Chapter 6 5 Dayu's Flood Control

During Yao's reign, a great flood occurred in the Yellow River Basin. The crops were flooded and houses were destroyed. The people had to move to higher places.There are also poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts in many places, harming people and livestock, making life difficult for people. Yao convened a tribal alliance meeting to discuss the issue of water control.He consulted the leaders of the Sifang tribes: who should be sent to control the flood?The leaders all recommended Gun (sound gun). Yao did not have much trust in Gun.The leaders said: "Now there is no one stronger than Gun, try it!" Yao reluctantly agreed.

Gun spent nine years controlling the flood, but failed to subdue the flood.Because he only knew how to cover with water and earth, and built dikes and dams. As a result, the flood broke down the dikes and dams, and the floods became more serious. After Shun replaced Yao as the leader of the tribal alliance, he went to inspect the flood-controlled areas in person.When he found that Gun was ineffective, he killed Gun and sent Gun's son Yu to control the floods. Yu changed his father's approach and diverted the flood into the sea by opening canals to drain water and dredge the river channels.He worked with the common people, wearing a straw hat, holding a shovel, taking the lead in digging and picking soil, and the hair on his calf was polished off due to exhaustion.

After thirteen years of hard work, the flood was finally diverted into the sea, and the ground can be used for people to grow crops again. Not long after Yu was newly married, he ran around in order to control the water, and passed by his house many times, but did not enter.Once, his wife Tu Shan gave birth to his son Qi, and the baby was crying. Yu passed by the door and heard the crying, so he made up his mind not to go in to visit. At that time, there was a big mountain in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, called Longmen Mountain (in the northwest of Hejin County, Shanxi Province today).It blocked the way of the river and squeezed the river very narrow.Blocked by Longmen Mountain, the river rushing eastward often overflowed and caused floods.When Yu arrived there, he observed the topography and led his men to dig Longmen, which opened a big gap in the mountain.In this way, the river will flow unimpeded.

The descendants all praised Yu's achievements in water control and honored him as Dayu. When Shun was old, he looked for an heir like Yao did.Because of Yu's contribution to water control, everyone elected Yu.As soon as Shun died, Yu succeeded as the leader of the tribal alliance. At this time, it has reached the late stage of the clan commune.With the development of productive forces, what a person produces, in addition to maintaining his own life, has surplus.The leaders of clans and tribes took advantage of their status to take surplus products as their private property and became nobles of the clan.With a surplus of produce, wars broke out between tribes and tribes took captives, and instead of killing them, they turned them into slaves to work for the nobility.In this way, two classes of slaves and slave owners gradually formed, and the clan commune began to disintegrate.

Because of Yu's achievements in water control, the prestige and power of the leaders of the tribal alliance were enhanced.It is said that when Yu was old, he visited the East and gathered the leaders of many tribes in Kuaiji Mountain (in the area of ​​Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province today).Those who went to meet Yu held jade silk in their hands, and the ceremony was very grand.There was a tribal leader named Fangfeng who was the last to arrive at the meeting.Yu thought that he had neglected his order and beheaded Fangfeng.This shows that at that time, Yu had changed from the leader of the tribal alliance to a veritable king.Yu used to have an assistant named Gao Tao (sound gaoyao), who once helped Yu manage political affairs.After Gaotao's death, Boyi, Gaotao's son, also served as Yu's assistant.According to the system of abdication, Boyi should have been made Yu's successor.However, after Yu's death, the nobles of the Xia tribe where Yu belonged supported Yu's son Qi to inherit Yu's seat.

As a result, the election system of the tribal alliance during the clan commune period was formally abolished and turned into a system of hereditary throne.The first slavery dynasty in the history of our country - the Xia Dynasty appeared.