1
志第十七五行五
Treatise 17: The Five Phases, Part Five.
2
射妖龙蛇孽马祸人痾人化死复生疫投蜺
Shooting omens; dragon-and-serpent prodigies; horse calamities; human monstrosities; humans changing form; the dead revived; plague; hurling the paired rainbow.
3
《五行传》曰：「皇之不极，是谓不建。 厥咎眊，厥罚恒阴，厥极弱，时则有射妖，时则有龙蛇之孽，时则有马祸，时则有下人伐上之疴，则时有日月乱行，星辰逆行。」 皇，君也。 极，中也。 眊，不明也。 说云：「此沴天也。 不言沴天者，至尊之辞也。 《春秋》「王师败绩」，以自败为文。
The Treatise on the Five Phases states: "When the ruler fails to hold the center, that is called a failure to establish true governance. The blame lies in moral blindness; the chastisement is endless gloom and drizzle; the extreme is enfeebled rule. Then appear omens of men shooting at the palace; then prodigies of dragons and snakes; then calamities involving horses; then the monstrous sign of the lowly striking at their betters; then sun and moon lose their courses and the constellations wheel backward." Here "sovereign" (huang) means the ruler. "The utmost" (ji) denotes the balanced middle, the proper standard. "Dim-sighted" (mao) means clouded judgment, a failure to see things plain. One commentary reads: "This is a disruption that implicates Heaven itself. The text avoids saying "Heaven is afflicted" out of deference to the supreme dignity of Heaven. The Spring and Autumn records "the royal host was routed" in terms that attribute the defeat to the king's own side, not to an enemy's prowess.
4
恒阴，中兴以来无录者。
Cases of prolonged unbroken overcast have not been entered in the record since Guangwu restored the dynasty.
5
灵帝光和中，雒阳男子夜龙以弓箭射北阙，吏收考问，辞「居贫负责，无所聊生，因买弓箭以射」。 近射妖也。 其后车骑将军何苗，与兄大将军进部兵还相猜疑，对相攻击，战于阙下。 苗死兵败，杀数千人，雒阳宫室内人烧尽。
In the Guanghe era of Emperor Ling, a man of Luoyang named Ye Long shot the north gate-tower with bow and arrow; clerks seized and interrogated him, and his statement read: "I dwell in poverty and bear debt; I had nothing to live for, so I bought bow and arrow to shoot." This counts among the omen category of "shooting at the palace." Soon afterward General of Chariots and Cavalry He Miao and the soldiers of his brother, General-in-Chief He Jin, came to distrust each other, turned their arms on one another, and battled beneath the palace gates. He Miao was killed, his force routed, thousands slain, and everyone still inside the Luoyang palace compounds perished in the flames.
6
安帝延光三年，济南言黄龙见历城，琅邪言黄龙见诸。 是时安帝听谗，免太尉杨震，震自杀。 又帝独有一子，以为太子，信谗废之。 是皇不中，故有龙孽，是时多用佞媚，故以为瑞应。 明年正月，东郡又言黄龙二见濮阳。
In the third year of Yan'guang (124), Jinan reported a yellow dragon at Licheng, and Langye another at Zhu. The emperor had been swayed by slander: he cashiered Grand Commandant Yang Zhen, who then took his own life. He had but a single son, already installed as heir apparent, yet he trusted malicious talk and cast the boy aside. The ruler had lost the mean, hence the dragon prodigy; flatterers were thick at court, so the sightings were trumpeted as good omens instead. The next New Year, Dong Commandery reported two yellow dragons at Puyang.
7
桓帝延熹七年六月壬子，河内野王山上有龙死，长可数十丈。 襄楷以为夫龙者为帝王瑞，《易》论大人。 天凤中，黄山宫有死龙，汉兵诛莽而世祖复兴，此易代之征也。 至建安二十五年，魏文帝代汉。
In the seventh year of Yanxi (164), on a day renzi in the sixth month, a dead dragon tens of zhang long was found on a mountain at Yewang in Henei. Xiang Kai argued that the dragon is the classical emblem of the true king; the Book of Changes, after all, speaks of the "great man" in such terms. During Wang Mang's Tianfeng reign a dead dragon appeared at Huangshan Palace; Han armies overthrew Mang and Guangwu restored the house—such a corpse foretells the turning of the cosmic mandate. In Jian'an 220, Cao Pi of Wei ended the Han and took the throne for himself.
8
永康元年八月，巴郡言黄龙见。 时，吏傅坚以郡欲上言，内白事以为走卒戏语，不可。 太守不听，尝见坚语云：「时，民以天热，欲就池浴，见池水浊，因戏相恐，'此中有黄龙'，语遂行人间。 闻郡欲以为美，故言。」 时，史以书帝纪。 桓帝时政治衰缺，而在所多言瑞应，皆此类也。 又先儒言：瑞兴非时，则为妖孽。 而民讹言生龙语，皆龙薛也。
In the eighth month of Yongkang 1 (167), Ba Commandery reported a yellow dragon sighting. When the commandery wanted to memorialize the event, clerk Fu Jian argued in an internal memo that it was nothing but barrack-yard gossip and should not be sent up. The governor brushed him aside and later told Fu Jian what had really happened: townsfolk had gone to cool off in a pond, found the water muddy, and teased one another that a yellow dragon lurked below; the joke spread and became "news. Once word got out that the authorities wanted a lucky tale, people were glad to supply one." Nevertheless the court scribes entered the story in the reign annals as fact. Under Emperor Huan the state ran down, yet every region rushed to report felicitous omens; most were fabrications of this sort. The classics also warn that a "lucky" sign appearing at the wrong moment is in truth an ill omen. Street talk that "dragons" had been born was only another species of bogus dragon omen.
9
熹平元年四月甲午，青蛇见御坐上。 是时，灵帝委任宦者，王室微弱。
On a day jiawu in the fourth month of Xiping 1 (172), a green snake coiled on the emperor's throne. Emperor Ling had handed real power to his eunuchs, and the Liu house barely cast a shadow.
10
更始二年二月，发雒阳，欲入长安，司直李松奉引，车奔，触北宫铁柱门，三马皆死。 马祸也。 时，更始失道，将亡。
In the second month of Gengshi 2 (24), as the court left Luoyang for Chang'an, Director of Integrity Li Song's escort wagon ran away, smashed the iron-strapped gate of the Northern Palace, and killed all three horses. This was an omen-class "horse calamity." The Gengshi emperor had already forfeited the Mandate; his regime was finished.
11
桓帝延熹五年四月，惊马与逸象突人宫殿。 近马祸也。 是时，桓帝政衰缺。
In the fourth month of Yanxi 5 (162), panicked horses and a rampaging elephant broke into the palace buildings. This too falls under the omen of "horse calamity." Emperor Huan's government was by then hollow and failing.
12
灵帝光和元年，司徒长史冯巡马生人。 京房《易传》曰：「上亡天子，诸侯相伐，厥妖马生人。」 后冯巡迁甘陵相，黄巾初起，为所残杀，而国家亦四面受敌。 其后关东州郡各举义兵，卒相攻伐，天子西移，王政隔塞。 其占与京房同。
In Guanghe 1 (178), a horse belonging to Feng Xun, chief clerk under the Minister of Education, foaled what appeared to be a human child. Jing Fang's Yi commentary warns: "When there is no true sovereign above and the regional lords turn on one another, the portent is a mare that delivers a human-shaped creature." Feng Xun was later posted as chancellor of Ganling and was cut down when the Yellow Turbans first rose; the empire meanwhile found foes on every frontier. Then the eastern provinces each raised "righteous" hosts and fell to fighting one another; the emperor was driven west, and central authority collapsed. The sequel matched Jing Fang's reading exactly.
13
光和中，雒阳水西桥民马逸走，遂啮杀人。 是时，公卿大臣及左右数有被诛者。
During Guanghe, a runaway horse on the western bridge in Luoyang bit a man to death. High ministers and palace favorites were being executed one after another.
14
安帝永初元年十一月戊子，民转相惊走，弃什物，去庐舍。
On wuzi in the eleventh month of Yongchu 1 (107), panic swept the populace: people bolted, abandoned their belongings, and fled their homes.
15
灵帝建宁三年春，河内妇食夫，河南夫食妇。
In the spring of Jianning 3 (170), a woman in Henei devoured her husband, and a man across the river in Henan devoured his wife.
16
熹平二年六月，雒阳民讹言虎贲寺东壁中有黄人，形容须眉良是，观者数万，省内悉出，道路断绝。 到中平元年二月，张角兄弟起兵冀州，自号黄天。 三十六万，四面出和，将帅星布，吏士外属，因其疲餧，牵而胜之。
In the sixth month of Xiping 2 (173), Luoyang buzzed with a rumor that a yellow-clad figure—beard, brows, and all—stood inside the east wall of the Rapid-as-Tigers temple. Tens of thousands mobbed the site, the whole inner court poured out to look, and traffic jammed the streets. By the second month of Zhongping 1 (184), Zhang Jiao and his brothers had risen in Ji Province under the slogan "Yellow Heaven." Some three hundred sixty thousand rebels fanned out in coordinated bands; their captains dotted the map like stars, and government troops went over to them. The court eventually wore the insurgents down with hunger and fatigue and dragged them to defeat.
17
二年，雒阳上西门外女子生兒，两头，异肩共胸，俱前向，以为不祥，堕地弃之。 自此之后，朝廷□乱，政在私门，上下无别，二头之象。 后董卓戮太后，被以不孝之名，放废天子，后复害之。 汉元以来，祸莫逾此。
The next year a woman outside Luoyang's Upper West Gate bore an infant with two heads, two shoulders fused to one chest, both faces forward. Horrified, the family dropped the newborn and left it. Afterward the court dissolved into chaos, policy was made in private mansions, and high and low could no longer be told apart—the image of two heads on one trunk. Then Dong Zhuo murdered the empress dowager on a charge of filial impiety, deposed the boy emperor, and later murdered him as well. No catastrophe since Emperor Yuan's reign had matched it.
18
四年，魏郡男子张博送铁卢诣太官，博上书室殿山居屋后宫禁，落屋欢呼。 上收缚考问，辞「忽不自觉知。」
In the fourth year of Xiping (175), Zhang Bo of Wei Commandery delivered an iron stove to the imperial kitchen, then raved in a memorial about palace halls and the forbidden inner quarters, leapt from the rooftops, and whooped as he ran. The sovereign seized, bound, and interrogated him; his statement read: "Suddenly I was not aware."
19
中平元年六月壬申，雒阳男子刘仓居上西门外，妻生男，两头共身。
On renshen in the sixth month of Zhongping 1 (184), Liu Cang, who lived just outside Luoyang's Upper West Gate, saw his wife bear a son with two heads on a single torso.
20
灵帝时，江夏黄氏之母，浴而化为鼋，入于深渊，其后时出见。 初浴簪一银钗，及见，犹在其首。
Under Emperor Ling, a matron of the Huang family in Jiangxia turned into a river turtle while bathing, slipped into a deep pool, and was sighted there from time to time. She had worn a silver hairpin when she entered the water; whenever she surfaced, the pin was still stuck in her head.
21
献帝初平中，长沙有人姓桓氏，死，棺敛月余，其母闻棺中声，发之，遂生。 占曰：「至阴为阳，下人为上。」 其后曹公由庶士起。
Early in Emperor Xian's Chuping years, a Mr. Huan of Changsha died and lay coffined for over a month until his mother heard noise inside, pried the lid off, and found him alive. The omen books read: "When yin reaches its limit it flips into yang; the underling mounts above his master." Cao Cao, a man of humble rank, would soon rise to command the realm.
22
建安四年二月，武陵充县女子李娥，年六十余，物故，以其家杉木槥敛，瘗于城外数里上。 已十四日，有行闻其冢中有声，便语其家。 家往视闻声，便发出，遂活。
In the second month of Jian'an 4 (199), Li E of Chong in Wuling, past sixty, died and was laid in a fir outer coffin on a hill a few li beyond the walls. Fourteen days later a passerby heard sounds from the grave and alerted her kin. They opened the mound, heard her voice, lifted the coffin, and found her alive.
23
七年，越巂有男化为女子。 时，周群上言，哀帝时亦有此异，将有易代之事。 至二十五年，献帝封于山阳。
In the seventh year (of Jian'an, 202), a man in Yuegui turned into a woman. Zhou Qun memorialized that Emperor Ai had seen the same prodigy—a sign that the dynasty would change hands. In Jian'an 25 (220), Emperor Xian was pensioned off with the title of duke of Shanyang.
24
建安中，女子生男，两头共身。
During the Jian'an years another woman bore a two-headed boy on one body.
25
安帝元初六年夏四月，会稽大疫。
In the fourth summer month of Yuanchu 6 (119), Kuaiji suffered a devastating epidemic.
26
延光四年冬，京都大疫。
Winter of Yan'guang 4 (125) brought a severe plague to the capital.
27
桓帝元嘉元年正月，京都大疫。 二月，九江、庐江大疫。
The first month of Yuanjia 1 (151) saw another great epidemic strike Luoyang. The following month Jiujiang and Lujiang were hit as well.
28
延熹四年正月，大疫。
The first month of Yanxi 4 (161) brought widespread plague.
29
灵帝建宁四年三月，大疫。
In the third month of Jianning 4 (171) another great epidemic raged.
30
熹平二年正月，大疫。
The New Year of Xiping 2 (173) opened under the shadow of plague.
31
光和二年春，大疫。
Spring of Guanghe 2 (179) saw yet another sweeping epidemic.
32
五年二月，大疫。
The second month of the fifth year (Guanghe 5, 182) brought another wave of pestilence.
33
中平二年正月，大疫。
The first month of Zhongping 2 (185) was marked by a great epidemic.
34
献帝建安二十二年，大疫。
Jian'an 22 (217), late in Emperor Xian's reign, was remembered for a catastrophic plague.