From ’Auspiciousness Of Providence’ To ’Auspiciousness Of Taoism’

Tang Xuan-zong is fond of Auspiciousness,auspicious signs of whose political period is not only impressive out of Tang Dynasty,but also presents the characteristics of different period.This dissertation tries to analyze the characteristics of the auspiciousness and the political connotation of the Tang dynasty in the different periods before and after the Tian tong-xiu reporting a Taoist auspicious sign in the year twenty-nine of Kaiyuan(741),to dig the political and cultural connotations behind the changes of auspicious.The article is generally divided into three parts.The first chapter,that is,’A time-phrase observation on the auspicious signs during the period of Tang Xuan-zong’,is divided into three parts.This chapter begins with an account of the basic literature referred to in this paper,that is,the handed-down documents of post-Tang Xuan-zong era.The record of auspiciousness in these documents might do not turely reflect the actual situation of auspicious sign reporting,because evidence shows that the auspicious records of the institute of historiography affected by the subjective intervention of the emperor,are partly preserved in the handed-down documents of post-Tang Xuan-zong era,becoming the basis of today’s research.But from another point of view,among the great numbers of auspicious signs of Tang Xuan-zong period,those who got written down in history must be related with the political intentions of Xuan-zong himself.The emperor is precisely the leader of political culture,so the change of Tang auspicious sign,could also reflects the political and cultural connotation changes.On basis of above,after the observation on types of auspicious signs in the different periods,we find that the auspicious signs in the early years of the Kaiyuan is the mainly the type of traditional Confucian ones.During this period,Xuan-zong ascended the throne,through good governance,the country gradually settled,so he took the chance to make sacrifices on Mount Tai,worship the earth god and offer condolences to his ancestors.During this period,Confucian auspiciousness conveyed the concept ’Fate of Orthodox’,’Auspiciousness of Peace’ and ’Filial Fiety’.But at the end of the Kaiyuan and during most time of Tianbao years,among historical records Taoist auspicious signs like Laozi’s theophany,Laozi granting magic figure bacome eye-catching,Xuan-zong therefore vigorously promoted the policy towards Taoism in the name of Taoist auspiciousness.Obviously,auspiciousness of Tang Xuan-zong period in the historical records has changes in both type and connotation as time goes by,Taoist auspiciousness becomes more attractive to Xuan-zong than the traditional Confucian ones.The second chapter,that is,’the interaction between central and local around the specific Taoist auspicious’,in fact is the part to explore the realization and implementation process of the change auspiciousness type,which is divided into three parts.First of all,the central imperial court tried to lead a typical kind of auspiciousness in a ’top-down’ way,through several acts such as the making nationwide announcements,setting up inscriptions,welcome ceremonies,changing the names of the places where auspicious signs appear,establishment of Taoist temple,etc,so that the chosen(Taoist)auspiciousness became well-known.In this way,a typical kind of auspiciousness was formed in line with the political needs of the emperor.Secondly,the local answers the call out of the political speculative mentality.Auspiciousness travels from local to central through different administrative units,and the process involved strict investigation and reporting standards.Among the tide of the nationwide reporting,only a few numbers of auspiciousness can get the attention of the emperor.And therefore,if the local reporters want their auspiciousness to be the chosen ones,they must make full use of local Taoist resources to create unique auspiciousness,enabling to meet the political demands of the imperial court.The interaction between central and local is in order to form auspicious-gathered effect,because single auspicious can not represent the providence or legitimism unless they gather.The third chapter,that is,’political and cultural connotation of auspiciousness during the Period of Tang Xuan-zong’,is divided into three parts.Auspiciousness can only be given political significance after some specific interpretation.Confucianism with the concept of ’Heaven-Human Induction’ has lasted for a long time till the period of Tang Xuan-zong,the traditional Confucian interpretation is still the theoretical basis for the connotation of auspiciousness.But Xuan-zong and his officials created a way to interpret the Taoist auspiciousness beyond the traditional Confucian interpretation paradigm.On the one hand,they related the ancestor of the divine with the acquisition of the regime,the ’Divine Ancestor’ Laozi’s blessing attributed to the arrival of the auspiciousness.On the one hand,while emphasizing the traditional concept of’providence’,they invoked the ’Tao’ intention,through which it was enhanced or even beyond the status of the providence,so that the same with providence,Tao was also endowed with impersonate feedback function towards political gains and losses.In another words,if the emperor obeys the spirit of ’Tao’,the auspicious signs will show.Through this interpretation,Tang Xuan-zong created another source of imperial power out of ’Providence’,’Tao’ and ’Providence’ together constitutes the ultimate basis for the interpretation of the legitimacy of the regime.