Gong Gong共工

History vs. fiction

The evolution of the legend of Gong Gong angrily striking Mount Buzhou

• based on factGong Gong, after failing to contend with Zhuan Xu for the throne, angrily struck Mount Buzhou, causing the sky to tilt northwest.

  The 'Huainanzi·Astronomical Treatise' records that after Gong Gong failed in his struggle with Zhuan Xu for the throne, he angrily struck Mount Buzhou, causing the 'heavenly pillar to break and the earth's cords to snap', leading to the grand cosmic origin myth of the sky tilting northwest and the earth sinking southeast. Early 'Classic of Mountains and Seas' records him as a water god, but does not explicitly mention the episode of his angry strike on Mount Buzhou and the resulting cosmic upheaval. This is a systematized and philosophical interpretation by scholars after the Han dynasty, not a pre-Qin historical fact.

• based on factThe opponent in the angry collision with Buzhou Mountain

  Huainanzi, Tianwen Xun records that Gong Gong and Zhuan Xu fought to be emperor, and in anger Gong Gong struck Mount Buzhou. Liezi, Tang Wen, on the other hand, does not specify whom Gong Gong fought with for the throne, only narrating that his striking the mountain caused the pillar of heaven to break. By the time of the Records of the Grand Historian, Annals of the Five Emperors and other official histories, the myth of angrily striking Mount Buzhou is completely erased, with only the record that Gong Gong was exiled by Shun for failing to control the floods (「𬤰兜进言共工，尧曰不可，而试之工师，共工果淫辟。四岳举鲧治鸿水，尧以为不可，岳彊请试之，试之而无功，故百姓不便。三苗在江淮、荆州数为乱。于是舜归而言于帝，请流共工于幽陵，以变北狄；放𬤰兜于崇山，以变南蛮；迁三苗于三危，以变西戎；殛鲧于羽山，以变东夷：四罪而天下咸服。」 Source: Annals of the Five Emperors.txt).

• attestedExiled for failure in flood control

  Although the descriptions of Gong Gong in myths are often supernatural, in the historicized accounts the outcome is consistent. The Records of the Grand Historian, chapter 'Wudi benji', clearly records that Gong Gong, because of 'excess and wickedness' and dereliction of duty in flood control, was ultimately 'exiled Gong Gong to Youling to transform the northern barbarians' by Shun. The records of Gong Gong's demotion and exile are basically unified in the classics.