It goes through the
九州 one by one, giving each province's rivers, soil and products and the tribute it owed, as
禹 set it out after taming the floods, which is where the name comes from. Though set in Yu's legendary age, it was probably written in the Warring States period, and it is the oldest work of Chinese geography. In 1934 the historian
顾颉刚 named his journal of historical geography after it.