春秋时期天命观念的演变

The Evolution of the Concept of Destiny in the Spring and Autumn Period

西周晚期以来,传统的天与天命观念,饱受质疑。然而,天的崇高性并未遭到根本性打击。春秋社会,混乱的现实刺激人们思考天命是否在周的问题,尽管人们已经看到周王不堪大命,但没有一人明确说明天命将转移至何方。春秋金文显示,诸侯们纷纷宣称膺受大命,传统天命观念至此发生重大变化。诸侯们所拥有的天命,与周王室的天命并行并存,这是春秋社会非常奇特的现象。考察春秋时期天命观的整体状况,可见敬天命、保人事的西周传统依然存留,战国时期的德政观念与之一脉相承,成为此后大一统王朝意识形态的直接来源之一。

From the late Western Zhou period on,the traditional concepts of Heaven and the Mandate of Heaven were frequently questioned,but these attacks fundamentally failed to impinge on the sublimity of Heaven.The chaos of the Spring and Autumn Period made people wonder whether the mandate was indeed held by the Zhou.Although they could see that the Zhou ruler was not worthy of it,no one was clear about where the mandate would land.Inscriptions from the Spring and Autumn Period show that a throng of vassal states declared they had received it,thereby producing a major change in the Mandate of Heaven concept.The Mandate of Heaven thus belonged simultaneously to the rulers of vassal states and to the Zhou royal house and operated under both,a very peculiar phenomenon.If one looks at the state of the Mandate of Heaven as a whole,it can be seen that the Western Zhou tradition of revering the Mandate of Heaven with the protection of human affairs was still current in the Spring and Autumn Period and that the Warring States concept of rule by virtue was a continuation of this tradition and a direct source of the ideology of subsequent centralized and unified dynasties.