inferior officers, all helped with clear intelligence (the spread of) the regular principles of duty, and the solitary and widows were no longer overlooked. The great Tî with an unprejudiced mind carried his enquiries low down among the people, and the solitary and widows laid before him their complaints against the Miâo. He awed the people by the majesty of his virtue, and enlightened them by its brightness. He thereupon charged the three princely (ministers)[1] to labour with compassionate anxiety in the people's behalf. Po-î delivered his statutes to prevent the people from rendering themselves obnoxious to punishment; Yü reduced to order the water and the land, and presided over the naming of the hills and rivers; Kî spread abroad a knowledge of agriculture, and (the people) extensively cultivated the admirable grains. When the three princes had accomplished their work, it was abundantly well with the people. The Minister of Crime[2] exercised among them the restraint of
- ↑ Those immediately mentioned,—Po-î, Yü, and Kî. See the Canon of Shun and other Books of Part II.
- ↑ Kâo-yâo.
brought back to their former regular courses, and there was no unhallowed interference of the one with the other. This was the work described in the text. But subsequently the chief of San-miâo showed himself a Kiû-lî redivivus, till Yâo called forth the descendants of Khung and Lî, who had not forgotten the virtue and functions of their fathers, and made them take the case in hand again.
According to Yî-fu's statements Khung's functions were those of the Minister of Religion, and Lî's those of the Minister of Instruction; but Hsî and Ho were simply Ministers of Astronomy and the Calendar, and their descendants continue to appear as such in the Shû to the reign of Kung Khang, long after we know that men of other families were appointed to the important ministries of Khung and Lî.