Arouse one's all efforts to make the country prosperous

文章分段描述了中国古代政治传统以及统治者“皇帝”存在的关键。一个好男人是否能真正成为一个好国王，执政是一种技术，需要学习特殊技能。

Reading notations on “the Chinese Tradition in Antiquity”
Line 4: It is mentioned that until recent times, these documents were accepted by Chinese people as precise accounts. According to the background provided above, the Five Classics are doubted to appear during the pre-Confucian age, It is believed by experts that these materials were assuming current existence during later ages. Why Chinese people trusted it at the beginning? What happened recently that made them lose trust on these books in ”recent times”?
Line 12: Emperor Yao’s light was so strong that it can reach to four ends of the world and reach to the Heaven. What is the “light” here refers to? It probably is a metaphor of his august ruling and other respectable performance.
Line 13: What are the 4 extremities of the empire?
Line 14: How it was proved that he had all those good stuff mentioned, such as great virtue…?
Line 15: What are the nine branches of his family?
Line 16: In this sentence underlines the ideas that when a society is thriving and people are amply, all individuals will have no conflicts of interest and dissents, which I slightly doubt about according the observation of nowadays society.
Line 20: Judging from the text itself, “delineate and calculate the sun” is to study the motion of the bodies in the space, which is a crucial component of Geography study. Why did the ancient Chinese view the Geography study as so important? Even at a time when so many people are still starving, the emperor already laid eyes on it. Could it be related to that the ancient Chinese believed those catastrophes were controlled and activated by the motion of those sky bodies, and therefore studying their actions and doing predicts could help to save the country from disasters?
Line 21-25: Why it was so important to fix the year/seasons that the great king would like to give away his power in search of one could carry out all these?
Line 26-27: It seems there is an logic gap between line 26 and line 27. Because right after the Emperor ask Hsi and Ho to take care their job, he started to ask about who will do this job well.
Line 30: What are the four mountains mentioned?
Line 32: Who is Fang Ch’i?
Line 40: Here reflects that the quality ancient Chinese valued most was kindness?
Line 41-42: In the former text, there is not female character existing. Here, the first time women take part but in a passive way. Even for the king who honored kindness and other virtues, he had the thinking that women belong to the men. In some degree, these contents undervalue the female role, and materialize them to something as gift.
Line 51-53: When Shun became the king, the first few things he did is to sacrifice to those spirits. But according to former text, “spirits and ancestors had to be served,” this striking point leads Chinese readers to think from the other side of what they have been taught to believe from the very beginning. For Chinese, the fact that without serving the ancestors and spirits sincerely, one might have bad luck is almost the truth of how the world goes——just as people in the west believe in the Bible. I have never seen it from this view. If it is true, does it mean the Chinese people make something out of their imagination and add to their own laborious routines?
Line 69-72: What is the split of months and days? Why not started every month at the first date?
Line 74: Consulting the tortoise oracle, this act seems funny today. Who has produced these oracles? If they had already started to consult to the oracle, the practice of this consults must be formed in an earlier time. It is interesting that when they were doing something utterly not sensible but in a very systematic way.
Line 82: The SEVEN day appears in the classic text of Chinese while in the west there is the same phrase in the bible. What is the magic of seven so that in both culture people wrote to stop their creation of civilization at this day?
Line 90: The saying of “principle son” echoes with what is mentioned in the former text—Chinese people believed the ruler is determined by the Heaven. In my idea, this system has both advantages and disadvantages. From one side, this thinking served as a kind of restriction to demand the king act accordingly to the mandate of the Lord-on-High, which actually has not a set of rules and can be used by the people as weapon to strike for their own rights. Just as what was written in line 125, the position of being a king is to be a leader in virtue. Therefore when Shun was successor, he was also selected for his patience with his family and other good deed. From the other side, it also disabled people. In this system, people would tended to be meeker, waiting for the right one to save them rather than believe in themselves. After my question is whether a good man can truly be a good king. Ruling is a kind of technique requires learning and special skills, I don’t think that simply being kind is enough.
Line 93: What is “he” here refers to, the king or the Lord-on High or the new ruler, the principal son?