The Making of “Sacred Hanjia”

The sacredness of Hanjia (Han Empire) can be explored from the historical influence of how time,space and religion was perceived.Mirrored from the contemporary discourse of “the destiny of sacred artifacts”,the core of the consciousness of sacred time during the Han Dynasties lied in the unity of opposites between the One and his end.Because of such views on scared time,the divination of the One and repeatedly statements of “eschatology”,the Han people perceived the inconstancy of the Heavenly Mandate as a “fact”.The ruling class and intellectual elites not only sanctified the daily time system of commoners,but also sanctified the space of Hanjia,which covered the territory from the capital to frontiers.The means of space sanctification included making the Han empire as sacred “home”,materialized demarcation such as ritual buildings,and sinicized naming for “new territories” in frontiers as well.The historical influence of sanctification is also mirrored by the inherent connection between faith and the vicissitude of Hanjia.The multiple sides of “sacred Hanjia” can be only understood by exploring the perception of Han people and keeping in mind their faith of the Heavenly Mandate,which was a kind of archaeology of mind.It is also necessary to go beyond science and rationality and to get rid of the humanist bias.