Preface: Zhu Niao (the Black Bird) is a divine creature recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and is said to have been a bird transformed by Dan Zhu, the son of Emperor Yao.
Legend has it that when Emperor Yao ceded the world to Emperor Shun, Dan Zhu and the people of the Three Miao Kingdom joined forces to oppose him, so Emperor Yao sent his troops to defeat them, and Dan Zhu, feeling ashamed, threw himself into the South China Sea and drowned himself to become an argentine bird. Legend has it that it is better not to hear the barking of this bird, because wherever it appears, those who are capable will be banished. It is said that the descendants of Dan Zhu founded a country in the South China Sea called Dan Zhu Kingdom. The people here were strange looking, with human faces and bird wings.
Yao had many sons, among which Dan Zhu was the eldest, but also the most unpromising.
Dan Zhu was proud and tyrannical, often going out to play with friends, and when things didn’t go his way, he would fly into a rage and abuse his servants.
At that time, floods were everywhere. Dan Zhu loved to go out on boats for play and gradually got used to life on the water, ignoring the hardships of the people.
After the floods were tamed by Da Yu, some places were no longer navigable. Dan Zhu had people push his boat on land, which was called “land sailing”.
The people pushing the boat were exhausted, while Dan Zhu ate, drank, and enjoyed himself on the boat.
When not going out to play, Dan Zhu and his friends would misbehave at home.
His younger brothers didn’t respect him, and there were constant disputes in the family.
Yao saw that Dan Zhu’s character was vile and that education was ineffective, so he was very anxious.
So he invented the game of Go to teach Dan Zhu, hoping he would improve.
But after playing for a while, Dan Zhu got bored and invented a new game, using mulberry trees as the board and rhinoceroses and elephants as the pieces.
Later, he even got bored with that and continued to misbehave with his friends.
Yao knew that Dan Zhu couldn’t take on important responsibilities, so he decided to give the position of ruler to Shun.
But fearing that Dan Zhu would cause trouble, he exiled him to the south to be a vassal, supervised by Houji.
The Sanmiao tribe in the Central Plains had a good relationship with Dan Zhu and opposed Yao’s decision to give the throne to Shun.
Yao was upright and sent troops to attack. The leader of the Sanmiao tribe was captured.
The rest of the Sanmiao tribe had to follow Dan Zhu and migrate to the south, settling near the Dan River.
Their power grew strong again in the south, and they planned with Dan Zhu to invade the Central Plains and overthrow Yao’s rule.
Yao had anticipated this and mobilized troops, personally going to quell the rebellion.
The alliance between Dan Zhu and the Sanmiao hadn’t prepared well. When they heard that Yao’s army was coming, they hastily rallied to confront it.
The armies of the father and son engaged in a great battle on the Dan River.
Dan Zhu, accustomed to life on the water, led the navy.
His navy could walk on water because there was a type of fish in the Dan River called the Dan fish. Cutting its blood and applying it to one’s feet allowed one to walk on water as if on flat ground.
Therefore, in the early stages of the war, Yao was no match for his son in the navy.
But Yao’s army had more than enough to handle the Sanmiao army on land.
With Yao’s wisdom and the help of the local people, they first defeated the Sanmiao army on land, preventing it from cooperating with Dan Zhu’s navy.
Then they used strategy to defeat Dan Zhu’s navy as well.
Dan Zhu was defeated and fled with a small group of followers to the South Sea.
Feeling ashamed to live in the world, he jumped into the sea and killed himself.
After his death, his spirit turned into a bird called the Zhu bird, shaped like an owl with human-like claws.
Wherever it appeared, the “scholars” there would be exiled.
Dan Zhu’s descendants settled near the South Sea and gradually formed a country called the Guanzhu country.
The people here had strange appearances, with human faces and bird beaks, often using their beaks to catch fish.
They had wings on their backs but couldn’t fly, only using them as crutches.
通过阅读中国神话、民间故事、历史典故、人物传记学汉语，简单易学，中英对照，适合初学者！
Learning Chinese through reading Chinese mythology, folk stories, historical allusions, and biographies is easy to learn and bilingual, suitable for beginners!