68 



stones and Fung-tsHng ', and is fond of roasted swallow flesh. 

 Therefore persons who have eaten swallows must not cross the 

 sea. Further he (Wang Fu) says: "The Mao-lung"' is afraid of 

 leaves of the Melia Azedefeeh ^ and of five-coloured silk thread. 

 Therefore from the time of the Han dynasty (down to the present 

 day) those who offered to K^iih Yuen * took five-coloured silk 

 thread and with this tied together the leaves of the IVJelia 

 Azederach. Among the ancients there were the Dragon-rearer ^ 

 and the Dragon-ruler'* families, who ruled the dragons Only by 

 means of their knowledge of what they desired and disliked" '. 

 Tlie Pen-t/ao kang-muh ^ the famous standard work on Natural 

 History and Materia Medica, written in the latter half of the 

 15th century by Li Shi-chen^ says: "The small writings (essays) 

 contain the following. The_dr agon's nature is rough and fierce, 

 and yet he likes beautiful ^ems and k'^u ng-tit'ing , and ^ is found of 

 ~"(roasted)"~swaIIowsrHe~Is~afraid of iron, of the wang plant '", of 



1 ji^ ^ , i. e. the Yin-shih, 1^ ^ZT , 



the "Stone of Darkness". 



2 *£fi 



3 ifi , "a tree bearing lilac flowers, the 'Melia Azederach' or 'pride of India' ; the 

 phoenix likes it, but the dragon abhors it" (Wells Williams, Chin. Diet, p ■ 536, s. v.) 



4 M 1^ ' '• ^- ^'^^'^ Ping, M ^ , a minister of the state of Ch'^u ( ^k ), who 

 lived about B.C. 314, the maker of the famous poem entitled Li sao, ^ ^^. As his 

 royal master would not follow his advise, he drowned himself in the Poh lo river. Every 

 year, at the 5th of the 5th month, the anniversary of his death is celebrated and little 

 dumplings wrapped in leaves are offered to him and eaten in his memory. Cf. DeGroot, 

 Fetes annuelle.i a Emoui, Vol. I, pp. 313 sqq. The Japanese Tango no sekku, ^js 

 ^P ^^ 'gfj "St , the "Exact moment of the opposition'' (of Yin against Yang, i. e. the 



summer solstitium, with which it formerly must have been identical) is originally the 

 same festival. It is a dragon .festival, at which the dragons by sympathetic magic in 

 the form of dragon-boat races are called up to give fertilizing lains. The story about 

 K'^uh Yuen is apparently a later explanation of this ancient festival. 



5 Hwan-lung , ^^ bJ^ • ^^- above, p. 50. 



6 Yii-lung, I^M ^| . Cf. above, p. 50. 



■^^^Mmmm^.m>x9^^mBmnmZo 



8 2|5: :^ in g > "Collectanea of Plants". §^ ^ , Ch. 43, p. 1. 



9 ^^^. 



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