ABSTRACT
The term 'omen' is applied here deliberately to these strange events and their forecasts. It is used to denote the messages believed to lie behind those occurrences of nature that cannot be avoided, and it will be seen below that the term is used in a distinct way from 'divination' and 'oracle'. Oracles' is used of signs that are already inherent in natural objects, which man can see for himself if he takes the trouble to look. Several attitudes were adopted towards these strange and violent events, or omens. Some Chinese of the Han period regarded these events, which had apparently brought about a rupture of the order of nature, as miracles. In a Chinese version of the story of the fall, we may read of the beginning of life as a time of unsullied purity and tranquillity, with no extraneous or artificial considerations to mar the ideal image of a simple state of creation.
