ABSTRACT
Fuh-hi is an exceedingly shadowy and misty personage, and the pictures we have of him have been limned mainly by the imagination and the romance of succeeding ages. The great object of his life seemed to have been the carrying out of plans for the benefit of those over whom he was called to rule. Fuh-hi instituted the laws of marriage, for before his time the greatest laxity existed in regard to the relationship of the two sexes, such as one would expect to find in a very primitive and uncivilized state of society. From the year B. C. 2637, A. D. 1863, there have been exactly seventy-five cycles. This method is followed by the Japanese, Coreans, and the people of Lew-chew. There is a legend, indeed, that Hwang-ti had at least four, and that one of these was Mu-mu, who was noted for her ugliness and for the wisdom with which she ruled the imperial household.
