Ancient China · Official and Flood Controller

Gun 鯀

Dates uncertain

Passages: 9
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Gun was an official and Flood Controller.

Life and dates

Death

Execution · At Mount Yu 羽山 · Authority Shun (舜)
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 2, passage 13

Attested activity

legendary antiquity
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 2, passages 2, 9, 13

Family

Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.

Child of Zhuanxu (顓頊)
father 父
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 2, passage 2
Parent of Yu (禹)
father 父
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 2, passage 2

Career and standing

flood controller 治水
Appointed
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 2, passage 9
Held
Subject
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 2, passage 4
Suffered
Executed · Authority Shun (舜)
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 2, passage 13

Events and relationships

Failed flood control
Administration · Director
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 2, passages 9-10

Source notes

Historicity legendary
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 2, passage 2

References in the histories

Search passages

History

9 passages

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.