Fateful Fashions: Apophenia in Early Medieval Chinese Mantic Texts

Abstract

<p>In the early medieval period, a number of mantic texts were produced which discussed the issue of portents expressed through fashions in clothing. It was the contention of these authors that changing fashions served to predict the decline of dynasties, the deaths of emperors, and foreign invasions. This article explores this tradition in the context of apophenia, which occurs when individuals over-interpret random pieces of information, seeking to establish patterns that do not in fact exist. Such fateful fashions <em>(fuyao)</em> provide a clear example of the way in which apophenia was crucial for shaping omenological literature, in particular the <em>“Wuxing zhi”</em> (Treatises of the Five Phases) chapters of the dynastic histories.<br></p>

魏晉南北朝時期，文人寫了許多預兆文獻，提出了奇装異服成爲凶兆的理論。一些作家，包括傅玄、干寳、沈約等認爲某些時尚潮流的變化是朝廷腐敗和崩潰的凶兆，或者皇帝之死和外敌入侵之預兆。本文討論到這種理論與圖形模式妄想症（apophenia）的關聯。圖形模式妄想症讓人過度解讀信息，建立匪夷所思的模式。因此，一些魏晉南北朝的文人創造了「服妖」，而且預兆文獻中的服妖很明顯地是圖形模式妄想症的表現，尤其在正史《宋書》之〈五行志〉中。本文探索歷史著作和前兆之關係，試圖證明圖形模式妄想症對預兆文獻的重要性。