Taihang and Wangwu mountains are very huge.
They cover an area of seven hundred li and are seven or eight thousand zhang high.
They were originally located to the south of Jizhou and to the north of the north bank of the Yellow River.
At the foot of the northern mountain, there lived an old man named Yu Gong, who was almost 90 years old.
Yu Gong’s house faced the mountain directly, so he had to take a detour every time he went out.
He decided to dig the mountain with his whole family to open a path to the southern part of Yuzhou and the south bank of the Han River.
His family agreed, but his wife had some doubts.
She asked Yu Gong how he could dig through Taihang and Wangwu mountains with his strength, which couldn’t even dig through the small Kui Fu mountain.
And where to put the earth and stones?
They said they could throw them to the edge of the Bohai Sea, to the north of Yin Tu.
So Yu Gong led his grandchildren to dig the mountain, and the neighbor’s kid also came to help.
They could only make a round trip once a year.
An old man named Zhi Sou from Hequ laughed at Yu Gong and said he was too foolish.
Zhi Sou said that Yu Gong couldn’t even move the grass on the mountain, how could he dig through the mountain?
Yu Gong replied that even if he died, he still had his son, and his son had grandchildren, and so on, endlessly, but the mountain wouldn’t grow taller.
Zhi Sou had nothing to say in response.
After hearing about it, the mountain god was afraid that Yu Gong would keep digging, so he reported it to the Heavenly Emperor.
The Heavenly Emperor was moved by Yu Gong’s sincerity and sent a strong god to carry the mountains away.
From then on, there were no more mountains blocking the way from the southern part of Jizhou to the south bank of the Han River.