This Chinese Flood Legend Explains Everything | One Piece Theory

hello so we all know that Oda loves pulling from different myths beliefs poems literature life he loves to pull from our world and then make it into his own and build it into his story to make his world alive and for me one of the fun one of the really fun things about being a part of this fandom is trying to hunt down those pieces of literature those poems those Legends and try to see how they compare to the story and maybe what we can guess if we've figured out what he's pulling from correctly so ever since the last chapter that I've read 11113 where we learned that the world as we know it is sinking into the sea as well as knowing that destroying Lisha caused the flood waters to rise we realize that the flood waters have been rising for a long time and the world has been reacting to this for a long time I made a video recent uh on Friday talking about that specifically and in in all of this I've been hyper fixating and I ended up starting looking starting to look into flood Legends around the world cuz there are hundreds there are hundreds of different cultures that have their own um great flood Legend naturally I went to Japanese lore first and learned nothing very unhelpful that there's no great flood Legend in Japan but I have found one in China that I actually think fits this story really well so we're going to talk about the Chinese great flood Legend I'm going to retell it to you and then we're also going to theorize from there see the comparisons between the great flood Legend and this story and then kind of look into the future maybe what can we guess Oda what direction Oda might be going in based off of what we've learned now there are several versions of this Chinese great flood Legend just because this takes place so long ago the story is ancient and it was passed down orally for many years before it ever got written down and when it was written down it's been written down in with several variant so I've done my best to hunt down English translations of the Legends where I've been able of the different versions of the Legends where I've been able to read through them do research on them trying to understand which versions are more are more commonly told and acceptance accepted and which ones are a little bit more outliers and what I'm doing now is condensing the story to you doing my best to honor the most commonly told versions of the Legends but when I pull from outliers I will let you know and I'm going to compare it all to our story as it is today because there are a lot of parallels and it's really fun I've done my best to honor the story in my research and in how I'll be telling it today as well as in my pronunciations but anything that I get wrong please feel free to let me know in the comments okay so our story starts with the emperor Yao now some versions say that there were five Emperors that ruled together before there was a singular Emperor system in place some say that it was a singular Emperor it was Yao and he had four advisers known as the four mountains sometimes translated as the four Elders either way there were five figure heads or five people kind of co-ruling in one manner or another and Yao is the main ruler that we're following so this great torrential flood came in and was destroying all of China it was ruining homes it was killing people destroying their agriculture it was terrible so Emperor Yao sought out someone to help him try to resolve this flood issue so under the advisement of the four mountains Yao was encouraged to enlist the help of guen gu's plan was to build dams and dkes in order to stop the flood to block it from continuing to destroy their lands and their people now the main mythological telling which I believe is the most commonly told telling is that good actually stole self-expanding soil from the Supreme deity the audacity to steal from the Supreme deity is just wild so he he stole this soil in order to build up these dams and dikes to block the waters now this went on for 9 years that Goan was building up these walls these dams these dkes in order to stop the water but what would happen is the water would would build up there would eventually be cracks in the walls and they would break causing even greater flooding to happen even greater catastrophes even greater losses of lives so he was failing different versions of the story uh count it differently some say that it was the intervention of the gods that pre that initially brought the floods on in the first place some say that it was just a natural disaster some say that it was the intervention of the gods that caused his plans to fail because he used methods of trickery and some versions say that it was because Goan used unnatural means to try to resolve the problem instead of working with nature he worked against nature now I think that the tie-in for this could potentially be oda's use of devil fruits Vega Punk specifically said that the reason the ocean is against devil fruits is because they're unnatural and because Go's struggle was because he tried to create unnatural solutions to work against Mother Nature instead of working with mother nature to find a solution that works with nature and with Humanity because of that be it because of the intervention of the gods or just because this failed because it wasn't the correct method either reason it failed and it was because of the unnatural choices that he made it should also be noted that during the 9 years of failed attempts to tame these floods the only survivors of the of the floods were people who were able to be on Higher Ground build on Higher Ground live on Higher Ground this obviously ties back to the series as well because of what we talked about in the last video a lot of civilizations seem to be flood proofed and a lot of them are on higher ground but then also just the fact that the Nobles and the world government have kicked people off of the red line who are living there to include slaughtering the lunarians and the Buccaneers in order to occupy this land but even though economically and agriculturally and just getting resources to the Nobles it doesn't really make sense to be living on top of the highest place in the ocean except that well flooding it makes sense and for this particular Legend that's the only way to survive anyway after 9 years of failed efforts a new emperor came into Power his name was Emperor shun and he did many great things great advancements in China but also he exiled Yun for his failures so he was exiled to Feather Mountain there he died and there his son was also born now there are many different accountings on how his son was born but my favorite is that he is that his son you uh emerged from his decaying corpse his decaying belly specifically and that was how he was born the reason I like this version is because once again this is reminiscent of the devil fruits a devil fruit user dies their devil fruit then respawns and the person who eats it is is the new user of that fruit so when Yun died his son Yu he married but then he took on the man the mantle of his father he was then called to be the new person to finish out what his father started what his father was supposed to accomplish and he was the one that ended up succeeding in Saving China from this issue U's method was to organized tribes from across the region to build an irrigation system at points along the river to re direct to the current of the scene you was known to have worked relentlessly for 13 years he spent his days and nights working in camaraderie with these these people from around the region calluses covering his hands and feet sleeping with them eating with them they developed a Brotherhood and they worked together relentlessly to the point of you being known to have neglected his family because he was so this is all I can do this is my entire uh purpose is is is dedicating myself to saving my people in order to drain the nine streams into the four seas I deepened the channels and canals and connected them with the rivers overall it took 13 years to complete this Mission and along the way you received mythological help as well because of his diligence because of his hard work because of his good heartedness uh he ended up gaining assistance from the likes of receiving a map of sorts that allowed him to understand the water systems and the mountain areas that he was working with it said that this was delivered to him either by being able to read what is essentially a PPH ancient writings on the shell of aernal some versions say it was the Earl of the river who gave him charts and then some say that they were Jade tablets that had a trigonometric chart that looks honestly a lot like the the map of Lobby and water 7 and long ring the point is he got kogs to help him be able to map out where he needed to go and what he needed to do to get to his end goal he also received assistance from a yellow dragon and a black turtle the black turtle he rode on and the yellow dragon helped him to dig canals and he fought various creatures I also want to tell an outlier side tangent for this story that I don't think is one of the most frequently told versions but in one version you also can trans transform into a bear to dig canals and he has a drum that he keeps next to him and when he beats the drum it's meant to signal to his wife to come and bring him food to give him energy so that he can keep going to restore his strength so that he can keep working um and then there's like this whole thing about her getting turned to stone and then he has to ask for the stone to open up so he can get his unborn child out and raise the child and anyway the point is that there is a side tangent story about drums that summon his allies to bring him resources like food to keep him going and that tie in to one piece for that is obvious the drums of Liberation which awaken the Iron Giant and call to zunesha and all the things plus you know getting fed to restore his back to the story The Big takeaway that you had in all of this was that a virtuous ruler would receive help from the gods the idea is that his father didn't use virtuous methods but you did he worked relentlessly he didn't use trickery he United groups of people to work together and he showed honor in his actions and that's what gave him the assistance that he needed to fully complete this goal of his the story ended with Emperor Shon actually giving you his Emperor status when it was time for him to step down instead of giving it uh giving the emperor role to his son he ended up giving it to you who initially turned it down but because the people loved him so greatly he was encouraged to take it and agreed and that began the first dynasty there's also some mentions in some of the versions of when he takes the emperor seat uh that he gathers the tribes from all over that he worked with and I mean it reads like he threw a big party anyway the legend that he is known for is great you controls the waters so there's obviously a lot of parallels just on the face of the story as we're telling it we can pull a bunch of different things a couple couple of things that weren't directly mentioned that I didn't directly mention as I was telling the story goon tried to solve the flood problem for 9 years before the new emperor was enlisted and he was banished the time between the void century and now is 800 to 900 years ago Joy boy left an apology for breaking his promise and promising that another would come to fulfill the promise to finish what happened obviously the correlation here is that Gan was Joy boy he was the one who initially tried to save the people he was unable to for whatever reason I have some theories we're going to talk about it in a minute he was unable to fulfill it but he promised someone else to come in the original story in the legend uh it was his son you in one piece it's the next carrier of the G noi in the legend it's believed that the four mountains were correct to advise Yao to enlist Guan as the one to try to tame the floods because it was his descendant that that finished the job that was able to succeed and carrying out the will of his father in this story in one piece Luffy is the one the successor of this devil fruit that is meant to carry on the will of Joy boy and complete what he started and complete itess successfully and save well in one piece it's the whole world couple of other things it should be noted that the Iron Giant was attempting to climb the red line maybe he's a part of Joy boy's crew and he was attempting to do this work with the red line or the dams as the parallel but they weren't able to utilize the ancient weapons for whatever reason which is why they failed also notable that Joy boy is the one that called them the ancient weapons at least that's the implication In this passage from Fishman Island so maybe it's because the weapons were for this purpose not literal weapons which is why shirahoshi's weapon doesn't really sound that dangerous but weapons for for the purpose of completing this Mission this prophecy it's pretty much confirmed at least I think that Luffy is going to tear down the red line which I know has been theorized for a long time but I really think that Poseidon basically said that's what's going to happen he said the prophesied one is going to destroy the gates of fisherman Island fisherman island is under the red line I think in order to destroy the gates you have to destroy the red line let me know if I'm misinterpreting that but I don't think you can destroy the red line without the ancient weapons and for whatever reason it seems Joy boy wasn't able to actually utilize them and for Luffy to succeed he's going to be uniting all the races I think we can kind of all agree that that seems to be the goal of one piece is at the end for the races to be United and no longer divided the world government the Nobles emu the elders are dividing the races they're pushing the the uh fishmen out they're destroying an entire races of people for sport or so that they can take over their homes there are races that are currently divided among themselves the long armed tribe and the and the the long arm tribe and the long leg Tri tribe fighting amongst each other the races are divided and Luffy I think the implication is clear in the series is going to be the uniter of those things that's exactly what you did you United the tribes brought them together to work together for this means which is part of why he was so beloved by the people maybe even at the end of the series Luffy will be offered the throne emu's empty seat and he'll turn it down because pirate king is all he wanted to be and that's oda's version of Luffy taking on the emperor's seat it's to be to take on the pirate king seat I know oh also Vega Punk's morality that's another thing that was brought up in the last chapter when he was like I don't want to I don't want you to call this person good or evil I don't know their intention I do wonder if if we're if we're continuing to draw parallels with this Legend and one piece maybe emu back in the void Century back when Joy boy was alive and emu first took over the empty Throne the kingdoms were first not really kingdoms United but the rulers of the 20 uh kingdoms all became World Nobles except for VI's family line um maybe emu initially enlisted Joy boy to prevent the flooding that was occurring maybe there was a flood that happened during the void century and now another flood is coming again I don't know all of the details of it but anyway emu enlisted Joy boy to be the one to save them and he failed for whatever reason he failed and he had to write an apology and both the Iron Giant and zunesha are still waiting and still regretting that they weren't able to succeed at that time maybe emu after Joy boy's failure decided to try to handle the situation on his own he's trying to handle it through might through Force through a dictatorship through division uh his methods are bad but maybe he's still trying to save the people of the world that he deems worthy of being saved and he's using his own methods his own unnatural ways to do so but more evidence that emu is trying to find a method to resolve this issue he's just using unnatural means we also have the um whiskey what's that tequila Bridge tequila Bridge the tequila Bridge uh that I mentioned in the last episode that's being built up obviously that's not a long-term solution cuz that could get flooded as well but it's being built it's been built up for a long time um Tom was forgiven for his perceived crimes against the world government so that he could build the sea train and there are other examples as well of what the world government seems to be doing to try to attack Band-Aids on this flood issue and back to mentioning that in the legend Guan was considered the correct choice because his will was carried out by his son you and that is because of that it's considered that that was the correct chance the correct decision it just took a long time for that to be fulfilled and obviously someone carrying out another person's will after their death is a common theme in one piece the next generation is a big theme in one piece but also being things being passed down generation to generation should also be a a sign to us of these parallels Poseidon was passed down through the a mermaid princess genealogy Tom passed down the blueprints for remaking pluton if that were ever necessary and Odin's letter said that when they found the one piece they learned about the will of D they learned about the void Century they learned what the one piece was and they learned what the ancient weapons were and when he came home he wanted to open the gates of wano maybe because it was time for him to stop being the generational guardian of that ancient weapon or maybe because he knew that the artificial walls had to come down in order for this prophecy to be fulfilled all right continuing on this speculative track as we continue to make parallels and then guess at what could be coming because of those parallels in oda's story it is possible that Joy boy didn't fail because of trickery or because of dishonesty or because of not Noble and honorable leadership it's possible that Joy boy just failed because it wasn't the right time so my working Theory that I'm not ready to die on the hill of I'm not ready to die on Feather Mountain for this but you came to the conclusion after he completed his goal after he received the help that he needed to complete the goal to save the people he came to the conclusion that if you exercise virtuous governance you will receive the help that you need the gods will assist you I wonder if that in one piece would more be tied towards the world government because emu did uh raise to power because he did take over the empty throne in Joy boy's time the governance that was leading the world was not virtuous so because of that Joy boy couldn't gain access to what he needed in order to fulfill what he needed to fulfill to fulfill this prophecy my guess what the the narrative I'm making up in my head is that in this version of the story Joy boy isn't the one that erected the walls of the red line to create this blockade but rather he wanted to take them down which is why the Iron Giant was climbing the red line because they were trying to find a way to take them down again I know that people have been theorizing for a long time that the red line has to fall at the end of the series I think that's true I think that that's pretty much been said blatantly in the story and I refer you back to this panel so I think Joy boy was trying to find a way to bring these walls down because emu and his elders and his whatever methods he has was the the one that brought them up but that's unnatural that's an unnatural solution it's not working with nature and Humanity but he couldn't gain access to the ancient weapons to what he needed in order to do what he needed to do to fulfill the prophecy because of the nonvirtuous governance maybe they maintain control of Uranus and so Joy boy couldn't get to all of the ancient weapons maybe it's some other method but I also think that ties into Roger when he arrived D at the one piece and said uh we were too early also ties into Ry and what he said even if I were to tell you all about the history right here right now as you are right now you wouldn't be able to do a thing no you take a good long look at the whole world and who knows you may even reach a different conclusion to the one we arrived at because you had a different conclusion of how to resolve this issue because Luffy may have a different conclusion maybe Joy Wy didn't realize he needed to utilize the ancient weapons maybe I don't know who knows but I do think it ties in somehow as well as Roger being there too early because the wicked governance was still in power and Luffy is going to have to disrupt that governance in order to gain access to the ancient weapons that he needs in order to take down the red line in order to um use natural methods to uh work with nature like canals and um irrigation to save the world are you tracking with me I feel like I'm OV explaining but I'm also I have so much information that I've crammed into my head rereading these scenes in one piece and these different versions of this Legend and trying to fit it all together that I don't know that I I can't tell if I'm Distributing the information well or if my brain is just too okay so the next thing I really like the idea I really like the um um my my guess I think that's fair I don't even know if you could call it a theory my guess I think it would be really cool if Oda were using different flood Legends because again hundreds across the world if Oda were using different flood Legends in order to represent different regions of One Piece obviously we have the Noah waiting for us uh which represents Noah's Arc the biblical flood I think it would be cool if when we finally get to the climax of The Flood when it's like do or die now or never l it's time to save the world if Oda shows us different regions of the world and how the flood looks to them in their unique circumstance in their unique Island in their unique ways that they've fortified against the flood how this flood looks to them would reflect different floods around the world so for instance zo could represent Mayan Legends and alabasta could represent Mesopotamian Legends or you know fill in blank uh I think it would be cool if he just like gave little snapshots of reflect different flood Legends around the world and then uh naturally Luffy will use the ark to um in this in this final thing that he's going to do I know Mor recently put out a video about how Luffy will use the ark to collect the different races and uh during the big flood the FI the final flood you know save the world in that way I'm definitely in agreement with that I think there's been a lot of speculation that the ark has to play a big role in this final flooding and that collecting people and putting them on the ark is it makes sense it's the natural conclusion so I'm definitely in alignment with that I do think that Luffy is going to use the Noah to bring the different races onto the ark during the climax of the flood and then when the flood waters recede maybe maybe when Luffy takes down the red line you know and the floods come he uses the ark uh the Noah to save everyone but I just wanted to mention that I think it would be cool for Oda to use many flood Legends around the world some things I don't have an answer for yet Roger got there too early that fits with what I'm talking about today but he also laughed he saw the one piece and he laughed happily joyfully it seemed and all of his crew laughed happily joyfully it seemed why if the answer is you're under a corrupt governance so it's too soon that's not really funny haha I'm not really sure why Roger would be like oh we're too soon that darn emu he's he's the problem cuz they did know about the void Century about the will of D about the uh ancient weapons about what the one piece is they had all of these answers so they might have known about emu they might have just known about the Nobles who are also corrupt governments regardless that kind of that throws a wrench in my theory a little bit so I thought I'd throw that out there um speaking of the will of D I've idea what that is I still just don't know and I don't know how it could fit into this and Vivie and her entire family line Lily I think obviously there's more to it than just Lily is from this time she didn't want to take on this role with emu and all the other leaders and emu is super sad about it so he is Lily is a name that triggers him and I want to see Viv cuz I got a bone to pick with this F like I don't think that's it there's obviously more to it and I don't have any answers by studying this Legend Okay so that is my retelling of this ancient Chinese flood Legend my connections to it uh into our story and a couple of things that we might be able to look into the future and guess well will the story look like this then as Oda tells it in his unique way or am I wrong about everything and this isn't connected at all and I'm reaching super hard I honestly don't care if this if this uh Theory comes true if it's right or not I just really love going down research rabbit holes and studying different historical events or Legends or whatever anything like this is super fun to me and trying to tie it into the story so regardless of any of this is right it was fun to research and I hope you had fun listening to me Babylon about it I'd love to hear your thoughts do you have anything to add to it do you have holes to poke in it probably either way if you enjoyed the video please do consider sharing it please do leave your thoughts in the comments I very much look forward to continue chatting with you about all this nonsense I'll see you again soon bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Merphy Napier | Manga

Views: 46,314

Keywords: one piece, manga, flood, chinese, flood myth, legend, the great flood, yu, Great Yu Controls the Waters, luffy, imu, elders, theory, oda

Id: BEsrhTl6eG0

Length: 28min 8sec (1688 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024