1. Seidel, Anna, “Kokuhō. Note à propos du terme ‘trésor national’ en Chine et au Japon,” Bulletin de l’École française d'Extrême-Orient 69 (1981), 229–61Google Scholar; Seidel, Anna, “Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments: Taoist Roots in the Apocrypha,” in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R.A. Stein, vol. 2, ed. Strickmann, Michel (Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1983), 291–371Google Scholar.

2. The formula, aptly coined, is quoted from p. 569 of Lewis, Mark Edward, “The Mythology of Early China,” in Early Chinese Religion. Part One: Shang through Han (1250 BC–220 AD), ed. Lagerwey, John and Kalinowski, Marc (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008), 543–94Google Scholar.

3. Examples include Wang, Yujin 王玉金 and Li Jian 李建, “Henan Nanyang Han hua yu Han dai chenwei mixin sixiang” 河南南陽漢畫與漢代讖緯迷信思想, Nandu xuetan 南都學壇 14 (1994), 6–11Google Scholar; Zhou, Shan 周山, “Chenwei yu xiandai mixin” 讖緯與現代迷信, Shehui kexue luntan 社會科學論壇 2000.7, 52–54Google Scholar; and Qing, Zijin 青子衿, “Bei Song huangdi de chenwei mixin” 北宋皇帝的讖緯迷信, Wenshi zazhi 文史雜誌 149 (2010), 75–78Google Scholar.

4. Cheng, Anne, Histoire de la pensée chinoise (Paris: Seuil, 1997), 308Google Scholar.

5. To my knowledge, there is no comprehensive, up-to-date bibliography on this literature; references to Chinese and Japanese studies may be found in Shin'i shisō no sōgōteki kenkyū 讖緯思想の総合的研究, ed. Yasui, Kōzan 安居香山 (Tokyo: Kokusho, 1984), 427–39 (210 items)Google Scholar; Jingxue yanjiu lunzhu mulu (1912–1987) 經學研究論著目錄, ed. Lin, Qingzhang 林慶彰 (Taipei: Center for Chinese Studies, 1989), 821–26 (84 items)Google Scholar; Jingxue yanjiu lunzhu mulu (1988–1992), ed. Lin, Qingzhang (Taipei: Center for Chinese Studies, 1995), 1123–38 (188 items)Google Scholar; Jingxue yanjiu lunzhu mulu (1993–1997), ed. Lin, Qingzhang and Chen, Hengsong 陳恆嵩 (Taipei: Center for Chinese Studies, 2002), 1387–1401 (177 items)Google Scholar; Liang Han zhuzi yanjiu lunzhu mulu 1912–1996 兩漢諸子研究論著目錄, ed. Chen Ligui 陳麗桂 (Taipei: Center for Chinese Studies, 1998), 495–516 (278 items)Google Scholar; Liang Han zhuzi yanjiu lunzhu mulu 1997–2001, ed. Chen, Ligui (Taipei: Center for Chinese Studies, 2003), 248–55 (86 items)Google Scholar; Liang Han zhuzi yanjiu lunzhu mulu 2002–2009, ed. Chen, Ligui (Taipei: Center for Chinese Studies, 2010), 219–26 (121 items)Google Scholar.

6. This section is a chronological introduction dealing with terminology. For historical introductions, Western readers may consult Jack L. Dull, “A Historical Introduction to the Apocryphal (Ch'an-wei) Texts of the Han Dynasty,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington (Seattle, 1966), 1–445; Seidel, “Imperial Treasures,” 291–323; Lippiello, Tiziana, Auspicious Omens and Miracles in Ancient China: Han, Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties, Monumenta Serica Monograph Series no. 39 (Sankt Augustin, 2001), 40–65Google Scholar; Zongli, Lu, Power of the Words: Chen Prophecy in Chinese Politics AD 265–618 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2003), 12–30Google Scholar; Licia Di Giacinto, “By Chance of History: The Apocrypha under the Han,” Ph.D. dissertation, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Bochum, 2007), 1–51. I thank Timothy D. Baker for drawing my attention to the latter work.

7. Huainan honglie jijie 淮南鴻烈集解, ed. Liu, Wendian 劉文典 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1989)Google Scholar, 531 (“Shuoshan xun” 說山訓 16): “六畜生多耳目者不祥, 讖書著之”; translation in Major, John S., Queen, Sarah A., Meyer, Andrew Seth, and Roth, Harold D., The Huainanzi: Liu An, King of Huainan: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 638Google Scholar: “If one of the six domestic animals is born with an additional ear or eye, it is unlucky, [but] it is recorded in the books of omens.” For the date of this source, see Le Blanc, Charles, “Huai nan tzu 淮南子,” in Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, ed. Loewe, Michael, Early China Special Monograph Series no. 2 (Berkeley, 1993), 189–95Google Scholar.

8. Ban, Gu 班固 (32–92 c.e.) et al., Han shu (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1962)Google Scholar, 58.2613–14. Both titles actually refer to different documents depending on the sources and context; see Robinet, Isabelle, “Hetu and Luoshu 河圖 洛書,” in The Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. Pregadio, Fabrizio (London: Routledge, 2008), 483–85Google Scholar; Bent Nielsen, A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology: Chinese Studies of Images and Numbers from Han 漢 (202 BCE–220 CE) to Song 宋 (960–1279 CE) (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), 103–5 and 169–71.

9. Shi ji (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1959)Google Scholar, 6.252; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, vol. 1: The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China by Ssu-ma Ch'ien, ed. Nienhauser, William H. Jr. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994)Google Scholar, 145: “prophetic graphs and writings.”

10. For instance, Shi ji, 53.2014.

11. Han shu, 30.1765.

12. See pp. 240–42 of Nylan, Michael, “Textual Authority in Pre-Han and Han,” Early China 25 (2000), 205–58Google Scholar.

13. Han shu, 11.340 and 75.3192–93. For a detailed account of the event, see Kandel, Barbara, Taiping jing: The Origin and Transmission of the ‘Scripture on General Welfare’—The History of an Unofficial Text, Ostasiatische Gesellschaft monograph (Hamburg, 1979), 3–23Google Scholar.

14. Han shu, 99A.4093–94; translation in Dubs, Homer H., The History of the Former Han Dynasty by Pan Ku (Baltimore: Waverly Press, 1938)Google Scholar, 3:251.

15. Han shu, 99B.4112–14 and 4116; translation in Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 3:288–89. Following Dubs, Dull first translates the phrase as a book title (“A Historical Introduction,” 160: “The Mandate of Heaven Made Known by Tallies”), then suggests that its meaning was later “commands revealed through tallies” (p. 164), a category of esoteric documents. Indeed the phrase appears quite often in the chapters of the Book of the Han (99A–C) devoted to Wang Mang, in the compiler's own wording as well as in quotations of original material, the earliest datable one being perhaps a response by Wang Mang to a petition dated 10 c.e.; see Han shu, 99B.4119–20; translation in Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 3:303–4: “mandate [given by] portents.”

16. des Rotours, Robert, “Les insignes en deux parties (fou 符) sous la dynastie des T'ang (618–907),” T'oung Pao 41.1–3 (1952), 1–148Google Scholar; Bumbacher, Stephan Peter, Empowered Writing: Exorcistic and Apotropaic Rituals in Medieval China (St. Petersburg: Three Pines Press, 2012), 13–32Google Scholar.

17. Han shu, 99B.4122; translation in Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 3:284, 307–8.

18. Dull, “A Historical Introduction,” 186.

19. Letter transcribed in Fan, Ye 范曄 (398–445), Hou Han shu (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1965)Google Scholar, 30A.1041–46 (see 1043 and 1046). Tuchen sometimes refers to the River Chart.

20. Prayer transcribed in Hou Han shu, 1.22, and Hou Han shu, zhi, 7.3157–58.

21. “天下事吾欲以讖決之.” See Yuan, Hong 袁宏 (330–78), Hou Han ji 後漢紀 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2002)Google Scholar, 6.148 and 8.233; Dongguan Han ji 東觀漢記 (Siku quanshu 四庫全書 ed.), 14.535. The latter source was compiled in five installments between 72 and 225 but the extant edition is a eighteenth-century reconstruction; see Hans Bielenstein and Michael Loewe, “Tung kuan Han chi 東觀漢記,” in Early Chinese Texts, ed. Loewe, 471–72.

22. Hou Han shu, 1B.84.

23. Hou Han shu, zhi, 7.3166. The paternity of this treatise is examined in Mansvelt Beck, B.J., The Treatises of Later Han: Their Author, Sources, Contents and Place in Chinese Historiography (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 94–97Google Scholar. A later occurrence in the body text (completed 445) is understood as being a simplified rendition of “Five Classics and prediction records,” or “records of predictions [based on, or from] the Five Classics” (wujing chenji 五經讖記); see Hou Han shu, 35.1203.

24. Dull, “A Historical Introduction,” 89–90. On Jing Fang, see Nielsen, A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology, 129–32.

25. Zheng Jiewen 鄭杰文, “Qi pai jinwen jingxue yu chenwei guanxi de chubu kaocha” 齊派今文經學與讖緯關係的初步考察, Qi Lu xuekan 齊魯學刊 2003.5, 17–20. However, the so-called Current Script/Ancient Script (guwen 古文) controversy is a Qing academic conflict retrospectively set in Han context; both were rather “two poles between which a great variety of opinions was possible,” quoting p. 62 of van Ess, Hans, “The Apocryphal Texts of the Han Dynasty and the Old Text/New Text Controversy,” T'oung Pao 85.1–3 (1999), 29–64Google Scholar.

26. Han shu, 75.3179. See Huang, Fushan 黃復山, Han dai Shang shu chenwei xueshu 漢代尚書讖緯學述 (Taipei: Hua-Mu-Lan, 2007), 58–60Google Scholar.

27. Lun heng (Siku quanshu ed.), 26.3a–b (“Shi zhi” 實知 26.78); translated in Forke, Alfred, Lun-Hêng. Part II: Miscellaneous Essays of Wang Ch'ung (1911; reprint ed. New York: Paragon Book Gallery, 1962)Google Scholar, 117, “prophecy books and other mystic writings.” On Wang Chong's ambivalent attitude towards predictions, see Wu, Congxiang 吳從祥, “Cong Lun heng kan Wang Chong yu chenwei zhi guanxi” 從論衡看王充與讖緯之關係, Xinan jiaotong daxue xuebao 西南交通大學學報 2010.1, 119–24, 129Google Scholar.

28. In particular by Huang Fushan, Han dai Shang shu chenwei xueshu, 66–71. For Zheng Xuan's biography, see Hou Han shu, 35.1207–13.

29. For instance, by the warlord Sun Ce 孫策 (175–200) in a letter of reprimand to Yuan Shu 袁術 (d. 199), composed c. 196 and transcribed in Hou Han shu, 75.2441.

30. Ge, Hong 葛洪 (283–343), Baopu zi neipian jiaoshi (zengding ben) 抱朴子內篇校釋 (增訂本), ed. Wang Ming 王明 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1985)Google Scholar, 2.21 (“Lun xian” 論仙); translated in Ware, James R., Alchemy, Medicine, Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung (Pao-p'u tzu) (Cambridge, Mass., and London: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1966)Google Scholar, 50: “divinatory texts”.

31. In the treatise on “Astronomy” (“Tianwen”), compiled circa 439 by He Chengtian 何承天 (370–447) and later edited for inclusion in the Song shu 宋書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1974), 23.678; and in Xu Mao's 許懋 (464–532) advice to the throne, dated 502 or soon after, where “weft writings” and “orthodox Classics” (zhengjing 正經) are opposed; see Yao, Cha 姚察 (533–606) and Yao, Silian 姚思廉 (d. 637), Liang shu 梁書, completed 636 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1973)Google Scholar, 40.575.

32. Wei, Zheng 魏徵 (580–643), Sui shu (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1973)Google Scholar, treatise on “Bibliography” (“Jingji” 經籍), 32.940–41; see Dull, “A Historical Introduction,” Appendix I, 478–79. This treatise was probably compiled by Yan Shigu 顏師古 (581–645), under the supervision of Linghu Defen 令狐德棻 (583–666), then Zhangsun Wuji 長孫無忌 (594–659), rather than by Wei Zheng (as assumed by Di Giacinto, “By Chance of History,” 34–36), who did supervise the compilation of chronicles and biographies but left the scene soon after the compilation of the treatises began; see Zhu, Wentao 朱文濤, “Sui shu ‘Jingji zhi’ zuozhe bianzheng” 隋書經籍志作者辯證, Guilin shifan gaodeng zhuanke xuexiao xuebao 桂林師範高等專科學校學報 2008.1, 34, 47Google Scholar.

33. According to Dull, “A Historical Introduction,” 405–6, the earliest proscription of weft literature “occurred within the last five years of the [Eastern] Han dynasty”—before 217. Zeng Dexiong 曾德雄, “Chenwei de jinjue yu jiyi” 讖緯的禁絕與輯佚, Yunmeng xuekan 雲夢學刊 2011.5, 58–66, lists records of governmental proscriptions in 267 (see n.211 below), 375, 444, 485, 457–64, 502–19, 593, 767, 976, 1004, 1055, 1273, 1284, and 1373. Compare Lu, Power of the Words, 39–70, for a focus on the early medieval era.

34. The first edition, entirely handwritten and published between 1959 and 1964 by the Kan Gi bunka kenkyūkai (Tokyo), included many erroneous characters. It was revised, fully typeset, and republished as Jūshū Isho shūsei 重修緯書集成 from 1971 to 1992 (Tokyo: Meitoku) in 6 volumes. Following Yasui's demise in 1989, Nakamura became the sole editor of the tome published last (vol. 4B).

35. See Isho no kisoteki kenkyū 緯書の基礎的研究, ed. Yasui, Kōzan and Nakamura, Shōhachi (Tokyo: Kokusho, 1966), 37Google Scholar.

36. Before the compilation of the Japanese critical edition, Chen Pan 陳槃 (1905–99) began discussing the titles of a selection of Weft texts in a series of papers published in issues of the Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica (Zhongyang yanjiuyuan Lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan 中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊) spanning forty years (1948–88). These papers were revised and republished as a book under the title Gu chenwei yantao ji qi shulu jieti 古讖緯研討及其書錄解題 (Taipei: National Institute for Compilation and Translation, 1991). Chen's pioneering work was introduced to the Western audience by Kaltenmark, Max (1910–2002) in his review article “Les Tch'an-wei,” Han-Hiue: Bulletin du Centre d’Études Sinologiques de Pékin 2.4 (1949), 363–73Google Scholar. For further elements of modern and contemporary historiography, see Di Giacinto, “By Chance of History,” 52–59.

37. Nielsen, A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology, 304, renders this title as “Chiseling Open the Regularity of Qian (Heaven).” The most complete account of this source in a Western language is Bent Nielsen, “The Qian zuo du. A Late Han Dynasty (202 BC–AD 220) Study of the Book of Changes, Yijing,” Ph.D. dissertation, Københavns Universitet (Copenhagen, 1995). I am indebted to B. Nielsen for kindly providing me with a copy of his work. Numbers between square brackets refer to the Appendix below.

38. For a discussion of the date of the Qian zuodu, see Nielsen, “The Qian zuo du,” 21–23.

39. Qian zuodu, Chapter 1, in Jūshū Isho shūsei, 1A:20 (“Eki” 易 I).

40. Zhuangzi (4th–2nd cent. b.c.e.), partly by Zhuang, Zhou 莊周 (c. 370–301 b.c.e.), “Tiandao” 天道 13, “夫天地至神, 而有尊卑先後之序, 而況人道乎” (Zhuangzi zhuzi suoyin 莊子逐字索引, Institute for Chinese Studies Concordance [Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 2000], 13/35/17)Google Scholar; translation in Graham, Angus C., Chuang-Tzŭ: The Seven Inner Chapters and Other Writings from the Book Chuang-Tzŭ (London: Allen & Unwin, 1981)Google Scholar, 261: “Heaven and earth are supremely daemonic yet have sequences of the exalted and the lowly, the first and the last, how much more the Way of Man!” According to Graham, Chuang-Tzŭ, 28 and 257–58, this passage belongs to a textual stratum authored by a group of “Syncretists” who also compiled the received edition of the text during the second century b.c.e.

41. The numbered abbreviations S and B refer to the sequence of the ten Heavenly Stems (tiangan 天干) and twelve Earthly Branches (dizhi 地支) respectively: S1 means “first Heavenly Stem,” etc. According to the post-celestial (houtian 後天) order, the trigram Qian (Heaven/pure Yang) is situated in the North-West, where hai 亥 (B12) is also located, while the trigram Kun (Earth/pure Yin) is situated in the South-West, the location of wei 未 (B8). In the pre-celestial (xiantian 先天) order, these trigrams are situated in the South and the North; see Nielsen, A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology, 107–10, 264–68.

42. Qian zuodu, Chapter 1, in Jūshū Isho shūsei, 1A:23.

43. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 1A:32.

44. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 1A:32. Except for the fourth rank, the English renderings are from Hucker, Charles O., A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985)Google Scholar, 399 (no. 4871), 465 (no. 5939), 533 (no. 7139), and 596 (no. 8237).

45. The pre-imperial dates given in this article follow The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins to 221 B.C., ed. Loewe, Michael and Shaughnessy, Edward L. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)Google Scholar, 25, Table 1.

46. Nielsen, A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology, 304, describes the extant Regulations Chiseled by Qian as “[suffering] from lacunae, interpolations, and dislocations of words and fragments. A large portion of the text in the beginning of the second [chapter] is a verbatim repetition of paragraphs scattered throughout the first [chapter] and is probably only included because the identical passages have different commentaries.”

47. On this method, see Jiang, Wanling 江婉玲, Yiwei shi Yi kao 易緯釋易考 (Taipei: Hua-Mu-Lan, 2010), 159–70Google Scholar; and Shi, Shaobo 史少博, “Qian zuodu de ‘guaqi’ shuo” 乾鑿度的卦氣說, Dezhou xueyuan xuebao 德州學院學報 2003.5, 28–31Google Scholar. Qi 氣, mostly rendered as “vapor,” “breath” or “energy” in English, designates the basic metaphysical constituent of all things, as well as any particularized form of the cosmic materia prima; see Libbrecht, Ulrich, “Prāna = pneuma = ch'i?,” in Thought and Law in Qin and Han China: Studies Dedicated to Anthony Hulsewé on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday, ed. Idema, Wilt L. and Zürcher, Erik (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 42–62Google Scholar.

48. See Nielsen, A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology, 177–78.

49. Qian zuodu, Chapter 2, in Jūshū Isho shūsei, 1A:49 (“三百六十五日四分日之一”).

50. Although the text reads tianwang 天王, literally “heavenly king,” the passage previously quoted and the hierarchical logic both point to a corruption of yuanshi 元士. Tianwang, which refers to the Zhou king in the Spring and Autumn (Chun qiu 春秋) chronicle of the state of Lu 魯 (10th. cent.–256 b.c.e.), would become “an indirect reference to an Emperor” in imperial times (Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 510, no. 6723).

51. Zheng Xuan's commentary on the passage confirms that bi 辟 designates “the son of Heaven” (Qian zuodu, Chapter 2, in Jūshū Isho shūsei, 1A:50: “辟, 天子也”).

52. Yaoci 爻辭, the formula encapsulating the meaning of each line of the hexagrams.

53. Qian zuodu, Chapter 2, in Jūshū Isho shūsei, 1A:50. In addition to the four entries referred to in a preceding note, see Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 173, no. 1255.

54. See Nielsen, Bent, “Calculating the Fall of a Dynasty: Divination Based on the Qian zuo du,” Zhouyi Studies (English Version) 6.1 (2009/2010), 65–107Google Scholar. In addition to his masterful elucidation of the intricate mathematical operations involved in the calendar speculations of this weft text, Nielsen addresses several instances of textual corruption and criticizes the opinions professed by major post-Han and contemporary scholars of the Changes.

55. Nielsen, A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology, 307, renders this title as “Consultation Charts” and describes its contents as dealing with “a great variety of topics related to divination and various correlations of the hexagrams with directions, numbers, etc.”

56. Fung, Yu-lan, A History of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 2, The Period of Classical Learning (from the Second Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.), translated by Bodde, Derk (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953), 106–9Google Scholar.

57. Liu, Bin 劉彬 and Wang Min 王敏, “Yiwei jilan tu ‘yi yao zhi yi ri’ guaqi shu kao” 易緯稽覽圖一爻直一日卦氣術考, Zhou Yi yanjiu 周易研究 2005.5, 30–36Google Scholar. On Jiao Yanshou, see Nielsen, A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology, 126.

58. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 176, no. 1296.

59. Aihe, Wang, Cosmology and Political Culture in Early China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 210–12Google Scholar.

60. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 3:96 (“Shi – Rai – Gaku” 詩・禮・樂), 5th dotted item.

61. Dou 斗, here for Beidou 北斗 (Northern Dipper), the asterism composed of the seven brightest stars of the constellation Ursa Major. Due to its circumpolar location, the Northern Dipper seems, for a terrestrial observer situated in the northern hemisphere, to rotate at night around the Polar Star. The successive directions its “handle” points at during this rotation are used as markers with cosmological, calendar, and predictive purposes.

62. Jixing 極星, the apparent axis of the nightly rotation of the starry sky. Due to Earth's precession and the proper motion of stars, the choice of a Polar Star varied through historical periods; for ancient China, see de Saussure, Léopold, “Les Origines de l'astronomie chinoise. H: Les anciennes étoiles polaires,” T'oung Pao 20 (1921), 86–116Google Scholar; Ōsaki, Shōji 大崎正次, Chūgoku no seiza no rekishi 中國の星座の歷史 (Tokyo: Yūzankaku, 1987), 210–18Google Scholar.

63. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 5:114 (“Kōkyō – Rongo” 孝經・論語), 5th dotted item.

64. On the problematic date of this document, see Loewe, Michael, A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods (221 BC–AD 24) (Leyden: Brill, 2000), 126Google Scholar.

65. Baixing 百姓, which may also refer to the officialdom as a whole.

66. Xing 形, the perceptible bodily form; see p. 14 of Sivin, Nathan, “State, Cosmos, and Body in the Last Three Centuries B.C.,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 55.1 (1995), 5–37Google Scholar.

67. The southern outer suburb of the capital was the location of an important state cult to Heaven, which Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 (198/179–118/104 b.c.e.) claimed to revive, but probably created as part of a religious reform, and failed to convince Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty to perform; see Bujard, Marianne, Le sacrifice au Ciel dans la Chine ancienne: Théorie et pratique sous les Han occidentaux (Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 2000)Google Scholar. For Dong Zhongshu's dates, see Bujard, , “La vie de Dong Zhongshu: Énigmes et hypothèses,” Journal Asiatique 280.1–2 (1992), 145–217Google Scholar.

68. Han shu, 58.2616.

69. For the meaning of this text title, see Huang Guozhen 黃國禎, Dong Zhongshu Chunqiu fanlu yu weishu Chun qiu wei zhi guanxi yanjiu 董仲舒春秋繁露與緯書春秋緯之關係研究 (Taipei: Hua-Mu-Lan, 2009), 58.

70. Ji heng 璣衡, literally “the Armillary Sphere and the Beam”: the first four (the “bowl”) and last three stars (the “handle”) of the Northern Dipper, and a synecdoche for the entire asterism.

71. The sun, moon, and five planets.

72. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:183 (“Shun jū” 春秋 I), 2nd dotted item.

73. I use “verdant” to render cang 蒼, in order to distinguish it from qing 青, which I render as “green,” and lü 綠, “emerald.” In the Five Agents system, all three colors correspond to the Wood agent and its correlates.

74. Twenty-eight naturally seems to echo the number of solar lodges, or mansions (xiu 宿). The underlying logic of the passage, however, is quinary, and this is why “Dipper” (Dou 斗) here refers to the Northern Dipper—the circumpolar constellation—rather than to the first lodge of the northern quadrant (L8). This is confirmed by the commentary attached to the fragment.

75. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:186, 7th dotted item. “L” and the ensuing number refer to the sequence of the twenty-eight lodges, divided into four groups of seven lodges, each group corresponding to a quadrant, following the sequence East, North, West, and South. The Wing (L27) is the penultimate lodge of the southern quadrant, whose acronyc rising announces the last lunation of summer; Triaster (L21), the last lodge of the western quadrant, whose heliac setting marks the beginning of autumn and which probably remained visible throughout autumn; the Tumulus (L11), the central lodge of the northern quadrant, corresponding to the winter solstice, and the Chamber (L4), the central lodge of the eastern quadrant, to the vernal equinox. See Schlegel, Gustave, Uranographie chinoise (Leiden: Brill, 1875), 113–38Google Scholar, 214–33, 391–403, 466–77.

76. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:186, 7th dotted item, commentary. In view of the context, wuxing 五星 seems to refer to the five lodges just mentioned rather than to the “five planets”—Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter. All the prestigious figures named in this fragment return in the next sections of this article.

77. The earliest of the half dozen sources quoting Ban Biao's essay in full seems to be Xun Yue's 荀悅 (148–209) Han ji 漢紀 (200 c.e.) (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2002), 30.310–11; translation in Sources of Chinese Tradition, ed. de Bary, W. Theodore, Chan, Wing-tsit and Watson, Burton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960), 193–96Google Scholar. Disregard for weft material probably explains, at least in part, why the importance of this short text has been overestimated somewhat; indeed, its translation was removed from later editions of the Sources of Chinese Tradition. For a fair assessment, see Loewe, Michael, “The concept of sovereignty,” in The Cambridge History of China. Volume I: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C.–A.D. 220, ed. Twitchett, Denis and Fairbank, John K. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 726–46Google Scholar (“The Mandate of Heaven: Pan Piao's Essay,” 735–37).

78. Translation from Sources of Chinese Tradition, 194.

79. On the semantic richness of this title, see Yin, Shanpei 殷善培, Chenwei sixiang yanjiu 讖緯思想研究 (Taipei: Hua-Mu-Lan, 2008), 122–23Google Scholar.

80. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:57, 2nd dotted item. I amend characters following a similar passage from He Xiu's 何休 (129–82 c.e.) commentary on the Gongyang 公羊 tradition of the Spring and Autumn; see Chun qiu Gongyang zhuan zhushu 春秋公羊傳注疏 (Beijing: Beijing daxue, 2000)Google Scholar, 1.12a. In He Xiu's commentary, the passage is part of a lengthy discussion of the Five Beginnings (wushi 五始); on which, see below.

81. Gai zhengshuo 改正朔, literally “change the normative lunation,” the first day of the first lunation.

82. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:53, 4th dotted item. The correction is suggested by a variant reading of the fragment indicated by the Japanese editors in a marginal note on the same page.

83. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:56, 4th dotted item.

84. Shi ji, 8.393–94.

85. Zeng, Dexiong 曾德雄, “Chenwei zhong de diwang shixi ji shouming” 讖緯中的帝王世系及受命, Wenshizhe 文史哲 2006.1, 37–46Google Scholar.

86. Xu, Shunzhan 許順湛, “Sanhuang wudi jiedu” 三皇五帝解讀, Chongqing wenli xueyuan xuebao 重慶文理學院學報 2011.6, 1–8Google Scholar, invites us to understand mythical figures prior to the Xia dynasty as being personifications of names of tribes or nations. Kwang-chih, Chang, “China on the Eve of the Historical Period,” in The Cambridge History of Ancient China, ed. Loewe and Shaughnessy, 37–73Google Scholar, stresses that archaeological evidence proves the existence of a Xia dynasty. According to Keightley, David N., “The Shang: China's First Historical Dynasty,” in The Cambridge History of Ancient China, ed. Loewe and Shaughnessy, 232–91Google Scholar, the first period for which historical materials exist is the Shang/Yin dynasty.

87. Variants of the group called “Three August Ones” combines seven figures—Fu Xi, Nü Wa 女媧, Shen Nong 神農, Zhu Rong 祝融, Sui Ren 燧人, Gong Gong 共工, and Huang Di 黃帝. See Xu Shunzhan, “Sanhuang wudi jiedu,” 1–4. Chang, “China on the Eve of the Historical Period,” 70, calls them “demigods”.

88. Zhonghou 中候 does not refer here to the homonymous official title rendered as “Watch Officer” in Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 190, no. 1558. See also Zhang, Jiazi 張甲子, “Shang shu zhonghou tiyi kao” 尚書中候題意考, Henan keji daxue xuebao 河南科技大學學報 2010.3, 14–17Google Scholar.

89. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:73 (“Sho – Chūkō” 書・中候), 3rd dotted item.

90. Variants of this group also combine seven figures: Huang Di, Shao Hao 少昊, Zhuan Xu 顓頊, Ku 嚳, Yao, Shun, and Yu (who is generally given as the first king of the Xia dynasty); see Xu Shunzhan, “Sanhuang wudi jiedu,” 4–8. Chang, “China on the Eve of the Historical Period,” 70, refers to this group as “legendary kings”.

91. Di Xuan 帝軒. The name of the Yellow Emperor is Xuan Yuan 軒轅.

92. Ji 機, variant of Ji 璣, for Douji 斗璣 (Armillary Sphere of the Dipper) or Tianji 天璣 (Armillary Sphere of Heaven): Phecda (γ UMa), the third star of the Northern Dipper (Beidou), and by metonymy the whole parent constellation.

93. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:73, 4th dotted item. The correction is suggested by the common depiction of the River Chart and Luo Writ in other fragments and sources.

94. Song shu, 27.761; translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 269. For a typological analysis of the first such treatise in the corpus of dynastic histories (872 instances organized into 94 types), see Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 122–49.

95. Zhushu jinian (Sibu congkan 四部叢刊 ed.), 1.2b, commentary; translation in Nivison, David S., The Riddle of the Bamboo Annals (Taipei: Airiti, 2009)Google Scholar, 130. The received Annals include different strata of commentary, one of which is explicitly ascribed to none other than Shen Yue 沈約 (441–513), compiler of the treatise on “Auspicious Phenomena as Tokens” and editor of the received Book of the Song. The original Annals had reportedly suffered substantial degradation at the hands of tomb robbers. Since all extant editions date to the Ming 明 dynasty (1368–1644) at the earliest, they are sometimes regarded as the product of a late forgery postdating the loss of the original material; see Nivison, David S., “Chu shu chi nien 竹書紀年,” in Early Chinese Texts, ed. Loewe, 39–47Google Scholar.

96. On the Yellow Emperor as ruler of the center, see Lewis, Mark Edward, Sanctioned Violence in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 188–92Google Scholar; Csikszentmihalyi, Mark, “Reimagining the Yellow Emperor's Four Faces,” in Text and Ritual in Early China, ed. Kern, Martin (Seattle: University of Washington, 2005), 226–48Google Scholar.

97. Huainan honglie jijie, ed. Liu Wendian, 88: “中央, 土也. 其帝黃帝 … 其神爲鎮星”; translation in Major et al., The Huainanzi, 118: “The Center is Earth. Its God is the Yellow Emperor… . His spirit is Quelling Star [Saturn]”.

98. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:27, first dotted item: “風皇銜圖置帝前, 黃帝再拜受.”

99. This may be read as a definition of yuanqi 元氣 (“primordial pneuma”), the materia prima in ancient Chinese cosmology and metaphysics.

100. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:41, 6th dotted item. Similar fragments with minor variants are attributed to a Spring and Autumn Weft (Chun qiu wei 春秋緯)—probably an unspecified weft of the Chun qiu—in Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4B:135 (“Shun jū” II), 2nd and 5th dotted items.

101. “元年, 春, 王正月, 公即位”; translated in Legge, James, The Chinese Classics, Vol. V–Part II: The Ch‘un Ts‘ew, With the Tso Chuen (London: Trübner, 1872)Google Scholar, 412: “In his first year, in spring, in the king's first month, the duke came to the [vacant] seat.”

102. Huang Guozhen, Dong Zhongshu Chunqiu fanlu yu weishu Chun qiu wei, 65–66.

103. Shou shan 首山, in modern Shanxi.

104. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 5:130, 6th dotted item (7th dotted item for the variant). I amend misprinted characters in the Japanese edition following the reading of the original quotation in Qutan Xida's 瞿曇悉達 [Gautama Siddha] Kaiyuan zhanjing 開元占經, circa 715–20 (Siku quanshu ed.), 72.10b–11a. In ancient times, the central lodge of the western quadrant, the Solar Door (L18) was probably on the path of the setting sun on the day of the autumnal equinox; see Schlegel, Uranographie chinoise, 351–56.

105. A variant of the fragment ends with Yao recognizing Shun as his successor. See Huang Fushan, Han dai Shang shu chenwei xueshu, 160, box no. 81.

106. Zhushu jinian, 1.6a, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 130); Song shu, 27.762 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 271).

107. Shi ji, 1.14–15; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 6.

108. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:76, 2nd dotted item: “帝堯即政七十載, 景星出翼.” As we have learned from a Chun qiu ganjing fu fragment, Yao was correlated with the penultimate lodge of the southern quadrant.

109. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:76, 5th item. All five reported phenomena are auspicious signs.

110. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:76, 6th item. Compare Zhushu jinian, 1.6a, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 130) and Song shu, 27.762 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 271–72).

111. Shuowen jiezi (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1963)Google Scholar, 289b. For the date of this text, see William G. Boltz, “Shuo wen chieh tzu 說文解字,” in Early Chinese Texts, ed. Loewe, 429–42.

112. The key to interpreting the successive orientations of the Northern Dipper during the course of its apparent rotation.

113. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:75, first item.

114. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 485, no. 6260.

115. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:28, 3rd dotted item: “堯坐中舟與太尉舜臨觀, 風皇負圖授.”

116. Tang Di 唐帝. Yao's clan name is Tao Tang 陶唐.

117. Yao's full surname is Yi Qi 伊祁.

118. You 右 is probably a corrupted tai 太. There is no youwei 右尉 in Hucker's Dictionary.

119. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:28, 4th dotted item. Four erroneous characters in the Japanese edition are corrected according to the original quotation in Kaiyuan zhanjing, 120.2a. My translation of the contents of the document attached to the coffer remains tentative.

120. For the meaning of this title, see Huang Guozhen, Dong Zhongshu Chunqiu fanlu yu weishu Chun qiu wei, 58.

121. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4B:11, 2nd dotted item. Compare Zhushu jinian, 1.4b, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 130) and Song shu, 27.761 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 270).

122. Shi ji, 2.49–51; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 21–22.

123. Shi ji, 1.44; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 16.

124. Yu's name is Wen Ming 文命 in Shi ji, 2.49; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 20.

125. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:79, 5th dotted item. My corrections are based on Yu's first-person narrative of the experience in another fragment of the same text, in Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:80, 2nd item. That other fragment reads “a hundred faces” (bai mian 百面) rather than “white face” (bai mian 白面). In yet another fragment (Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:80, 3rd item), the revelation takes places after Yu regulates the waters. Compare Zhushu jinian, 1.10a–b, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 134) and Song shu, 27.763 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 275).

126. See Kim, Stéphane Daeyeol, “Poisson et dragon: Symboles du véhicule entre l'ici-bas et l'au-delà,” Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie 14 (2004), 269–343CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

127. Nivison, David S., “The Key to the Chronology of the Three Dynasties: The ‘Modern Text’ Bamboo Annals,” Sino-Platonic Papers 93 (1999), 1–68Google Scholar, argues that Jie is an invention of the early Warring States 戰國 period (5th cent.–221 b.c.e.). Whether there ever existed a historical Jie or not is of little relevance for our purpose.

128. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:80, last dotted item.

129. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:81, 3rd dotted item: “殺關龍逢, [絕] 滅皇圖, (壤) [壞] 亂 [歷] 紀 (綱), 殘賊天下. 賢人逃 (日傷) [遁, 淫色慢易, 不事祖宗].” My corrections follow a slightly longer variant of the fragment, ascribed to another weft of the Classic of Documents, the Venerable Documents: Confirmation of the Imperial Mandate (Shang shu diming yan 尚書帝命驗) [no. 2], in Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:54, 6th dotted item.

130. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:81, first (“地吐黃霧”), 3rd (“天雨血”), and 4th (“山亡土崩”) items.

131. Shi ji, 3.105–8; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 49–52.

132. For an interpretation of the ten suns as reflecting a lost Shang/Yin cosmogonic myth, see Allan, Sarah, “Sons of Suns: Myth and Totemism in Early China,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 44.2 (1981), 290–326Google Scholar.

133. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:82, last item, marginalium: “殷紂時十日鬪, 雨土於亳, 紂焚國滅.” Zhou's palace had probably been set ablaze by King Wu's 武王 troops (on King Wu, see below); see The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 52n134.

134. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:83, first item: “紂末年雨石, 皆大如甕.”

135. In Shi ji, 3.106, Di Xin briefly imprisons Ji Chang, then releases him and makes him Count of the West (Xibo 西伯); translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 50.

136. Fenghao 豐鄗, the capital of the Zhou state, next to the river Feng 豐, in modern Henan.

137. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:83, 5th item. Compare Zhushu jinian, 2.1b–2a, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 150) and Song shu, 27.765 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 279).

138. Han shu, 99A.4078–79: “白石上圓下方, 有丹書著石, 文曰: 告安漢公莽爲皇帝.” The compiler adds: “Hence did ‘betokenings of the mandate’ begin to rise” 符命之起, 自此始矣; compare Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 3:218–19. Tseng, Lillian L., Picturing Heaven in Early China, Harvard East Asian Monographs no. 336 (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 2011)Google Scholar, 54, suggests that the “combined circle and square … were meant to create the illusion of Heaven's mandate.”

139. To whom a work on strategy is ascribed, the Liutao 六韜 or Taigong liutao 太公六韜, also known as the Taigong bingfa 太公兵法, in all likelihood a product of the late Warring States era; see Sawyer, Ralph D., The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China (New York: Basic Books, 2007), 35–37Google Scholar.

140. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:83, last item: “太公釣于磻溪, 夜夢北斗神告以伐紂之意.”

141. Tianji 田雞, which I take to be a place name but fail to identify. Parallel quotations omit the opening phrase.

142. Jiang Ziya belonged to the Lü 呂 clan, and his name was Shang 尚.

143. To Wang 望, “the Expected.”

144. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:83, 3rd item. The emendation follows a variant reading given in the marginalia. My translation of the contents of the engraving remains tentative. Jiang Ziya was made Duke of Qi (modern Shandong) by the first effective Zhou ruler, King Wu; Shi ji, 4.127, 128n12; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 63. Compare Zhushu jinian, 2.2a–b, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 150) and Song shu, 27.765 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 279).

145. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 225, no. 2205.

146. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:31, 3rd item: “西伯既得丹書, 於是稱王, 改正朔, 誅崇侯虎.” Hu was a vassal of Di Xin and his main collaborator. Di Xin had made him Marquis (Shi ji, 4.116–18; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 57–58). Ji Chang later conquered his domain.

147. San ren 三仁, relatives of Di Xin who served in his administration and remonstrated in vain with him: Bi Gan 比干, who was eventually executed; Jizi 箕子, who was imprisoned; and Weizi 微子, who fled, before submitting to King Wu, who granted him pardon.

148. Taizi 太子 (Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 484, no. 6239). That King Wen made his son Heir Apparent is seen by Zheng Xuan as reflecting the secure establishment of Zhou kingship. Wen was certainly prompted to do so because the last of the Shang/Yin was then still undefeated.

149. Near Luoyang in modern Henan, where, according to different accounts of the story, Fa/King Wu passed his Rubicon—meeting with the feudatories, proclaiming himself king, and launching the attack on Di Xin; see the sources quoted in Li, Fang 李昉 (925–96) et al., Taiping yulan 太平御覽 (977–84) (Shijiazhuang: Hebei Jiaoyu, 1994), 84.731–33Google Scholar.

150. See how exegetes debated the significance of this sentence in Chongkan Song ben shisan jing zhushu fu jiaokan ji 重刊宋本十三經註疏附校勘記, ed. Ruan Yuan 阮元 (1764–1849) (1815; rpt. Shanghai: Shijie, 1935), 721b–22a. A longer and clearer account of the story in Zhushu jinian, 2.3a, commentary, suggests that 五 is a mistake for 烏 and adds that “the stalk of grain was a recognition of the virtue of [Zhou ancestor] Hou Ji [后稷]” (quoting Nivison's translation in Riddle, 152); compare Song shu, 27.765 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 280).

151. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:84, 4th and 5th items (amended punctuation).

152. Li huo 火離. The trigram Li is correlated with fire (the natural phenomenon, not the Agent) and, in the post-celestial order, the South, which naturally accounts for the cinnabar red color of the writ transmitted by its manifestation. For the correlations of the trigram Li, see Nielsen, A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology, 145.

153. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4A:31, 4th item. The character insertion is suggested by a variant indicated in the marginal note.

154. Xianyang 咸陽, in present-day Shaanxi, would become the Qin capital in 350 B.C.E.

155. Gengwu 庚午 (S7/B7): the seventh day in the sexagesimal cycle, and an auspicious day.

156. Lu 籙: in the present occurrence as throughout the Han era, a political document revealed by Heaven to a founding emperor concerning his dynasty; later used in religious contexts to designate ritual registers; see Seidel, “Imperial Treasures,” 301.

157. The variant reading 穆 for 繆 is given in one of the sources referred to in a marginalium of the Japanese edition. In primary sources, both words are used to transcribe Duke Mu's name.

158. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:88, 6th item (citing two different sources).

159. For instance, Shi ji, 6.237–38; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 136.

160. The locus classicus of the Qin/Metal-Han/Fire paradigm is the story of the future founder of the Han dynasty Liu Bang's 劉邦 (r. 202–195 b.c.e.) killing of a white snake, accounts of which appear in Shi ji, 8.347 and 28.1378, and Han shu, 1A.7 and 25A.1210 (translation of the first Book of the Han account in Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 1:34–36). Pei Yin's 裴駰 (fl. 438 c.e.) fifth-century commentary on the first occurrence in the Records of the Historian quotes Ying Shao 應劭 (140–206 c.e.) as explaining that the earlier Qin/Water-Han/Soil paradigm was changed to Qin/Metal-Han/Fire under Emperor Guangwu (Shi ji, 8.347). This contrasts with the common assumption that the “mutual engendering” (xiangsheng 相生) theory had progressively supplanted the “mutual conquest” theory under the first Han and Wang Mang; hence the doubt cast upon the authenticity of the account, as reported on p. 65 of Loewe, Michael, “Water, Earth and Fire—the Symbols of the Han Dynasty,” Nachrichten der Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens 125 (1979), 63–68Google Scholar. See also my concluding section.

161. Huang Guozhen, Dong Zhongshu Chunqiu fanlu yu weishu Chun qiu wei, 60.

162. Name of a mountain, or a cave, in modern Shaanxi, where the Yellow Emperor reportedly received revelations. Here as in further fragments, the substitution of yuan 元 for xuan 玄 reflects Song and Qing dynasty character avoidances; for the Song case, see Zhang, Weixiang 張惟驤 (1883–1948), Lidai huizi pu 歷代諱字譜 (Xiaoshuangji'an congshu 小雙寂庵叢書 ed., 1932), 1.11b–12aGoogle Scholar; for the Qing case, see Vissière, M.A., “Traité des caractères chinois que l'on évite par respect,” Journal Asiatique (9th series) 18 (1901), 320–73Google Scholar.

163. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 4B:136, 6th dotted item.

164. A theme often discussed since the late imperial era; for a preliminary historiography, see Zhao, Bo 趙博, “Chenwei zhong Kongzi wei Han zhifa zhi shuo de yanjiu yu tantao” 讖緯中孔子爲漢制法之說的研究與探討, Nei Menggu nongye daxue xuebao 內蒙古農業大學學報 11.43 (2009), 284–87Google Scholar.

165. Zhushu jinian, 1.5b–6b, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 130); Song shu, 27.761–62 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 271).

166. Bi 璧, a jade disc with a central hole, assumed to symbolize Heaven. For specimens of this artifact unearthed in archeological context and a discussion of their funerary functions, see Tseng, Picturing Heaven in Early China, 107–9, 187–91.

167. The graph “雒” suggests a Han date; see Zhang Weixiang, Lidai huizi pu, 2.49a.

168. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:78, first item. Compare Zhushu jinian, 1.6b, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 130) and Song shu, 27.762 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 272).

169. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:79, 5th and 6th items combined: “舜沈璧于河, 榮光休至, 黃龍負卷舒圖出水壇畔, 赤文綠字也.” Compare Zhushu jinian, 1.9a, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 132) and Song shu, 27.763 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 274). In both instances, Shun is urged to abdicate in favor of Yu.

170. Generally identified with the Da Yi 大乙 mentioned in oracular inscriptions. However, the Shang/Yin chronology proposed in The Cambridge History of Ancient China begins with Wu Ding 武丁, who ruled until 1189 b.c.e.

171. Qiangfu 襁負, literally “carrying [goods] strapped on their back.”

172. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:82, 2nd dotted item. The amended punctuation is mine. This is the most complete of eight fragments all derived from the same passage. Compare Zhushu jinian, 1.21b, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 142) and Song shu, 27.764 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 276); Seidel, “Imperial Treasures,” 312.

173. Rawlins, Dennis and Pickering, Keith, “Astronomical Orientation of the Pyramids,” Nature 412 (2001), 699Google Scholar: “For more than a millennium after 2627 [b.c.e.], there was no star brighter than 10 Draconis nearer to the celestial pole.” On the pair formed by this star and Taiyi 太乙, alias Thuban (11 Dra), see Didier, John C., “In and Outside the Square: The Sky and the Power of Belief in Ancient China and the World, c. 4500 BC–AD 200. Volume I: The Ancient Eurasian World and the Celestial Pivot,” Sino-Platonic Papers 192 (2009), 1–301Google Scholar.

174. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:86, 5th dotted item.

175. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:86, 3rd dotted item.

176. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:86, 2nd (“成王觀於河, 沈璧, 禮畢且退. 至于日旴, 榮光幕河, 青雲浮洛, 赤龍臨壇, 銜 (元) [玄] 甲之圖”) and 3rd items (“成王觀于洛河, 沈璧. 禮畢, 王退俟, 至于日昧, 榮光併出幕河, 青雲浮洛, 青龍臨壇, 銜 (元) [玄] 甲之圖, 吐之而去”). The Song character avoidance already mentioned is confirmed by similar readings in Zhushu jinian, 2.6a, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 154) and Song shu, 27.765–66 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 281). The Zhushu jinian and Song shu versions clearly report two consecutive rites, one by the Yellow River and another one by the Luo. Both succeed in provoking the expected epiphany: a green dragon with a chart and a dark turtle with an engraved shell respectively. The signs on the turtle's shell vanish as the Duke of Zhou transcribes them and the beast leaves. The revelation concerns the tokens (fu) manifesting the rise and decline of all rulers down to the Qin and Han dynasties. Variants of the episode seem to ascribe the ritual performance to the Duke himself rather than to King Cheng; see Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:86, last item, and 87, first item.

177. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:87, 3rd–6th items. The last item includes a four-verse song by King Cheng; compare Zhushu jinian, 2.6a–b, commentary (translation in Nivison, Riddle, 154) and Song shu, 27.766 (translation in Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 280).

178. For the meaning of this title, see Huang Fushan, Han dai Shang shu chenwei xueshu, 230–31. “Numinous effulgent ones” (lingyao) refer to astral bodies and, by extension, the heavens.

179. The Records of the Historian gives the First Emperor's name as Zheng 政 and his surname as Zhao 趙. Sima Qian and later exegetes explain that the future First Emperor was born in the state of Zhao, where his father, King of Qin, lived as a hostage, and that both states—Qin and Zhao—had a common ancestry; see Shi ji, 6.223–24; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 127. During the Later Han and the Three Kingdoms 三國 (220–80) eras, it seems to have been customary to avoid mentioning Qin whenever referring to the First Emperor.

180. Zulong 祖龍, which is Qin Shihuang's postmortem designation in Shi ji, 6.259; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 151.

181. Jūshū Isho shūsei, 2:44, last dotted item.

182. Shi ji, 28.1366.

183. Pankenier, David W., “Astrological Origins of Chinese Dynastic Ideology,” Vistas in Astronomy 39 (1995), 503–16Google Scholar, shows how the quinary cycle retained the celestial localization of two of the stellar phenomena—the planetary clusters of 1576 and 1059 b.c.e.—interpreted as marking the founding of the Shang/Yin and the Zhou. In the third case, the Xia—planetary cluster of 1953 b.c.e.—the original celestial localization (North, agent Water) was abandoned in order to conform to the mutual conquest theory (East, agent Wood).

184. Loewe, “Water, Earth and Fire—the Symbols of the Han Dynasty.”

185. Jin, Dejian 金德建, “Lun Chunqiu fanlu shi weishu de qiyuan” 論春秋繁露是緯書的起源, Zhejiang xuekan 浙江學刊 3 (1986), 90–93Google Scholar.

186. For the authorship and date of this partly Western Han source, see Queen, Sarah A., From Chronicle to Canon: The hermeneutics of the Spring and Autumn according to Tung Chung-shu (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 69–112Google Scholar.

187. For the date of this composite source, see Carson, Michael and Loewe, Michael, “Lü shih ch'un ch'iu 呂氏春秋,” in Early Chinese Texts, ed. Loewe, 324–30Google Scholar.

188. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 482, no. 6218: “in very early Han apparently had some historiographic duties, but in general was in charge of observing celestial phenomena and irregularities in nature, interpreting portents, divining and weather forecasting as regards important state ceremonies, and preparing the official state calendar.”

189. See Cullen, Christopher, “Motivations for Scientific Change in Ancient China: Emperor Wu and the Grand Inception Astronomical Reforms of 104 B.C.,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 24 (1993), 185–203Google Scholar.

190. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 589, no. 8129.

191. Shi ji, 6.259: “使御府視璧, 乃二十八年行渡江所沈璧也.” This is the sole occurrence of chen bi 沈璧 in the whole work, commentaries included. The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 150–51, erroneously translates: “It turned out to be the [jade disc] which he dropped into the [river Jiang] as he was crossing it twenty-eight years before.” There is no word for “before” in the Chinese text, which instead refers to the 28th regnal year of King Zheng of Qin 秦政王 (the First Emperor's title before he founded the empire), i.e., 219 b.c.e. Sima Qian's chronicle for that year confirms this reading (see next note for references).

192. Shi ji, 6.248; translation in The Grand Scribe's Records, ed. Nienhauser, 142.

193. Lewis, “The Mythology of Early China,” 570.

194. This long transition process is minutely analyzed in Goodman, Howard L., Ts'ao P'i Transcendent: The Political Culture of Dynasty-Founding in China at the End of the Han (Seattle: Scripta Serica, 1988)Google Scholar.

195. Goodman, Ts'ao P'i Transcendent, 56.

196. Translation from Sources of Chinese Tradition, 195–96.

197. Dull, “A Historical Introduction,” 466–74.

198. Kaltenmark, Max, “Le dompteur des flots,” Han-Hiue: Bulletin du Centre d’Études Sinologiques de Pékin 3.1–2 (1948), 1–112Google Scholar, calls “celestial” the dragon-horses (longma 龍馬) appearing in this context (p. 71).

199. Half of the 94 types of “auspicious phenomena” listed by Shen Yue in his treatise are beasts, either uncommon or wondrous, whose recorded appearances from Han to (Liu) Song amount to 396, including 200 for just the Song dynasty; white sparrows (baique 白雀) were the most frequently observed (66 occurrences). See Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 146–49, Table II.

200. Examples include three Yellow Dragon 黃龍 eras (49 b.c.e.; 229–31; 761), and the eras Green Dragon 青龍 (233–37), Scarlet Red Crow 赤烏 (238–51), Black Dragon 黑龍 (374), White Sparrow 白雀 (384–86), Divine Turtle 神龜 (518–20), White Crow 白烏 (613), Divine Dragon 神龍 (705–7), Vermillion Sparrow 朱雀 (813–17), White Dragon 白龍 (925–28), and so forth. (Except for the first era mentioned, all dates in this footnote are c.e.)

201. “(1) Monarchy is a divinely ordained institution”; “(2) Hereditary right is indefeasible”; “(3) Kings are accountable to God alone”; “(4) Non-resistance and passive obedience are enjoined by God”; see Figgis, John Neville, The Divine Right of Kings (1896; rev. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1914), 5–6Google Scholar.

202. Mengzi, “Wan Zhang” 萬章 (Mengzi zhuzi suoyin 孟子逐字索引, Institute for Chinese Studies Concordance [Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1995], 9.5/48/7–13)Google Scholar; translation in Legge, James, The Life and Works of Mencius (London: Trübner, 1875), 279–80Google Scholar.

203. Quoting p. 15 of Vandermeersch, Léon, “L'idée révolutionnaire, conception étrangère à la tradition chinoise: Le changement de mandat et la restauration de l'ordre cosmique,” Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident 2 (1983), 11–20Google Scholar.

204. For instance, Zhang Lu's 張魯 short-lived state in Hanzhong 漢中 (in modern Shaanxi), as argued on pp. 1070–71 of my study on “Latter Han Religious Mass Movements and the Early Daoist Church,” in Early Chinese Religion, ed. Lagerwey and Kalinowski, 1061–1102.

205. For the influence of political predictions on imperial mandate transfer throughout the medieval era, see Lu, Power of the Words, 83–110.

206. For a detailed account of the two consecutive editing phases, between 281 and 300 c.e., which involved different scholars, see Shaughnessy, Edward L., Rewriting Early Chinese Texts (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006), 138–53Google Scholar.

207. To my knowledge, Pankenier is the sole contemporary scholar to note the intertextual connection existing between the Annals Written on Bamboo and weft fragments; see p. 281 of his “The ‘Bamboo Annals’ Revisited: Problems of Method in Using the Chronicle as a Source for the Chronology of Early Zhou, Part 1,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 55.2 (1992), 272–97Google Scholar. Wang Guowei 王國維 (1877–1927), one of the modern Chinese scholars who considered the current version (jinben 今本) of the Annals Written on Bamboo a fake, was well aware of this intertextuality, since weft material is among the sources he used to deconstruct the Annals in his Jinben Zhushu jinian shuzheng 今本竹書紀年疏證 (1917).

208. Shen Yue inserted in the edited version at least seven of his own notes, and is “suspected” (by Shaughnessy, Rewriting Early Chinese Texts, 207) of having borrowed from an earlier stratum of commentary to compile his treatise on “Auspicious Phenomena as Tokens.”

209. Spring and Autumn predictions (27.775), three Luo Writ texts plus a weft of the Classic of Filial Piety (27.779), River Chart and Luo Writ predictions ascribed to Confucius (27.784), and a weft of the “(Classic of) Rites,” Li 禮 (29.865); see Lippiello, Auspicious Omens, 151–52. Shen Yue does not acknowledge the Annals Written on Bamboo as one of the sources of his treatise.

210. This Western Jin commentary includes two strata of “large-character notes” written in separate columns plus a stratum of “small-character double-column notes” inserted within the body text, as described by Shaughnessy, Rewriting Early Chinese Texts, 205–7. Shen Yue's later commentary forms a third stratum of “large-character notes.”

211. Fang, Xuanling 房玄齡 (579–648) et al., Jin shu 晉書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1974), 3.56Google Scholar. The date is usually given as 267, but the prohibition was recorded under the 12th month of the 4th year of Taishi 泰始 regnal era, which corresponds to January 2–31, 268. The phrase “stellar pneumata” (xingqi 星氣) refers to a prognostication (zhan 占) technique coming under the broader category of astromancy.

212. The submission memorial of the Book of the Song is dated 488, but Shen Yue did not complete the last treatise before 502; see Mather, Richard B., The Poet Shen Yüeh (441–513): The Reticent Marquis (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 26–36Google Scholar.

213. Chavannes, Édouard, “Le jet des dragons,” Mémoires Concernant l'Asie Orientale (Inde, Asie Centrale, Extrême-Orient) Publiés par l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 3 (1919), 53–220Google Scholar; Seidel, “Imperial Treasures,” 313; Barrett, T.H., “Inner and Outer Ritual: Some Remarks on a Directive Concerning Daoist Dragon-Casting Ritual from Dunhuang,” in A Daoist Florilegium/Daoyuan binfen lu 道苑繽紛錄, ed. Lee Cheuk, Yin and Chan Man, Sing (Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 2002), 315–34Google Scholar; Kim, “Poisson et dragon,” 271–72.

214. On which, see Verellen, Franciscus, “The Heavenly Master Liturgical Agenda According to Chisong zi's Petition Almanach,” Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie 14 (2004), 291–343Google Scholar.

215. Yasui, Kōzan, Isho to Chūgoku no shinpi shisō 緯書と中國の神秘思想 (Tokyo: Hirakawa, 1988), 237Google Scholar.

216. Dull, “A Historical Introduction,” Table I, 480–82.

217. Loewe, Michael, “Pai hu t'ung 白虎通,” in Early Chinese Texts, ed. Loewe, 347–56Google Scholar. Zhou, Deliang 周德良, Baihu tong chenwei sixiang zhi lishi yanjiu 白虎通讖緯思想之歷史研究 (Taipei: Hua-Mu-Lan, 2008), 94–95Google Scholar, gives a table summing up the quotations of weft texts in Comprehensive Discussions. The text cites the Classics 504 times and weft texts 30 times (about 5.6% of the total), according to Huang, Fushan, Dong Han chenwei xue xintan 東漢讖緯學新探 (Taipei: Taiwan xuesheng, 2000), 161–62Google Scholar.

218. References to Comprehensive Discussions are to Baihutong zhuzi suoyin 白虎通逐字索引, Institute for Chinese Studies Concordance (Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1995). All dates are c.e. in this Appendix.

219. Dongguan Han ji, 5.7b. The treatises were compiled between 172 and 177 by a group of scholars commissioned by the emperor, including Cai Yong 蔡邕 (133–92) and Yang Biao 楊彪 (142–225). See also Hou Han shu, zhi, 9.3196.

220. According to Sui shu, 32.940: “梁有孝經雜緯十卷, 宋均注: 孝經元命包一卷,” etc.

221. Transcribed in Hou Han shu, 35.1202.

222. See Liu, Jinzao 劉錦藻 (1862–1934), Qing chao xu wenxian tongkao 清朝續文獻通考 (1921; rpt. Hangzhou: Zhejiang guji, 1988)Google Scholar, 270.10145b, 271.10156b.

223. Hou Han shu, zhi, 2.3027–28 (2.3047 for the date of Jia Kui's essay); 3033; 3039, in an advice to the throne by Cai himself, dated 175; and 3042, in an answer of the astronomer Liu Hong 劉洪 (c. 135–210) to an imperial order dated 179.

224. Ouyang Xun 歐陽詢 (557–641) et al., Yiwen leiju (Siku quanshu ed.), 2.35a: “尚書考靈曜, 鄭玄注.”

225. Hou Han shu, zhi, 2.3035. For the authorship of this treatise, see Mansvelt Beck, The Treatises of Later Han, 61–63.

226. Hou Han shu, zhi, 2.3035.

227. See Xiao, Ji 蕭吉 (530/540–614), Wuxing dayi jiaozhu (zengding ban) 五行大義校註 (增訂版), ed. Nakamura, Shōhachi (Tokyo: Kyūko shoin, 1998)Google Scholar, 5.169: “鄭玄注乾鑿度.” For the dates of Xiao Ji and his work (c. 594), see Marc Kalinowski, Cosmologie et divination dans la Chine ancienne: Le Compendium des Cinq agents (Wuxing dayi, VI ^esiècle) (Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1991), 11–32.

228. Zheng, Qiao 鄭樵 (1104–62), Tong zhi (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1987)Google Scholar, 63.756c: “乾鑿度二卷, 鄭 (元) [玄] 注.” Zheng Xuan's name was written “鄭元” due to the Song character avoidance already mentioned.

229. See Hou Han shu, zhi, 17.3352n1 (commentary).

230. Song shu, 14.329.

231. Yiwen leiju, 1.21a, 2.29b, 18.29b.

232. According to Sui shu, 32.940: “論語讖八卷, 宋均注.”

233. Quoted in Han shu, 75.3179n4, commentary.

234. Liu, Xu 劉昫 (887–946) et al., Jiu Tang shu 舊唐書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1975), 46.1982Google Scholar: “孝經緯五卷, 宋均注”; Ouyang, Xiu 歐陽修 (1007–72) et al., Xin Tang shu 新唐書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1975)Google Scholar, 57.1444–45: “宋均注 … 注孝經緯五卷.”

235. Xiao, Zixian 蕭子顯 (489–537), Nan Qi shu (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1972), 18.350Google Scholar.

236. Wei, Shou 魏收 (506–72), Wei shu 魏書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1974)Google Scholar, 84.1864.

237. Sui shu, 32.940: “尚書中候五卷, 鄭玄注. 梁有八卷, 今殘缺.”

238. Nan Qi shu, 13.239.

239. According to Sui shu, 32.940: “春秋緯三十卷, 宋均注.”

240. Transcribed in Li Delin 李德林 (530–90) and Li Boyao 李百藥 (565–648), Bei Qi shu 北齊書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1972), 49.675. For a full account of the anecdote, see Lu, Power of the Words, 94–98.

241. Tong zhi, 63.756c: “易緯稽覽圖七卷, 鄭 (元) [玄] 注.” Due to qi 七 and er 二 being frequently miswritten for one another, this number of chapters may well be erroneous.

242. See Ji, Yun 紀昀 (1724–1805) et al., Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 四庫全書總目提要 (1798; rpt. Taipei: Commercial Press, 1983)Google Scholar, 6.55a–56b.