Editing Chinese mythology (section)

===Gun, Yu, and the Great Flood===
{{Main|Great Flood (China)|Yu the Great}}
{{Further|Flood Mythology of China|Yi (husbandman)}}

Shun passed on his place as emperor to [[Yu the Great]]. The [[Yellow River]], prone to flooding, erupted in a huge flood in the time of Yao. The flood disrupted society and endangered human existence, as agricultural fields drowned, hunting game disappeared, and the people were dislocated to hills and mountains. Yu's father, [[Gun (Chinese mythology)|Gun]], was put in charge of flood control by Yao, but failed to alleviate the problem after nine years. In some versions Gun was executed by Shun's minister [[Zhurong]] for this failure, but according to others Gun was merely exiled for opposing the elevation of Shun as co-emperor. In more purely mythological versions, the story is more along the lines that Gun transformed into an animal shape to escape the wrath of Heaven (for having dared to go to Heaven and steal the flood-fighting expanding earth ''xirang''). He fled to [[Feather Mountain]] and was struck dead by the fire god [[Zhurong]] on behalf of Heaven. After three years, his son Yu appeared out of his belly, usually said to be in the form of some fantastic animal. Yu took his father's place fighting the flood, leading the people to build canals and levees, often said to be with the help of [[Xirang]]. After thirteen years of toil, Yu abated the flood. Why the Xirang failed to work when Gun used it and he was punished by Heaven, but when Yu used it he was able to stop the flood and was rewarded by Heaven, is a question frequently made in the myths. The mythology of Yu and his associates during their work in controlling the flood and simultaneously saving the people can be seen in various ways to symbolize different societal and cultural developments, such as innovations in hunting, agriculture, well-digging, astronomy, social and political organizing, and other cultural innovations that occur during the course of the mythology around the flood stories. For example, a historicized version of ''xirang'' explains this soil may represent an innovative type of raised garden, made up of soil, brushwood, and similar materials. Thus, Yu and his work in controlling the flood with ''xirang'' would symbolize a societal development allowing a large scale approach to transforming wetlands into arable fields.{{sfn|Hawkes|2011|pp=138–139}} Yu was said to be the founder of the [[Xia dynasty]].