![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
除了学习中文以外我还得学习中国历史。
I am very intrigued by the concept of the Mandate of Heaven. I like the idea that the monarch is only chosen to be in power while they are doing a good job for their people and if they start to screw up heaven starts sending them signs to let them know. It's just a nice twist on the whole idea of omens. My favourite way that heaven lets a ruler know what if something is wrong is through children's folk songs. These become prophecies and dire warnings. The idea of taking such rhymes seriously first struck me as a little funny, but the more I thought about it the more I liked it as the idea that heaven and the people are intrinsically linked and people and what they do are just as much a part of nature as a storm or an eclipse. So I was very pleased when I found a book in the SOAS library that was entirely devoted to looking seriously at these type of prophecies and analysing how they were used.
The book is called Power of the Words: Chen Prophecy in Chinese Politics AD265-618 and is by Zongli Lu. The fact that this book is written by a Chinese historian I think is very important as he has such an amazing understanding of the words used, the parts of the characters and the analysis that goes on in combining and creating different characters I think would be next to impossible for even the most talent sinologist.
The book covers a great deal, almost too much for me to go into here. It focuses on the period between the ending of the Han and the beginning of the Sui. During this time China was divided and a series of different dynasties ruled over various parts of the country. With such division and such shorter lived rulers having the Mandate of Heaven became much more important as each ruler wanted to show that he was the legitimate choice of Heaven to rule and that his dynasty would last longer and be the right one to support.
The book starts by looking at the bans of Wei Apocrypha (rhymes that are used to make prophecies). These bans have been used in the past by historians to show that these type of prophecies were considered to be faulty and not taken seriously. However Lu argues that the bans were never very effective, and were just aimed at anyone who was going to be making prophecies against the ruler. The ruler, he states, must believe in the power of these prophecies otherwise he wouldn't be worried about people using them against him. He and his ministers continued to use the prophecies despite the ban on private usage.
Lu spends a great deal of time looking at the way Chen prophecies are used in mandate transfer quoting numerous examples from the historical record and explaining the complicated rhymes in great detail. He explains why the rhymes were interpreted the way they were and how these interpretations were made. There was no set formula for how these were done but rather several different patterns that could be used, from simply words that sounded alike, to complex re-writing of the characters. Not only does this give an interesting insight into the rhymes themselves but also the events and what was being thought about by those involved.
The Wei apocrypha, chen prophecies and reign titles are all carefully examined for their prophetic abilities. Lu also has two chapters particularly devoted to popular folk rhymes and their uses in prophecy. In addition to what are considered to be true songs he also looks at different forgeries used by the rulers and the elite to try and get across their positions. These forgeries often come across as more than just a simple propaganda campaign but seem to be the rulers and elite's way of trying to manipulate heaven in their favour. They don't seem to be making up the rhymes because they don't believe in them but rather because they do.
All in all it was a very interesting book, I found absolutely no problems with it. The author seemed really knowledgeable drew from primary sources, looked at the conflicting evidence presented, was up front with the problems involved, brought up further issues for research and looked at different methodologies for looking at folk rhymes from different areas and different fields.
The book is called Power of the Words: Chen Prophecy in Chinese Politics AD265-618 and is by Zongli Lu. The fact that this book is written by a Chinese historian I think is very important as he has such an amazing understanding of the words used, the parts of the characters and the analysis that goes on in combining and creating different characters I think would be next to impossible for even the most talent sinologist.
The book covers a great deal, almost too much for me to go into here. It focuses on the period between the ending of the Han and the beginning of the Sui. During this time China was divided and a series of different dynasties ruled over various parts of the country. With such division and such shorter lived rulers having the Mandate of Heaven became much more important as each ruler wanted to show that he was the legitimate choice of Heaven to rule and that his dynasty would last longer and be the right one to support.
The book starts by looking at the bans of Wei Apocrypha (rhymes that are used to make prophecies). These bans have been used in the past by historians to show that these type of prophecies were considered to be faulty and not taken seriously. However Lu argues that the bans were never very effective, and were just aimed at anyone who was going to be making prophecies against the ruler. The ruler, he states, must believe in the power of these prophecies otherwise he wouldn't be worried about people using them against him. He and his ministers continued to use the prophecies despite the ban on private usage.
Lu spends a great deal of time looking at the way Chen prophecies are used in mandate transfer quoting numerous examples from the historical record and explaining the complicated rhymes in great detail. He explains why the rhymes were interpreted the way they were and how these interpretations were made. There was no set formula for how these were done but rather several different patterns that could be used, from simply words that sounded alike, to complex re-writing of the characters. Not only does this give an interesting insight into the rhymes themselves but also the events and what was being thought about by those involved.
The Wei apocrypha, chen prophecies and reign titles are all carefully examined for their prophetic abilities. Lu also has two chapters particularly devoted to popular folk rhymes and their uses in prophecy. In addition to what are considered to be true songs he also looks at different forgeries used by the rulers and the elite to try and get across their positions. These forgeries often come across as more than just a simple propaganda campaign but seem to be the rulers and elite's way of trying to manipulate heaven in their favour. They don't seem to be making up the rhymes because they don't believe in them but rather because they do.
All in all it was a very interesting book, I found absolutely no problems with it. The author seemed really knowledgeable drew from primary sources, looked at the conflicting evidence presented, was up front with the problems involved, brought up further issues for research and looked at different methodologies for looking at folk rhymes from different areas and different fields.
.