________________
310
THE LÎ xi.
BX. IV.
tures would appear in monstrous forms?; throughout the four borders people would have to seek their places of shelter. If those proper to spring were observed, women with child and young children would suffer many disasters; throughout the states there would be many cases of obstinate disease; fate would appear to be adverse. If those proper to summer were observed, floods would work their ruin in the states; the seasonable snow would not fall, the ice would melt, and the cold disappear.
This is the proper force of the characters. Wang Thâo interprets them as meaning that the creatures would bore through dykes and boats, so that the former would let the water through and the latter sink.
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