uction of
silk, as woman's work, they profess to assign to the consort of one
of those worthies--a thing improbable if not impossible, her place
of residence being in the north of China. Their picture-writing tells
a different tale. Their word for a southern barbarian, compounded of
"silk" and "worm," points to the south as the source of that useful
industry, much as our word "silk," derived from _sericum_,
points to China as its origin.

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CHAPTER XV

THE THREE DYNASTIES

_The House of Hia--Ta-yu's Consideration for His Subjects--Kie's
Excesses--The House of Shang--Shang-tang, the Founder, Offers Himself
as a Sacrificial Victim, and Brings Rain--Chou-sin Sets Fire to
His Own Palace and Perishes in the Flames--The House of Chou_

The Hia, Shang and Chou dynasties together extend over the twenty-two
centuries preceding the Christian Era. The first occupies 440 years;
the second, 644; and the last, in the midst of turmoil and anarchy,
drags out a miserable existence of 874 years. They are grouped
together as the San Tai or San Wang, "the Three Houses of Kings,"
because that title was employed by the founder of each. Some of
their successors were called _Ti_; but _Hwang-ti_, the
term for "emperor" now in use, was never employed until it was
assumed by the builder of the Great Wall on the overthrow of the
feudal states and the consolidation of the empire, 240 B. C.

THE HOUSE OF HIA, 2205-1766 B. C.
(17 kings, 2 usurpers)

Unlike most founders of royal houses, who come to the throne through
a deluge of blood, Ta-yue, as has been shown in the last chapter,
climbed to that eminence
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through a deluge of water. Like Noah, the hero of an earlier deluge,
he seems to have indulged, for once at least, too freely in the use
of wine. A chapter in the "Book of History," entitled "A Warning
Against Wine," informs us that one Yiti having made wine presented
it to his prince. Ta-yue was delighted with it, but discontinued its
use, saying that in time to come kings would lose their thrones
through a fondness for the beverage. In China "wine" is a common
name for all intoxicating drinks. That referred to in this passage
was doubtless a distillation from rice or millet.

In the discharge of his public duties Ta-yue showed himself no less
diligent than in contending with the waters. He hung at his door a
bell which the poorest of his subjects might ring and thus obtain
immediate attention. It is said