Yu Stele

The Goulou Inscription

Legendary tadpole-script stele of Yu’s flood works on Mount Heng, a famed riddle.

The Stele of Yu, also called the Goulou Stele, is a stone slab on Mount Heng said to record Yu’s labors against the flood in seventy-seven characters shaped like tadpoles. Neither the age of the stone nor the reading of its script has ever been settled, and its text survives through copies. As a riddle of authenticity, it is the perfect monument for a hero who belongs to myth.