RUHR-UNIVERSITÄT BOCHUM Fakultät für Ostasienwissenschaften By Chance of History: The Apocrypha under the Han Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Dr. phil. vorgelegt von Licia Di Giacinto, M.A. aus Mannheim Referent/in: Prof. Dr. Heiner Roetz Korreferent/in: Prof. Dr. Hans van Ess Bochum 2007 AKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people have contributed to this work in one way or another. My special thanks go to my “Doktorvater” Professor Heiner Roetz for his unlimited patience and support and for his insightful amendments and suggestions. I would also like to thank Professor Hans van Ess for his willingness to act as supervisor, Professor Raoul Findeisen for his encouragements, and Mrs Karen Finney for her accurate correction of parts of the English manuscript. I must also recall here the paradisiacal quietness at the department of Chinese History and Philosophy, where I have found the support of Dr. Wolfgang Behr and the helpfulness of Mrs Ilse Dilger. I have no idea what I would have done without friends like Andrea, Tania, and Zeljka, who have patiently endured my moods as well as my daily and nightly monologues about the Han apocrypha. My final thanks go to my father: it is probably because of him that this work has finally reached an end. CONTENTS APPROACHING THE APOCRYPHA CHAPTER ONE. A REVIEW OF THE APOCRYPHAL PHENOMENON THROUGH HISTORY 1 1. The apocryphal phenomenon under the han 1 1.1 Terminology and the Early Han history of the chenwei 3 1.2 Later Han scholarship and the apocrypha: influence and opposition 10 2. Burning the texts and rescuing the fragments: the late history of the apocryphal phenomenon 16 2.1 The rulers and the apocrypha after the Han: proscriptions 17 2.2 The intellectuals and the rejection of the apocrypha 23 2.3 The scholarly world: quoting the chenwei 26 3. Investigating the apocrypha: the medieval era and the uncertainties of Tang scholarship 30 3.1 The medieval age and the classification of the apocrypha as technical books 30 3.2 The uncertainties and anachronisms of Tang scholarship 32 3.3 The uncertainties of Tang scholarship and the classification of the apocrypha as exegetical studies 36 4. Investigating the apocrypha in Late Imperial China 37 4.1 Late Imperial scholarship and the chen/wei controversy 37 4.2 Late Imperial scholarship and the problem of the origins 40 5. Collecting the apocrypha in Late Imperial China 43 5.1 The path towards the first collections of apocryphal fragments 43 5.2 Collecting apocryphal fragments under the Qing 47 CHAPTER TWO. TOWARD THE CONTENTS OF THE APOCRYPHA 52 1. Working on the apocrypha 52 1.1 Modernizing the research on the apocrypha in China 52 1.2 Contemporary scholarship 55 2. Achievements and shortcomings of chenwei scholarship 60 2.1 On chen and wei 60 2.2 On the anthologies: philological shortcomings and interpretative weaknesses 62 2.3 On the textual approach 66 2.4 On the thematic analysis 76 2.5 How to approach the apocryphal contents: the discourses of the chenwei 78 I 3. Towards the contents of the apocrypha 81 3.1 Toward Han interdisciplinarity 81 3.2 Correlative strategies and their interdisciplinary success 83 3.3 Introducing Han cultural world: the ru between Heaven and man 89 3.4 Theory and praxis: The ganying theory and the zaiyi framework 92 DISCUSSING THE CONTENTS OF THE APOCRYPHA CHAPTER THREE. THE DISCOURSE ON THE SHENGREN: BETWEEN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY96 1. The ren as mirror of tian 95 1.1 Defining the human being 95 1.2 Analysing the human body 97 1.3 Analysing the moral potential of the human being 109 2. From ren to shengren 116 2.1 The development of the theory “ethical predestination” 116 2.2 The discussion on ethics as facet of the human being 120 3. Towards the shengren of the apocrypha 125 3.1 Introducing the shengren of the Han 125 3.2 Knowing Heaven: the ethical and political approach 127 3.3 Knowing Heaven: the technical approach 130 4. The shengren of the apocrypha between myth and philosophy 134 5. The shengren and heaven: the birth of the sage 138 5.1 The birth of the shengren: evolving myths 138 5.2 Updating myths under the Han 140 5.3 Understanding myths under the Han 142 5.4 Introducing the miraculous births of the apocrypha 144 5.5 Applying the theme “miraculous birth” 146 5.6 The philosophical dimension of the apocryphal tales 148 5.7 Old myths in the apocrypha 149 6. The look of the shengren 151 6.1 On physiognomy 151 6.2 The interpretation of stories on the physical appearance of the shengren 153 6.3 Introducing the apocryphal stories on the physical appearance of the shengren 156 6.4 The exegetical dimension of the apocryphal stories 158 6.5 The apocryphal stories and unofficial material 158 6.6 The mythic dimension of the apocryphal stories 160 7. The shengren and Heaven: the tokens of the sage 161 II 7.1 Heavenly tokens and politics in Early Han China 162 7.2 Han ru-ism and Heavenly tokens 163 7.3 Heavenly fu in the apocrypha: the tokens 166 7.4 Heavenly fu in the apocrypha: the political messages 167 7.5 Heavenly fu in the apocrypha: the self-presentation of the chenwei 168 CHAPTER FOUR. THE DISCOURSE ON TIAN: TECHNIQUES AND BEYOND 170 1. Observing and portraying the heavens 170 1.1 Observing the starry sky 170 1.2 Measuring the shadows 176 1.3 The armillary sphere 179 1.4 Portraying the cosmos: germs of cosmography under the Han 181 1.5 Traces of cosmography in the apocrypha 183 2. Describing and interpreting the heavens: tianwen themes in the apocrypha 190 2.1 Presenting the Han art of tianwen 190 2.2 Rudiments of tianwen tradition under the Han 191 2.3 Rudiments of apocryphal astrography 194 2.4 From astrography to astrology: on the double-fold function of the simulacra 202 2.5 Tianwen themes in the apocrypha: the fenye 206 2.6 Tianwen themes in the apocrypha: looking at the starry sky 212 2.7 Featuring the tianwen layer of the apocrypha: handbook astrology and the issue “periodic phenomena” 219 3. Beyond Tianwen 226 3.1 Going beyond tianwen: from tianwen prognoses to tianwen strategies 226 3.2 Beyond tianwen: astrology and cosmology 231 3.3 Beyond tianwen: astrology and exegesis 236 3.4 Beyond tianwen: astrology and rituality 242 4. Tracking the heavens: lipu themes in the apocrypha 250 4.1 Introducing the Han art of lipu 252 4.2 Early Han calendars: the Superior Origin 257 4.3 Towards the apocryphal art of lipu: the Santong li and its issues 258 4.4 The art of Lipu in the apocrypha: the issue of the Superior Origin 266 4.5 Manipulating calendars: the Yin li of the apocrypha 272 4.6 Evaluating the lipu layer of the apocrypha 277 5. Beyond lipu 279 5.1 Going beyond the Han art of lipu 279 5.2 Time-scheduling strategies in the exegetical fields 285 5.3 The tianming cycles: the application of time-scheduling strategies to past and present 288 III 6. Beyond Han techniques: the wu de framework 294 6.1 Presenting the discussion on the wu de framework 294 6.2 The calendrical scenery behind the wu de framework 296 6.3 The wu de as time scheduling strategies: Zou Yan 303 6.4 The fading of the potencies 306 6.5 The ru and the potencies 311 6.6 The first century BC and the wu de as time-scheduling strategies 316 6.7 The extinction of the wu de model: astro-mythological variations on the theme 318 DEFINING THE APOCRYPHA CHAPTER FIVE FROM THEMES TO BOOKS: DEFINING THE TEXTS 321 1. Towards the definition of the texts: inner bond and outer boundary 321 1.1 How to define the apocryphal texts: the traditional approach 322 1.2 Contemporary scholarship between tradition, thematic description, and history 325 2. A multileveled definition of the texts 327 2.1 The classificatory level: the apocrypha as hybrid texts 327 2.2 The theoretical level: the bond between Heaven and shengren 329 2.3 The thematic level: the apocrypha as applicative texts 329 2.4 The evaluative level: the judgeable level of competency 331 2.5 The formal level: the apocrypha as anonymous books 332 CHAPTER SIX DEFINING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT: EARLY HAN MILLENNIALISM 333 1. On the sources of the history of the apocrypha 333 1.1 Why there is no history without contents 333 1.2 Why there is no history without historical sources 335 2. Framing the scene of the key-time: millennialism at the end of the early Han 336 2.1 Millennialism at the end of the Early Han: time-scheduling strategies 337 2.2 Millennialism at the end of the Early Han: waiting for the emperor of Earth 341 3. Early Han Millennialism at the court of emperor Zhao 343 3.1 In search of an upper limit 343 3.2 On time-scheduling strategies: Zhang Shouwang 344 3.3 Political millennialism: waiting for the emperor of Earth at the court of emperor Zhao 346 IV 4. The cultural actors of Early Han millennialism: the ru of the elite, time scheduling strategies, and politics 348 4.1 The Ru and the themes of Early Han millennialism 348 4.2 The ru: time scheduling strategies as instrument. 349 4.3 Early Han millennialism: the shadow of wu xing mantic practices 350 4.4 Wu xing mantic practices or wu xing mantic practitioners? 354 CHAPTER SEVEN.