dayu

The Story of the King Yu Stele Swallowing Snakes

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🎨《仿米芾山水圖》董其昌

During his tenure as the magistrate of Liangdang County(兩當縣) in Shaanxi(陝西), Tu Chiwen(屠赤文) had a cook named Zhang(張某) under his command. Zhang, a powerful and hearty eater, possessed immense strength and a robust stature but lacked his left ear. Tu Chiwen inquired about the cause of his missing ear, and Zhang recounted his experience.

“I hail from Sichuan(四川), where my family for three generations lived off hunting. We owned an extraordinary book passed down through generations, teaching hunters a peculiar skill: by catching a breeze and sniffing it, one could discern the approach of any wild beast. 

DaYu(夏禹)’s visit in Penglai(蓬萊)

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In ancient times, after Yu the Great(DaYu) had controlled the floods, he rode in a carriage across the Weak Water and arrived at Mount Penglai.

He offered sacrifices to God at Bei’ao and attributed his great achievements in flood control to the Nine Heavens. Da Yu toured the Five Mountains and ordered craftsmen to carve stone tablets to record the distance, height, and other information of each mountain.

The characters on the tablets were written in the ancient Kochou script, which was not intelligible to the Han people.