Yu Shi

In certain versions of the tradition, a figure identified as Chisongzi (赤松子, "Master Red Pine") during the reign of Shennong ended a severe drought by sprinkling water from an earthen bowl and was rewarded by being made the Lord of Rain with a dwelling on the mythical Kunlun Mountain. This account is presented in some sources as a version or conflation linking Chisongzi with the office or persona Yu Shi.

Sources give variant portrayals rather than a single standardized form. In one account (the Chisongzi narrative) the figure is said to have ended drought by sprinkling water from an earthen bowl. In another tradition associated with Chisongzi the figure is described fantastically as a chrysalis of a silkworm with a concubine whose face is black; that concubine is said to hold a snake in each hand and to have a red snake emerging from one ear and a green snake from the other. These descriptions are reported as alternative traditions in the source material.

Yu Shi's principal, attested function is governance or production of rain; the being is petitioned in ritual contexts to entreat for precipitation. Mythically, Yu Shi (together with the wind deity Feng Bo) is said to have aided Chiyou against the Yellow Emperor at the Battle of Zhuolu, and in that narrative was defeated by the intervention of the drought goddess Ba. The Chisongzi account attributes to the figure the miraculous act of ending a severe drought by sprinkling water from an earthen bowl, after which he was made Lord of Rain in some versions.