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EPIPHANIES OF SOVEREIGNTY AND THE RITE OF JADE DISC IMMERSION IN WEFT NARRATIVES

Abstract This article deals with facets of the political ideology of late pre-imperial and early imperial China as documented by remnants of a dozen texts belonging to an under-explored genre known in English as weft (wei 緯) writings or the “Confucian Apocrypha.” Its focus is on the transcendence of hierarchy and sovereignty, the transfer of dynastic legitimacy, and the pragmatic vehicle of “tangible” revelation. After a terminological introduction, the study turns to weft concepts of society and sovereignty as being consubstantial with the intrinsic hierarchical order of the universe, then moves on to explore how these concepts are dealt with in a cluster of weft narrative materials. Focused on a rite of jade disc immersion, the final section bridges the gap between the “mythical” sphere of weft narrative and conventional history, showing how some weft ideas actually determined political action. Weft theories contributed to the formation of the early imperial ideas of sovereignty and legitimacy and remained active throughout the early medieval era, having a lasting impact on the political sphere as well as liturgical practices intended to reenact the transcendent experience of epiphany. 摘要 本文探討現代學人所稱「緯書」或「讖緯」殘片中先秦晚期與秦漢魏晉南北朝的一些政治意識形態方面。其重點是層次與主權的超越，王朝正統的傳遞過程，以及「圖」、「書」、「丹書」等的有形啟示 (tangible revelation)。首先經過「緯」、「讖」、「讖書」等字，詞術語的簡約介紹，研究導向緯書中的社會和主權概念同質與宇宙的內在層次秩序。接著，就探討這些概念在一群集緯書敘述式片段中的作用。最後，研究焦點於「沈璧」儀式，架起了緯書敘述的 “神話” 領域和傳統歷史之間的橋樑，並且表示實際上一些緯書想法如何能影響政治行動。緯書敘述的内涵不僅助長了形成秦漢思想關於主權和正統的觀念，而且持久地影響了六朝時代的政治以及重演超越經驗的顯靈儀式。