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30 anxious to trace the original causes of her great revolutions; he therefore invented a system which, by combining the characters of the elements in an artificial way, expressed the changes in nature." By determining the seasons this Emperor introduced order into the performance of business, and in a rude way he contrived a system of hieroglyphics by which people could express their thoughts. Music also was initiated by Fuh-he, and last, but greatest deed of all, he instituted the rite of marriage, until then unknown.

His successors improved upon his plans, and encouraged the cultivation of the soil, thereby retaining the wandering tribes on certain fixed spots. Soon villages sprung up, and, owing to the greater regularity of life and the certainty of nourishment, the population rapidly increased. One of these monarchs, the Emperor Hwang-te (or "The Yellow Emperor"), so greatly improved the nation, that under his sway it may be said to have emerged from the darkness of barbarism into the light of a sound social organisation. He constructed the first brick palace, increased the number of hieroglyphics, built cities and villages, and pushed out colonies further south; he invented carts, clocks, boats, chariots, and, building an observatory, rectified the calendar. He also introduced coined money, and established a system of weights and measures. Nor was his imperial consort less enterprising, the discovery of the uses to which the thread of the silkworm may be applied being attributed to her.

Shun, the last of the "Five Emperors," to lessen the cares of Government, associated Yu with himself upon the