Using Yin and Yang to Discuss Disasters——Dong Zhongshu's Interpretation of Disasters in “Treatise on Five Forces" of "Hanshu“

Abstract

Books in the Pre-Qin era have many records of various calamities and anomalies. The ancients believed that catastrophes originated from "the condemnation of heaven." “Treatise on Five Forces” initiated by Hanshu records various disasters that occurred from the Period of Spring and Autumn to the Western Han Dynasty, and attaches the corresponding interpretations of the Western Han Dynasty scholars. In terms of proportions, Liu Xiang, Liu Xin, and Dong Zhongshu’s catastrophe interpretations occupy the most space. The great Confucian Dong Zhongshu combined the Pre-Qin Confucian knowledge system and the theory of Yin and Yang and the five elements, and made an interpretation of all kinds of unthinkable cataclysms. This article focuses on the study of Dong Zhongshu's disastrous explanations in the "Hanshu·Five Elements", and discusses how Dong Zhongshu uses the principle of " Things of the Same Kind Activate One Another " to discuss the influence of personnel on catastrophes.