The
bone of the gods turned into pearl; that, animated, dwells in the
waters. That do I fasten upon thee unto life, luster, strength,
longevity, unto a life lasting a hundred autumns. May the amulet of
pearl protect thee!1
The
mystical Taoists, in their pursuit of immortality, made much of pearls
as an important ingredient in formulae for perpetuating youth.
According to an old Taoist authority, in preparing one of these
elixirs, an extra long pearl which has been worn for many years is
steeped in some infusion of malt, or a preparation of serpents' gall,
honeycomb, and pumice-stone. When the pearl becomes plastic, it is
drawn out to the length of two or three feet, cut into suitable
lengths, and formed into pills, the taking of which renders food
thenceforth unnecessary.2
The
myth of the dragon and the pearl has been a far-reaching theme of the
artists in Japan and China, whether in color, metal, or stone. There
has been much written as to how the myth became so fixed in the minds
of the Orientals, and Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, who has made an
exhaustive study of the myth of the dragon in all its phases, has very
courteously communicated to us the following facts. Personally he had
never been able to learn of a true or clear description of the origin
of the myth other than the well-recorded legend given by Legge in the
"Sacred Books of the East" (Vol. XL, p. 211), in which there is a
quotation from Shuangtze, a writer of the fourth century before Christ,
who says: "Near the Ho river there was a poor man, who supported his
family by weaving rushes. His son, when diving in a deep pool, found a
pearl worth a thousand ounces of silver. The father said : 'Bring a
stone and beat it in pieces. A pearl of this value must have been in a
pool nine khung deep and under the chin of the black dragon. That you
were able to get it must have been owing to your having found him
asleep. Let him awake, and the consequences will not be small.' "
Prince Rupprecht says:
This
legend has nothing to do with the illustration to which you refer ; it
belongs to a cycle of myths concerning a stone in the head of a
serpent, or the crown of the king of the serpents or dragons; myths
which also exist in Germany since the days of old. I should rather be
inclined to think that the commonly accepted pearl between the two
dragons is not a pearl at all. At least this pearl is always surrounded
by ornaments in the shape of flames or claws, and Professor Hirth
discovered on such a representation in woodcut, an explanation of the
flames by the sign for Yangsui, a very ancient kind of metallic
mirrors, of concave form, that were used to produce the heavenly fire.
1 Bloomfield, "Hymns of the Atharvaveda," 2 Macgowan, "Journal of the Society of
Oxford, 1897, P- 62.
Arts," Vol. II, p. 73.
