Yongding He Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Yongding river was anciently called the Leishui, the Lugou river and the muddy river, and changed its name repeatedly because its water was turbid and its course unsettled; in the Kangxi reign of the Qing it was granted the name Yongding river, lodging the wish for calm waters. The Shijingshan and Mentougou areas of Beijing are the main area of the Yongding river legends, closely bound up with the control of floods, the building of dykes and the formation of the villages on both banks.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Yongding river is the mother river of Beijing. Among the many legends the most representative are The Legend of the River Blocking the River, The Legend of the Stone Sutra Mountain and the Wet Sutra Mountain, The Legend of the Yongding River Water-Quelling Ox, The Legend of Old Wang Planting Willows on the Dyke, The Legend of General Feng Sternly Punishing the Old Soldier-Ruffian, The Legend of the Origin of Mayu Village and The Legend of the Liu Niang Mansion. The Yongding river legends are vivid and rich in content with strong local colour and are the crystallisation of the wisdom of the people on both banks. The spirit of unremitting struggle against nature to control the floods, reflected in the legends, also has a certain practical educational significance. The representative works are vivid and strongly local in colour. These legends mostly unfold around dykes, ferries, villages and water-quelling objects, plain and vivid in narration and closely bound up with the production and life on the two banks of the Yongding river.
The Legend of the River Blocking the River
One of the most representative pieces of the Yongding river legends.
The Legend of the Yongding River Water-Quelling Ox
A representative piece telling the legend of the water-quelling ox.
The Legend of the Origin of Mayu Village
A Yongding river legend connected with the formation of the villages on the two banks.
The Legend of Old Wang Planting Willows on the Dyke
A legend connected with dyke-building and flood control.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Because of the terrain, the Yongding river basin suffered repeated floods in history, so that the river's name came to be associated with the wish to avoid disaster and live in peace. A great many legends about the Yongding river circulate in its basin, their basic feature being that legend is linked with historical fact, so that the shadow of history is mirrored in the legends.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
They recount the history of people's control of the Yongding river and provide detailed material for studying the history of Beijing's production and development. At present the transmitters in Shijingshan district of Beijing who command a great many Yongding river legends are advanced in years, and if they are not recorded and collated promptly the long-transmitted Yongding river folk legends will very likely fade under the impact of modern entertainment culture and finally vanish altogether with the passing of the tellers. They recount the history of the ancestors' control of floods and struggle with nature, mirror the changes of social life in the Beijing area and are precious oral material for studying the history of Beijing's production and local folklore.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。