Western Henan is the activity center of Xia Dynasty, so the myth about Dayu is widely circulated here. The Yellow River passes through Sanmenxia, and Dayu, who is known as the hero of water control, has left countless legends among the mountains and rivers in Sanmenxia.
Sanmenxia is located at the junction of western Henan, Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, and is a canyon in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. The Yellow River comes from the Loess Plateau and rushes into this canyon, where it is divided into three tributaries by two stone island gods and ghost gates in the middle of the river. The three waterways formed between the two stone islands and the bank cliff are called "Man Gate", "God Gate" and "Ghost Gate". Legend has it that these three doors were split with a giant axe when Dayu was controlling water, hence the name Sanmenxia. Today, there are a pair of big round pits on Guimen Island, which are said to be the horseshoe prints left by Dayu. Today, there is a big toe upward footprint on the cliff on the south bank of the Yellow River, which is more than 1 foot long and more than 3 inches deep. It is said that when Dayu came here to control water, he split the mountain with a huge axe, but the rock was hard and could not be split, and his arm was weak. So he put his foot into the newly cracked stone crevice and pushed hard to the south. As a result, the mountain collapses and the river flows eastward, but his huge footprints remain on the cliff on the south bank forever. In the late 1950s, Sanmenxia Reservoir was established here.
There are more than half a mile downstream of the reservoir dam, and there are three smaller stone islands in the river. The central one is 7 meters above the water surface, which is called the "mainstay". "Shuijing Note" says: "The mainstay is the name of the mountain. Yu water control, hills for water, so cut it, so break the mountain and reach the river. Divide the river, cross the mountain, and the mountain will see the water. If pillars are natural, they are pillars. " In the twelfth year of Zhenguan (638), Emperor Taizong came to Sanmenxia. Today, people look back on the past and express their aspirations with poetry: "Looking at the pillars in the sky and looking at the Longmen in the north. This is a trace, it is huge and Changchun. " And ordered Wei Zhi to put the poem in the shade of a pillar. Liu Gongquan, a great calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, also wrote a poem praising: "A solitary peak floats on the water, a pillar sets the heart of the wave, and the top presses three dangers, and the roots are connected with nine bends." According to folklore, the pillar was originally Dayu's Hezhen stone pillar. According to legend, Sanmenxia area used to be a complete mountain with blocked rivers, where it gathered into a big lake. There are turtles making waves in the lake, which is harmful to the people. When Dayu arrived here, he raised his axe and cut it three times on Sanmenxia Mountain, leaving three gaps, and the lake immediately flowed eastward. Tortoise tried to escape, and Dayu threw a dragon sword and stuck it in the river, turning it into a pillar, blocking its way and subduing Tortoise.
On the stone island in the canyon, there are more than 70 poems and stones carved by famous historical figures such as Wendi and Wu Zetian, which are spectacular and can be called a small stone carving museum. The eight characters of "Strange Flowing on the Cliff" carved on the lion's head in Shidao during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty are now in the Chinese History Museum.