128 



in the Dynastic Histories ' as in books of tales and legends like 

 the Lang Men hi ^ (Yuen dynasty) and even in a geographical 

 work as the Tih fung chi^, where we read about a white eel 

 which was caught by some villagers. They ,were about to cook 

 it when an old man said: "This is a dragon from the Siang 

 Eiver. I am afraid of calamity." But the others considered this 

 to be foolish prattle and did not listen to his words. The next 

 day the whole village collapsed. 



In the Shwoh yuen * a white dragon is said, to have assumed 

 the shape of a fish and to have been hit with an arrow in its 

 eye by a fisherman. The dragon accused the man before the 

 Emperor of Heaven, but the latter remarked that it was his 

 own fault because he had been foolish enough to chiange himself 

 into a fish. The fisherman was not to be blamed for having 

 treated him like other fishes. This story is often referred to in 

 Japanese literature, e. g. in the Zohu hojidan ^, where the fish is 

 said to have fallen into the fisherman's net, and to have lodged 

 a complaint with the Dragon king (an Indian conception, cf. the 

 Introduction and the next chapter), who gave him a similar 

 answer and advised him not to do such a foolish thing again. 

 In the Taiheiki° Nitta Toshisada, who died in battle, is compared 

 to the dragon of this legend, which, instead of hiding itself in 

 the depths of a pool, came to a shallow place and was caught 

 in the net. 



As we have seen above ', fishes were believed to become dragons 

 when they succeeded , in ascending the Dragon-gate (apparently 

 a waterfall), and that old tiger-fishes or fishes weighing two 

 thousand kin became kiao ^. 



1 Books of the Tsin dynasty, ^)J /^ , Ch. VI, HM ^ ^ (the fish spread a 

 five-coloured light when being cooked). 



2 Ch. I (the "fish spoke with a human Vbice). 



3 — - ^ ^, "Memoiis concerning the whole Empire" (1647); T. S., same section, 



Ch. 129, f|^|£^Zl,P-13a. 



4 i^ ^1 written by Liu Hiang, ^J [h) (who lived B. C. 80—9), the famous 

 author of the Lieh sien chw'^en ( ^|J 'Ml '^ ) ; Sect, j]^ ^fi . 



5 ^ -^ ^ ^, Ch. II, Gunsho ruijU, Vol. XVII, p. 661. 



6 Ch. XX, p. 9a. The same comparison is to be found in Ch. XXXI, p. 12, of the 

 same work. 



7 Book I, Ch. Ill, § 12, p, 86. 



8 Book I, Ch. Ill, § 7, p. 79. 



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