Chenwei And The Politics Of The Two Han Dynasties

Chenwei is a serious phenomenon of the thought history in China's society . It is also an important part of the Chinese traditional Confucian School. But people know little about the histories researching. This paper tries to make full use of the original historical materials to do the further research of Chenwei and the politics of the two Han Dynasties based on the achievement of precursor.The paper has four chapters in all. The first chapter is about the definition and origin of the Chenwei and the things related with it. We do textual research to find if Chen and Wei are same in the meaning. It shows us that Chen means the things that can be realized. The word has come to mean by extension that the prediction which can come true. It usually refers to the enigmatic language, magic figures , drawings and things that can symbolize luck , ominous , misfortune and happiness. The book of Chen talks about magic figure as the book Hetu and Luoshu. Wei is just against Jing. It explains the Confucian School. Chenwei is the whole name of the books on Chen and Wei. Chen and Wei connect each other but different in some way. We can not simply say that they are name. The chapter emphasizes on exploring the origin of Chenwei. It is believed that Chen came out first and the next is Wei . Chenwei brought about after the monopolizing Confucianism advocated by Emperor Wudi .The second chapter is about the rising of background and its characteristics. On the side of background , it is believed that Chenwei brought about based on the serious class contradictions and the crisis in the late Xi Han Dynasty. Chenwei also came out based on the theory of interaction between heaven and human being in the Spring and Autumn, and the religion belief of the wizard during the period of Emperor Wudi. On the side of character , it is something about imitating the precursor and respecting the wise man and explaining the scripture. In any way of rising or about its concept, Chenwei is only a kind of thought. Compared with others ,the thought has its characteristics of magic and politics .The third chapter is about Chenwei and politics. It is the Chenwei's main body of the paper. The chapter consists of four parts. The first part is about choosing an heir affected by Chenwei. It is believed that the case of witchcraft and the death of prince Li were caused by the early meeting between Wudi and Zhaodi's mother . The part also analyses the prophetic words the person named Gongsun Bing Yi will be emperor, who is Xuandi. The second part is about the power chang affected by Chenwei. The part mainly explores that the cause of Wang mang's regime depended on enigmatic language and prediction to get the political power in a good way. It also talks about the reason and course of downfall of Han Dynasty. The third part is about the effect of principle of manners . It takes for example the book the Song of Outskirts Sacrificing and mountain sacrificing to explore the relation with Chenwei. The content in the book combines sacrifice and holy praise with the enigmatic language. The direct affect by Chenwei is to chang the name from the song of outskirts sacrifice to Tai Yu song. Emperor Guangwudi created the perfect theory of sacrifice because of the book Hetu and Luoshu. This further showed his regime is legal and serious. The forth part is the politics affected by disaster of Chenwei. It meant to warn of the tyranny of the king with the theory. Though it was full of magic , it was an effective way in the background of the theory. The forth chapter is about the reason of downfall of Chenwei. The rejecting by learner, the forbidding by government, the hitting by Buddhism and the destroying by the war made Chenwei disappear after Tang Dynasty. Chenwei passed on after Tang Dynasty in a narrow way and affected the society greatly afterwards. Even though it spread so secretly and perfectly, It can't pass the test of science. In the chapter, there are two kinds of direction to spread Chenwei after Weijin. One was absorbed by Daoism and the other spread in the folk belief.