Mountains[1], 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 Khwǎn[2]?' The Tî 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).' (Khwǎn) was employed accordingly. The Tî said (to him), 'Go; and be reverent!' For nine years he laboured, but the work was unaccomplished.
The Tî said, 'Ho! (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 Tî) said, 'Show me some one among the illustrious, or set forth one from among the poor and mean.' All (then) said to the Tî, 'There is an unmarried man among the lower people, called Shun of Yü[3].' The Tî
- ↑ (President of) the Four Mountains, or simply Four Mountains, appears to have been the title of the chief minister of Yâo. The four mountains were—mount Thâi in the east; Hwâ in the west, in Shan-hsî; Hǎng in the south, in Hû-nan; and Hǎng in the north, in Kîh-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.
- ↑ Khwǎn is believed to have been the father of Yü, who afterwards coped successfully with the inundation. We are told that he was earl of Khung, corresponding to the present district of Hû, in Shen-hsî.
- ↑ See on the title of next Book.
D 2
