摘要
The belief that white animals were auspicious symbols that proclaimed dynastic legitimacy became gradually established during the Han dynasty based on a traditional system of prognostics called ruiying, namely, “auspicious resonances,” and promulgated in the apocryphal “weft-texts.” This system expanded massively in the following, early-medieval, period, when many kinds of creatures were understood to possess such resonance. This was documented in both the contemporary dynastic histories as well as poetry and prose. The present paper explores white animals in their roles as auspicious validations of the actions of individual emperors (and the dynasty as a whole), placing particular emphasis on the role played by the literati elite in celebrating white animals’ appearances. Furthermore, of all the many weft-texts that mention auspicious resonances, dynastic histories seem to have relied heavily on one, titled Sunshi ruiying tu (Mr. Sun’s Charts of Auspicious Resonances), to interpret white animals. Finally, the paper argues that the significant preponderance of literature about white rabbits in the early-medieval period was closely related to the importance of this animal as a symbol of the Jin dynasty, and auspicious interpretations of the rule of the Sima family.
關鍵詞
white animals, ruiying, weft texts, poetry, historiography
