How Stratigraphic Textual Analysis Reveals the Composite Nature of the “Wuxing zhi” 五行志 (and Unlocks It as a Source for the Study of Han Dynasty Political Philosophy)

This paper applies a stratigraphic analytical method to the “Wuxing zhi” 五行志 chapter of the Han shu 漢書 and uses the results of this analysis to argue that the “Wuxing zhi” is a composite text. The contents of the “Wuxing zhi” reflect three major moments of authorship: a catalogue composed by Western Han scholar Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 (179-104 BCE) that summarizes anomalies and calamities recorded in the Chunqiu 春秋 “Spring and Autumn Annals”; a catalogue composed by Western Han scholar Liu Xiang 劉向 (77-6 BCE) that expanded Dong Zhongshu’s list and applied the Hong fan Wuxing zhuan 洪範五行傳 theoretical framework to it; and Ban Gu’s 班固 (32-92) fusion of these two catalogues and addition of a catalogue of Western Han anomalies to form the main part of the contents of the “Wuxing zhi.” This view of the “Wuxing zhi” as a composite text breaks away from the traditional focus on whether it reflects a tendentious view of history and the extent to which its contents were fabricated, demanding that before such questions be asked, the “Wuxing zhi” must first be studied by its constituent layers. Indeed, stratigraphic analysis suggests that the contents of the “Wuxing zhi” reflect acts of rigorous historical study (not intentional deceipt or fabrication) carried out from the theoretical perspective of “heaven-human sentient response theory” 天人感應論 at separate points in time) and thus revitalizes this text as a source of Han intellectual history.