After teaching the people to fish, Taihao taught the people of the city to domesticate livestock.
He penned up wild boars, keeping the docile ones and slaughtering the violent ones. Generation after generation of selection made the boars' tusks shorter and their temperaments gentler, until they became domestic pigs.
He caged wild chickens, keeping those that laid many eggs and slaughtering those that laid few. Generation after generation of selection increased their egg production until they became domestic chickens.
He also domesticated cattle, sheep, and dogs, spending several years on each kind. The people of the city changed from hunters into herders, then from herders into farmers. They no longer had to risk their lives hunting; they could stay at home and have meat to eat, eggs to eat, and milk to drink.
The city's population began to grow rapidly.
Taihao then taught the people of the city how to make pottery.
He painstakingly recreated the craft of pottery-making from ancient books.
They used riverbank clay to shape bowls, basins, jars, and urns, then fired them over flames. The pottery from the first firing cracked. The second batch came out crooked. By the third attempt, the pottery was hard and sturdy, ringing when struck.
The people of the city learned to make pottery. They began using clay jars to store water, clay bowls for meals, and clay urns to preserve grain.
Their quality of life improved. Fewer people fell ill, no one starved to death, and infant survival rates multiplied several times over.
From then on, the people's lives only grew better and better.
Once life improved, Taihao felt that something was still missing.
He walked through the city and watched the people rise with the sun and rest at sunset. Everyone busied themselves with their own affairs, and no