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Appendix I: Hiao

In the Yuen-Shăn-K'i of the Hiao King it is said: "Virtue approaches the fountains and the yellow dragon appears. It is the Prince's image."

In the "Tso-K'i" of the Hiao King it is said: "The Emperor is filial, the heavenly dragon bears the plans and the earthly tortoise issues a book." The Ho-t'u says: "Yellow gold after one thousand years produces a yellow dragon, azure gold after one thousand years, the azure dragon; red and white dragon is also thus. Black gold after one thousand years produces the black dragon." The Twan-ying-t'u says: "The yellow dragon is the chief of the four dragons, the true beauty of the four regions. He can be large or small, obscure or manifest, short or long, alive or dead; the king cannot drain the pool and catch him. His intelligence and virtue are unfathomable ; moreover he ensures the peaceful air, and sports in the pools." Again, it says: "The yellow dragon does not go in company, and does not live in herds. He certainly waits for the wind and rain, and disports himself in the azure air. He wanders in the wilds beyond the heavens. He goes and comes, fulfilling the decree; at the proper seasons if there is perfection he comes forth, if not he remains (unseen)." The Shi Ki says: "The bright moon pearl is concealed in the oyster, the dragon is there."

Books of the after Wei dynasty say, "Persia has three pools." They narrate that a dragon lives in the largest, his wife in the second, and his child in the third. If travellers sacrifice, they can pass; if they do not sacrifice they encounter many storms of wind and rain. Lü-lan asserts that Confucius said, "The dragon feeds in the pure (water) and disports in the clear (water)."