Traditional Chinese legend, retold in simple Mandarin
Yu Tames the Great Flood
大禹治水
Yu Tames the Great Flood (大禹治水, Dà Yǔ zhì shuǐ) is a Chinese legend, retold in simple Mandarin as a 4-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 1 (Beginner).
Retold from the ancient Chinese legend of Yu the Great: when a flood covers the land, Yu spends thirteen years digging rivers to the sea, and passes his own front door three times without going in.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — An old storyteller who tells the flood legend plainly, the way Chinese grandparents have told it for generations.
- Yu · 大禹 — A quiet, stubborn young man who believes water can't be walled in, only led, and who gives thirteen years of his life to leading it to the sea.
- Boyi · 伯益 — Yu's cheerful, talkative helper, who keeps count of the years and is very, very tired of eating fish.
- Nüjiao · 女娇 — Yu's young wife from Tushan, who promises to wait for him at their door for as long as it takes.
- Qi · 启 — Yu and Nüjiao's son, born while his father was away, who grows up wanting to bring him home.
- King Shun · 舜帝 — The wise old king who puts Yu in charge of taming the flood.
4 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: Water Everywhere
到处都是水
The land is under water, and walls can't hold it back. Yu has a new idea, a new job from the king, and a wife he married just four days ago.
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Chapter 2: A Cry Behind the Door
门里的哭声
A year on the road leaves Yu with muddy, hairless legs and no time to sleep. Then, one rainy night, the road leads past his own front door.
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Chapter 3: A Door in the Mountain
山里的门
A mountain stands in the Yellow River's way, and Yu has a wild idea. On the road beyond it, someone small is waiting at his door.
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Chapter 4: Home at Last
回家了
Ten years on, Yu's son has hold of his hand and won't let go. Can Yu keep his promise to the people on the hills, and to the family waiting at his door?
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Key words in Yu Tames the Great Flood
Behind the story
Yu the Great (大禹) is the hero of China's best-known flood legend. Early books such as the Book of Documents (尚书) and the Mencius (孟子) tell of him, and Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (史记) says Yu spent thirteen years away from home taming the waters, passing his own gate without going in. Tradition counts him as the first king of the Xia (夏), the earliest dynasty in the old histories.
Chinese children meet the story in primary school, and it still teaches two lessons. The first is about method: Yu's father tried to hold the water back with walls and failed, while Yu dug it a road to the sea. The second is about duty: the phrase 三过家门而不入, “passed his own door three times without going in,” still praises people who put their work for others ahead of their own families.
Did you know?
- The difference between father and son lives on in the saying 堵不如疏: blocking is worse than guiding. People use it for floods, and also for traffic, crowds and raising children.
- An ancient history, the Zuo Zhuan (左传), tells of a lord who said, more than 2,500 years ago: 微禹，吾其鱼乎, “If not for Yu, we would all be fish!”
- Legend says Yu cut open Longmen (龙门), the Dragon Gate on the Yellow River. A carp that leaps the gate is said to turn into a dragon, so 鲤鱼跳龙门, “the carp leaps the Dragon Gate,” is still a wish for success in exams and careers.