However barbarous Yiieh may have been,
its ruling house possessed traditions of descent, through a
concubine, from an emperor of the Hia dynasty; for which reason
the founder was enfeoffed, near modern Shao-hing, west of Ningpo,
in order to fulfil the sacrifices to the founder of the Hia
dynasty, who was, and is, supposed to be buried there: like the
first colonists who migrated to Wu, he cut his hair, tattooed
himself, opened up the jungle, and built a town. In 330 B.C. Kou-
tsien's descendant spoke of "taking the road left to _Chu-
hia_," through modern Ho Nan province; that means taking the
high-road to China proper. The term originated in times when Ts'u
had not yet become a recognized "Hia." The fact that Yueeh, with
its new capital then in Shan Tung, could never govern the Yang-tsz
and Hwai inland regions, seems to prove that her power was always
purely a water power, and that she was comparatively ignorant of
land campaigns.
CHAPTER XXX
LITERARY RELATIONS
It is instructive to inquire what were the literary relations
between the distinguished statesmen and active princes who moved
about quite freely within the limited area so frequently alluded
to in foregoing pages as being sacrosanct to civilization and the
rites.
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