Summary
The disseminated talk, unverifiable talk, portentous talk, rhymes, chen prophecies, prophetic rhymes, political myths, and popular legends during the early imperia period in China were all rumors or rumor-like expressions (hereafter referred to as rumor-type expressions). The origins of rumor-type expressions of the early imperial period were usually hard-to-trace information sources such as hearsay, legends, and folk stories. They were spread primarily through unofficial and non-mainstream interpersonal networks, with oral transmission as the main mode of circulation, supplemented by the written word. Their contents often involved curses, commentary, speculation, the weird and absurd, and strange portents. While the information they carried might not have been approved or verified by authoritative channels, they were not necessarily fabrications and falsehoods. In terms of linguistic expression, they were unclear, ambiguous, and amenable to multiple definitions and interpretations. Rumor-type expressions played an important role in politics and society during the early imperial period.
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- Rumor in the Early Chinese Empires , pp. 276 - 320Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021