An Ancient Chinese Sage “Saw” the Outbreak of Covid-19
5 min readLiu Bowen (1311-1375, a sage in the Ming Dynasty, was well known for predicting the future. Like other sages such as Zhuge Liang and Shao Yong, Liu also left prophecies, including Songbing Song, the Jinling Pagoda Monument Inscription, and the Taibai Mountain Monument Inscription.
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The Taibai Mountain Monument Inscription was discovered after an earthquake and it was not known to the public until several years ago. Part of what it says seems to be relevant to the coronavirus epidemic we are facing.
Epidemic Spanning Years of the Pig and the Rat
Liu seemed to have predicted an epidemic in the following poem:
“If you ask when the plague will come, I would say about wintertime, around September and October … One worries the corpses are left unattended, and one worries about the difficulty of crossing from the pig year to the rat year.‘
According to the Chinese Lunar calendar, 2019 was the Year of the Pig and 2020 is the Year of the Rat. The transition from the Pig year to the Rat year occurred on the Chinese New Year, which was January 25, 2020.
The first diagnosed case of someone with the Wuhan coronavirus occurred on December 1, 2019. Given the 14-day incubation period, the person was likely infected in late November, which was October in the Chinese Lunar Calendar.
Despite numerous indications of the existence of a new epidemic, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) did not announce that the virus spread by human to human transmission until January 20, 2020. By then, the disease had already spread to other regions.
Following Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and other Asian regions, the first case in the United States was confirmed on January 21, 2020. Two days later, China decided to shut down Wuhan City. By January 25, 15 cities in Hubei Province had been put on lockdown, making this Chinese New Year extremely difficult for all the families involved.
As a result of the delayed warning and continued cover-up by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), all provinces in China have had confirmed cases, with Tibet reporting its first case on February 4, 2020, and becoming the final province with a verified infection. This coincides with the following phrases in Liu’s prophecy:
“One worries about the onset of disaster in Huguang (a region in China that includes Hubei), which then spreads to all provinces across China.”
A Passage to Safety
The prophecy, interestingly, also prescribed an antidote to the plague: “Only those who remain upright can survive,” wrote Liu.
At the end of the prophecy, he explained it in more detail:
Seven (七) people (人) walk in one (一) line, being guided (引) to the right (诱/右) into an opening (口); Three dots are added to a hook (勾), with eight (八) kings (王) followed by 20 (廿) mouths (口); This makes everyone happy, who lives safely thereafter.
[Note: “Mouth” in Chinese also refers to the number of people to be fed.]
This is a game of taking apart the strokes in Chinese characters and rearranging them to form new characters. The first two lines of the poem above say that when the characters of七 (seven), 人 (people), 一(one), 引 (guide), and 口(mouth) are taken apart and rearranged in a certain way, they form the traditional Chinese character for truthfulness (眞). In the third line, when three dots are added to different parts of 勾 and the strokes are re-arranged, the new character of forbearance (忍) takes shape. In the fourth line, when 八 (eight), 王 (king), 廿 (twenty), and 口(mouth) line up in a certain order, they form the character for compassion (善).
These Chinese characters of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, are the core principles of a traditional Chinese meditation method named Falun Gong. Its a practice based on the Buddha and Tao school that has been persecuted by the CCP since July 1999.
The characters for Truthfulness (眞), Compassion (善), and Forbearance (忍) in traditional Chinese. This picture was taken in South Korea during an experience-sharing conference where Falun Dafa practitioners shared how to live by those principles.
Could it be that, centuries ago, Liu predicted that by taking these three words to heart people could retain a positive state of mind and a body resistant to disease?
Following One’s Conscience
China has a long history of 5,000 years. During that time, people believed in traditional values, such as being kind and virtuous. Based on divine culture, people believed that “good is rewarded and evil incurs retribution.”
When the CCP came to power decades ago, however, it virtually wiped out these traditional values through constant brainwashing. Although Falun Dafa improved the health and morality of tens of millions of people, the CCP has been persecuting it since July 1999.
When so many practitioners were arrested, detained, imprisoned, and tortured, the Chinese were misled by the slanderous propaganda and turned against Falun Dafa and its principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Nonetheless, practitioners in China continue to risk their lives to tell people the truth and debunk the CCP’s lies. This is reminiscent of the persecution of the Christians during the Roman Empire, an era marked with numerous plagues.
In his prophecy, Liu warned people to follow their conscience for a safe, happy life:
Good people are able to see the future, while those who commit wrongdoings are doomed; In an era when some are spreading the great gospels, it is not worthwhile to remain foolish and lose the future.
