51 



(Dragon-ruler), and he received the succession of Shi Wei. The 

 first of the dragons, the female, died, (whereupon) he took it 

 and gave it the Emperor to eat. As His Majesty ordered to seek 

 (the dragon), Liu Lei got afraid and fled. K'ung Kiah died, and 

 his son, the Emperor Kao, ascended the Throne" '. 



A different form of the same legend, according to which K'ung 

 Kiah was presented by the Emperor of Heaven with two teams 

 of dragons, which were reared by Liu Lei till one of them died 

 and was given as food to His Majesty, is to be found in a passage 

 of the Tso chvfen, which we will partly quote in Chapter IV § 8, 

 in regard to the Dragon-rearer family having been invested with 

 this name by the Emperor Shun. As to our present subject, 

 however, i. e. -the evil omen of dragons appeai-ing at a time 

 when the Tao is violated, we may refer to another passage of 

 the Historical Records, where the fall of the Hia dynasty, is 

 apparently brought into connection with the appearance of two 

 dragons. We read there the following. "In the third year (of his 

 reign) (B. C. 779), King Yiu fell deeply in love with Pao Sze ^. 

 Pao Sze gave birth to a son, Poh Puh, and King Yiu wished to 

 degrade the Crownprince. The mother of the Crownprince was 

 the daughter of the Marquis of Chen and was queen. Afterwards, 

 when King Yiu had got Pao Sze and loved her, he wished to 

 degrade Queen Chen and at the same time send away the Crown- 

 prince I Kiu, (in order to) make Pao Sze queen and Poh Fuh Crpwn- 

 prince. The great astrologer of Cheu, Poh Yang ', after having 

 read the historical records, said: "(The House of) Cheu is lost". 



Now follows the explanation why the astrologer had such 

 pessimistic views. Chavannes * points out that the following is 

 borrowed from the Kiooh yil ^, one of the many works used by 



^ mm- Mfiit- 



4 Les Mimoires Historiques de Se-ma TsHen, Vol. I, p. 281, cf Introduction, Chap. 

 Ill, pp. CXLVII, sqq. 



5 & ^, "Discourses concerning the States", often called the "Exterior Com- 

 mentary" on the Ch'un tsHu, and ascribed to the author of the Tso chw'en. 



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