Comments and Annotations

The present song was composed by Yu. In his Records of Music:Ancient and Modern (《古今乐录》, written in 568 AD), the author (the Buddhist Zhijiang, 释智匠) says, “In the course of taming the floods, Yu ascended Mount Kuaiji. At the sight of the rampant flood he composed the present song.” The song expresses Yu’s deep concern for the suffering people and utter devotion to the task.

The legend goes that in ancient times floods had often devastated the reaches of the Yellow River, and that to protect agriculture Emperor Yao (尧帝) had commissioned Gun (鲧) to tame the floods,who adopted the guideline of checking the floods with dams and consequently was banished to Mount Yushan (禹山) for his failure. Later Shun (舜), who succeeded to the throne, entrusted the mission to Gun’s son Yu (禹). Yu wholeheartedly devoted himself to the cause. He dredged the streams by splitting the Dragon Gate and clearing a passage through Yique (伊阙，the gate of the Yi River) with his magic ax, invented some surveying devices and successfully accomplished the task by taking the strategy of dredging the streams. For his merits and virtues Yu has henceforth been honored as Yu the Great (大禹).