[Shun] carefully displayed the Five Canonical Relationships [i.e. his relation to his father, mother, elder and younger brothers, and son]; and he was able to carry out [the duties of] these five relationships. When he took in hand the hundred errands, the hundred errands were performed promptly. When he was told to receive guests at the four gates [of the palace], the [rites of the] four gates were most solemn. When he was sent to the wooded hills, the sharp wind, thunder and lightening did not bewilder him.

The sovereign said: "Come, Shun, I have observed your actions and recorded your words, and the words have been followed by action. Now three years have passed: you shall ascend to the sovereign's throne." Shun retreated and [considered] that his virtue was inadequate. But on the first month of the first day, he accepted the abdication [of Yao] in the Hall of the Accomplished Ancestors.

He examined the xuanji apparatus and the transverse jade, and thereby set right the movements of the Seven Governors [the seven planets known at the time].

And he made a lei sacrifice to the Sovereign on High, a yin sacrifice to the Six Venerable Ones, a wang sacrifice to the mountains and rivers, and a general sacrifice to the various spiritual beings.

Zhu Xi explains the lei sacrifice.

He gathered in the five tokens

What are the five tokens?

and when the appropriate month and day had come, he called for his Four Peaks and Leaders and conferred the insignia anew on the many princes subject to him.

In the second month, on his inspection tour to the East, he came to the Venerable Mount Tai, and there made burnt-offerings and wang sacrifices to the mountains and rivers before giving audience to the princes of the East. He gave the correct order for the months and seasonal days. He caused the pitch-pipes, the measures of length, the measures of capacity and the weights to be the same throughout the empire. He established the five kinds of [court] ceremonies and the five types of jade instruments. The three types of silk that could be submitted as tribute, the two types of animals that were to be offered alive and the one type that could be offered dead, all these he established according to the rank of the givers. When his work was complete, he returned home.

In the fifth month, he toured the fiefdoms of the south and, coming to the Southern Mountains, he did as he had done at Mount Tai.

In the eighth month, he toured the fiefdoms of the west and, coming to the Western Mountains, he did as he had done before.

In the eleventh month, he toured the fiefdoms of the north and, coming to the Northern Peaks, performed the same rituals as he had done in the west.

When he returned home, he went to the temple of his [dead] father and grandfather, and sacrificed a bull.

Every five years he departed on one grand tour of inspection; in that same length of time, the various nobles came four times to his court. They submitted memorials if they had something to report; they were examined for their achievements; according to their accomplishments they received [ceremonial gifts of] chariots and garments.

[Shun] surveyed the limits of the twelve provinces, raised altars on twelve mountains, and deepened the rivers.

He displayed the canon of punishments for all to see. The five [capital and corporal] punishments could be commuted to banishment; the whip was the punishment applied in the magistrate's court; the cane was used in the schools; money fines were used in the punishment of faults that might be redeemed. "An accidental offense may be pardoned, but those who persist in wrong-doing will be treated as mercilessly as bandits! Be reverent, be reverent! Be mindful of the punishments!"

He banished Gong Gong to the Land of Darkness [in the far north], he banished Huan Dou to Chongshan; he made the Three Miao [tribes] flee like rats among the Three Gorges; he killed Gun on Feather Mountain. Four criminals punished--and the whole world came to obey him.

In the twenty-eighth year [of Shun's reign], Fang Xun [or Sovereign Yao] died. The people mourned him as they would their fathers or mothers. It was three years before the Eight Sounds of music were heard again within the four seas.