At the end of three more moons, the Emperor, having called Kouang, said to him: "Look."
And Kouang looked.
And he saw that the road was made; and he noticed that at various points, inns were building. A medley of foot passengers, carriages and palanquins went and came, and innumerable Chinese, oppressed by fatigue, carried back and forth heavy burdens from Tchin to Tchan, and from Tchan to Tchin, and Kouang said: It is the destruction of the canal which has given labor to these poor people. But it did not occur to him that this labor was diverted from other employments.
Then more moons passed, and the Emperor said to Kouang: "Look."
And Kouang looked.
He saw that the inns were always full of travelers, and that they being hungry, there had sprung up, near by, the shops of butchers, bakers, charcoal dealers, and bird's nest sellers. Since these worthy men could not go naked, tailors, shoemakers and umbrella and fan dealers had settled there, and as they do not sleep in the open air, even in the Celestial Empire, carpenters, masons and thatchers congregated there. Then came police officers, judges and fakirs; in a word, around each stopping place there grew up a city with its suburbs.
Said the Emperor to Kouang: "What do you think of this?"
And Kouang replied: "I could never have believed that the destruction of a canal could create so much labor for the people." For he did not think that it was not labor created, but diverted; that travelers ate when they went by the canal just as much as they did when they were forced to go by the road.
However, to the great astonishment of the Chinese, the Emperor died, and this Son of Heaven was committed to earth.
His successor sent for Kouang, and said to him: "Clean out the canal."