Yu the Great is the mythological forefather of the Xia dynasty and a semi-god who tamed the floods. According to legend after the sacrifice of Fang-feng, the followers of Fang-feng were angry and shot at Yu's emissaries. But the archers became frightened at what they had done, pierced their own chests and died. Yu revived them, and this is the origin of the people with the pierced chest. It was actually imagined in a later time that these people had a hole in the chest through which one could pull a stick, so that one could carry them. Entitled: "The Hole-in-the-chest people." Image taken from page 177 of A Corner of Cathay: Studies from Life among the Chinese by Adele Marion Fielde, 1894.