Gonggong is known from the late Warring States period (before 221 BCE). Gonggong appears in the ancient "Heavenly Questions" ("Tianwen") poem of the "Chu Ci", where he is blamed for knocking the earth's axis off center, causing it to tilt to the southeast and the sky to tilt to the northwest. This axial tilt is used to explain why the rivers of China generally flow to the southeast, especially the Yangzi River and the Yellow River, and why the sun, moon, and stars move towards the northwest. Literature from the Han dynasty becomes much more detailed regarding Gonggong.