两汉帝王降生神话的历史书写

The Historical Writing of the Birth Myth of Emperors in the Two Han Dynasties

两汉处于圣王神话向政治神话转变的孕育期,降生神话成为帝王继位是否正统的验证标准之一。由于汉政权以武力得天下的历史事实,已经不符合先秦受命神话的解释体系,因此史家在书写过程中除了需要神化两汉帝王的降生和出身外,还需凸显他们继位合法性和正统性的政治意义。故史家在书写两汉帝王神话时,除继承先秦圣王神话的叙事模式外,还融入了祥瑞象征物、神话见证者和梦境等新要素,并逐步形成固定范式。两汉帝王降生神话叙事模式的形成,既体现了先秦以来天命观念和阴阳五行学说的影响,也反映了两汉灾异祥瑞思想的发展与兴盛,是特定时代历史文化情境下的产物。

As the two Han Dynasties period when the myth of the holy king turned into the political myth,the birth myth began to become one of the verification criteria for the orthodoxy of imperial succession.Since the historical fact that the Han regime took the throne by force didn’t accord with the interpretation system of the mandate myth from pre-Qin period any more,historians needed to deify the birth and family background of the Han emperors in the process of writing,and to highlight the political significance of their legitimacy and orthodoxy of succession as well.Therefore,when historians wrote the myth of the emperors in the two Han Dynasties,they inherited the previ⁃ous generation and integrated new elements,such as auspicious symbols,mythological witnesses and dreams,and gradually formed fixed paradigms.The formation of the narrative mode of the birth of emperors in the two Han Dy⁃nasties not only reflects the influence of the conception of the destiny of heaven and the theory of Yin-yang and five elements since the pre-Qin Dynasty,but also reflects the development and prosperity of the thought of disaster and auspicence in the two Han Dynasties,which is the product of The Times under the specific historical and cultural situation.