117 



Finally, in winter, when prayers were made to famous moun- 

 tains, one big black dragon, made on jen aiid kwei days, and six 

 chang long, was placed in the centre, and five small ones, each 

 three chang long, stood on the north side; they were all directed 

 to the North and the distance between them was six ch'ih. Six 

 old men, all clad in black robes, brandished the dragon-, and a 

 wei'- (military officer), also wearing black garments, erected them ^ 



In the ceremonies, used for stopping rain, no dragons are 

 mentioned. We learn from the Sung-ch^ao shi shih ' that in the 

 Sung dynasty the same magic was performed; the dragons were 

 sprinkled with water, and, after the ceremony, thrown into the 

 watePr- 



De Groot * treats of this custom in order to show that, thiskindof 

 ^rain_magic being very common in ancient China, the dragon 

 processions~on tne ib tn day of t he figt^gnnth^a ndT^e dragoia 

 ■JLOats ^on the fifth day o f the fifth month may be easi ly expTaingd^ 

 in__thfi-aam£_way^He alsoT^-efers to a passage frdnTthe Yiu-yatig 

 tsah tsu ^, whereaT tJuddhist priest, who in the K'ai-yuen era 

 (A. D. 713 — 742) was ordered by the Emperor to pray for rain, 

 said that he wanted a utensil engraved with the figure of a 

 dragon. Nothing of the kind could be found, till after two or 

 three days an old mirror, the handle of which had the form of 

 a dragon, was discovered in the Emperor's store-house. The priest 

 took it into the chapel and prayed ; and behold, that very evening 

 the rain poured down! 



The same sympathetic magic is mentioned in the Pih ki man 

 ehi'^, where a mirror, adorned on the backside with a "coiled 

 dragon", p^an lung, ^^|, is said to .have been worshipped 

 (rather used in a magical wa,y) in order to cause rain '. 



2 The Shen-nung kHu-yu shu, Jjjft -S ^^ ^ ^£ , quoted in the Koh chi king^ 

 yuen, 7^ Sj/ gg^ IS , an extensive cyclopaedia compiled by Ch'^en Yuen-lung, jffl 



TC HJi' ^^^ published in ITSS, Ch. IV, Sect, ijrf? SS , p. 5a, gives the same with 

 less details. 



3 ±ji AH ^S 'S , quoted in the same chapter of the CK-un-tsHu fan lu, nr 75 

 pp. 6 seq. ; cf. the same chapter, section and page of the Koh chi king yuen. 



4 Fetes annuelles a Emoui, Vol. I, pp. 375 sqq. 5 Oh. III. 



^ ^ ^ iM ^ ' ■^'''*^'^^" '" ^^^ ^""S dynasty by Wang Choh, ^ jje(j . T. S., 

 same section, Ch. 131, p. 116. 



7 With regard to painted dragons being as powerful as real ones we may refer to 

 the Yun kih tnHh tsHen, ^ ^ >|^ ^, a Taoistic work of the end of the 10th 



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