a marsh); and (the tract of) Tung-yüan was successfully brought under management.
The soil of this province was red, clayey, and rich. Its grass and trees grew more and more bushy. Its fields were the second of the highest class; its contribution of revenue was the average of the second. Its articles of tribute were—earth of five different colours, variegated pheasants from the valleys of mount Yü, the solitary dryandra from the south of mount Yî, and the sounding-stones that (seemed to) float on the (banks of the) Sze. The wild tribes about the Hwâi brought oyster-pearls and fish, and their baskets full of deep azure and other silken fabrics, chequered and pure white.
They floated along the Hwâi and the Sze, and so reached the Ho.
6. The Hwâi and the sea formed (the boundaries of) Yang Kâu[1].
The (lake of) Phăng-lî was confined to its proper limits, and the sun-birds (=the wild geese) had places
- ↑ The Hwâi was the boundary of Yang Kâu on the north, and we naturally suppose that the other boundary mentioned, the sea, should be referred to the south of the province. If it were really so, Yang Kâu must have extended along the coast as far as Cochin-China, and not a few Chinese scholars argue that it did so. But that no southern boundary of the province is mentioned may rather be taken as proving that when this Book was compiled, the country south of the Kiang—the present Yang-zze—was unknown.Along the greater part of its course, the province was conterminous on the west with King Kâu, and in the north-west with Yü Kâu. We may safely assign to it the greater portion of An-hui, and a part of the department of Hwang-kâu, in Hû-pei. All this would be the northern portion of the province. How far it extended southwards into Kê-kiang and Kiang-hsî, it is impossible to say.
F 2
