CHINESE  HISTORY:  FIRST  PERIOD  3
of  Confucius  and  Mencius.  The  time  in  which  they  lived  is
regarded  by  the  Chinese  as  the  Golden  Age  of  their  history,
and  they  have  been  held  up  to  succeeding  generations  as
models  of  wisdom  and  virtue.
During  the  reign  of  Yao  occurred  a  serious  national
calamity.  This  was  the  great  flood  caused  by  the  overflow ­
  of  the  Yellow  River.  A  large  tract  of  country  was
submerged,  and  the  people  were  reduced  to  great  misery.
Yao  appointed  Shun  as  his  associate  in  the  government,
and  the  latter  recommended  Yü  as  the  one  man  capable
of  devising  some  means  for  saving  the  country  from  the
disaster.  Yü,  by  constructing  a  system  of  canals,  finally
succeeded  in  draining  off  the  waters  and  reclaiming  the
soil  for  cultivation.  For  this  achievement  his  memory
has  always  been  held  in  the  highest  esteem.
Yao  handed  down  the  government  to  Shun  (b.c.  2255-2205),
  and  he,  in  turn,  to  Yü,  who  founded  the  first  of  the
regular  Chinese  dynasties,  known  as  the  Hsia.
These  early  rulers  of  China  were  chieftains  of  a  tribe
rather  than  rulers  of  a  kingdom.  It  was  only  as  their
territory  became  more  extensive  that  their  functions  became
regal  in  character,  and  the  system  of  government  more
highly  organised.  At  first  the  succession  to  the  throne
was  not  necessarily  hereditary,  but  the  sceptre  was  passed
on  to  the  one  deemed  best  fitted  to  wield  it.
The  Hsia  Dynasty  (b.c.  2205-1766)
The  Hsia  Dynasty  is  the  first  of  the  long  line  of  dynasties
which  have  succeeded  one  after  the  other  for  nearly  four
thousand  years.
In  the  West  a  change  of  dynasty  is  generally  caused
by  a  line  becoming  extinct,  through  the  failure  of  direct
descendants  to  the  throne.  Not  so  is  the  case  in  China.
Here  the  change  comes  as  the  result  of  the  overthrow  of  a
dynasty  whose  rulers  have  become  effete  and  incapable  of
giving  the  country  a  firm  and  vigorous  rule.  In  no  other
country  have  rebellions  been  more  frequent  than  in  China.
A  superficial  view  of  its  history  might  lead  us  to  suppose