Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2013

 

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

(Abstract)

 

Zhang Ruilong and Huang Yinong

 

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 30th 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 widely circulated augury in this period.