Ancient China · Legendary Figure

Gun 鯀

Attested AD 588

Passages: 13
Chapters: 5
Histories: 3

Overview

The translated histories identify Gun as a named individual, official, and royal family member. This record brings together 13 passages from 5 chapters across 3 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Gun	鯀	Gun
Personal name	Gun	鯀	Gun

Identity

Historicity: Legendary
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · shiji:002:s0002
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · suishu:077:s0068
Value: male
Strongly inferred · shiji:013:s270

Roles

Named Individual
Official
Royal Family Member

Life and dates

Death

Manner: execution · Place: Mount Yu / 羽山 · Authority Person Id: Shun (舜)
Explicit · shiji:002:s0013

Attested activity

Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · hanshu:025:s0021, shiji:002:s0002, shiji:002:s0009, shiji:002:s0013, shiji:013:s270
Source Date: Text: 佛家變受異形之謂 · Western Year: AD 588
Explicit event contextual date · suishu:077:s0068

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Child of Emperor Zhuanxu Gaoyang (顓頊帝高陽氏)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Kinship Term: fathered / 生 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: child · Line: paternal
Parent of Yu (禹)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Parent of Emperor Yu (帝禹)
Kinship Term: fathered / 生 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: child · Line: paternal

Career and standing

Label: flood controller / 治水 · Action: appointed
Explicit · shiji:002:s0009
Status: subject · Action: held
Explicit · shiji:002:s0004
Action: executed · Authority Context: Yao-Shun government
Explicit · hanshu:025:s0021
Status: executed · Action: suffered · Authority Person Id: Shun (舜)
Explicit · shiji:002:s0013

Events and relationships

Kind: administration · Role: director · Action: failed-flood-control
Explicit · shiji:002:s0010, shiji:002:s0009

Source notes

Historicity: legendary
Explicit · shiji:002:s0002

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Han, Chapter 20Table of Ancient and Modern Persons · 1 passage

傳曰：譬如堯舜，禹、稷、镨與之為善則行，鯀、讙兜欲與為惡則誅。 As the Tradition says: take Yao and Shun. When Yu, Ji, and Xie joined them in doing what was right, those policies were put into effect; when Gun and Huan Dou sought to join them in wrongdoing, they were punished to death.

Book of Han, Chapter 25Volume 23: Treatise on Punishment and Law · 1 passage

唐虞之際，至治之極，猶流共工，放讙兜，竄三苗，殛鯀，然後天下服。 In the age of Yao and Shun, even at the height of good government, they still exiled Gonggong, banished Huandou, deported the Sanmiao, and executed Gun; only then did all under heaven submit.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 2Annals of Xia · 9 passages

禹之父曰鯀，鯀之父曰帝顓頊，顓頊之父曰昌意，昌意之父曰黃帝。 Yu's father was Gun; Gun's father was Emperor Zhuanxu; Zhuanxu's father was Changyi; Changyi's father was the Yellow Emperor.

禹之曾大父昌意及父鯀皆不得在帝位，為人臣。 Neither Yu's great-grandfather Changyi nor his father Gun ever held the throne; both served merely as ministers.

堯求能治水者，群臣四嶽皆曰鯀可。 Yao looked for someone who could manage the flood; the officials and the lords of the Four Peaks all said, "Gun may do it."

堯曰：「鯀為人負命毀族，不可。」 Yao replied, "Gun disobeys orders and harms his own people. I cannot use him."

四嶽曰：「等之未有賢於鯀者，願帝試之。」 The Four Peaks answered, "No one in their ranks surpasses Gun; we ask you to give him a trial."

於是堯聽四嶽，用鯀治水。 Yao yielded and put Gun in charge of the flood works.

行視鯀之治水無狀，乃殛鯀於羽山以死。 On his rounds he saw that Gun had achieved nothing with the waters, so he had Gun executed on Mount Yu.

於是舜舉鯀子禹，而使續鯀之業。 Shun then promoted Gun's son Yu to carry on his father's work.

禹傷先人父鯀功之不成受誅，乃勞身焦思，居外十三年，過家門不敢入。 He mourned that Gun had died unfinished yet under sentence of death, so he drove himself until body and mind were spent, spent thirteen years away from home, and even passed his own door without stopping.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 13Genealogical Tables of the Three Dynasties · 1 passage

顓頊生鯀。鯀生文命。 Zhuanxu fathered Gun. Gun fathered Wenming.

Book of Sui, Chapter 77Volume 77 Biographies 42: Recluses · 1 passage

至若鯀為黃熊，杜宇為鶗鴂，褒君為龍，牛哀為獸，君子為鵠，小人為猿，彭生為豕，如意為犬，黃母為黿，宣武為鱉，鄧艾為牛，徐伯為魚，鈴下為烏，書生為蛇，羊祜前身，李氏之子，此非佛家變受異形之謂邪？」 Consider Gun becoming a yellow bear, Du Yu becoming a cuckoo, Lord Bao becoming a dragon, Niu Ai becoming a beast, the gentleman becoming a swan, the petty man becoming an ape, Peng Sheng becoming a pig, Ruyi becoming a dog, Lady Huang becoming a soft-shelled turtle, Xuan Wu becoming a river turtle, Deng Ai becoming an ox, Xu Bo becoming a fish, the bell-ringer becoming a crow, the scholar becoming a snake, Yang Hu's former incarnation, the son of the Li clan—are these not what Buddhism calls transformation into different forms?"