[meteorite-list] Re: meteorites, stone axes, and Hounds of Heaven

[chris aubeck]

Hi Dirk,

Big thanks for this reference, it serves me well!

In fact I am interested in the mention of "the thunder-god`s ink
block" particularly. I wonder whether this has any connection with the
dragon eggs (which I have always considered very meteorite-like) that,
in traditional belief, provided ink for a hundred years, up to the
time when the dragon burst out? I recall de Visser wrote about this,
but as I have to rush out I can't look it up till tonight.

Fascinating.

Chris 

On 9/14/05, drtanuki <drtanuki at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dear List and Chris,
> 
> Todays research results from ancient Chinese
> literature:
> 
> Ref: Needham, Vol.III, 20. Astronomy, pg. 434
> 
>  "Meteorites had many other names in Chinese books
> besides the yun already mentioned, or yun-shih.
> Further information is contained in a valuable chapter
> by Chang Hung-Chao, who points out that one of the
> oldest names must be that contained in the Shan Hai
> Ching (Ch. 16), namely thien Chhuan, `hounds of
> heaven`.  He also notes that meteorites were often
> confused (as in other civilisations) with stone axes
> of the Neolithic period.  There is a reference to this
> in the Chiu Thang Shu (Old History of the Thang
> Dynasty), where, about +660, a meteorite presented to
> the emperor was called `the stone axe of the
> thunder-god` (Lei Kung Shih Fu).  Other names were
> `the thunder-god`s ink block@ (lei mo) or
> `thunder-lumps` (phi li chen), and it is these which
> formed the headings under which Li Shen-Chen in th
> +16th century treated meteorites in his Pen Tshao Kang
> Mu."
> 
> Best,  Dirk Ross...Tokyo
> 
>