Tang And Five Dynasties Astrology Politics, And The Emperor

The subject of the present study is above all to define the particular impacts of astrological divination on the imperial politics of T'ang and the Five dynasties. Having come to believe that the astrologic abnormalcy could be a valuable start point for us to revaluate some interrelated political events, I have tried to make a new observation from two aspects of politics and sacrificing etiquette through my reading of the testing materials recorded in history. This dissertation consists of six chapters, including two appendixes. And the main contents will be discussed in 4 parts.Part 1 is a survey on the administrative system of the astrological divination. In T'ang and the Five dynasties, the imperial control of astrological divination administration is carried out mainly through the governmental reform and fulfillment of the astronomical agency. The reform of astronomical agency, which is brought into effect in the first year Qian Yuan, helps to make the astronomical observation and prophesies more accurate, since the "observing function" of the astronomical observatory is emphasized and attached more importance than before. And it is well indicated that there is a transformation from a unitary administrative system of Grand Astrologer's Administration (the Astrological administration) to a binary new one (Astrological Administration and Hanlin Academy ). However, we can not figure out very clearly of the binary administration system through the extant simple presentation of the documental records.In part 2, I turn to make a further research into the symbolic significance of astrologic abnormalcy and the common approaches followed by the official astrologers. For example, the solar eclipse symbolizes a crisis of a certain reign period; while the lunar eclipse is generally a warning to the queens and concubines, as well as the leuds and ministers, for their breach of duty. The disasters accompanying the occurrence of meteors and great stars ( ) depend on where they fall, with the former usually demonstrating the failure of a military campaign, and the latter, prophesying the death of a minister. It is more complicated with the comet since it is involved with a lot of things. Political revolutionaries, military revolts, and the natural disasters, such as floods and droughts, might all have something to do w ith it in a sense, and need to be dealt with respectively. Reading through the astronomical materials of the Record of Astronomy in Xin Tang Shu, we can learn that some of the prophesies related to solar eclipses and the comets are in fact fabricated by the astronomical officials based on their judgments of the current of their time, which reflect in a very subtle way the real situations of the political figures and the affairs.Generally speaking, there are two approaches for the astrological divination in T'ang and the Five dynasties: dividing divination (fenye zhan) and constellation divination (xingguan zhan). The former makes prophesies and divinations with a judgment of the relationship between the twenty-eight stellar lodges ( ) in the sky and the twelve prefectures in the real world. It fixes approximately the geographical regions and the dimensional space that would suffer from disasters by the means of prophesies. While the latter regards the occurrence of disasters and crisisas direct results of the persons and affairs in the imperial politics by corresponding the constellation in the sky to the real world. When employed into the real political life, the two approaches are usually mingled with each other to help the emperors in dealing with the state affairs.Part 3 discusses the impacts of the astrological divination on the imperial politics. Once observing the abnormal astronomical phenomena of solar eclipse and comet, the court will take many compensatory measures to perfect their morality, manage affairs, and pray for good luck: (1) to perfect morality, the emperor has to issue a "self-blaming" edict to restrict himself by wearing simply, not visiting the main hall, reducing appetite, and...