Hello, and welcome to Chinese Folk Tales.
This is Beibei.
Today we're starting our stories about Yao's successor, which was not one of his sons, but someone he selected very, very carefully.
As I mentioned in the last episode, Yao was known as one of the most virtuous emperors.
But He was getting on in age and he searched the land high and low to find the talents with the right virtues to take his place.
And it just so happened, many prestigious local leaders recommended the same young man.
They extolled the virtues of the young man and how people were willing to follow his lead everywhere he went.
They were more than confident in the young man's ability to rule the nation.
Well, that's unusual.
Who was this guy?
Now the old Emperor Yao was really curious.
The young man's name was Shun, a name that would be known by all the descendants of the Yellow Emperor.
With such an important figure in Chinese history, let's start from the beginning.
Which was a sad one for Shun?
His mother died not long after he was born, and his father remarried.
The young boy lived with his father, his stepmother, and a stepbrother.
As stories like this most often go, it was not a childhood filled with love.
Shun's father was blind, and as we will find out soon, not a very righteous character.
He favored his younger son, named Xiang, and pretty much let Shun raise himself.
So the young man never had enough to eat or to wear and was often beaten for one reason or another or no reason at all.
Even his younger brother bullied him.
But Shun bore it all and grew into a nice young man.
His father could never feel happy with him and eventually chased him out of the house, but maybe it was for the better.
For someone who had such a tragic childhood, who grew up with not an inkling of love and care, Shun turned out amazingly unscathed.
He was kind in nature, and that was not marred by his experiences.
Instead, his childhood trained him to become a disciplined and hardworking young man who was extremely sympathetic to the sufferings of others.
People who knew him trusted and liked him.
Having heard that his father had chased him out of the house, his neighbors told him that they were willing to follow him anywhere he went.
And they did.
Shun came to a mountain called Li.
The land here was fertile, and Shun decided to stay.
The people who followed him decided to stay too, and they started cultivating the virgin land.
Under his leadership, the people never fought for land or other resources.
Later, Shun moved to Lei Ze, which was a big lake.
He fished in the lake, and the people who followed him fished too and never fought among themselves.
Shun also made potteries from mud near the lake, and they were of really good quality.
No matter what he devoted himself to, Shun achieved excellence.
And amazingly, people always wanted to follow him.
And they were able to live together under his leadership in harmony.
So it was that if Xuan stayed in a place for one year, even somewhere remote, the once wild land would become densely populated and became villages.
If Shun stayed in a place for two years, then a county would form.
And if he stayed somewhere for three years, a city would form, with people living and working in peace.
Quite amazing.
Ten years passed, and Shun's prestige kept growing.
It was also during those years Emperor Yao had been looking for a successor.
The reputation of Shun reached the years of Yao and the emperor decided to meet the man himself.
The emperor saw in Shun a young man of striking appearance who was able to manage things, big and small, in orderly fashions.
And more amazingly, the people around him seemed happy and content.
Emperor Yao was very satisfied.
In fact, he was so satisfied with the young man that he married both his daughters to Shun.
Emperor Yao also arranged it so that Shun lived with the nine sons of the emperor, maybe to put a young man through some serious test of relationship skills.
But Shun managed, and with flying colors.
Still, that wasn't the ultimate test.
Next, Shun was given the task of managing the hundreds of officials, and he again proved himself exceptional.
Now Emperor Yao was really convinced that he had found someone extraordinary.
He loaded Shun's house with gifts.
Money, sheep, cattle, silk, and cotton.
He even built him a granary.
With all these riches, Shun did not flaunt his wealth.
Instead, he tilted his land as usual, working hard day after day.
But some other people were bound to grow jealous.
And guess who they were?
They were none other than Xun's own father and half-brother.
Their eyes were blazing with jealousy and they were plotting to kill Shun so they could inherit all his wealth.
History has no lack of such family stories.
The father and half-brother plotted to kill Shun.
One day, the father told Shun that the roof of his granary was leaking and asked him to fix it soon.
Even though Shun had been mistreated by his father when he was little, he still tried to take care of his old man when he could.
Shun climbed on top of the roof and started working.
He had no idea that his father was building a fire underneath.
And with all the dry grains inside, the whole place soon set aflame.
Shun, being someone exceptional, didn't lose his cool.
He waved his bamboo sun hat in his hand while jumping down a bit like a parachute, and landed without breaking anything.
Must have been a pretty big hat.
It was his father who was frustrated, but he didn't stop there.
Next, he ordered Shun to go dig a well.
Being the good son that he was, Shun set about digging.
Knowing his father though, he also dug a tunnel out of the well.
As he expected, Shun's father and half-brother started filling the well with dirt when they thought Shun was in it deep enough.
They thought they would sure nail it this time and even save the trouble of burying the guy.
All they could think of was rushing home to divide up Xun's properties.
And rush home they did.
Xun's home, in fact.
They looked at the riches in the house and couldn't believe their good fortune.
But before they could get their greedy hands on anything, Shun walked in as if he was just returning home after work on a normal day.
Just picture the shock and fear on the faces of these two evil men.
The ghost is already here to haunt us!
They must have thought.
Did Shun get rid of these two for revenge?
He was larger than that.
Shun's father and half-brother finally realized that it was useless to plot against him.
They lived in peace.
Well, sort of.
Ever after.
Did Shun become the next emperor, though?
Well, let's save that for the next episode.
Hope to see you then, and bye for now.
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