50 



In the fifth year of the Kien-teh era (A. D. 576), under the 

 Later Cheu dynasty, a black dragon fell from the sky and died. 

 The dragon is the symbol of the Ruler, black was the colour 

 of the dynasty, and falling and dying is a most unlucky omen '. 

 So it was a foreboding of the -Emperor's death, which happened 

 two years later (A. D. 578), and of the dynasty's fall (A. D. 581), 

 which was announced also by the dragon fights mentioned above. 



C. Dragons appearing at wrong times. 



When dragons appeared at wrong times, they were forebodings 

 of evil instead of omens of felicity. The time is wrong for a 

 -dragon to appear, when the Son of Heaven himself does not 

 walk in the Tao, thus throwing into disorder both the Tao of 

 Heaven and men, ,So did the Emperor K'ung Kiah of the ancient 

 Hia dynasty, twenty centuries before Christ. Sze-ma Ts'ien^ says 

 the following about this monarch: "The Emperor K'ung Kiah 

 having ascended the Throne, loved the matters of the kwei and 

 the shen and was disorderly (in his behaviour, i.e. he disturbed 

 the Tao). As the virtue of the House of the Hia rulers was 

 declining, the feudal lords rebelled against it. Heaven sent down 

 two dragons, a female and a male. K'ung Kiah could not feed 

 them; he had not yet found the Dragon-rearer Family^. T^ang 

 of Tao (i. e. the House of the Emperor Yao) having declined, 

 one of his descendants was Liu Lei, who from the Dragon-rearer 

 family learned to tame dragons, in order to serve K^ung Kiah. 

 K^ung Kiah bestowed upon him the family name of Yil-lung ^ 



1 Books of the Sui dynasty, Sect. ^ ff ^^X #^^^5£^^^ 



mmik%n\^n.m^zwi.mmW{^^.mM 



2 Historical Records, Ch. II, ^ 2JS ^E . Jap- ed. with commentaiies and notes, 



i^ IE b¥ # ( A ^ )^)' ^"l' "' Ch. II, p. 216. Of. Chavannes' translation, 

 Vol. I, p. 168. 



3 Hwan-lung shi, ^^ §& ^P . 



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