鲧禹治水传说新探

A New Probe into the Legends concerning Gun's and Yu's Regulating Waters

论文认为,“鲧堙洪水”与“共工振水”实际上是同一史实分化出的不同传说。推测其历史背景是处于黄河中游(今山西芮城地区)的鲧部落堵塞了黄河的一条重要支流——共水,引发黄河下游的决口改道,受害最严重的祝融部落西攻鲧并流放了他。禹凭借他特殊的身份协调了上下游的关系。正是在治水的过程中,诞生了第一个能够控制黄河中下游的国家政权——夏王朝。上古时期中原国家政权与霸主的交替大多与黄河中下游各势力集团的争斗有关。

This paper claims that 'Gun's blocking up the flood' and 'Gonggong's re - energizing waters' are in fact different legends developed from the same historical fact. Their historical backgrounds, it conjectures, are that the Gun Tribe on the middle reaches of the Yellow River (the present Ruicheng Region in Shanxi Province) has blocked the Gong River, one of its important branches, causing the crevasse on its lower reaches to change its course. The Zhurong Tribe who suffers the most severe disaster attacks Gun from the west, and sends him into exile . Yu, Gun' s son, in his special capacity has managed to coordinate the relationship between the upper and lower reaches, and it is in the very course of his regulating the waters that the Xia Dynasty, the first state power that has capability enough to govern the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, comes into being. Most alternations between state powers and overlords in the Central Plains in remote ages are related to the strife among all relevant power groups in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.