Portents of the reign of Emperor An (106-125)

Abstract

As Etienne Balass, has wel1 pointed out, one of the distinctive characteristics of Chinese historiography is its stereotype: the that it lacks of historian’s personal touch and his generalisation of observed facts. The accuracy of this comment is clear when we consider the Treatise of Astronomy and the Treatise of the Five Elements in some of the official histories. In the Treatise of Astronomy, a great series of observations concerning general astronomical and natural or supernatural phenomena, such as the appearance of comet and the movements of the five observable planets, are recorded each with their correlation to earthly affairs. In the Treatise of the Five Elements, a great number of disasters and portents are arranged chronologically under various categories such as fire, drought, earthquake, plague and solar eclipse, again accompanied by interpretations from events of the time.