“Chang Chio, in the 2nd century, called himself the Yellow God and led an army of 360,000 followers, all wearing yellow turbans. They brought down the Han Dynasty. . . .

Chang Seng-yu, in the 6th century, painted a pair of dragons without eyes on the Temple of Peace and Joy, and warned that the painting should never be completed. A skeptic filled in the eyes, and the walls of the temple crashed to ruins as the dragons flew off. . . .

Chang Chu, a poet in the 13th century, wrote a line, ‘The cataclysm of red sheep,’ that no one has ever been able to explain. . . .

Chang Jen-hsi, in the 18th century, wrote a treatise on ink.”

—Eliot Weinberger, excerpts from “Changs”; The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry, edited by Andrew Schelling, 2005.