44 



name of the corridor into / Ian' tien, 'Hall of the Florishing 

 Orchid' '. After more than ten days the Emperor King dreamt 

 that a divine woman held up the sun in both her hands and 

 gave it to the Consort Wang. She swallow^ed it, and after fourteen 

 months gave birth to the Emperor Wu. The Emperor King said: 

 'I dreamt that a red vapour changed into a red dragon. The 

 diviners considered this to be a lucky omen; (therefore) he (the 

 new-born son) must be called Lucky {hihy". 



One of the ten lucky signs which were seen in the course of 

 one day under the reign of Yao, o^e of the five holy Emperors 

 of ancient times, was a dragon which appeared in the pond of 

 his palace ^. 



" The appearance of yellow or azure dragons, often mentioned 

 in the annals ^ was nearly always considered to be a very good 

 omen. Only if they came untimely or on wrong places they were 

 harbingers of evil, as we shall see below. They were mostly seen 

 in the night, spreading a brilliant light all over the neighbour- 

 hood. Such a nightly apparition illuminated the palace of Kung 

 Sun-shuh * under the reign of the Emperor Kwang Wu (25 — 57 

 A. D.). The former considered it such a good omen, that in 25 

 A. D. he proclaimed himself Emperor of Shu (White Emperor) 

 and changed the name of the era into Lung-Hing ^, "Dragon's 

 rise" ". A black, horned dragon was seen one night by Lii Kwang ', 

 who lived in the fourth century A. D. Its glittering eyes illumi- 

 nated the whole vicinity, so that the huge monster was visible 

 till it was enveloped by clouds which gathered from all sides. 

 The next morning traces of its scales were to be seen over a 

 distance of five miles, but soon were wiped out by the heavy 



1 The orchid being the symbol of harmony, because the Shi king compares the 

 dwelling together in harmony of brothers with the smell of orchids; the new name of 

 the corridor was still more felicitous than the former. 



2 Shuh i ki, ^ S f ^ i written by Jen Fang, |^ ^ , in the earlier part of 



the 6th century: % % il ^ ^ - + ^f , '§' ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ . 



3 Cf. T. S., Ch. 128, fl ^ ^ |g ^ — , p. 76, 8a, 9; Ch..l29, |g ^ Zl , 

 pp. i sq. 



6 Tung kwan han ki, ^ ^ '^ ^E i Ch. XXIII, written in 107 A. D. by Liu 

 Chen, ^J j^, and continued in 172 A. D. by Ts'ai Yung, ^S ^ . 



7 H -tS'' ■ cf. Gri.ES. Chin. Bioar. Diet,, s. v.. tin. fiiiFl sn. Tn .^Qfi hn tnnlr tlio etirlo 



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