“文王受命”史實表述及內涵考察

Abstract

This paper is a study of the historical fact and content that King Moon of the Zhou Dynasty became the Son of Heaven at the command of Heaven. King Moon has a very important position in Chinese history. In the tradition of Confucianism, whether the legitimacy has been established (or not) depends on how inheriting King Moon’s reign only because the moral credit accrued by him is the core of politics and scholarship. This interest makes the historical and research materials related to King Moon abundant, but on the other hand, it reveals a complicated aspect by adding fake stories due to excessive reverence. In particular, it has been questionable if King Moon was the only “Son of Heaven’ considering the governing of King Mu. Recently, these questions are being resolved little by little as bamboo strips from the Chu Dynasty during the Warring States Period were discovered and realized. Doubts about the installation of King Moon are also related to the concept of fate or religion embodied behind it, so it was organized by synthesizing the transmitted documents and excavated documents related to the installation of King Moon. After reviewing the literature as a whole, there are two convincing reasons that King Moon’s position and authority came directly from Heaven. One is because King Moon was a virtuous person, and the other is because King Moon was able to show God and concentrate on the work related to ancestral worship. However, there is a subtle difference in the traces of King Moon and King Mu when the contents of the traditional literature and the excavated one are compared. King Moon was the founder of the Zhou Dynasty who accepted the Mandate of Heaven, and King Mu was the planner as well as the executor of the founding of the State who conquered the Shang Dynasty. Accordingly, based on King Mu's outstanding achievements and the changes in the political situation after the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the perception was broadened to both 'King Moon’ and ‘King Wu’ being selected from heaven. This indicates the historical fact that ideology changes according to the political situation.