三国晋宋时期的天人之学——从<五行>考察 The State of "Tianren zhi xue" in the Three Kingdoms through Jin and Song Dynasties Period —— An Analysis based on Sources from the Monographs on Five-Phases

Abstract

"Tianren zhi xue" was a learning developed by Han dynasty scholars, founded on the belief that there is a relationship of "resonance" or ganying, between the celestial and terrestrial spheres. Specifically, the school believes that if irregular celestial movement appears in heaven or visitation ans prodigy are seen in the natural world, it signifies that men (the ruling class in particular) had done something seriously wrong. That is because the improper deeds of men had upset the balance of wuxing or the five primal forces of nature, thus created these irregularities or anomalies. This is the rationale which explains the inter-relatedness or corresponding relationship between the celestial and terrestrial worlds. Such a belief essentially implies that every strange phenomenon observed in the heavenly or natural world could (and therefore also has to be) be explained by an un-approving act committed by men. The "Monographs on Five-Phases" (wuxingzhi, sometimes known as lingzhengzhi or zaiyizhi) seen in 14 of the 24 Standard Histories are a rich sources for the study of tianren zhi xue. Scholars have pointed out that such a matching correspondence between the celestial and terrestrial worlds are most apparent in the wuxingzhi of the Standard Histories composed during the times from the Han to Tang dynasties. However, the wuxingzhi in the Standard Histories composed during and after the Song dynasty have a common attribute: they would focus moe on recording irregular celestial movements and anomalies but pay less attention on explaining the human misconducts believed to have caused these abnormal phenomena to occur. Such a development seemsto indicate that from the Song dynasty onwards the tianren zhi xue began to suffer a decline, as the belief on which the learning was grounded, that there is a corresponding relationship between the celestial and terrestrial worlds, was no longer being taken seriously. This paper, however, argues that this development in fact was already evident in the wuxingzhi or lingzhengzhi and zaiyizhi of the various Standard Histories composed during the post-Han and pre-Song period, with the exception of that compiled in the time of the Eastern Jin dynasty. And in regard to this observation, it analyses the state of the "tianren zhi xue" learning in the time of Three Kingdoms through Jin and [Liu] Song dynasties

Keywords: zaiyi, ganying, wuxingzhi, History of Medieval China, Chinese Classical Learning, Chinese Philosophy