No matter what, Yao took over the throne in the hands of his brother Zhi and became the leader of a new generation of tribal alliance. He was only twenty years old this year!
After Yao took office, he established his capital in Pingyang, which is now Linfen, Shanxi. At that time, the entire Huaxia race was still a simple tribal alliance, with a relatively loose state system, which was not conducive to unified management. After accumulating certain governance experience, Yao began to set up specific officials to manage according to the needs of special tasks. He created a relatively systematic political system in the history of our country, laying a certain foundation for the establishment of the slave state in the future - Xia Dynasty .
In the early days of Tang Yao, the astronomical calendar was still relatively incomplete. The people only knew the difference between day and night and did not know the changes in the four seasons. Therefore, they could not properly arrange farming according to climate changes, resulting in low production efficiency.
In order to master the laws of climate change and improve the astronomical calendar, Tang Yao sent Xi Shu to live in a place called Mingdu. When the sun moved from north to south, the longest day was designated as the summer solstice; Pai Hezhong lived in a place called Meigu in the west, and observed that day of day and night equally divided at sunset, and set it as autumnal equinox ; Pai He Shu lived in a place called Youdu in the north, and observed that the sun moved from south to north, the shortest day was designated as the winter solstice.
At the same time, Tang Yao also stipulated that one year is 366 years, and every three years it will be formulated. This basically establishes a relatively complete astronomical calendar system, and the people can farm according to changes in the farming season, which will greatly strengthen agricultural production capacity.
For Tang Yao, Sima Qian has a very high evaluation of him, and is the most perfect and ideal monarch in his mind. He recorded in "Records of the Grand Historian: The Basic Annals of the Five Emperors":
"(Tang Yao) His kindness is as good as the sky, his knowledge is as gods. He is as good as the sun, and he looks like clouds. He is rich but not arrogant, noble but uncomfortable... The people are clear and harmonious with all countries!"
In his later years, Tang Yao took the initiative to abdicate to Shun, and then spent twenty-eight years safely before he died of illness in Lei Ze.
