| Annals of the Xia: |
Yu, then in company with Yi and Prince Millet, having received the Emperor's orders, bade the princes and people raise a gang of men to make a division of the land, and following the line of the hills hew down the trees, and determine the characteristics of the high hills and great rivers. Yu was grieved in that his progenitor Gun had been punished on account of his work being incomplete, so, wearied in body and distressed in mind, he lived away from his home for 13 years, passing the door of his house without daring to enter. With ragged clothes and poor diet he paid his devotions to the spirits until his wretched hovel fell in ruins in the ditch. When travelling along the dry land he used a carriage, on the water he used a boat, in miry places a sledge, while in going over the hills he used spikes. On the one hand he used the marking-line, and on the other the compass and square. Working as the seasons permitted, and with a view to open up the nine provinces, he made the roads communicable, banked up the marshes, surveyed the hills, told Yi and his band that paddy should be planted in low damp places, and directed Lord Millet and his band, when it was difficult to obtain food, or when food was scarce, to barter their surplus stock in exchange for what they had not, so as to put all the princes on an equal footing. Yu in this way worked for the mutual convenience of the respective districts as regards the distribution of the wealth and resources of the country. |
