The Doctrine of the Five Elements and Political Life.
In our previous chapter, we talked about the Five Elements and the change of dynasties. In this chapter we begin to talk about the Five Elements Doctrine and Political Life.
At that time, people not only used the Five Elements Theory to explain the change of dynasty, but also used the Five Elements Theory to explain political activities. In our political history, most of them have a five-element system. Why is there a five-element system? The Song Shi Five Elements System is simple and clear, the heavens are transformed into all things with the five elements of yin and yang, and between the heavens and the earth, there is nothing but the magic of the five elements, and people have the qi of the five elements of yin and yang as a form, and the form of the gods knows and the five natures move, the five natures move and everything comes out, and everything comes out and the cultivation is born. Harmony is auspicious, obedience is different, and it is better to see it in the five elements. This means that all things in heaven and earth are incarnated by the five elements of yin and yang, and the five elements of the qi in the human body and the five elements of all things affect each other, and the popularity is harmonious, the plants are luxuriant, the popularity is obedient, and the creatures will be disastrous. So whether society is harmonious and whether politics is clear, people can see it from natural phenomena. Here, the heavens and men sense each other, the reason for the induction is the mutual influence between material factors, and the main manifestation of this induction is two types, one is the five elements, and the other is the five things. The performance of the five elements is that the influence of people on nature is directly reflected in the five types of substances of wood, fire, earth, gold and water, and there are abnormalities in these five aspects, that is, there is a problem in personnel. Hanshu. will. Legend of the Five Elements: When hunting in the fields does not sleep, food is not enjoyed, access is not in festivals, when the people and farmers are seized, and there is a treacherous plot, the wood is not straight. Grass and wood have toughness, can be bent, can be straightened, wood is not straight is grass and wood it lost its original toughness, how to count wood is not straight? It rained in the first month of Lu Chenggong's 16th year, and the winter rain caused the trees to freeze, and the trees lost their toughness after freezing. What causes winter rain? He said that it was Yin Qi, and Yin Qi Sheng caused the water to stagnate. Why is it yin qi? It may be due to the dictatorship of the ministers of the State of Lu, and the ministers are yin and yang between the monarchs and the courtiers, so the yin is strong, and he deduces that it is due to the dictatorship of the ministers. The legend of the five stars; abandoning the law, expelling the heroes, killing the prince, and taking the concubine as his wife, the fire is not inflammatory. The characteristic of fire is to burn upwards, so if the fire is not inflammatory, the fire does not burn upwards, so how about not burning upwards? Cause a fire. The causes of the fire, in addition to not obeying the law, persecuting heroes, killing princes, and concubine chaos, are broadly speaking the monarch's bad politics. Emperor Wu of han will be in six years, and the ancestral temples of the Han Dynasty will be burned one after another. In particular, a fire broke out in the Gaozu Temple in Liaodong, which was a serious problem at that time. Dong Zhongshu immediately wrote to Emperor Wu of Han criticizing politics, saying that the temple of Gaozu should not have set up a palace in Liaodong, nor should it be built next to the mausoleum. It is irrational to do so, so such a catastrophe has occurred, so what measures should be taken? He said yes; regarded relatives and nobles as far the princes far the most righteous, and endured them, which means to say; punished those powerful figures who violated the law and discipline. In addition, the Five Elements Legend also says that if you rule the palace room, decorate the table tree, commit internal fornication, commit crimes against relatives, and insult your father and brother, you will not succeed. He also said: If you are good at war, lighten the people, decorate the city, and invade the border, then the gold will not follow the revolution. He also said, "The temple of Jianzong, without praying to the temple, abolishing sacrifices, and when it is against the heavens, the water will not be wet." The five elements of a sentence change the original nature, so that the politics is problematic, and the monarch should reform the politics.
Let's look at the five categories of things; that is, what was thought at that time; appearance, speech, sight, hearing, and thinking. Appearance is appearance, to be respectful, to be serious. To speak is to listen to the advice of the minister, to see, that is, to see things clearly and clearly, and to listen is to broaden the path of speech and be resourceful. Thinking means that one should be wise and one should be a saint. If the emperor does a good job, there will be good signs, and if the emperor does not do well, there will be disasters if he misbehaves. The Five Elements of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty has many records in this regard. The legend of the Five Elements; the appearance of disrespect is not solemn. Blame madness, punishment for constant rain, extreme evil, sometimes there are demons, sometimes there are turtles, in fact there are chicken disasters, in fact, there are lower body births, sometimes there are green and green auspicious. We put it in the vernacular, which means that the monarch's actions should be just, and if it is unjust, not serious, and frivolous, the punishment made by nature is rainy. In severe cases, there will be abnormal phenomena such as the demon chicken disaster. For example, in the case of the rain disaster, the Han Emperor Yanxi's second summer rained for more than fifty days, when the general Liang Ji was in power and murdered the mother of Deng Guiren, who was favored by the emperor. He also killed Ichiro Tsubasa without authorization. In the first year of the Han Ling Emperor Jianning, the summer rain lasted for more than 60 days, when the general Dou Wu plotted to kill the eunuchs, and in September of the same year, the eunuch Cao Jie preemptively killed hundreds of Dou Wu's dead. The Rainy Rain in the Book of later Han was caused by the dictatorship of the chancellor. For example, what is a demon? It is that the costumes people wear have a strange appearance, and people think that this is not a good thing to be a demon. During the Han Huan Emperor Garden, the women of the capital city were popular for frowning, fashionable suits, popular for falling ponytails, popular bending steps, and popular curved teeth and laughter. Sad eyebrows are thin and curved eyebrows, the so-called lifting is the place where the eyes fall tears, and applying powder is like tears falling down. The so-called fallen horse bun is that the hair is not combed in the middle, and it is crooked to the side like a human head is about to fall off the horse. Bending down is walking with a bend when walking. Crooked teeth smile, that is, when laughing like a toothache, holding the side of the face with your hand and laughing. People think that this is not a good phenomenon. Then these customs originated from the family of the great general Liang Ji, and then swept the capital. The Liang family has been a great general for two generations, and has been a mighty and blessed person, and the power has fallen to the world. The Book of Later Han believes that the above-mentioned phenomenon of wearing a waist is a condemnation of the Liang Ji family by heaven. Women are sad, frowning, looking like crying, why are they like this? For they are about to encounter natural disasters. The Liang clan did not know how to wake up, so during the Yanxi period, the entire clan was killed. In our view today, the five elements are not necessarily related to these phenomena in social life, and the problem in politics is that social problems have nothing to do with natural phenomena. However, the ancient people did not think so, and they must use the Five Elements Theory to explain, from which we can see the great influence of the Five Elements Theory on the political life at that time.