1. Examining into antiquity, (we find that) the Tî Yâo[1] was styled Fang-hsün[2]. He was reverential, intelligent, accomplished, and thoughtful,—naturally and without effort. He was sincerely courteous, and capable of (all) complaisance. The bright (influence of these qualities) was felt through the four quarters (of the land), and reached to (heaven) above and (earth) beneath.
He made the able and virtuous distinguished, and thence proceeded to the love of (all in) the nine classes of his kindred, who (thus) became harmonious. He (also) regulated and polished the people (of his domain), who all became brightly intelligent. (Finally), he united and harmonized the myriad states; and so the black-haired people were transformed. The result was (universal) concord.
2. He commanded the Hsîs and Hos[3], in reverent accordance with (their observation of) the wide heavens, to calculate and delineate (the movements and appearances of) the sun, the moon, the stars, and the zodiacal spaces, and so to deliver respectfully the seasons to be observed by the people.
- ↑ Yâo is to us now the name of the ancient ruler so denominated. The character means 'high,' 'lofty and grand.' It may originally have been an epithet, 'the Exalted One.' On the meaning of Tî in Tî Yâo, see what has been said in the Preface.
- ↑ The Han scholars held that Fang-hsün was the name of Yâo. Those of Sung, taking the characters as an epithet, make them signify 'the Highly Meritorious.'
- ↑ The Hsîs and Hos seem to have been brothers of two families, on whom devolved the care of the calendar, principally with a view to regulate the seasons of agriculture. See Parts III, iv, and V, xxvii. On Yâo's directions to them, see the Introduction, pp. 24–28.
