<P> According to the Rites of Zhou there was no Xuzhou or Liangzhou, instead there were Youzhou (幽 州) and Bingzhou (并州), but according to the Erya there was no Qingzhou or Liangzhou, instead there was Youzhou (幽 州) and Yingzhou (營 州). Either way there were nine divisions . Once he had received bronze from these nine territories, he created ding vessels called the Nine Tripod Cauldrons . Yu then established his capital at Yang City (陽 城). According to the Bamboo Annals, Yu killed one of the northern leaders, Fangfeng (防風) to reinforce his hold on the throne . </P> <P> According to the Bamboo Annals, Yu ruled the Xia Dynasty for forty - five years and, according to Yue Jueshu (越 絕 書), he died from an illness . It is said that he died at Mount Kuaiji, south of present - day Shaoxing, while on a hunting tour to the eastern frontier of his empire, and was buried there . The Yu mausoleum (大 禹 陵) known today was first built in the 6th century AD (Southern and Northern Dynasties period) in his honor . It is located four kilometers southeast of Shaoxing city . Most of the structure was rebuilt many times in later periods . The three main parts of the mausoleum are the Yu tomb (禹 陵), temple (禹 廟) and memorial (禹 祠). In many statues he is seen carrying an ancient hoe (耒耜). A number of emperors in imperial times travelled there to perform ceremonies in his honor, notably Qin Shi Huang . </P> <P> Because no documentary evidence about Yu survives, there is some controversy as to the historicity of the figure . No inscriptions on artifacts dated to the supposed era of Yu, or the later oracle bones, contain any mention of Yu . The first archeological evidence of Yu comes from vessels made about a thousand years after his supposed death, during the Western Zhou dynasty . </P> <P> The Doubting Antiquity School of early 20th - century historians, for example, theorised that Yu was not a person in the earliest legends, but a god or mythical animal, who was connected with water and possibly with the mythical Dragon Kings and their control over water . According to this theory, Yu (as god or animal) was represented on ceremonial bronzeware by the early Xia people, and by the start of the Zhou Dynasty, the legendary figure had morphed into the first man, who could control water, and it was only during the Zhou Dynasty that the legendary figures that now precede Yu were added to the orthodox legendary lineage . According to the Chinese legend Yu the Great was a man - god . </P>

Who was the hero who conquered flooding on huang river