#Tianming hashtag - Bluesky

@grantimatter.bsky.social

1 year ago

An alternative method of arousing the dragon, considered more efficacious, was to throw powdered tiger bones into the dragon pool, the tiger being the deadly enemy of the dragon, yin to the dragon's yang. In one Song dynasty report collected by de Visser, op. cit, p 120, a tiger's bone was lowered into the water tied to a rope as a precaution, but still it could not be hauled out fast enough. The storm was so quick in coming it threatened to destroy the government buildings before the bone broke the surface and was pulled out, quelling the typhoon (a word partly derived from the Chinese for 'great wind', taifeng). Just as clouds follow the dragon, 'winds follow the tiger'. This was explained in a lost work by Dong Zhongshu from the second century Be, preserved by the Han dynasty cynical rationalist Wang Chong, who had a 'hatred of fictions and falsehoods': 'The Yijing says: "Clouds follow the dragon, winds follow the tiger". ' (from SJ Marshall, THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN)

If this does develop, it will be time to discuss the withdrawal of the Mandate of Heaven from Tallahassee.

#tianming #天命