Yu 禹

Names

Identity

Historicity

Legendary

Identification

Named

Sex

Male

• Sex: male
  Explicit · beiqishu:030:s0002, hanshu:026:s0009, hanshu:066:s0113, hanshu:091:s0041, jinshu:108:s0210, liaoshi:055:s0010, shiji:002:s0001, shiji:003:s0006, shiji:029:s0001, shiji:061:s0003, shiji:065:s0109, shiji:084:s0107, shiji:114:s0082, xintangshu:044:s0165, xinwudaishi:035:s0061, yuanshi:171:s0114
• Sex: male
  Strongly inferred · beiqishu:033:s0143, hanshu:025:s0289, hanshu:098:s0150, houhanshu:032:s0096, jinshi:035:s0062, jiuwudaishi:005:s0148, mingshi:057:s0025, qingshigao:113:s0045, shiji:002:s0260, shiji:013:s0067, yuanshi:066:s0150, zhoushu:003:s0012, zhoushu:023:s0409
• Value: male
  Strongly inferred · hanshu:022:s0013, hanshu:068:s0020, shiji:074:s0027

Roles

• Clan Leader
• Engineer
• Named Individual
• Official
• Ruler

Family

• Descendant of Emperor Zhuanxu Gaoyang (顓頊帝高陽氏)
  Kinship Term: grandfather / 祖 · Generation Distance: 2 · Line: paternal
• Descendant of Changyi (昌意)
  Kinship Term: great-grandfather / 曾大父 · Generation Distance: 3 · Line: paternal
• Descendant of Yellow Emperor (黃帝)
  Kinship Term: great-great-grandfather / 玄孫之祖 · Generation Distance: 4 · Line: paternal
• Child of Gun (鯀)
  Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
• Parent of Qi (啟)
  Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
• Spouse of Lady of Tushan (涂山氏之女)
  Kinship Term: wife / 妻 · Union Category: marriage

• Kinship Role: descendant-branches · Note: Later branches took their states as clan names, producing houses such as Xiahou, Youhu, Younan, Zhenxun, Tongcheng, Bao, Fei, Qi, Zeng, Xin, Ming, Zhen, and Ge. / 其後分封，用國為姓，故有夏后氏、有扈氏、有男氏、斟尋氏、彤城氏、褒氏、費氏、杞氏、繒氏、辛氏、冥氏、斟戈氏 · Count: 12
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0260

Origins and identity

• Descent: descendant of the Yellow Emperor / 黃帝子孫 · Ancestor Person Id: Yellow Emperor (黃帝)
  Explicit · shiji:013:s0067
• Clan: Si / 姒氏
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0205
• Lineage: Si surname / 姒姓
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0260

Career and standing

• Label: Minister of Works / 司空 · Action: appointed
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0017, shiji:002:s0019
• Office: minister / 相 · Under Person Id: Shun (舜)
  Explicit · hanshu:065:s0151
• Title: Son of Heaven / 天子
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0205

Places and affiliations

• Label: Xia / 夏 · Relation: founded
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0205
• Label: Xia / 夏 · Relation: ruled
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0205
• Polity: Xia
  Explicit · hanshu:058:s0276
• Polity: Xia / 夏 · Relation: associated-with
  Explicit · shiji:029:s0009
• Polity: Xia / 夏 · Relation: founder-associated
  Strongly inferred · shiji:002:s0260
• Polity: Xia / 夏 · Relation: ruled
  Explicit · xintangshu:044:s0165
• Place: Kuaiji / 會稽 · Relation: buried-at · Provenance: Mode: hearsay
  Textual variant · shiji:002:s0263

Works and attributed material

• Work: Yu Penalties / 禹刑 · Relation: eponym
  Explicit · hanshu:025:s0136
• Kind: speech · Role: speaker
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0127, shiji:002:s0130, shiji:002:s0133, shiji:002:s0134, shiji:002:s0135, shiji:002:s0136, shiji:002:s0137, shiji:002:s0148, shiji:002:s0153, shiji:002:s0154, shiji:002:s0156, shiji:002:s0157, shiji:002:s0158, shiji:002:s0159, shiji:002:s0160, shiji:002:s0161, shiji:002:s0162, shiji:002:s0165, shiji:002:s0166, shiji:002:s0167, shiji:002:s0168, shiji:002:s0180, shiji:002:s0181, shiji:002:s0185, shiji:002:s0186, shiji:002:s0187

Events and relationships

• Kind: ritual · Role: convener · Action: assembled-lords · Place: south of the Yangtze / 江南 · Provenance: Mode: hearsay
  Textual variant · shiji:002:s0263
• Kind: engineering · Role: channeler · Action: channeled-yangtze-at-mount-min · Place: Mount Min / 岷山
  Explicit · yuanshi:066:s0150
• Kind: disaster · Role: controller · Action: controlled floods and fixed nine provinces
  Explicit · hanshu:026:s0009
• Kind: flood-control · Role: leader · Action: controlled-flood
  Explicit · hanshu:091:s0049
• Kind: hydraulic · Role: director · Action: controlled-floods · Years: 13 · Note: controlled floods for thirteen years; passed home without entering
  Explicit · shiji:029:s0001
• Kind: engineering · Role: cutter · Action: cut-at-dujiangyan · Place: Dujiangyan / 都江堰
  Explicit · yuanshi:066:s0164
• Kind: disaster · Role: ruler · Action: endured nine years of flood with stores prepared
  Explicit · hanshu:026:s0144
• Kind: legal-policy-example · Action: established capital statutes
  Explicit · songshu:056:s0082
• Kind: disaster · Role: ruler · Action: experienced famine and abundance cycles
  Explicit · hanshu:026:s0130
• Kind: hydraulic · Role: director · Action: flood-control-and-survey
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0027, shiji:002:s0028, shiji:002:s0032
• Kind: hydraulic · Role: director · Action: guided-Yellow-River · Place: from Jishi to Dapi / 自積石至于大邳
  Explicit · shiji:029:s0007, shiji:029:s0008, shiji:029:s0009
• Kind: legendary · Role: ruler · Action: his achievement was cited as preserving Shun's canon · Provenance: Mode: memorial-historical-exemplum
  Explicit · jiuwudaishi:010:s0061, jiuwudaishi:010:s0068
• Kind: legal · Role: ruler · Action: instituted · Label: instituted mutilating punishments / 制肉刑 · Provenance: Mode: named-source-report · Source Person Id: Xunzi (孫卿)
  Explicit · hanshu:025:s0289
• Kind: political · Role: counselor · Action: joined-in-good · Other Person Ids: Yao (堯), Shun (舜)
  Explicit · hanshu:022:s0013
• Kind: succession · Role: bequeather · Action: left-realm-to · Other Person Id: Yi (益)
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0210
• Kind: administrative · Role: organizer · Action: ordered the Nine Provinces
  Explicit · shiji:074:s0027
• Kind: political · Role: addressee · Action: received-charge · Other Person Id: Shun (舜) · Date Context: Qualitative: legendary antiquity
  Explicit · qingshigao:120:s0014
• Kind: political · Role: heir-candidate · Action: recommended-and-tested-in-succession · Other Person Id: Shun (舜)
  Explicit · shiji:061:s0003
• Kind: administrative · Role: ruler · Action: regulated land, taxes, and interregional exchange
  Explicit · hanshu:026:s0009
• Kind: flood-control · Role: controller · Action: sent by Yao to govern the flood
  Explicit · hanshu:068:s0057
• Kind: administrative · Role: organizer · Action: set-apart-nine-provinces
  Explicit · shiji:029:s0003, shiji:029:s0004
• Kind: military · Role: commander · Action: set-out-on-campaign
  Explicit · mingshi:057:s0025
• Kind: ritual · Role: actor · Action: set-up-drums-and-bells-for-remonstrance
  Explicit · qingshigao:113:s0045
• Kind: succession · Role: withdrawer · Action: yielded-to · Other Person Id: Shangjun (商均) · Place: Yangcheng / 陽城
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0203
• Relation: minister-of · Person Id: Yao (堯)
  Explicit · hanshu:022:s0013
• Relation: successor-of · Person Id: Yao (堯)
  Explicit · hanshu:025:s0289
• Relation: declined-in-favor-of · Person Id: Ji (稷)
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0020
• Relation: declined-in-favor-of · Person Id: Gao Yao (咎繇)
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0020
• Relation: minister-of · Person Id: Shun (舜)
  Explicit · hanshu:022:s0013
• Relation: declined-in-favor-of · Person Id: Xie (契)
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0020
• Relation: superior-of · Person Id: Yi (益)
  Explicit · hanshu:098:s0169
• Relation: successor-of · Person Id: Shun (舜)
  Explicit · hanshu:025:s0289
• Relation: successor-of · Person Id: Shun (舜)
  Explicit · shiji:026:s0024

Assessments and attributes

• Assessment: enduring legacy influenced Yue noble continuity · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment · Speaker Person Id: Sima Qian (太史公)
  Explicit · shiji:114:s0082
• Assessment: industrious, virtuous, and a standard for others · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0023, shiji:002:s0024, shiji:002:s0025, shiji:002:s0026
• Description: praised in the edict as a supreme sage / 詔中稱為上聖 · Western Year: AD 955 · Provenance: Mode: narrator
  Explicit · jiuwudaishi:115:s0014
• Item: black jade scepter / 玄圭 · Relation: bestowed · Other Person Id: Shun (舜)
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0122

Source notes

• Field: death-place · Statement: Some hold that Yu met the lords south of the Yangtze, settled the tally of merits, died, and was buried there—hence Kuaiji. / 或言禹會諸侯江南，計功而崩，因葬焉，命曰會稽。 · Witness: some say / 或言
  Explicit · shiji:002:s0263, shiji:002:s0264
• Historicity: legendary
  Explicit · hanshu:025:s0289, hanshu:026:s0009, jinshi:035:s0062, liaoshi:055:s0010, qingshigao:113:s0045, qingshigao:120:s0014, shiji:002:s0001, shiji:003:s0006, shiji:029:s0001, shiji:061:s0003, suishu:005:s0049, xintangshu:044:s0165, xinwudaishi:035:s0061
• Historicity: legendary
  Strongly inferred · shiji:002:s0260
• Value: legendary
  Explicit · hanshu:068:s0020, shiji:074:s0027