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6 THE ANALECTS : INTRODUCTION.
A wast body of water is said to have covered the Era.
#re, "embracing the mountains and overtopping the hills,
threatening the heavens with their flood." This resem-
blance to the Noachic flood, together with the similarity
of sound between the two names, for Yao is in some
southern dialects pronounced Nyao or Nya, led some early
translators to infer that Yao was Noah, an inference hard-
ly supported by the Chinese records. Yao sent his minis-
ter Kun _ to reduce this mighty flood, who failed and
is said to have been put to death in consequence. Later,
Yti _s the son of Kun, subsequently founder of the Hsia
dynasty, made a more successful attempt.
Finally, when Yao had been on the throne seventy
years, being anxious to arrange the succession in his life-
time, he passed over his own unworthy son, and married
his two daughters to a stranger named Shun _, recom-
mended to him as one whose virture was so great, that
he had been able to transform the character of his un-
principled parents and his dastardly half-brother, all of
whom had frequently sought his life.
SHUN _, who was found to satisfy all ¥ao s require-
merits, reigned as his regent from 2287 to 2258 the year
of Y-ao's death, when Shun mourned him for three years
and then reigned under his own dynastic title of Y_ Ti
Shun _ _ _. his personal appellation being Yu Yti
Shih ;_ _ ]_. During his fifty years of rule he made
personal tours of inspection all over his Empire, the
calendar was perfected, the country divided into provinces,
the channels deepened for the waters, laws and ordinances
laid down. and proper officers appointed to administer the