PURPLE FORBIDDEN CITY 61 



King Hsuan does not address Heaven as a petitioner, 

 but as a responsible official who makes report of his behaviour 

 to a superior. This intimate connection between the King 

 on Earth and the Sovereign of the Universe cannot be too 

 strongly insisted upon. As the Ruler above lives in a 

 circumpolar constellation composed of fifteen stars known 

 as the Tzu Wei Yuan | tl Purple Protected Enclosure 

 so his son below lives in an enclosure known as the 

 Tzii Chin Ch'eng ^ ^ i$, Purple Forbidden City; 1 further- 

 more in the names of the 759 asterisms of the Chinese 

 celestial sphere one finds reproduced the names of various 

 officials and offices of the Terrestrial Court, headed by the 

 Polar Star itself which is known as T'ien Huang Ta Ti 

 3£ .Jfk ^ ft Heavens Emperor Great Ruler. 



It is as though to quote the remark of the astronomer 

 J. B. Biot in the introduction to the translation of the 

 Tcheou-li by his son Ed. Biot; "Without doubt the creation 

 of these analogies sprang from superstitious ideas. In any 

 case can one not believe that the legislators, wishing to 

 give to their government the most efficacious conditions of 

 stability, strove to connect the rites with Heaven itself as 

 the most conspicuous example of immutability." Gustave 

 Schlegel in his delightful work " Uranographie Chinoise" 

 treats the whole subject at length, he further presents a 

 most interesting argument to prove that the much discussed 

 "flaming pearl" which appears in decoration in conjunction 

 with the dragon is in reality the sun, and that the dragon 

 after his winter's sleep belches it forth. The argument is 

 too long to quote within the limits of a paper but well repays 

 careful study. The Rev. Lewis Hodous in his article on 

 "The Dragon," Journal N.C.B.R.A.S., Vol. XLVIII, 1917, 

 expresses himself as in agreement with Dr. Schlegel on this 

 point while Yissiere who has devoted an entire book to the 

 subject of the beneficent saurian, after a brave attempt to 

 prove that the pearl is the moon, ends his section "The 

 Dragons And The Ball" with the following words: "There- 

 fore after having given the above facts that the reader may 

 take them into consideration, I feel obliged to say 'non 

 liquet.' " 



W 7 hether or not the dragon and the sum are thus 

 intimately connected, it is an indubitable fact that the 



1 In his work on Peking Mons. Favier states that the Forbidden 

 City is called Purple because purple mortar was used in its construction, 

 this statement is often repeated but I am able to find no evidence that 

 it is correct. The Tzu Yuan g$ $£ states that in building the Great 

 Wall purple "earth" was used &§&&*&$.&%& (&^&) 



