Yu the Great (大禹) is the mythic founder of the Xia dynasty, said to have tamed the great floods by dredging channels (rather than building dams, like his failed father 鲧 Gǔn). The phrase 三过家门而不入 'he passed his own house three times without entering' celebrates his self-sacrificing dedication.
Components
pictograph
禹yǔ
Yu the Great; legendary flood tamer
Treated as a single self-pictograph because the decomposition is opaque. Oracle-bone forms drew a reptile-like creature, possibly a dragon or large lizard, later borrowed as the name of Yu the Great, tamer of the floods and Xia-dynasty founder. Indexed under Kangxi #114 禸 (róu, animal-track) via the claw-print residue at the base.
Filed under radical 禸 (róu, #114) by convention. 禸 is not a separate component in 禹, so no strokes are highlighted.
