Jishi Gorge and the Yellow River
A Yellow River gorge where geologists proposed a dam-burst megaflood around 1920 BCE as the origin of China's Great Flood legend.
- Location
- Upper Yellow River, Qinghai–Gansu border
- Modern country
- China
- Type
- River gorge
- Claimed event
- Landslide-dam outburst flood, c. 1920 BCE
- Proposed by
- Wu Qinglong and colleagues, Science, 2016
- Nearby site
- Lajia (Qijia culture)
What are Jishi Gorge and the Yellow River known for?
Jishi Gorge is a narrow stretch of the upper Yellow River near the border of Qinghai and Gansu provinces in northwest China. Close by lies Lajia, a settlement of the Qijia culture that was buried by a disaster around 4,000 years ago; it is also famous for the oldest known noodles.
In 2016 a team led by Wu Qinglong published evidence in the journal Science that an earthquake caused a landslide to dam the gorge, and that the dam later burst, sending a huge flood down the river around 1920 BCE. They suggested this flood could lie behind the legend of the Great Flood tamed by Yu the Great, and the founding of the Xia dynasty.
Other researchers disputed the claim. Critics argued that the dating did not fit, that the Lajia destruction and the outburst did not coincide, and that the evidence for such a flood was weaker than presented. The link between Jishi Gorge and the Yu legend remains a hypothesis.
The Jishi Gorge flood is the proposed real-world event behind Yu the Great's flood.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeYu the Great
- PersonWu Qinglong
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Lajia'Reference
- Wu Qinglong et al., 'Outburst flood at 1920 BCE supports historicity of China's Great Flood and the Xia dynasty', Science 353 (2016)Primary text
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