Bie Ling

Bie Ling is a legendary sovereign of ancient Shu, said to have originated from the Jing-Chu region; his body, reportedly lifeless, drifted upstream along the Yangtze River to Pi County, where he miraculously revived. Upon meeting Wang Di Du Yu, the reigning sovereign of Shu, Du Yu recognized Bie Ling’s exceptional virtue and appointed him as his chancellor. At that time, catastrophic flooding ravaged the Shu lands. Bie Ling led the people in cutting through Yulei Mountain and channeling the floodwaters from Yushan Mountain, thereby quelling the deluge. Having accomplished this great feat, he was granted the throne by abdication and proclaimed Kaiming Di, founding the Kaiming Dynasty—a line that endured for twelve generations until the Qin conquest of Shu. In gratitude for his flood-control achievements, the people of Shu honored him as 'Cong Di' (the 'Thicket Sovereign') and enshrined him alongside Wang Di Du Yu at Wangcong Temple in Pi County; their two burial mounds face each other across the temple grounds. The enduring legend—'Wang Di entrusts his springtime heart to the cuckoo; Cong Di calms the floods to secure Ba and Shu'—has been passed down through generations, marking the earliest expression of Ba-Shu’s veneration of hydraulic mastery.