there would be great floods in the states; cold airs would be constantly coming; and plundering attacks would be frequent. If those of winter were observed, the warm and genial airs would be insufficient; the wheat would not ripen; and raids and strifes would be rife among the people. If those of summer were observed, there would be great droughts among the people; the hot airs would come too early; and caterpillars and other insects would harm the grain[1].
Part III.
1. In the last month of spring, the sun is in Wei, the constellation culminating at dusk being Khih-hsing, and that culminating at dawn Khien-niû[2].
2. Its days are kiâ and yî. Its divine ruler is Thâi Hâo, and the attending spirit is Kâu-mang. Its creatures are the scaly. Its musical note is the Kio, and its pitch-tube is the Kû Hsien[3]. Its number is eight. Its taste is sour. Its smell is rank.
3. Its sacrifice is that at the door, and of the parts of the victim the spleen has the foremost place.
- ↑ Before this and the corresponding paragraphs in the Parts of the Book that follow, we must always understand paragraph 23 of the last Part, of which these concluding paragraphs are supposed to be the natural sequence.
- ↑ Wei is the seventeenth of the twenty-eight Chinese constellations (longitude in 1800, 44° 8΄ 17΄΄) corresponding to Musca borealis. Khih-hsing is understood to be a (Alphard) of Hydra, and small stars near it. Khien-niû corresponds to certain stars (ε, μ, ν) in the neck of Aquila.
- ↑ Kû Hsien, "the lady bathes," is the third of the tubes that give the six upper musical accords.
