Chapter 196: Five Emperors Ruling the World (Ⅱ) (2/2)

Yao also asked him to lead all the officials and deal with the government affairs. All the industries were highly developing with no one left. They were all in perfect order.

Yao ordered Shun to stand by Simen of Ming Court, in charge of receiving vassals who made pilgrimages. Shun got along quite well with the vassals and they were harmonious and friendly with one another. Those vassals and guests who were coming from distant places were all respectful to him.

At last, Yao decided to let Shun go into the woods at the foot of a mountain. He had to go in alone to take the nature's test. Caught in fierce rain and thunderstorm, Shun couldn't differentiate directions but still walked on, which showed his strong viability. Through all these tests, Yao saw Shun's great talents and moral virtues. Shun got Yao's recognition eventually, and Emperor Yao ordered preparations to be ready to pass the position as sovereign to Shun.

While Emperor Yao was a sovereign, he spent much time propagating the Western Religious Sect, but it didn't work well. Before the time of the Three Royals and Five Emperors, the Tribe of Humanity, Tribe of Severity, and Tribe of Humanity had already preached in Human Tribe, but Western Religious Sect only had an influence in the east. Although Emperor Yao propagated it, Western Religious Sect was too distant for Human Tribe. Luckily, there were still some people who professed Western Religious Sect, which helped Western Religious Sect to somehow prosper in the east.

Shun's mentor was Sacred Lady Jin Ling in the Tribe of Severity. The first disciple in Tribe of Severity, Abundant Treasures Buddha, was arranged to be the last Mentor of Human Sovereign. After Shun took the position as sovereign in Human Tribe, Sacred Lady Jin Ling consequently accompanied him, solving all the problems for him and teaching him the method of cultivation.

With the support of Tribe of Severity, Emperor Shun started to make implementations. Firstly, Emperor Shun inspected whether there was anything wrong with the movement of the sun, the moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn by observing the Big Dipper. Then he held a provisional ceremony to offer sacrifices and tell the Sages. To fete Heaven, the Earth, and four heavens, he burned sacrificial offerings on fire. To fete famous mountains and great rivers, he offered sacrifices from afar. Then he feted all the deities.

He gathered five jade symbols from dukes, vassals, counts, viscount, and marquis, which were Huangui, Xingui, Gonggui, Gubi, and Pubi. Then he chose a bright and propitious day to summon Siyue and governors from all states and gave the jades to them. During the time Shun made an inspection tour to the east, and he burned firewood to fete the East Yue when he arrived at Mount Tai. He then feted all the famous mountains and great rivers by offering sacrifices from afar.

Then, he called in all vassals from the east to help rectify the four seasons, solar terms, length of a month or a day and unified the standard of music temperament, length, capacity, and weight. They also revised the five manners, which are Propitious, Ominous, Guests, Army, and Prizes. According to his stipulation, when having a meeting with the emperor, the vassals should bring five apertured jade tablets and three silk fabrics. Qing Tau Fu is supposed to bring lambs and wild geese, and scholar-officials should bring dead pheasants. After the pilgrims, five apertured jade tablets should be returned to the vassals.

Shun told the vassals how to govern a country, inspecting according to their performances, awarding carriages and clothes according to their contributions. Shun divided the whole country into 12 states and dredged rivers and lakes. He also regulated that the law should be enforced according to penalty. He also implemented banishment, replacing tattooing, nose-cutting, castration, and decapitation. They punished people with whips in the feudal official. In the educational institutions, they punished people with ferrules.

Those faults caused by disasters can be absolved. Whoever persisted in evil and refuse to repent should be punished. At the same time, Sanmiao incited revolts for several times around the Yangtze-Huaihe river basin and Province of Jing. When Shun came to inspect, he banished Huandou to Mount Chong to change the customs of Southern Man. He also ordered Sanmiao to migrate to Mount Sanwei to change the customs of Western Rong. What Shun had done was very pleasing to the people.

However, things happened unexpectedly. During the late stage of Shun's governance, there were torrential rains and floods in the Untainted Land. Moreover, it got worse and worse. It was not the Dragon Tribe who was to blame this time, but a real natural calamity. Shun was not quite skilled at this. With no alternative, he gave this important task to another Great Sage in Human Tribe, whose name was Gun.

Gun's father was Emperor Zhuanxu. Zhuanxu's father was Changyi. Changyi's father was the Yellow Emperor. He was honorable among the Human Tribe, and a mighty candidate to be the Human Sovereign. It was a waste that they all became Zhi's ministers. He was dismissed after Emperor Yao became the sovereign of Human tribe.

When Gun was young, he was taught by a deity and learned lots of skills. Since he took the responsibility of regulating water, he worked hard with all his heart. However strong Gun was, he couldn't block the flooding alone. Even if the whole Human Tribe gathered to contribute all their advice and efforts, the natural disaster couldn't be stopped.

However, Gun still felt a great responsibility for it. Having got Emperor Shun's orders, Gun packed his luggage and then regulated the water problems with the others. Gun adopted the method of obstructing. He used the magical earth that Goddess Nvywa had left after creating the humankind. He also made dams to force the water of the Yellow River to return to its own position. Gun blocked the river and deposited water, which contributed to the irrigation of agriculture.

Though the flooding problem subsided temporarily, it was not settled forever. Ten years later, the flooding problem broke out again, and it was even fiercer. Human Tribe suffered a great loss for a while. Consequently, Gun was beheaded in public by Emperor Shun.

After Shun's death, a baby was born from his corpse, who was saved by Abundant Treasures Buddha, the first disciple in Tribe of Severity. Abundant Treasures gave Yu to Gun's wife and told her to bring the child up. After Yu knew what had happened to his father, he decided to avenge the insult and settle the flooding problem. He ran here and there to find good methods to solve the flooding problem.