五行生胜与秦汉政治

在古代,五德说是从天道角度证明政权正僭的主要理论工具。战国末年的学者邹衍是此种理论学说的始作俑者,他以五行相胜为框架,创建了五德终始说,构造了一个从土德黄帝开始、至火德周朝结束的帝德谱。秦始皇接受邹衍学说,把本朝的属德确定为水,使邹衍版帝德谱完成了一轮循环。西汉高祖以汉为水德,并获得了张苍的论证。武帝太初改制,以汉为土德,使在文帝时代就已经酝酿的德制改革成为了事实。西汉末年,五德终始说为新五德终始说所取代。后者的创立者刘向以五行相生为框架,从木德包羲（伏羲）开始,推演出汉为火德。但其帝德谱未能证明作为＂尧后＂的汉与尧同德,这一缺陷后来为其子刘歆所弥补。刘歆通过所谓的《世经》,以在木德与火德之间安插＂闰统＂和让＂少昊金天氏＂继黄帝的办法,实现了尧汉同为火德。但其动机不是想维护刘汉的统治,而是想为新莽篡汉张本。在两汉之交,谶纬家们还通过＂感生＂安排,在五行相生的框架下创制了第三个帝德谱。这个帝德谱以＂玄圣＂孔子,取代了＂闰水＂秦朝。

The Five Elements and Politics in Qin and Han Dynasty

In ancient times,Five Virtues theory was taken as the main theoretical tool to attest whether a regime was legitimate or not by the natural law.Zou Yan,a scholar in the late Warring States,was the initiator of this theory.Based on the theory of Five Elements Conquering One Another,he created the Five Virtues Cycle theory and established a pedigree of emperor’s virtue which starts from the Yellow Emperor（＂earth＂） and ends at Zhou Dynasty（＂fire＂）.Emperor Qin Shihuang accepted Zou Yan’s Five Virtues theory and identified his dynasty’s attribute as ＂water＂.In this way,Zou Yan’s pedigree of emperor’s virtue completed a cycle.During Western Han Dynasty,Emperor Gao Zhu defined Han as ＂water＂,and it was proved by Zhang Cang.But it was changed into ＂earth＂ virtue at the early reign of Emperor Wudi,making the reform of emperor virtue which had been brewing in the era of Emperor Wendi became a reality.In the late Western Han Dynasty,the previous Five Virtues theory was replaced by the new one.Based on the theory of Five Elements Producing One Another,Liu Xiang created a new Five Virtues theory and deduced Han Dynasty’s attribute ＂fire＂ in a pedigree cycle of emperor’s virtue beginning with Fuxi（＂wood＂）.But his pedigree of emperor virtue failed to prove Han Dynasty was of the same virtue with that of Yao who was considered to be the emperors of Han Dynasty’s ＂ancestor＂.This deficiency was offseted by his son Liu Xin.In the Book of Generation,Liu Xin put a ＂Intercalary generation＂ between ＂wood＂ and ＂fire＂,and created a ＂White Emperor ＂ to succeed Yellow Emperor.he finally proved that the Yao reign and Han Dynasty were both of ＂fire＂.But his motivation was not a support for Liu’s ruling of Han Dynasty,but an anticipatory action for Wang Mang’s usurping of the Han.During the transition from Western Han to Eastern Han Dynasty,divination experts created the third pedigree of emperor virtue through the arrangement of ＂Gods＂ based on the framework of Five Elements Producing One Another.This pedigree of emperor virtue used the so called ＂Black Saint＂ Confucius to replace the ＂Intercalary water＂ of Qin Dynasty.