38 



An Appendix of the Yih king ' says : " The hibernating of dragons 

 and snakes is done in order to -preserve their bodies'''' ^.' Here we see 

 dragons and snakes being closely connected and regarded as 

 belonging to the same kind of animals. Also in later times the 

 same fact is to be observed. 

 P On considering the above passages of the Yih king we arrive 

 I at the conclusion that the ideas on the dragon prevailing in 

 China at the present day are just the same as those of the remotest 

 times. It is a water animal, akin to the snake, which uses to 

 sleep in pools during winter and arises in spring. It is the god 

 of thunder, who brings good crops when he appears in the 

 rice fields (as rain) or in the sky (as dark and yellow clouds), 

 in other words, when he makes the rain fertilize the ground. 

 But when he flies too high and cannot return, the thirsty earth 

 must wait in vain for his blessings, and sorrow prevails. As this 

 beneficient being is full of Yang, it symbolizes those among men 

 who are fullest of Light, namely great men, and its appearance 

 is considered to be an omen of their coming, i. e. of their birth. 

 In the first place the greatest and fullest of Tang among them 

 all, the Emperor, is, of course, symbolized by the dragon. He is, 

 indeed, the representative of Imperial power, as we shall see 

 later on. 



j When black and yellow clouds covered the sky, and thunder 



/and lightning raged, the ancient Chinese said, like those of to-day : 



' "The dragons are fighting; look at their blood spreading over 



the sky". And at the same time the heavenly dragons caused 



the rain to pour down upon the grateful earth. 



Even when the dragons were only leaping in their pools, no 

 calamity was to be feared, and when a herd of them, even head- 

 less, wa3 seen in the sky, this was a felicitous sign. Winter, 

 when they hibernate and sleep in pools, is the dry season in 

 China. But in spring, in the third of the twenty four seasons 

 into which the year was divided even in olden times, the 

 "Resurrection of the hibernating animals" ' takes place, and it 

 begins to rain a little. In the "beginning of summer" *, however, 

 i. e. in the fii'st of the six summer seasons, "the winds arrive 



3 ^ ^i "Resurrection of hibernating animals", is the name of this season; cf. 

 De Groot, 1.1., Vol. Ill, p. 968. 



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