The story of Yu the Great taming the floods is known to every household in China.
Tips
history
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). 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 (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.
