Gun

Father of Yu

Flood-builder who stole the ever-growing soil and failed; from his corpse his son Yu was born.

Gun, father of Yu the Great, was commanded by Yao to control the flood and tried to dam every river with barriers of earth. He even stole the ever-growing soil of heaven, but the waters only rose higher; after nine years he was executed on Feather Mountain. From his unburied body, so the Shanhaijing tells, his son Yu was born — failure giving way to the success that would tame the flood.