Volume 1 Astronomy Department, Image Latitude and Sky Cracks (7)

Original text; ? The sky splits and the yang is insufficient, and the earth moves and the yin is more than enough. In June of Liang Taiqing's second year, the sky broke in the northwest, ten feet long and two feet wide. The light was like electricity and the sound was like thunder. In the third year of the Tang Dynasty, the sky rang in the west of Zhejiang, the sound was like grinding, and the rain was cloudless. The invisible voice is called the demon drum; Rain without clouds is called crying.

Translation; ? The sky is cracked because the yang is insufficient, and the earthquake is more than the yin. In June of Liang Taiqing's second year, the sky in the northwest fell apart. The crack is ten feet long and two feet wide. The beam of light is like lightning and the sound is like thunder. In the third year of the Tang Dynasty, thunder sounded in the sky in western Zhejiang, just like the sound of rolling, but there was no cloud in the sky, but it rained heavily. Unformed but audible, it is called a demon drum; It rains heavily when there are no clouds. This is called crying. ?

? Interpretation; Sky crack

Ancient fortune tellers predicted natural disasters on the earth and political and military anomalies of human society according to the nature, position and abnormal changes of various stars in the sky. Its contents include observing, divining and predicting all kinds of abnormal events by using the changes of stars such as the sky, the sun, the moon, the five stars (golden wood fire, water and earth), the twenty-eight nights, meteors, guest stars (now called new stars), miscellaneous stars, demon stars, comets and clouds (mainly aurora).

According to "Jing's doctor should account for": "Seeing the sky, bleeding." If the sky opens, it will crack. Bleeding is like a lot of blood, that is, there will be wars and massacres in the world. According to Liu Xiang's Biography of Hong Fan, in the second year of Emperor Hui of Han Dynasty, the sky cracked in the northeast, with a width of more than ten feet and a length of more than twenty feet. Soon, a coup took place, which destroyed Zhu Lu, the son who was killed by others, and regained the Liu Dynasty controlled by Lu.

Astrology not only observes and records the abnormal changes of the stars in the sky, but also has a set of corresponding interpretation theories in predicting future events. Take the division of heaven as an example: according to astrology theory, it is because the yang in the universe is insufficient and the yin is too abundant. Heaven and monarch belong to the sun be the spirit, while earth and ministers belong to the yin, so if the sun be the spirit is insufficient and the yin is too strong, the sky will crack, indicating that the monarch is weak and bullied by empresses or ministers (such as Prince Lv Hou and Prince Wu Chu). The ancients believed that heaven, earth and man are a whole, and they are all dominated by the changes of yin and yang, so the events between heaven and man are based on one principle.

"Zuo Zhuan" said: The sky is split, because the sun is absent, the ground moves more than the yin. The "sky crack" mentioned here is actually a natural phenomenon, which means that the sky seems to crack when there is lightning, and the "earth ring" here refers to the vibration of the earth during the earthquake.

In the past, due to the underdevelopment of science and technology, people could not scientifically understand some natural phenomena, and attributed lightning to the lack of yang in the sky and earthquakes to the excessive yin in the earth.

Therefore, the ancients regarded the natural phenomena of heaven and earth as that the disharmony between Yin and Yang would lead to disaster, and even classified some social problems as disharmony between Yin and Yang. This sign was very popular in ancient times, which was used to infer the good and bad luck in the future, thus pointing out the maze and avoiding disaster.

-Interpretation-Notes on Zhang Dai's Night Sailing Ship

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