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9. 

in the fifth year of Chih-cheng(至正五年=1345 A.D.) recorded according to the oral tradition of the elders of this place the following tale:

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"Five [[underline]]li[[/underline]] and forty [[underline]]pu[[/underline]] northwest from the city of An-yang, in the Hê-t'an-chia Ch'êng on the southern bank of the Huan River, there is a burial mound, known, according to tradition, as the burial place of Hê-t'an-chia.  The elders said: 'In the summer of the second year of Yuan-yu of the Sung Dynasty (1087 A.D.), it rained continuously.  An-yang Hê(namely Huan River) flooded, cutting into the burial mound, [[strikethrough]]the mound[[/strikethrough]] ^[[which]] was thus broken.  Wild men adventured into the tombs and obtained a number of bronzes, of which both the substance and decoration were in perfect condition.  Lest that they may be discovered by the officers and tried before law, they sent them to the market, broke them to pieces and put them for sale.  They also filled in the hole in order to hush up traces of pillage.  After that time, bronze never came out again...."(p. 23, Bk.II, Hê-shou-fang-ku-chi)
[[/block quotation]]

The tale has, no doubt, its origin in the work of the Sung archaeologists, who were in turn misled by the unconscious error of Szŭ-ma Ch'ien.  The fact that bronzes were found from Yin-hsü and its immediate neighborhood as early as the Sung dynasty [[strikethrough]]was[[/strikethrough]] ^[[is]] more than probable.  In trying to give an interpretation of this discovery and give its [[strikethrough]]time[[/strikethrough]] ^[[date]], the archaeologists of the time relied on Szŭ-ma Ch'ien and found that of all the capitals of the Shang Dynasty, given by Szŭ-ma Ch'ien, "Hsiang" of Hê-t'an-chia fits into this place most likely.  Under this circumstances, they went as far as to name the very bronze from this locality Hê-t'an-chia.  The discovery of this bronze must have left a profound impression among the local populace, so the oral tradition passed on from generation to generation; and after 200 years, it was repeated with growing vitality.

The founding of the modern village, Hsiao-t'un Ts'un, can be traced back approximately to the later part of the Ming Dynasty.  The An-yanese at present still recollect an impressive historical tragedy that happend during the transitional period of the Yuan-Ming

Transcription Notes:
chinese needs to be added Later transcriber: somebody did it already. Thanks!