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8 THE ANAL_CTS!INTRODUCTION.
rain the food of labour as we11as the food of the chase. I
urged them to barter and to exchange their stocks of
goods, and in this manner all the people obtained grain,
and all the States were brought into order."*
While Yfi was draining the country he, at the same time,
partitioned it on the principle of five concentric squares,
the first being of five hundred li square, the next five
hundred li beyond that, and so on. The central square
was the Imperial demesne, the next belonged to the nobles,
the third was for defence, the fourth was the frontier
square; and the fifth was the wild domain. All this is
attributed to the period preceding the death of Yao.
On the demise of Shun, Y/i at first withdrew, in order
that the son of his sovereign might ascend the throne, but
the people still had a voice, if not in the selection, at least
in the acceptance of a sovereign, and that voice being
insistent, Yfi was induced to accept the throne. His reign
lasted but eight years, when during a progress to the
south, evidently with the old pioneering fever still strong
upon him, he died, as is said, in this province of Ch_kiang.
Like his two predecessors he elected his prime minister to
succeed him, but was in fact followed by his son Ch'i 7"_,
who thereby set up the great ttsia dynasty, thus establish-
ing for good and for ill the principle of royal pl;imogeniture
in the Empire. The dynastic title of Hsia is supposed
to have been adopted from the name of the district
over which Yii had been in command before his "call to
the throne.