Abstract
With an open interpretation of the Commentary on Hongfan’s Five Elements, Liu Xiang constructed a divination system more in line with his academic philosophy and political inclinations. Moreover, on the grounds of the structure of the Five Elements, Liu Xiang also refers to and integrates monthly climate knowledge, I (Ching) knowledge, yin-yang knowledge, disaster-abnormity theory from the Spring and Autumn Annals, astrology and other Confucian commentaries, as well as divination knowledge, thereby establishing a vast and broad Confucian disaster-abnormity theory system. This system strengthens the correlation between the Five Elements and traditional commentaries, and also encompasses part of the divination knowledge, thereby expanding the traditional Confucian knowledge system. Although several omissions exist in Liu Xiang’s systematicity and his philosophy features heterogeneity and internal contradictions, his high accomplishment in the Six Arts and his study style of following various schools still manifest a certain representativeness in the history of Confucianism in the Western Han dynasty and indicate the efforts of Confucian scholars in the Han dynasty to integrate traditional commentaries with divination knowledge, thereby making an important individual case for studying the interaction between the history of Confucianism and the early history of knowledge.
Keywords
Book of Documents; Hongfan wuxing zhuan; Liu Xiang; yin-yang; the disaster-abnormity theory
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