中国历代王朝德运略考

Research on Virtue Luck in Chinese dynasties

在传统中国政治中,五德终始说常用于阐释政权的合法性,其以阴阳五行建构起的宇宙观认识政事,认为政权的更迭乃五行生克原理支配下德运的变迁。该说初为战国时期邹衍所创,后西汉刘向父子又创立新说,两者的主要区别在于所采用的理论,前者为五行相胜,后者为五行相生。自秦朝首次采用五德终始说后,历代政权多沿袭之,大致可分为起始肇端期——秦汉、承袭兴盛期——曹魏至五代、衰落覆灭期——宋至清三个阶段,而其德运多据五行相生说确立。

In the traditional Chinese politics, the theory of five cyclic virtues is often used to interpret the political legitimacy of the regime by adopting the cosmological view, constructed by Yin and Yang and the five elements, to understand the political affairs, it holds that the change of the regime is the change of the virtue luck under the principle of the five elements.This theory was first established by Zou Yan in the Warring States Period, afterwards, Liu Xiang and his son, Liu Xin in the Western Han Dynasty created another new theory. The difference was that they adopted different theories:Zou Yan used the theory of the transcendance of the five elements while Liu Xiang and Liu Xin used the theory of the derivation of the five elements. Since the first adoption of this theory in the Qin Dynasty, it has been followed by most successive regimes, which could be roughly divided into three stages:the starting period, from the Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty;the prosperous period, from Cao, Wei, to the Five Dynasties;the declining period, from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty.