Chen-Wei Texts also known as “Chen-Prophetic and Apocriphal Texts”
Creators: name: Lu, Zongli
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2022

description: The Chen-Wei Texts, or “prophetic-apocryphal” texts, refer to a corpus of religious texts that prevailed from the 1st to the 7th century C.E. in China. Chen 讖, meaning subtle and fulfilled prophecy, represents a number of esoteric writings, such as the Hetu 河圖“Diagram of the Yellow River” and Luoshu 洛書 “Script of the Luo River.” An early appearance of Hetu in pre-Qin texts was described as precious stone or treasurable book. No later than the Warring States period, Hetu and Luoshu were commonly regarded as auspicious portents, in the form of texts with diagrams recording divination and prophecy. It was also believed that these texts sprang up from the Yellow and Luo rivers carried by mysterious animals, such as the dragon and turtle. Earlier Han (202 B.C.E.-8 C.E.) practitioners of magic methods produced a number of esoteric texts named after the Hetu and Luoshu. These texts circulated among the practitioners of magic methods (fangshi方士) and proto-Daoists from the Third to the First centuries B.C.E. These writings covered and mixed with knowledges and concepts of astrology, geography, divination, traditional medicine, ancient myths, and witchcraft, etc. In the Earlier Han, these writings were sometimes used as prognostication books for political interests, especially when imperial legitimation and Heaven’s Mandate were under examination. A high tide of political manipulation of the chen texts took place during Wang Mang’s 王莽 usurpation of the Earlier Han and the establishment of Later Han (25-220), between 8 to 25 C.E. Once Emperor Guangwu 光武, the founding emperor of the Later Han, secured his throne, he instructed a few learned Confucian scholars to collate and purify the chen texts, ensuring that the prophetic messages were in favor of the Han imperial house. The Earlier Han Confucian teachings that had a mystical nature, such as the teachings of the Gongyang公羊 School, the Chunqiu fanlu春秋繁露 by Dong Zhongshu, the Jingshi Yizhuan 京氏易傳, Interpretation Associated with the Book of Change by Jing Fang京房, and Liu Xin’s 劉歆theories on Hongfan wuxing洪範五行, were also merged into “prophetic interpretation” (jingchen 經讖) associated with the Confucian canons. In the last year of Emperor Guangwu’s reign (56 C.E.), an endorsed version of the prophetic texts was publicly announced. According to Zhang Heng張衡(78-139), a renowned astronomer and writer, the endorsed version, under the corpus title of tuchen圖讖 “Diagram and Prophecy”, consisted of eighty one titles or volumes, including both Hetu and Luoshu and the prophetic interpretations associating with the “seven canons.” “Five Canons” and “Six Canons” were common terms used to refer to the Confucian classics in the Earlier and Later Han. “Seven Canons” occurs a few times in the Later Han materials, sometimes together with prophetic interpretations. The “Seven” indicates the Book of Change易, the Book of History書, the Book of Odes詩, the Book of Rites禮, the Book of Music樂, the Annals春秋, and the Book of Filial Piety孝經 (and in some occasions the Analects 論語). Encouraged by the Later Han authorities, the learning of prophetic texts played a predominantly ideological role during the Later Han and the Three Kingdoms periods. These prophetic interpretations, which prophesized the Han House’s legitimacy to receive Heaven’s Mandate, were soon accepted as a secret canon among the Later Han Confucian schools. The two branches of the texts, the esoteric writings named after the Hetu and Luoshu, and the prophetic interpretations associated with the seven canons, although derived from different religious or intellectual origins, soon began to interact each other and mutually penetrated. In the late period of the Later Han and then after, these texts were taken as a corpus often referred to as Chen- Wei, literally “prophecy and weft” (a counterpart to Jing經, “classic” or warp), a corpus of propheticapocryphal texts. Naming the prophetic interpretation texts after wei was a late Later Han phenomenon yet prevalent in post-Han eras. As a double-edged sword routinely used in socio-political struggles, established powers became vigilant about the prophecies and offensive ideas in the Chen-Wei texts. A series of bans against the Chen-Wei texts were issued repeatedly by authorities one after another from the Third to Seventh centuries. Most parts of the Chen-Wei texts are no longer extant. From the middle of 14th to early 21st century, scholars have been working hard to collect and collate fragments of Chen-Wei and have been trying to put them together, wishing to restore the Han dynasty Chen-Wei texts to a certain extent. Dozens of Chen-Wei collections have been published. The most influential collection should be the Jushu Isho Shusei 重修緯書集成 [Revised Edition of the Collection of the Apocryphal Texts] (1971–1991) by Yasui Kôzan and Nakamura Shôhachi. However, textual problems remain in all existing collections: wrong collection, missing- collection, wrong title, wrong or missing source, suspicious source, wrong dating, etc. Currently, a research project led by Lu Zongli is in progress, attempting to re-collect and re-collate the Chen-Wei texts, which should be more accurate, more reliable and more authentic.