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CHAP. 3.
THE CANON OF YÂO.
35
Mountains, destructive in their overflow are the waters of the inundation. In their vast extent they embrace the hills and overtop the great heights, threatening the heavens with their floods, so that the lower people groan and murmur! Is there a capable man to whom I can assign the correction (of this calamity)?' All in the court) said, 'Ah! is there not Khwăn??' The Ti said, 'Alas ! how perverse is he! He is disobedient to orders, and tries to injure his peers.' (The President of) the Mountains said, Well but — Try if he can (accomplish the work).' (Khwăn) was employed accordingly. The Ti said (to him), Go; and be reverent!' For nine years he laboured, but the work was unaccomplished.
The Ti said, 'Hol (President of the Four Mountains, I have been on the throne seventy years. You can carry out my commands ;-I will resign my place to you. The Chief said, 'I have not the virtue;I should disgrace your place.' (The Tl) said, 'Show me some one among the illustrious, or set forth one from among the poor and mean.' All (then) said to the Ti, “There is an unmarried man among the lower people, called Shun of Yü 3.' The Ti
1 (President of) the Four Mountains, or simply Four Mountains, appears to have been the title of the chief minister of Yao. The four mountains were-mount Thai in the east; Hwa in the west, in Shan-hsî; Hàng in the south, in Hd-nan; and Hằng in the north, in Kih-lî. These, probably, were the limits of the country, so far as known, and all within these points were the care of the chief minister.
· Khwăn is believed to have been the father of Yu, who afterwards coped successfully with the inundation. We are told that he was earl of Khung, corresponding to the present district of Hd, in Shen-hsî. See on the title of next Book.
D 2
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