Yu the Great
Ancestry and early life

Transmitted sources uniformly asserted that Yu was the son of Gun, a kind of mythical fish, though they differed on Gun's origins. According to Sima Qian 's Shiji (c. 90 BC), Yu's father was |Gun, grandfather was Zhuanxu, great-grandfather was Changyi, and great-great-grandfather was the Yellow Emperor, Changyi and Gun being mere officials, not emperors. The Book of Han, quoting Lord Yu Imperial Lineage, stated that Yu's father Gun was a five-generation-descendant of Zhuanxu. The Classic of Mountains and Seas stated that Yu's father Gun (also known as 白馬; ' White Horse ') was the son of Luoming, who in turn was the son of the Yellow Emperor.

Yu's father, Gun, was enfeoffed at Shiniu of Mount Wen (汶山), in modern-day Beichuan County, Sichuan, Yu was said to have been potentially born there, though there are debates as to whether he was born instead in Shifang. Yu's mother was of the Youxin (有莘氏) clan, named either Nüzhi (女志) or Nüxi (女嬉). His surname was Si, later Xia after the state he was enfeoffed with, while his personal name was Wenming (文命), according to the Shiji.

When Yu was a child, Emperor Yao enfeoffed Gun as lord of Chong, usually identified as the middle peak of Mount Song. Yu is thus believed to have grown up on the slopes of Mount Song, just south of the Yellow River. Yu was described as a credulous, hard working, quick witted person with morals. He later married a woman from Mount Tu (Error: {{Lang}}: no text (help)) who is generally referred to as Tushanshi (塗山氏; ' Lady Tushan '). They had a son named Qi, a name literally meaning "revelation".

The location of Mount Tu has always been disputed. The two most probable locations are Mount Tu in Anhui, and the Tu Peak of the Southern Mountain of Chongqing.

A separate legend of Yu's birth is attested in an excavated manuscript, the provenance of which is provisionally assigned to the Warring States period. In this legend, Yu's mother became pregnant after consuming the grains of a Job's tears plant, and gave birth to him through her back after a three-year gestation period.
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