Gun 鯀, also written 鮌, is a mythical person of prehistoric China and father of Yu the Great 大禹. He is said to have been a great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor 黃帝, grandson of Luo Ming 駱明, and son of Bai Ma 白馬. He is a deity oft he water and had the shape of a white horse. Once he stealt some earth belonging to the Celestial Emperor 天帝 in order to repair dams and dykes instead of digging out canals. For his theft, the Celestial Emepror ordered the fire god Zhu Rong 祝融 to kill Gun at Yuxiao 羽郊. Yet his corpse did not decay, and when it was opened with a knife, a dragon sprang out of his belly and ascended to the sky. The dragon was nobody else than Yu the Great. The body of Gun himself transformed into a yellow dragon (huanglong 黄龍 or bear hangxiong 黄熊, or another yellow animal huangneng 黄能) and disappeared in a well. In the Classic Shangshu 尚書 Gun is seen as one of the four evils (sixiong 四凶) that had to be extirpated by Emperor Shun 舜 and was killed at Mt. Yushan 羽山 (modern 郯城, Shandong). Another name of him is Taowu 檮杌. He had been enfeoffed as Earl of Sui 祟伯 (or Chong 崇崇伯, modern Songxian 嵩縣, Henan). Sources: Li Jianping 李劍平 (ed. 1998). Zhongguo shenhua renwu cidian 中國神話人物辭典, p. 701. Xi'an: Shaanxi renmin chubanshe. Xiong Tieji 熊鐵基, Yang Youli 楊有禮 (ed. 1994). Zhongguo diwang zaixiang cidian 中國帝王宰相辭典, p. 8. Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu chubanshe. Yi Xingguo 衣興國 (1988). Shiyong Zhongguo mingren cidian 實用中國名人辭典, p. 8. Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe.