Where is Dayu from Dayu Controlling Floods? Where did he regulate water? How old was he at that time?

Dayu was a native of Anyi (now Xia County, Shanxi Province). In 2071 BC, the seventy-fifth year of Yao, he was working on water control in the Yellow River Basin. He was about 19 years old.

According to legend, Yu was successful in controlling the floods and accepted the abdication of Shun to inherit the throne. With the support of the princes, King Yu officially ascended the throne, with Yangcheng as his capital, and one theory is that Pingyang was his capital (either in Anyi or Jinyang), and his country was named Xia. Danzhu was entrusted to Tang Dynasty, and Shangjun was entrusted to Yu.

Yu was the first emperor of the Xia Dynasty, so later generations also called him Xia Yu.

He is a sage emperor comparable to Fuxi and Huangdi in ancient Chinese legends. His most outstanding achievements are the control of monstrous floods, the demarcation of Kyushu, and the establishment of the Xia Dynasty. Later generations called him Dayu. After Yu's death, he was buried on Kuaiji Mountain (today's Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province). There are still Yu temples, Yu mausoleums and Yu ancestral halls. Starting from Xia Qi, most emperors of all dynasties came to Yuling to worship him.

Extended information:

Yu went to Tongbai Mountain (southwest of Tongbai County, Henan Province) three times to control floods, but there were always strong winds, heavy thunder, and rocks roaring. It screamed, making the water control project almost impossible to carry out.

Yu knew it was a monster causing trouble, so he summoned all the gods in the world and asked them to find a way to get rid of the monster. The mountain gods of Tongbai Mountain and nearby mountains were afraid that the disaster would bring disaster upon themselves, so they all knelt down and kowtowed to Yu, begging him for his life.

Yu suspected that they were harboring monsters, so he imprisoned some of them who were especially cunning, such as the Hongmeng family, the Shangzhang family, the Doulu family, and the Lilou family, for interrogation. Sure enough, he found out the truth. It turned out that there was indeed a water monster named Wuzhihao hiding between the Huai River and the Whirlpool River. Yu immediately sent people to capture the monster.

Dayu controlled floods from high mountains to Pingchuan, from Qinling Mountains to Jizhou, from Taihang Mountain to Songshan Mountain. He opened rivers and controlled floods everywhere, leaving many footprints. There is a mountain between Lucheng and Pingshun on the land of Shangdang called "Yuwang Mountain". It is said that when Yu opened the river, he moved a mountain blocking the water flow here. In order to commemorate Dayu's flood control, people called this mountain "Yuwang Mountain".

People's Daily Online - Dayu's flood control