93 



them, and, when dried on the fire and ground, they are also 



used against navel abscesses of babies. In short, the strong Yang 



J>ower of these bones ma kes, of course, the Yin demons which 



have c"omiortably established themselves in the h uman body take 



"^ot heir heels as s oon as medicine, prepared from the bones, arrives '. 



Spart from the medical works we may mention the following 

 passages. The Shuh i ki'^ (6th century) says: "Accoi;ding to 

 tradition a dragon, when a thousand years old, casts off his 

 bones in the mountains. Now there are dragon mounds, out of 

 which dragon brains are taken". We read in the same work: 

 "In P'u-ning district (Kwantung province) there is a 'Dragon- 

 burial islet'. The elders say : ' The dragons have cast off their 

 bones on this islet. There are at the present day still many 

 dragon's bones'. Thus on mountains and hills, on hillocks and 

 cavernous cliffs, on all places where the dragons raise clouds and 

 rain, dragon's bones are found. There are many of them in the 

 ground, sometimes deep, sometimes near to the siirface; teeth, 

 bones, spines and feet, all are there. The big ones are some tens 

 of chang or fully ten chang long, the small ones only one or 

 two ch^ih or three or four ts^un. The bodies are all complete. 

 As they had been gathered, I saw them". ^ 



At the time of the T"'ang dynasty the tribute of the land of 

 Ho-tung principality, Ho-chung department, in Ho-tung province, 

 partly consisted of dragon's bones. * 



1 T.S., Sect. -^ ^, Ch. 127, f| i^P ^ ^' P' ^! Pen-ts'-ao kang-muh, 1.1., 

 2Ch. II, p. 5a: ^ ^ ^f' ^ W\ M \U ^^ ^ ^ . ^ ^ M M . 



H M^ ^H^!^^.<ro ^® ^^^ ^^^ ^^™^ ^" ^^^ ■*^"'' *'^"^ ^"^^ ''""*' 



^ ^ ^ i^, written by Hwang Hiu-fuh, ^ '^ ^ i in- the Sung dynasty; 

 Ch. IX (quoted T. S., 1. 1., Ch. 130, ^ ^ ^ , p. ^b), where it is said by a man, 

 who sold dragon's bones, teeth, horns, heads and spines on the market. "Some of 

 them", said he, "are flve-coloUred, others white like floss silk; some have withered or 

 rotten in the long course of the years". 

 4 New Books of the T'ang dynasty, ^ ||, Ch. XXXIX, nr 29, j^ g| 



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