The story of Gun and Yu
In ancient times, China was cursed by floods. The rivers swelled and flowed over the land, destroying everything in their path, and the people suffered.
Some say the floods were caused by the rampage of Gong Gong. In his rage that he was not made lord of heaven, he butted against the pillar that connected heaven and earth, and he caused the flood waters to rise and beat against Heaven.
Now Gun, who was descended from the true lord of heaven, saw the floods and took up the task of subduing them. He stole the self-renewing soil from heaven, and used this to build dikes and dams to hold back the waters. But the waters soon overwhelmed the dams, and the floods returned. Whether it was because he had stolen the self-renewing soil, or whether it was because he had failed to overcome the floods, I don't know, but God ordered Gun's execution, and his dead body was laid out on Feather Mountain.
His body lay there for three years and did not decompose - and then Yu was born from Gun's belly. Yu inherited his father's legacy, and Heaven gave him the use of the self-renewing soil, and so he continued the work of struggling to quell the floods. But Yu's plan was quite different from his father's. He did not only build dams, he dredged the rivers and had new channels cut so that the water could flow safely and freely out to sea.
And Yu did not take on this work alone: he enlisted the help of lords and spirits. The Responding Dragon went before him and dredged the river channels with its tail; the dark tortoise came after him to carry the mud away on its back.
In this way he toiled for many years, travelling across the whole land to channel the waters and bring order and peace. For ten years he did not return to his home. He lost his health over the years: no hair grew on his thighs, no nails grew on his hands, his body shrivelled, and he could not lift one leg past the other when he walked. Out of respect for his great spirit power and virtue, people called his walk the 'Pace of Yu'. It was to become a ritual dance with powers to exorcise demons and summon divine protection.
After much travelling and many labours, Yu succeeded in overcoming the floods. The rivers flowed in their courses and the land was safe. This was the time when he rescued the people from demons and monsters - some he had killed, and some he exiled, so that the people could be free from fear. And Gong Gong, whose rage had started the floods, was one of those he exiled.
Yu called a great assembly of gods and spirits on Mount Mao, but Fang feng hesitated and came late to the meeting. Yu had him executed. He used the gathering to reward those who had helped him and to lay the foundations of the new civilisation. This would become China's first great dynasty, the Xia.
Yu in the I Ching
So there is a small part of the story of Yu. How can it help out with readings? Well, it casts fresh light on several hexagrams, and it can give you a sense of bigger stories that might be playing out. You can read more about these connections between the myths and the hexagrams in the books by SJ Marshall and Stephen Karcher - but here are some ideas to start you off.
Let me start out with a highly speculative connection. This is just an idea I had, without substantial textual evidence for it. But when I look at Hexagram 6, Arguing, with the trigram for water below that for Heaven, I think of Gong Gong raging against heaven until the water beat against the skies. I have a feeling that as he brought down the sky and stirred up the waters, he was probably muttering, 'It's just not right! It's just not fair!' His indignation began the whole story, one that ends in an altogether better world - only not for Gong Gong. I think the challenge of Hexagram 6 is to be able to feel the indignation, maybe use it to spark off something new - and then to leave it behind, absolutely, because there will be no place for Gong Gong in the new world.
There's a much more solid connection between the meeting Yu called on Maoshan, and hexagram 8, Seeking Union. The name of Fang Feng himself is actually hidden there in the text: where it says 'those not at rest come from all sides', word for word that's 'not at peace, Fang comes.' And then, of course, there was undeniably misfortune for that latecomer.Yu established fiefdoms on Mt Mao, and the Image of Hexagram 8 describes the ancient Kings doing exactly that, as naturally as the rivers flow in their courses over the earth.
The spirit of Hexagram 8 is very much the spirit of Yu's gathering. The demons and monsters are banished now, it's time to create a new world - and new worlds are built out of new relationships, freely chosen. Only today, I had this hexagram as a reminder. I have a chance to meet up by phone with a new friend. But I'm very busy. Should I really try to make the time for this? He did say I might prefer to leave it a few months... Hexagram 8 appears, I recognise the voice of my inner Fang Feng, and send grateful acceptance at once.
And then there is Yu's disability, and the way he could not move one foot past the other. Well, in the pair of lines, 43 4 and 44, 3, there is someone with no skin on his thighs so that walking comes hard. And then there is Hexagram 39, whose name itself can mean 'limping'. Throughout its lines, there are the key words 'going and coming', which Stephen Karcher connects with the Pace of Yu - one foot in the past, one in the future - not just a limp, but a powerful ritual for changes in the time, and for making chaos and destruction a thing of the past.
Yu is not just about hard work, and nor is hexagram 39. Yu inherited the hard work from Gun, but Yu did things differently. Gun was a great Promethean hero; Gun battled on alone to dam up the waters - and Gun failed. Yu recognised that the water needed to flow freely out to sea, he enlisted help to complete the task - and Yu succeeded. It's not just working hard, it's being able to see things in a new way, and recognising that the sheer scale of the task requires some lateral thinking, and some help. For the Zhou people, who broughtis oracle together, help was to be found in the southwest - and so the texts of both hexagrams 39 and 40 say there is harvest to be had in the southwest. Hexagram 39 can be the moment for a complete change of direction - 'the noble one,' in the Daxiang, 'turns himself around to renew his power and virtue.' If Gun has already failed, it could be time to be reborn as Yu.