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_HEAVEN-SENT: UNDERSTANDING DISASTER IN CHINESE MYTH AND TRADITION_

_David W. Pankenier_

_Lehigh University, Sept. MFL, Maginnes Hall, 9 W Packer Avenue,
Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA_
_e-mail: dwp0 at lehigh.edu_

From the very beginning of their civilization the ancient Chinese were
exceptionally acute observers of their natural surroundings. Few
celestial or terrestrial phenomena, especially irregular occurrences,
were deemed inconsequential since all were thought to convey vital
intelligence from the supernatural realm. Out of this intersection
between phonology and human society there developed a conviction that
the Chinese state and culture enjoyed a genetic relationship with the
supreme power residing in the sky. Indeed, the foundational ideology
of the archaic kingship, as well as the later unified empire, held
that political legitimacy was conferred directly by Heaven, and that
continued enjoyment of the royal prerogative was contingent on
acceptable performance. Metaphysically, this continuity was embodied
in an organic philosophy of nature in which everything, including
human culture, was seen as a manifestation of the material essence
which pervades the universe. Throughout Chinese history, divination
and portentology provided the interpretative mechanisms which allowed
the Chinese to gauge Heaven's disposition at any given time. As a
result, natural disasters consistently play a vital role in Chinese
tradition and history as indexes of disturbances in an idealized
condition of dynamic equilibrium. This paper will examine archetypal
examples of disaster in Chinese tradition in an effort to provide the
conference with a Chinese perspective on natural catastrophe in the
early period. It is hoped this perspective will enable participants to
evaluate the Chinese evidence bearing on the nature, extent, and
implications of disaster for Bronze Age civilization in East Asia.
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DAVID PANKENIER (Ph.D. Stanford University, 1983) is Associate
Professor of Chinese and Chair of the department of Modern Foreign
Languages and Literatures at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA.
His research interests include ancient Chinese archaeology, astronomy,
astrology, chronology, portentology, and the pre-imperial history of
the foundational notion of heaven-sanctioned political legitimacy
(Heaven's Mandate). This study has led to the identification and
verification of several ancient records of rare planetary massings
associated with dynastic transitions in the Chinese Bronze Age (2nd
millennium BCE). A comprehensive discussion of these discoveries and
their ideological implications may be found in "The Cosmo-Political
Background of Heaven's Mandate", _Early China_ 20 (1995):121-176.
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Presented at the SIS Conference: [1]Natural Catastrophes during Bronze
Age Civilisations.

References

1. file://localhost/www/sat/cambconf.htm