6 Yao & Shun

Two Wise Emperors Founding Earliest Dynasties

In China, the legendary Tang Dynasty and Yu Dynasty were put at the top of the Dynasties list. Yao was the emperor of Tang Dynasty and Shun was the emperor of Yu Dynasty (Yao abdicated and handed over power to Shun). Confucius had highly praised Yao and Shun as the model emperors and “Yao & Shun Era” as the extremely peaceful and happy time people ever had.

The “Yao & Shun Era” began to appear some early civilization:

Firstly, there appeared early administrative system. The emperor appointed officials in charge of different sections of works. For example, Yao appointed Ji in charge of spreading agriculture skills, Qi in charge of teaching people basic morals to set up ethic system between father and son, emperor and official, man and woman, senior and young. There also came out for the first time the division of physical workers and mental workers.

Secondly, Chinese had an important tradition to take themselves as “A Nation Upholding Propriety and Rituals” (Propriety and Ethics Civilization). Confucius praised the tradition as a heritage from “Yao and Shun Era”. There was one of earliest poems passed down up-to-date. A grand ceremony was held when Emperor Shun ceded the crown to Emperor Yu (the founder of Xia Dynasty, see following piece). On the ceremony, Shun took the lead to chant a chorus:

Beautiful clouds spread over

Like white stripes of silver

Sun and moon rise in turn

Bright morning comes one after another …

The last line referred the wise emperors would come one after the other.