could tear through stone as easily as a plow through soil. Because he did not want to frighten Nü Jiao or the locals with his monstrous form, he had made an arrangement with his wife: he would keep a large drum at the base of the mountain. He told her that he would strike the drum only when he was finished with his work and ready to eat, signaling that it was safe for her to approach with his midday meal. This system worked for a time, allowing Yu to labor in his beastly form in private while ensuring he could return to his human state before his wife arrived.