PureInsight | March 8, 2004
[PureInsight.org] Reuter's News Services reported a bizarre story on February 6, 2004, titled, "China quietly probes bizarre death of bramblings." The Reuter's news report stated, "The Yangzi Evening News and the Nanjing Daily reported that more than 10,000 bramblings had dropped like 'bird rain' from the sky in Taizhou, in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu. This is considered a bad omen at the beginning of the new lunar year. The editors of the newspapers stood by their stories." [1] [Bramblings are members of the finch family with an orange breast and shoulder patch, a white rump, and a black tail.]
The Yangzi Evening News interviewed a local villager who witnessed the "bird rain." When the villager passed by San'guandian, he saw an object falling from the sky. At a closer look he discovered the object to be a small bird. He also saw many birds struggling and chirping in agony in the nearby rice paddies. Before he had a chance to recover from his shock, countless birds started to fall from the sky. Some farmers heard the noise and came out to collect the dead birds. The villager then notified the local Public Security Bureau as well as the local Center for Disease Control of this strange phenomenon. The staff from the local Center for Disease Control rushed to the scene and estimated that more than 10,000 birds had showered the area.
"A spokesman for the Taizhou City government said the cause of death of the bramblings was unknown, but he suspected poisoning." [1] The officials said that they had retrieved dead birds from villagers and farmers and they have been told not to sell or eat the birds. Samples of the birds have been sent to a laboratory for testing. "The Yangzi Evening News said on Friday that authorities had ruled out bird flu, which is sweeping across Asia, as the cause of death and buried the dead birds." [1]
A witness said, "If the entire flock of birds had been infected with avian flu, they would have felt very sick and would not have flown to the same place at the same time and dropped out of the sky simultaneously. Just because there is an avian flu outbreak right now does not mean everything must be related to the avian flu."
After I read this strange story, I started to wonder if the same thing might have happened in ancient China. According to ancient Chinese divination books, strange phenomena usually bear ill tidings. I looked up some of the ancient Chinese historical records and discovered a similar story, found in Sou Shen Ji or A Collection of Stories about Deities [2].
The story took place in August of the third year in the Zhongping Era (184 – 189 A.D.) under the reign of Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty [3]. More than 10,000 birds gathered at the Imperial Huai Tomb. They started chirping in agony first, and then started to fight and kill each other until all of them had died, with their beaks, necks and heads broken. Their bodies hung in the tree branches. Emperor Ling died three years later, during the sixth year of the Zhongping Era. Ancient Chinese scholars interpreted the incident the following way: The tomb symbolizes "high" and there is a hill behind the headstone of a traditional Chinese tomb. Birds are a metaphor for government officials. Birds fighting and killing each other on the tomb mound means that high-level government officials will attack each other to their deaths. Taken together, the death of Emperor Ling and the birds mean that, after Emperor Ling's death, the high-level government officials will fight for power until they lead the Eastern Han Dynasty to its ruin and to the beginning of the chaotic era of the Three Kingdoms.
[The Three Kingdoms refers to a period of time after the fall of the Chinese Han Dynasty, marked by the struggle for control of China between the three rival kingdoms: the Kingdom of Wei, the Kingdom of Shu, and the Kingdom of Wu. Each kingdom's ruler called himself "Emperor" and believed that his "empire" should be the true successor of the Han Dynasty.] [4]
The former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, is from Jiangsu Province. Following the logic of the ancient Chinese people, birds are the symbol of government officials. In this time, a large number of birds flew to Jiangsu and dropped dead from the sky. Could this mean that those government officials who act as Jiang Zemin's henchmen will soon face calamities and death?
One must be Jiang Zemin's henchman any longer. Jiang Zemin has lost the Chinese people's support because of his corruption and treachery. More importantly, Jiang Zemin has been sued in many countries and will soon be brought to justice. One must stop following Jiang Zemin's orders and stop persecuting Falun Gong for him.
Reference:
[1] Reuters: China quietly probes bizarre death of bramblings
Bibliography:
[2] Sou Shen Ji or A Collection of Stories about Deities
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Han_Lingdi_of_China
[4] History of China from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2004/2/20/25928.html
