There is indeed a legend about "Dayu controlling floods" in ancient China. According to research by scientists, there was indeed a period of great floods in China. However, there is currently no conclusive evidence as to whether Dayu existed in history. Dayu was the founder of the Xia Dynasty, but there is still a lot of controversy in the international academic community about the existence of the Xia Dynasty. Li Xueqin made a project to date the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. His best material was the Erlitou site, but many authoritative scholars disagreed. Since the Xia Dynasty may not exist, it is also very doubtful whether Dayu exists.

Of course, I personally tend to believe that Dayu and the Xia Dynasty did exist. It’s just that I can’t find evidence that is widely recognized by the academic community, so I won’t make a judgment for the time being.

In fact, during the Republic of China, some well-known scholars questioned the existence of Dayu. The historian Gu Jiegang is said to have said, "Yu is a worm." Lu Xun even satirized him for this. But this is actually because everyone wronged Gu Jiegang. Gu Jiegang never said "Yu is a worm" at all.

Gu Jiegang is a serious, rigorous historical researcher with a solid academic spirit. He advocates "doubting the past". In other words, Gu Jiegang proposed that we should boldly doubt whether the historical materials written by predecessors are authentic, analyze whether there are any unreal elements in them, and use scientific methods to identify ancient history, especially if there are only descriptions in later generations but no physical objects. The historical authenticity of the material.

For this reason, Gu Jiegang took a big step forward on the basis of "doubting the past and identifying falsehoods", which caused a sensation in the entire historical field at that time. It turns out that Gu Jiegang wrote a book called "Ancient History", which put forward a series of refreshing new viewpoints. Based on his research, especially the explanation of "Yu, an insect" in "Shuowen", Gu Jiegang speculated that Yu was probably a lizard or an animal cast on the Jiuding. As soon as his view was launched, it immediately encountered fierce opposition from many scholars. After research and analysis, Gu Jiegang decided to withdraw his opinion. He said that what everyone said was reasonable, and I had to revise my theory. This was very necessary.

This is the mind of a scholar, humbly accepting criticism from others. And a certain bald, triangular-eyed professor from the Communication University (serious), can do nothing except play rogue. Gu Jiegang also frankly said that the explanation of the word "Yu" in "Shuowen" does not adequately represent the ancient meaning. However, he still believes that doubts cannot be completely lost, and research must continue.