선진시대 중국 天命사상의 변화 (I)
Changes of Tianming Thought in the Pre-Qin Period
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초록
한국에서 천손의 건국신화가 전승되고 있는 동안, 중국에서는 천명사상이 태어나 변화를 지속하고 있었다. 천명이란 처음 하늘로부터 유일하게 명을 받은 천자=왕이 천하의 통치자가 된다는 생각이며, 이 관념은 상말주초 주나라에서 태어나, 동아시아세계에서 역성혁명을 반복하는 수천년간 지속되었다. 하지만 이 개념은 태어난 순간부터 조금씩 변화하여 많은 굴절을 겪어왔다. 이 글에서 필자는 전래문헌과 출토문에 나타난 천명용어를 사회학적으로 분석하여, 그 내용이 변화해왔음을 증명하고자 하였다. 천명의 화자와 청자를 나누어 살펴보고, 그때 사용된 의미를 살펴보는 방식이다. 서주 건국 당시 이 용어는 천자=왕과 그 대리인이 사용하였는데, 동주시대 왕의 권위가 추락하였을 때 제후가 제후국을 통치하는 권력을 획득하는 것을 천명이라 하였고, 제후국 군주의 목숨까지를 천명이라 일컬었다. 이때 동주왕실에서는 천명이 천으로부터 위임받은 의미로부터 변화하여, 부왕으로부터 계승받는 의미로 사용하였다. 이후 상당 기간 패권국의 군주가 천자의 통치를 위임받는 것을 천명이라 일컬었고, 다음은 제후국의 집정(경대부)가 제후국 통치의 전권을 행사하는 것을 天命이라 일컬었고, 춘추시대 후기에는 제후국의 실권을 행사하는 대부에까지 확대되었고, 나아가 사계급들도 천명이란 용어를 사용하게 되었다. 이 시기는 공자가 생존한 시대였으며, 이 시기에 이르러서는 천명이란 용어에서 엄숙성은 사라지고 속화되었다. 한나라가 통일국가가 세웠을 때 이 용어는 다시 서주초의 개념으로 돌아가게 되었다. 이 글은 서주가 동천한 후 패권국이 천명을 칭하는 상황까지를 다루었고, 이후 서한의 통일국가 수립 후 천명 용어가 서주 탄생 때의 개념으로 재정착하는 과정을 다루고자 한다.
Abstract
While the myth of the founding of the nation by the Grandson of Heaven was handed down in Korea, the thought of tianming (天命, divine mandate from Heaven) came into being and continued to change in China. Tianming was the idea that Son of Heaven (天子), who alone received sovereign power from Heaven, would become the ruler of the world. This concept was born during the Shang-West Chou transition period and repeatedly legitimized dynastic revolutions for thousand years in East Asia. Thus, tianming was fixated to mean the rule of the world by Son of Heaven. However, this concept changed gradually by adjusting itself to the newly-evolving circumstances from the moment it was born. This article purports to prove that the meaning and contents of tianming changed chronologically by analyzing the term sociologically as it appeared in the transmitted Chinese texts and excavated documents. It will look into the meaning of tianming － how it was used to signify what, for instance, by differentiating between the speaker and listener in the sentences that included the term. At the time of the founding of West Zhou dynasty, the term tianming was used by the King, i.e., Son of Heaven, and also by the Prime Minister as the King’s substitute. But Quanlongzu (犬戎族) invaded the capital of West Zhou and killed the King, and the West Zhou had to move eastward; hence the name East Zhou. During the East Zhou period when the authority of the King was significantly weakened, the kings of the warring states of (East) Zhou used tianming to mean the sovereignty of their kingdoms and also their lives, not the sovereignty and lives of the Kings of (East) Zhou. On the other hand, the Kings and their substitutes of East Zhou used tianming not to mean the thought of divine mandate from Heaven but the inheriting sovereignty from their fathers, the Kings. During the Spring and Autumn period, tianming was generally used to mean the powerful kings’ obtained mandate from the King of Zhou for a considerable period of time. Such practice was followed by the legitimation of their rule by the senior officials (大夫)-turned-Ministers (卿, 執政) of the warring states. During the late period of the Spring and Autumn, tianming was used to mean the rule of the senior officials and even that of the juniors (士). That period was the time when Confucius lived, and the aura and sublimity of the term tianming disappeared and it became secularized. During the Warring States period, tianming even meant the Generals’ luck of victory on the battlefield. Confucius had a severe rejection of the term tianming being used in such an insensible way. When the West Han was founded as a unified dynasty, the meaning of tianming was reinstated to that of the early West Zhou. This article dealt with the period until the strong rulers of the warring states used tianming to legitimize their rule during the (East) Zhou period. The process of the restoration of the meaning of tianming to that of early West Zhou during the unified West Han dynasty will be examined in a separate article.