220 



CHINA. 



Be. ssoo. 



; low understanding, hit t?p-ir.nthcr a cheat, and his 

 brother pulled up with pride; but that, nevertheless, by 

 hi* obedience, he had succeeded in reforming them all. 

 He wa* accepted by Yao as his successor, and i . 

 his two daughters in marriage. As onn as he entered 

 upon his office, he employed in the service of the stale 

 : a former emperor, Tchucn-hio, who re- 

 established order in every part of the country ; and com- 

 missioned the eight sons of the Emperor Ty ko to pub- 

 lish the five precepts, namely, the duties of a father, of 

 a mother, of elder snns, of younger sons, and of children, 

 He went in person to the foot of the high mountains, 

 without bci:ig alarmed by the fury of the winds, and 

 thunder and rain ; and under ihe protection of heaven 

 and earth, and all the divinities, superior and inferior, 

 examined every thing, and was afraid of nothing. Many 

 troubles and calamities had prevailed during the reign 

 of Yao, in spite of all his exertions. Inundations d> lu- 

 ged the greater part of the country ; and the remainder 

 was almost entirely covered with forests and wild plants. 

 Animals of every species multiplied so rapidly, that the 

 inhabitants were afraid to show themselves. Yao was in 

 great affliction on account of these evils, but Shun un- 

 dertook to effect their removal. He appointed Yu to 

 take charge of all that related to fire, who according- 

 ly set fire to the forests, which covered the mountains 

 and plains, and thus obliged the animals to go in quest 

 of other retreats ; distinguished the course of the nine 

 rivers, and thus procured provisions ; and was so inces- 

 santly employed during the eight years which lie occu- 

 pied in this labour, that he three times passed by his 

 own house without stopping to enter. Keoo-tsee taught 

 the people to sow, to plant, and to cultivate the iine 

 fruits ; but still they were in want of instruction, and 

 Sie was commissioned to teach them the distinctions 

 which were to be observed among them, the duties of a 

 father to a son, of a subject to a prince, of a wife to a 

 husband, of a young man to an old, and of friends or 

 equals to each other. In the 73d year of hi* reign, Yao, 

 having carefully observed the conduct of Shun, proposed 

 to declare him his successor ; and though the latter at 

 first declined the proposal, upon the ground of his not 

 being sufficiently worthy, he was constrained to consent, 

 and was invested with the royal authority on the first 

 day of the first moon, in the temple of Ven-tsoo. In the 

 year following he made the tour of his empire ; arran- 

 ged the seasons, months, and days ; regulated music, 

 measures, and weights ; defined the five ceremonies, the 

 vends and instruments necessary to be employed. He 

 made this circuit of his dominions every five years ; and, 

 during the intervening four years, the nobles came to 

 him annually, when their conduct was examined, and 

 rewards bestowed, or punishments inflicted, according 

 to their merits. In the 80th year of Yao, Yu announ- 

 ced the termination of his labours, in drawing off the 

 waters. He had traced and distinguished all the great 

 mountains and rivers ; cut down or Durnt up the forests ; 

 and appointed the tribute which each province should 

 pay. Here the Shoo king gives a list of the provinces, 

 the only instance of their being named in the ancient 

 history of China, prior to the year before Christ 722 ; 

 but a slight inspection is sufficient to satisfy any refiVrt- 

 hig person, that the account is utterly incredible, and 

 incompatible with the other circumstances related of the 

 ttate of the empire ; that it could not have been drninrd 

 and cleared to so great an extent in the time mentioned, 

 and under the direction of one individual ; that many of 



the articles appointed to be paid as tribute, could not Ttt*t*iw. 

 possibly have been produced in a country newly extri- 

 cated from a marshy state; and that many of the pro- u - ^ 2;MX)- 

 vinces, said to have been civilized and rendered tributary, 

 were still, aci histories, in a state 



of barbarism, and not even considered as subject to Chi- 

 na, long after the year fhrist. The em- 

 pire, according to the Shoo-king, wa< at this time divi- 

 ii:to nine districts, called Tchcoo, and afterwards 

 into five, called Foo ; <>f which the following account it 

 given : Tien foo, in which was the imperial court, and 

 which was in the centre of the other divisions, consisted 

 of .500 lee j at the distance of 100 lee, the rice was Early dm- 

 brought in with its stalk ; at the dir-tance of 200 lee, lion of thc 

 without the stalk ; at the distance c>f 300 lee, with its cm P' re ' 

 husk ; at the distance of 400 lee, not cleaned ; and at 

 the distance of 500 lee, cleaned. Heoo-foo consisted of 

 500 lee, of which the first 100 were set apart as the 

 land of the officers of state ; iJOO for the magistrates, 

 called Nan ; and 300 for the greater chieftains. Sooi- 

 foo consisted of 500 lee, of which 300 were set apart 

 to defray the ex pence of teaching the sciences ; and 200 

 for the defence of the country. Yao-foo consisted of 

 500 lee, of which ,'KX) were occupied by the barbarian*, 

 and 200 by cnir.inals. Koang foo consisted of 500 lee, 

 of which 300 were set apart for thc barbarians named 

 Man, and 'JOO for banished persons. According to 

 succeeding historians, these divisions were disposed in a 

 concentric form ; that is to say, Tien-foo was in the 

 centre, and the other Foo lay around it, like squarei 

 placed one within another ; a division resembling that 

 which E/.ckiel made in vision of the promised land, 

 from which the Chinese writers are supposed to have 

 borrowed their scheme, and, of consequence, to have 

 produced it at a period posterior to the time of that pro- 

 phet. But, notwithstanding that Yu had divided thc 

 empire into nine provinces, it is recorded, that Shun, in 

 the year following, made a new division into twelve ; 

 and though we read, that Yu had completed all that re- 

 lated to the waters, it is said that Shun was employed 

 in directing canals to be dug. Mention is made, in this 

 part of the history, of the persons who were the found- 

 er 01 the tlirte first Chinese dynasties, and who are 

 likewise all made to be descended from Hoang-tee. Yu, 

 tilt, head of the dynasty of Hia, was rewarded by Yao 

 wth the title of Pe, with the office of Se-kong, or su- 

 ptrmundant of the works, with the family name of Se, 

 and with the principality of Hia. Sie, the ancestor of 

 the princes of the dynasty of Shang, obtained a high of- 

 fice, and the principality of Shang ; and it is said con- 

 cerning him, that his mother, when going in company 

 with some other women to bathe, found an egg, which 

 she swallowed, and in consequence became pregnant of 

 Sie. Kee, the head of the Tcheoo dynasty, obtained the 

 principality of Pin ; wag exposed at Ins birth, which his 

 name implies ; became afterwards fond of luibbandry, in 

 which he made great improvements ; was placed by Yao 

 at the head of the department of agriculture, with the 

 title of Heoo-tsee ; and was worshipped, in future times, 

 as the deity of the husbandmen. 



The whole of this history of Yao's reign is a feeble 

 compilation of trifling and contradictory facts, of events 

 which took place at later periods, or which have been 

 drawn from thc history of other nations. If thc inha- 

 bitants of China were, as here represented, in such o 

 state at this period, as to require to be taught the simplest 

 arts and first duties of life j how is it conceivable, thSt 



Ten Ite are one Ictguc FrcncJS 



