Today we turn our attention from emperors and giants to magical creatures in Chinese history. The one leading the way is of course the dragon. Hard to say whether or not they actually existed, but it's certainly a crucial symbol for the Chinese people. Have you ever thought about keeping a dragon as a pet? Someone did.

Thirty-one episodes into our podcast we are approaching the end of the ancient part of Chinese history and the start of the first known dynasty in China, called Xia. The founder of the Xia Dynasty was the son of the Great Yu and he was born out of a rock. How did that happen?

Great Yu spent years of his life taming the floods, only to have his work eaten up by a monster with nine heads...of snakes! Would it help to chop off those heads? Yes, but that led to problems of another kind. How did the Great Yu deal with all this?

The great man Yu is so important in Chinese history that we are devoting three episodes related to him. Today's story is about how he tamed the floods and how he passed his own house three times and never went in. Why didn't he?

In some sense, history is a record of the great disasters that have befallen the human race, one of which is flooding. How did ancient Chinese combat the floods? That story would have to start with the Great Yu, and that in turn would have to start with his father, Gun, who fought flood with magical mud. What is that?

Although it took many years, in fact decades, for Shun to eventually become the emperor, it was all worth it. There was finally peace under heaven. How did Shun manage that and who came after Shun?

What is an ideal leader like, in the minds of the Chinese people? I think the answer can be best demonstrated by learning about the two ancient Chinese emperors, Yao and Shun. Today we will talk about Emperor Shun, who had a quite unfortunate childhood. Why is that?

How great would someone have to be, to be remembered as virtuous, kind and magnanimous thousands of years later? In this episode and the next, we will introduce Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun, who have been admired and loved by the Chinese people and looked up to by Chinese leaders. What is a perfect leader like in the eyes of the Chinese people?

What did your Mom say when you asked her "Where did I come from"? The stories about the births of the founders of Shang and Zhou Dynasties might come handy when your child asks you the same question. So where did they come from?

Separating heaven and earth, wait a minute, didn't Pangu the giant already do that? Yes, he was the first one to do so but not the last. Who else tried to separate heaven and earth and why?