Organizer: Gillian Simpson, University of London
Chair: Sarah Allan, University of London
Discussant: Livia Kohn, Boston University
Chinese cosmology is a melee of different systems and beliefs that developed and altered over time not a monolithic whole. Contributions to it derived from folk belief and religion as well as from philosophy.
Two of the papers in this panel reflect this complexity. Both are concerned with specific cosmological or divination systems and draw attention to the fact that these building blocks of cosmology are both re-interpreted over time and can reflect different and sometimes apparently contradictory assumptions.
The third paper is concerned with the concept of Tian and its relationship to the type of systems discussed in the previous papers.
Familiarity with cosmological detail raises important issues regarding the nature of Chinese cosmology and implies that an approach that both recognizes this multiplicity and asks how the components of Chinese cosmology originated and how they were reconciled will add to our overall understanding of the Chinese world view.
Speculations on the Existence of Primitive Geomancy: Was There Fengshui Before
Wuxing?
Stephen Field, Trinity University
I will show that a type of divination using the houtianarrangement of bagua trigrams which is similar to fengshuias practiced since the Tang dynasty was entirely possible before the advent of wuxing. Han dynasty exegetes interpreted trigram names as emblems of natural phenomena. By removing this layer I expose what might have been an earlier, more primitive world view, where spirits communicated with humans by means of portents interpreted by shamans. If this is plausible, there is reason to believe that the houtian figure is of great antiquity.
The standard geomantic basis for determining auspice requires the partition of the houtian cosmos into eastern and western halves. No valid reason is ever given for this partition, but I believe it was based on an agrarian mentality that required constant awareness of the seasons-the birth and death of the year. Any house oriented to either of the two partitions would have four auspicious directions, because each partition formed a mutually exclusive category corresponding to either generation or decline. The direction faced by the house would have matched with some aspect particular to the master of the house, possibly the time of his birth. If the eight directions are assigned seasonal correlatives, then a man born in a particular season would have four auspicious directions toward which to face his house, depending on which of the two partitions contained his natal season.
The Role of Tian as Sky and Heaven: Conceptual Implications
Sarah Allan, University of London
Tian means 'sky' but in its role as the supreme force, tian is conventionally translated as 'heaven,' giving it religious overtones from our own tradition in which 'heaven' is either a place in the sky where the souls of the good go after death or a euphemism for God. This sounds more natural in English-to say that the ruler of China, especially in the sophisticated imperial court of later times, was the 'son of the sky' would seem very strange to us. However, the role of 'heaven' in English as a euphemism for God gives tian a specifically anthropomorphic character and suggests a supreme creator with a personal will, as well as a sphere of transcendence. This equation obscures an understanding of the Chinese term.
Although tian was identified with Shang Di, the 'high lord' of the Shang people at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, it was also, quite literally, the sky-the realm of the heavenly bodies-and thus responsible for cycles of time, or 'timeliness.' In nature, it governed the shi, the seasons upon which plant life depended. For men, too, it determined the appropriate times at which one lineage might succeed in replacing another in its dominance over the world, 'below the sky' or, as convention has it, 'under heaven.' The two roles are never separate. Natural phenomenon and human life were assumed to be governed by the same principles. This assumption is a key to understanding Chinese conceptions of time and early divination systems.
Methods of Divining Human Nature in the Third Century BCE
Gillian Simpson, University of London
Sections of excavated divination texts imply that diviners and their clients in the 3rd Century BCE assumed certain aspects of an individual's physical appearance, character and fate were predetermined and predictable.
The methods used in making such predictions were not limited to the horoscopes based on date of birth prevalent later. One alternative method involved family affiliation and was based on classification of the individuals character according to his or her surname. A second method was based around the time of a child's conception.
The first method assumes that those who share a surname have certain physical and/or character traits in common. The acquisition of these traits was apparently thought to be without human control. The second method is concerned with time and assumes man has some influence in as much as prospective parents appraised of the likely results of conceiving a child on a particular date can modify their actions accordingly.
The origins of these different methods of predicting destiny are obscure but it appears that they were used concurrently. It seems that more than one set of ideas was involved in making predictions about human nature and destiny. The existence of different systems, based on different assumptions and making contradictory predictions is an important feature of 3rd Century BC divination generally and this seems worthy of further consideration in its own right.