Gun

According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Inner Classics, when catastrophic floods inundated the land, Gun stole the Emperor’s Self-Expanding Soil to dam the waters without awaiting imperial command. Enraged, the Emperor ordered Zhu Rong to execute Gun at Yujiao. From Gun’s corpse—preserved intact for three years—Yu the Great was born; the Emperor then appointed Yu to complete the task of laying down earth to fix the boundaries of the Nine Provinces. Gun was a descendant of Zhuanxu and father of Yu the Great. Witnessing the devastating floods, he dared defy heavenly decree by stealing the miraculous Self-Expanding Soil—a substance capable of spontaneously multiplying—to block the deluge. Though his efforts ended in failure and his own death, his devotion to saving the people remains profoundly admirable. Legend holds that his body remained uncorrupted for three years before being split open to reveal Yu, who inherited his father’s mission and ultimately tamed the floods by dredging rivers and diverting torrents. Thus father and son both sacrificed themselves to the sacred cause of flood control, revered as ancient deities who embodied selfless devotion to humanity.