The Elusive Mandate of Heaven: Changing Views of Tianming 天命 in the Eastern Zhou Period

IF 0.6 3区 社会学 0 ASIAN STUDIES T'oung Pao Pub Date : 2023-05-04 DOI:10.1163/15685322-10901001
Xinhui Luo, Y. Pines
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Abstract

The concept of tianming 天命 (Mandate of Heaven/Heaven’s Mandate) is often viewed as a foundational principle of Chinese political culture. However, as paleographic and textual evidence marshalled in our article suggests, during the formative age of this culture—the Eastern Zhou period (eighth through third centuries BCE)—this concept underwent profound changes and lost much of its original appeal. With the de facto collapse of Zhou authority in 771 BCE, tianming became dissociated from the idea of singular and universal rule. Henceforth it could refer to a regional lord’s hegemonic power, or the right to rule one’s state, or just to an opportune moment or individual destiny. The very idea of Heaven as an activist deity that guaranteed political order was questioned by many, further eroding the appeal of tianming. However, the Western Zhou notion of tianming did not perish altogether. It remained “an ideology in reserve,” part of a broad toolkit of political ideas, to be rediscovered and redeployed by Han dynasty imperial ideologues.
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难以捉摸的天命:东周时期天明的变化
天命的概念通常被视为中国政治文化的基本原则。然而,正如我们文章中整理的古文字证据所表明的那样,在这种文化的形成时期——东周时期(公元前8世纪至公元前3世纪)——这一概念经历了深刻的变化,失去了许多原有的吸引力。随着公元前771年 周政权的崩溃,天明开始脱离单一和普遍统治的观念。从此以后,它可以指一个地区领主的霸权,或统治一个国家的权利,或只是指一个合适的时刻或个人的命运。许多人质疑“天明”作为一个保证政治秩序的积极的神的想法,这进一步削弱了天明的吸引力。然而,西周的天明观念并没有完全消失。它仍然是“一种备用的意识形态”,是广泛的政治思想工具包的一部分,被汉朝帝国的思想家们重新发现和重新部署。
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T'oung Pao
T'oung Pao ASIAN STUDIES-
CiteScore
0.70
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0.00%
发文量
13
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