A Study On The Prophecy Of "Historical Records"

Chen is a particular phenomenon to Chinese culture and no conclusion has been reachedabout its origin in the academic circles. According to Shuowen Jiezi,“Chen means prophecy” Theliteral meaning shows that Chen relies on speeches, so it can be inferred that at the beginningChen, instead of being a system, was passed mouth by mouth and that it gradually turned into adependent cultural system after many historical periods. During the Hans, owing to the popularityof Confucius classics, Wei books appeared. Chen and Wei became one, which was called“Divination studies”, and the understanding of Chen became relatively clear. Therefore it can besaid that the rise of Wei contributed to the formation of Chen culture. Wei books graduallydisappeared with the decline of Confucius classics. However, Chen survived and existed in thesociety for a long time as an independent cultural system. Therefore, Chen culture is anindependent cultural system and has its social, historical, ethnical and geographical meanings.Hence, the literature study of Chen is the foundation of the Chen culture and is of greatsignificance.This thesis studies the literature of Chen in Shiji, aiming to figure out the siginificance ofChen culture in the historical development and in the modern society.The thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter is the literature review. It presents theorigin, literal meaning and development of Chen and distinguishes Chen from Wei, witchcraft andnumerology. It also defines Chen as well as the scope of the literature under study. Chapter twointroduces how the data was collected, classified and analyzed. The data was collected from Shijiand analyzed from two perspectives: its types and its social functions. Chapter three discusses thesignificance of the literature study of Chen. It is important for (1)the study of the contemporarysociety, politics and history,(2) the study of the contemporize folk custom and culture.(3)theliterature study.