RESEARCH ON PORITICAL PROGNOSTICATION BASED ON THE APPEARANCE OF THE FIVE PLANETS : JUPITER,MARS,SATURN,VENUS,AND MARCURY IN ANCIENT CHINA

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Comparing "Wu-xing-zhan (***) ", whitch was discoverd in an ancient tomb in 1973, with "Gan-shi-zhan (***) ", "Shi-shi-zhan (***) ", "Shi-ji (**) ", "Huai-nan-zi (***) ", "Han-syu (**) ", "Hou-Han-shu (***) ", and "Jun-shu (**) ", it has become clear that divination "Wu-xing-zhan" coincides with the others. This means that the role of the five planets : Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Marcury in prognostication had already become establisyed in the early years of the Han (*) Dynasty."Wu-xing-zhan", "Gan-shi-zhan", and "Shi-shi-zhan" are read as good omens, but there are few good omens in the chronicles for more six hundred years from the Western Han. Most tell of bad fortune : civil wars, famine, droughts, plagues, etc.Although all of the five plamets are personified, as a practical matter the four planets other than Mars did not fulfill function as a prophets. This was because the astrology of five planets had already become fixed as a means of political criticism. That is to say, astrology and prognostication using the five planets had evolved into criticism of the Establishment of Zai-yi-shuo (***) after it had lost its own rationle as fortune telling.In ancient China, criticizing the Establishment made made good use of pre-scientific astronomy, and through unscientific prognostication based on the five planets functioned well among this society of people. This gives another meaning to pre-scientific astronomy in ancient China, and it proves that ineffable thought in ancient China was no doubt rational at that time.