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Yu Biography

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YÜ or TA YÜ to (died 2197 B.C.). The third of the ancient kings so much lauded by Confucius for their virtue and their benign rule -- the others being Yao (q.v.) and Shun. He was a native of Sze-chuen, a reputed descendant of Hwang-ti, and son of that Kun, Minister of Public Works under Yao, who had struggled unsuccessfully for nine years with the great inundation of that reign. Commissioned by Shun, Yao's successor, to take up his father's unfinished work, Yü set out four days after marriage, and for 13 years never rested in his task, traversing nine provinces, opening up, waterways, noting soil and productions, and fixing the form of tax contributions. In 2278 B.C. he announced the completion of his labors, and received the Principality of Hia (or Hsia) as his reward. In 2224 B.C. he became the colleague and successor of Shun, and in 2205, after three years mourning for his colleague, he founded the Hia (or Hsia), the first of the 25 dynasties of China. The greatest of the engineering feats attributed to Yü is the opening of the great gorge or defile on the Yang-tse through the Wu Mountains above I-Chang (q.v.). Consult the "Tribute of Yü," in Legge, Chinese Classes, vol. iii (London, 1865): Friedrich Hirth, Ancient History of China (New York, 1911). 

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 824.