Dark Affliction
Prior to the death of the emperor in early 1521, rumours about a mysterious group of creatures collectively called Dark Afflictions (黑眚) circulated the capital. Their attacks caused much unrest, because they randomly attacked people at night, causing wounds with their claws. The Minister for War asked the emperor to write an imperial edict proclaiming local security troops would arrest all those who frightened other people. The threat brought a sudden end to the spread of the stories.
Read more about this topic: Zhengde Emperor
Famous quotes containing the words dark and/or affliction:
“This girl borrowed no dim light of a star
Nor ever night held her in a dark mesh,
A slim bloom she stood of the first larkspur,
A wind of spring fluttered in her white flesh.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal—every other affliction to forget: but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open—this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.”
—Washington Irving (1783–1859)