21. If, in this first month of summer, the proceedings
proper to autumn were observed, pitiless rains would
be frequent; the five esculent plants[1] would not grow
large, and in all the borders people would have to
enter the places of shelter. If those proper to winter
were observed, all plants and trees would wither
early, and afterwards there would be great floods,
destroying city and suburban walls. If those proper
to spring were observed, there would be the calamity
of locusts, violent winds would come, and plants in
flower would not go on to seed.
Part II.
1. In the second month of summer the sun is in the eastern Зing, the constellation culminating at dusk being Khang, and that culminating at dawn Wei[2].
2. Its days are ping and ting. Its divine ruler is Yen Tî, and the (attending) spirit is Khû-yung. Its creatures are the feathered. Its musical note is Kih, and its pitch-tube is Sui Pin[3].
3. Its number is seven. Its taste is acrid. Its smell is that of things burning. Its sacrifice is that at the furnace; and of the parts of the victim the lungs have the foremost place.
4. The (period of) slighter heat arrives; the praying mantis is produced; the shrike begins to give its notes; the mocking-bird ceases to sing[4].
- ↑ Hemp or flax, millet, rice, bearded grain, and pulse.
- ↑ Зing comprehends γ, ε, ζ, λ, μ, ν, Gemini; Khang, ι, κ, λ, μ, ρ, Virgo; and Wei corresponds to α, Aquarius, and ε, θ, Pegasus.
- ↑ Sui Pin, "the flourishing Guest," is the fourth of the tubes that give the six upper musical accords.
- ↑ This is here "the inverted Tongue." The Khang-hsî dictionary says it is the same as "the hundred Tongues;" the Chinese mocking-bird.
