A Study On Auspicious Omen Of Tang And Five Dynasties In Dunhuang Manuscripts

Auspicious sign (Xiang Rui) is also called semiotic omen (Fu Rui) or good omen(Zhen Xiang) in Chinese. As the emblem and omen of good luck, it is the reflection of good expectation of society and country, and also considered as the omen of peaceful reigns under heaven and flourishing national fortune by the rulers and most people of all dynasties. Since Han Dynasty, the auspicious omen, which spread without restriction in the dynasties in the Central Plains as well as in the local regimes in remote corner, has been very popular in China. A good example could be given in Dunhuang in the period of Tang and Five Dynasties, of which, especially predominated in regime of GuiYi Army.This paper mainly based on the Dunhuang manuscripts, the author has analyzed the relationship between some good auspicious signs and regimes of Tang and Five Dynasties, of which, focused on the periods of Wu Zetian's reign and GuiYi Army. As the important parts of auspicious signs in Dunhuang, some manuscripts, such as Shang he xi dao jie du gong de zheng ji xiang rui wu geng zhuan jian shi'er shi gong yi shi qi shou bing xu, Twenty auspicious omens, Song of white sparrow, Poem and preface of white hawk taking on auspicious omen and so on, in some degree, reflected the influence of auspicious omen on establishment of regime of GuiYi Army. Among them, Song of white sparrow in praise of Kingdom of Golden Mountains is very typically, because several dozens-times appearance of white goods in the song has manifested clearly the worship of whiteness in the period.In addition, Fourth Chapter of Auspicious omen and Jia xiang jian zhi, which introduced the general situation of auspicious omens and the basic followed program of presenting auspicious omen in the period of Tang and Five Dynasties, and offered a good model. It was from the study of these that we were learnt about the special influence and positive significance of auspicious omens for politics, especially the transfer of governments, which was helpful to study better the historical and social situation of Dunhuang and Hexi area in the period of Tang and Five Dynasties.