天理教起义与闰八月不祥之说析探  

Examining the Uprising of the Tianli Sect and the Belief That the Intercalary Eighth Month of the Lunar Calendar is Unlucky

作　　者：张瑞龙[1] 黄一农[2] 

机构地区：[1]中国人民大学历史系,讲师北京100872 [2]台湾新竹清华大学历史研究所

出　　处：《历史研究》2013年第1期84-99,191-192,共16页Historical Research

基　　金：中国人民大学985工程第三期专项经费资助

摘　　要：闰八月不祥之说,始于清嘉庆间的天理教起义。嘉庆十六年,天理教徒众因本教宝卷 "八月中秋,中秋八月"等谶言,据《万年书》选定嘉庆十八年闰八月起事。但正式颁行的十八年《时宪书》中竟无闰八月,这对起事产生莫大困扰。为坚定信心,起事者又用十六年秋彗星见于紫微垣的天象宣传鼓舞教众。于是出现误将彗星见于紫微垣对清廷不利的星占学解释,混淆为对清廷八月改闰之举的解读。实则嘉庆十八年不闰八月,因八月置闰将不但导致该年冬至落在十月三十日,使清廷例行的郊祀大典无法按惯例在十一月举行,且出现各月中气与历法月序不合情形。晚清时局动荡,尤其在庚子之变的背景下,八月不祥之说又被进一步渲染、放大,成为近世流传最广的谶谣。The belief that the intercalary eighth month of the lunar calendar is unlucky first emerged in the uprising of the Tianli(Heavenly Principles)Sect during the reign of Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty.In the sixteenth year of Jiaqing,the followers of the sect,inspired by the words 'Mid-Autumn Festival Eighth Month,Eighth Month Mid-Autumn Festival'in their religious text,chose the intercalary eighth month of the eighteenth year of Jiaqing for their uprising.However,the officially issued almanac had no intercalary eighth month that year,a fact that caused great difficulty for the uprising.In order to strengthen their determination,the organizers again used an astronomical phenomenon,the appearance of a comet in the zi wei yuan to encourage their followers.This led to a misunderstanding on the part of some scholars,who took the astrological interpretation that the comet's appearance was an ill omen for the Qing dynasty as being the reason for the removal of the intercalary month.In fact,the true reason behind its removal that year was that an intercalary eighth month would not only have made the winter solstice fall on the 30 th of the tenth month,thus preventing the customary eleventh month performance of the solemn jiaosi(suburban sacrifice)ceremony,but would also have made the zhongqi(each month's mid-month solar term)fall out of sequence with the months.In the turbulent days of the late Qing,especially during the Boxer rebellion,the belief that the intercalary eighth month was unlucky was sensationally exaggerated,making it the most widelycirculated augury in this period.

关 键 词：闰八月 天理教事件 嘉庆朝 置闰 社会天文学史 

分 类 号：K249.3[历史地理—历史学] B98[历史地理—中国史]