The Power of an Alleged Tradition - CHINA Buchservice

ning, to alter the beginning of the fi rst month [of the new year] and to alter the color
of the ceremonial vestments. There will be portents [corresponding to the virtue of
Earth]; the portents will become visible in the form of yellow dragons.” The matter
was handed down to the counselor-in-chief Zhang Cang. Zhang Cang who himself
was a specialist of the pitch pipes and the calendar, maintained that this [prophecy]
was false. Thus the proposal was abandoned. After that, yellow dragons appeared in
Chengji. As a consequence of this, Zhang Cang asked to be dismissed from offi ce, as
all his efforts at interpreting [the cycles] had turned out to have been wrong. 55
It now becomes plain how intimately the prophetic message Gongsun Qing had
launched into Emperor Wu’s court was linked with an elaborate theory that interprets
the progress of history in terms of dynastic cycles. By favoring Huangdi who
was correlated with the color Yellow and the element of Earth, Gongsun Qing can
even be clearly identifi ed as the representative of one special faction of these theorists
of dynastic cycles. In a personal remark by Ban Gu, near the end of the “Monograph
on State Sacrifi ces” in the Han shu, we fi nd a survey of the history of the ideas
related to dynastic cycles. Ban Gu fi rst summarizes the situation of the ceremonies
at the beginning of the Han, then sets forth Zhang Cang’s theory that the dynasty
was still favored by Water and thus describes the confl ict between the competing
specialists. Ban Gu continues:
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In the generation of Emperor Xiaowu, there were ceremonial texts and verses in
abundance. In the Taichu [period], the regulations were [offi cially] changed, but
[in establishing these reforms] Ni Kuan, Sima Qian and others still followed the
teachings of [Gongsun] Chen and [Jia] Yi: [this means] that for the color of
the [ceremonial] vestments and the [offi cially honored] numbers, they continued
to adapt [the dynasty] to the virtue of Yellow. They were quite in accord
with the transmission of the Five Virtues according to which the one whom [the
former] could not conquer would follow [in the cycle], maintaining that Qin was
[favored by the] virtue of Water, and thus they said that Han, supported by [the
virtue of] Earth would conquer it. 56
He then arrives at what Liu Xiang and his son Xin thought to be the correct
sequence, based on a different theory of time cycles and thus reveals that he too
adhered to a theory of time cycles, but one which obviously concurred with the one
favored by Sima Qian and his colleagues. 57 But does Ban Gu do justice to his col-
55 Shiji 26/1260. Cf. E. Chavannes, Mémoires Historiques III, 329.
56 Han shu 25B/1270. The branch of the cosmological theory assumed here is also called the “mutual conquest
sequence of the Five Virtues” (wude xiangsheng� ����). According to the adherents of this faction, the
sequence of virtues within this cycle was: Earth, Wood, Metal, Fire, Water. This sequence corresponds with that
associated with the dynasties Xia down to Han, as cited from the Lüshi chunqiu� Cf. n. 50. Competing with
this system is the “mutual generation sequence” �wude xiangsheng�����), according to which the sequence
of elements would be: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water. For an analysis of the different theories concerning the
sequence of dynasties and the fi ve elements in Han times see Gu Jiegang’s study: “Wude zhongshi shuo xia de
zhengshi he lishi ������������” (1930), in Gu Jiegang gushi lunwen ji��������� (Beijing:
Zhonghua, 1996), 254–459, and the table on p. 302.
57 The concurring system which Ban Gu and his father, and before them Liu Xiang and his son Xin adhered to is
the theory of the “mutual generation sequence” mentioned above, n. 56. Its adherents maintained that because
the Zhou dynasty was correlated with Wood, Qin had to be dropped out of the cycle, as this dynasty was not
regarded by them as legitimate, and the Han as the successor of Zhou would be favored by Fire.
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