When he was able to crawl, He looked majestic and intelligent. When he was able to feed himself, He fell to planting beans. The beans grew luxuriantly; His rows of paddy shot up beautifully; His hemp and wheat grew strong and close; His gourds yielded abundantly.
The husbandry of Hâu-kî Proceeded on the plan of helping (the growth). Having cleared away the thick grass, He sowed the ground with the yellow cereals. He managed the living grain, till it was ready to burst; Then he used it as seed, and it sprang up; It grew and came into ear; It became strong and good; It hung down, every grain complete; And thus he was appointed lord of Thâi[1].
He gave (his people) the beautiful grains;—The black millet and the double-kernelled, The tall red and the white. They planted extensively the black and the double-kernelled, Which were reaped and stacked on the ground. They planted extensively the tall red and the white, Which were carried on their shoulders and backs, Home for the sacrifices which he founded[2].
And how as to our sacrifices (continued from him)?
- ↑ Hâu-kî's mother, we have seen, was a princess of Thâi, in the present district of Wû-kung, Khien Kau, Shen-hsî. This may have led to his appointment to that principality, and the transference of the lordship from Kiangs to Kîs. Evidently he was appointed to that dignity for his services in the promotion of agriculture. Still he has not displaced the older Shăn-nung, with whom on his father's side he had a connexion, as 'the Father of Husbandry.'
- ↑ This is not to be understood of sacrifice in general, as if there had been no such thing before Hâu-kî; but of the sacrifices of the of House of Kâu,—those in the ancestral temple and others,—which began with him as its great ancestor.
