From the Sky Hero Dynasty to the Warring States era, You Province—especially Northern Youzhou—had been the front line where people of the Central Plains fought the Icefield Tribes. For wealth and profit, the two sides clashed without end, and no one knew how many had died.
The Icefield Tribes were outnumbered. Gradually unable to hold their ground, they retreated north, but the conflicts between the two sides remained unchanged.
Then a swordsman named Zhong You emerged from Eastern Lu. He said, "The path of benevolence demands that we slay the greedy, cruel, and vicious, and restore peace under heaven." Alone with his sword, he went north of You Province. Whenever he met a raider, regardless of race, he struck with a single slash.
And so the greediest and most vicious raiders gradually died out. With his sword, Zhong You carried out a natural selection upon that land, killing every last person he believed could only drag others down and contribute nothing good.
Through it all, he gained a new understanding. Building upon "benevolence," he proposed "courage," and at last united knowledge and action, attaining the state of an Immortal or Buddha. He became Zhong Zilu, the "Valiant Sage," one of the Confucian School's Four Sages.
On the Ice Plains, with the worst troublemakers gone, the methods of conflict between the two sides gradually acquired limits. Little by little, duels replaced massacres. Wealth from the Ice Plains was still stained with blood, but the two sides slowly began to intermingle.
Later, the lord who founded a state here named it "Xiang."
Xiang meant "to help." The name commemorated the peerless swordsman who had helped restore order to this land.
By the time Great Xia was established, children of mixed Icefield and Great Xia ancestry had appeared in You Province.
These people