Gonggong Mythology

The Minor Planet Center citation describes Gonggong as a red-haired Chinese water god with a serpent's tail and associates him with chaos, flood and the tilting of the earth. According to the citation he is often shown with a human head and a serpent's body. This description is compiled from different layers of the Chinese sources.

According to the third chapter of the Huainanzi, which describes the heavens, Gonggong and Zhuanxu fight in ancient times to become ruler. Gonggong butts Mount Buzhou in his rage, the pillar that holds up the sky breaks and the cords that bind the earth snap. The story is told as the explanation for the present tilted order of the world.

According to the Huainanzi the sky tilted to the northwest, so the Sun, the Moon and the stars slide in that direction. Because the earth sank in the southeast, the waters and the dust flow there. The story explains why the great rivers of China pour eastward and why the heavenly bodies move to the west.

Zhuanxu is one of the legendary first rulers of China and the rival of Gonggong in the Huainanzi and the Liezi. The military chapter of the Huainanzi writes that Zhuanxu punished Gonggong because he did harm with the waters. Other texts give the rival a different name.

In the Basic Annals of the Three Sovereigns, which Sima Zhen added to the Shiji in the Tang period, Gonggong fights the fire god Zhurong and, when he is defeated, butts Mount Buzhou. One chapter of the Shanhaijing, however, makes Zhurong the father of Gonggong. The same figure is an enemy in one source and an ancestor in another.

In the Liezi, Nüwa melts stones of five colours to mend the gap in the sky and cuts off the legs of the great turtle to prop up the four corners. Gonggong charges into Buzhou only after this. In the account of Sima Zhen the order is reversed, and Nüwa repairs the sky that Gonggong broke. In the story of the repair in the sixth chapter of the Huainanzi, the name of Gonggong does not appear at all.

According to the eighth chapter of the Huainanzi, Gonggong makes the waters rise in the time of Shun, and the flood reaches as far as Kongsang. The Longmen pass has not yet been opened and the waters cover everything. In this account Gonggong is responsible for the great flood that Yu later brought under control.

Yu the Great is the culture hero who brought the flood under control by cutting channels instead of building dykes against the waters. The Guoyu tells that Gonggong blocked the hundred rivers with dykes and harmed the world by tearing down the heights and filling in the low places. The method of Yu is the exact opposite of that of Gonggong. The Shanhaijing also records that Yu attacked the land of Gonggong.

According to the Shanhaijing, Xiangliu, the minister of Gonggong, is a nine-headed serpent who feeds on nine mountains. The places he touches turn into swamps. Yu kills him, and his blood stinks so badly that no grain can be sown in the soil. Yu then builds terraces for the gods on that spot. The moon of Gonggong bears this name.

In the Yao and Shun chapters of the Shujing, Gonggong is not a god but a man who holds office at the court of Yao. Shun banishes him to Youzhou, and Gonggong is counted among the 'four criminals'. The same name is given to a cosmic power in one text and to a punished official in another.

According to the Zuozhuan, the Gonggong clan used water as its emblem and therefore gave its officials names taken from water. This record sees Gonggong less as a god than as the ancestor of an old clan, and it shows a historicised reading of the myth.

According to the Zuozhuan, Goulong, the son of Gonggong, became Houtu, the lord of the soil, and is worshipped at the altar of the soil. The Shanhaijing also writes that Gonggong is the father of Houtu. In this way the son of the flood god becomes the power that brings order to the land.

The image of Gonggong with a human face, a serpent's body and red hair does not come from the oldest texts but from sources of the Han period and later. The Minor Planet Center citation uses this image. The reddish colour of the dwarf planet played a part in the choice of the name.

Gonggong is the power that clashes with the rulers and heroes who establish order. Yet every destruction he causes begins a story about order. The tilted sky explains the direction of the rivers, the flood explains the channels of Yu, and his son Houtu explains the order of the land.

In 2019 the discovery team held a vote among Gonggong, Holle from the Germanic tradition and Vili from the Norse tradition. All three names were connected with water, ice, snow or the colour red. Gonggong received 46 percent of about 280,000 votes, and the name was approved on 5 February 2020.

Because Gonggong was known only by its number before 2020, it has had very little place in astrological literature. Its glyph is used in some software. There is no commonly accepted tradition of interpretation, and Gonggong has no link to the classical system of dignities.