47 



King Fang ' says in his Tih fei heu ^ ("Flying observations on 

 divination"): 'When the hearts of the multitude are not quiet, 

 dragon fights are the bad omens thereof I At that time the 

 Emperor for the first time ascended the throne, and there was 

 a riot of Ch^en Poh-chi and Liu Li-lien. Danger and fear prevailed 

 in the empire". ^ 



The same annals* contain the following passage: "In the sixth 

 month of the fifth year of the P\i t'ung era (524 A. D.) dragons 

 fought in the pond of the King of K'tlh o (?). They went west- 

 ward as far as Kien ling ch'ing. In the places they passed all 

 the trees were broken. The divination was the same as in the 

 second year of the T'ien kien era (503 A. D.), namely that their 

 passing Kien ling and the trees being broken indicated that there 

 would be calamity of war for the dynasty, and that it was a 

 sign that the Imperial tombs would be destroyed. At that time 

 the Emperor considered the holding of discussions to be his only 

 task, and did not think of ploughing. His fighting generals were 

 careless, his soldiers idle, and the Tao of the Ruler was injured. 

 Therefore there was the corresponding fact of the dragons' evil. 

 The Emperor did not at all become conscious (of the danger). 

 In the first year of the T'ai Ts'ing era (547 A. D.) there was 

 again a dragon fight in the waters of Li cheu. The waves seethed 

 and bubbled up, and clouds and fog assembled from all sides. 

 White dragons were seen running to the South, followed by 

 black dragons. That year Heu King came with troops to 

 submit, and the Emperor accepted his submission without taking 

 precautions. The people of the realm were all frightened, and 

 suddenly rebellion a^se. The Emperor in consequence thereof 

 had a sad death". He died in 549, and eight years later the 

 Liang dynasty came to an end. 



In A. D. 579 a black dragon was killed by a red one. Moreover, 

 in the same year there was a fight of a white dragon with a 

 black one, the result of which was that the white one ascended 



1 "^ -S , a famous diviner of the first century of our era, author of the Yih 

 chw^en; ^ ^ (cf. De Groot, Rel. Syst., Vol. IV, p. 204) and of the Yihyao, ^ ^ 

 (cf. below. Bad omens, D.). 



4 Same chapter, section and page. 



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