Twice ToldMing Shi, juan 28 (treatise on the five phases): the black creature entries of 1476, 1512 and 1638
- Language
- Chinese
- Reading
- OCR, checked against the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 6 October 2026
The Ming shi, the official history of the Ming written under the Qing, lists the portents of each reign by element. Black omens fall under water. The 1476 entry is the only one in the section that carries a story about the emperor. The two Wikisource transcriptions agree on every word of the 1476 entry apart from variant forms. All three entries were then checked against the page images of the Siku quanshu copy (link in the notes).
《洪範》曰：「水曰潤下」。水不潤下，則失其性矣。前史多以恆寒、恆陰、雪霜、冰雹、雷震、魚孽、蝗蝻、豕禍、龍蛇之孽、馬異、人痾、疾疫、鼓妖、隕石、水潦、水變、黑眚黑祥皆屬之水，今從之。
……成化十二年七月庚戌，京師黑眚見。民間男女露宿，有物金睛修尾，狀如犬狸，負黑氣入牖，直抵密室，至則人昏迷。遍城驚擾，操刃張燈，鳴金鼓逐之，不可得。帝常朝，奉天門侍衛見之而譁。帝欲起，懷恩持帝衣，頃之乃定。
……正德七年六月壬戌，黑眚見順德、河間及涿，大者如犬，小者如貓，夜出傷人，有至死者。尋見於京師，形赤黑，風行有聲，居民夜持刁斗相警達旦，逾月乃息。後又見於封丘。
……崇禎十一年，京師有黑眚，狀如狸，入民家為祟，半歲乃止。
Translation
The Hongfan says, “Water soaks and flows downward.” When water does not soak and flow downward, it has lost its nature. Earlier histories mostly filed under water: constant cold, constant cloud, snow and frost, hail, thunder, fish prodigies, locusts, pig calamities, dragon and snake prodigies, strange horses, human ailments, plagues, drum monsters (sounds with no visible source), falling stones, floods, changes in water, and black omens and black signs (heisheng heixiang). We follow them.
[…] Chenghua 12, 7th month, gengxu day: a black creature appeared in the capital. Men and women among the people slept outdoors. There was something with gold eyes and a long tail, shaped like a dog or a wildcat, carrying black vapour in through the windows, straight to the innermost rooms; when it arrived people were stunned and faint. The whole city was alarmed, with people holding blades and lighting lamps and beating gongs and drums to chase it, but it could not be caught. At the emperor’s regular court at Fengtian Gate the guards saw it and shouted. The emperor made to rise, and Huai’en held his robe; after a while it settled.
[…] Zhengde 7, 6th month, renxu day: a black creature appeared at Shunde, Hejian and Zhuo. The large ones were like dogs, the small ones like cats, and they came out at night and hurt people, some to death. Soon it appeared in the capital, red-black in shape, moving like the wind and making a sound. Residents carried watch gongs at night and kept each other alert until dawn. It stopped after more than a month. Later it appeared again at Fengqiu.
[…] Chongzhen 11: in the capital there was a black creature, shaped like a wildcat, that entered people’s houses and made trouble. It stopped after half a year.
Notes
- The Ming Shi’s 1476 entry is dated gengxu day of the 7th month, the same day as the Shilu entry about the creature (29 July 1476, Julian). The Shilu entry says “something black” in the “west city”; gold eyes, the long tail and the Fengtian Gate scene are not in it.
- 帝常朝 is “the emperor’s regular audience”. 見之而譁 is “saw it and shouted”, where Wang Ao has the guards “suddenly alarmed” and does not say they saw it.
- The earlier dynastic histories’ black-omen sections list black vapour and cloud (Jin shu juan 29, Sui shu juan 23). The creature as an animal-like thing comes in this section with the Ming entries; the 1476 entry is the first creature in the list. The list also starts earlier with the Hongwu years and black vapour, not creatures.
- In the introductory sentence 眚 (sheng) is a calamity or omen, and the heading covers black vapour, rain and sand as well as animal-like things, so we translate 黑眚黑祥 there as “black omens and black signs”. In the entries of 1476, 1512 and 1638, where something moves and hurts people, we translate 黑眚 as “a black creature”.
- Year conversions: Zhengde 7 is 1512, Chongzhen 11 is 1638.
- Checked 2026-10-06 against the Siku quanshu copy of juan 28 (https://archive.org/details/06056953.cn/page/n82/mode/1up for 1476, n84 for 1512 and 1638). The Siku text differs from the punctuated edition only in character forms and one particle: 貍 for 狸, 徧 for 遍, 頃乃定 for 頃之乃定 (1476); 刀斗 for 刁斗 and 封邱 for 封丘 (1512); 貍 for 狸 (1638). The Siku copy keeps 見之而譁, the guards “saw it and shouted”.