Mandate of Heaven

For other uses, see Mandate of Heaven (disambiguation).

Mandate of Heaven (天命 Pīnyīn: Tiānmìng) was a traditional Chinese sovereignty concept of legitimacy used to support the rule of the kings of the Zhou Dynasty and later the Emperors of China. Heaven would bless the authority of a just ruler, but Heaven would be displeased with an unwise ruler and give the Mandate to someone else. "Mandate of Heaven" was also the very first era name of the Qin Dynasty.

The Mandate has no time limitations, but instead required just performance from the ruler. The Duke of Zhou explained to the people of Shang, that if their king had not misused his power, his Mandate would not have been taken away. This means that a legitimate emperor need not be of noble birth, and in fact, dynasties as powerful as the Han dynasty and Ming dynasty were founded by people of modest birth.

The concept was first found in written records from the words of the Duke of Zhou, younger brother of King Wu of Zhou and regent for King Wu's infant son King Cheng of Zhou. He is usually considered to be the first supporter of the idea. The notion of the Mandate of Heaven was also invoked by Mencius, a very influential Chinese scholarly Sage, considered as the second greatest Sage next to Confucius.

Eventually, as Chinese political ideas developed further, the Mandate was linked to the notion of the dynastic cycle. Severe floods or famines were considered evidence of a divine repeal of the Mandate.

The Shang and Zhou

The Mandate of Heaven was first used by the Zhou Dynasty to justify their overthrow of the Shang Dynasty and would be used by many succeeding dynasties to come. During the mirificent reign of the Zhou Dynasty and later emperors of China, a new concept was introduced in which many believed that a strong leader with an excellent discretion was needed in China to rule the mass population. To satisfy this need and the needs of power hungry rulers a revolutionary theory was established in which Heaven would bless a just ruler, but would be greatly displeased with a leader that abuses his or her power. Although the Mandate had no limitation, however, it clearly had a standard that would inevitably cause Heaven to direct the Mandate to a proper authority. Because of these standards set by the Mandate of Heaven, a loose standard was also established relative to the background of the leader. According to historical documents found in ancient China, a leader could come from any spectrum of the social structure in the dynasty. The Zhou said that the Xia Dynasty had existed long before the Shang, and that they too were overthrown by the Mandate. This would have given the Zhou the same right to overthrow the Shang. However, there is no concrete evidence of the Xia, as it has been widely said that perhaps the Mandate was created by the Zhou.

The Shang legitimized rule by family connections to divine power. It was believed their founders had been deities, and their descendants went to join them in Heaven. Heaven was very active and interfering, in mysterious ways, in earthly rule, as shown by the divination texts preserved from the later part of the Shang, the oracle bones. The Mandate of Heaven may be thought of as changing this divination legitimization to a feudal one.

The Five Dynasties Period

Main article: Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period

Song Dynasty scholar-official Xue Juzheng compiled the Five Dynasties History (五代史) during the 960s and 970s, after the Song Dynasty had taken northern China from the last of the Five Dynasties, the Later Zhou Dynasty. A major purpose was to establish justification for the transference of the Mandate of Heaven through these five dynasties, and thus to the Song Dynasty.

He argued that these dynasties met certain vital criteria to be considered as having attained the Mandate of Heaven despite never having ruled all of China. One is that they all ruled the traditional Chinese heartland. They also held considerably more territory than any of the other Chinese states that had existed conterminously in the south.

However, there were certain other areas where these dynasties all clearly fell short. The brutal behavior of Zhu Wen and the Later Liang Dynasty was a source of considerable embarrassment, and thus there was pressure to exclude them from the Mandate. The following three dynasties, the Later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Han were all non Han Chinese dynasties, all having been ruled by the non-Chinese Shatuo Turks. There is also the concern that though each of them were the most powerful Chinese kingdom of their respective eras, none of them ever really had the ability to unify the entire Chinese realm as there were several powerful states to the south. However, it was the conclusion of Xue Juzheng that the Mandate had indeed passed through each of the Five Dynasties, and thus onto the Song Dynasty when it conquered the last of those dynasties.

The Shang Dynasty had its prosperous times filled with many outstanding accomplishments. Notably, the dynasty lasted for a considerable amount of years in which 31 Kings ruled over an extended period of 17 generations. During this period, the dynasty was able to enjoy a period of peace and tranquility in which jobs were commonly available for citizens. The government was able to control most of its internal affairs due to the firm support provided by the people. Among many of its accomplishments, they were noted primarily for their technological advancement in the development of bronze casting, chariots, and shell money. The Shang Dynasty was able to urbanize secluded locations to form cities. This eventually led the social stratification in which four main social classes were developed. Among the four classes were Kings and Royalty at the top of the social ladder, followed by Civil and Military, Administrative and Commoners, and lastly with the slaves at the bottom. Because of the social and economic division, the King and his royalty began to intensively pursue material wealth in which the well-being of other social classes was ignored. The rulers wasted the dynasty’s wealth accumulated on extravagant rituals. They also lavished great deals of wealth on wine, women, and tyranny. This abuse of the other social classes consequently led to an upheaval in the dynasty. The corruption in this dynasty mandated the need for a new ruler. This inevitably gave rise to the Zhou Dynasty. Led by Zhou Wu, as the will of heaven, they believed that the Shang were morally implacable because of their degenerated moral standards, therefore, entitling them to overthrow the Shang Dynasty due to the fact that it was a mandate given by Heaven.

After the Zhou gained control of the dynasty, they instituted mostly their own officials. However, in order to appease some of the citizens, they allowed some of the Shang beneficiaries to continue governing the small Kingdoms in which they had been governing but in compliance with the Zhou rules and regulations. As the empire continued to expand, much intermarriage became eminent. This was done because the rulers believed that it was a method of forming strong allies that enabled them to absorb more countries into the dynasty. In case of a war, the Zhou Dynasty boasted an excellent military and technology mostly because of influence from annexed countries. They also excelled in shipbuilding, which made them excellent mariners because of their discovery of navigating their ships to a precise destination by using the stars as their guide. Intellectually, the Zhou excelled in fields of literature and philosophy. Many governmental positions were dictated around the intellectual ability of a candidate. Many of the Literature from the Zhou period included the Book of Changes, Book of History, Book Etiquettes, Book of Song, Book of Odes, and the Book of Rites. Most of these literatures observed the progress and political movement of the dynasty. In philosophical terms, Confucius and his followers played an important role in shaping the mentality of the government. These critical thinkers served as a foundation for the government. Their works primarily stressed the importance of the ruling class, respect and their relationship with the lower class. Due to the growing size of the dynasty, it became apparent that a centralized government would lead to a lot of confusion and corruption because the government would not be able to exert its influence or compromise the needs of everyone. To address this political barrier, the dynasty formed a decentralized government in which the empire was broken down into sections. Within these districts were administrators who were appointed by the government, in return, they had to maintain their allegiance to the main internal government. In effect, the Zhou dynasty became a collection of districts. Consequently this marked the fall of the dynasty as it became difficult for the central government to exert influence on all other regions of the empire.

Finally, after the Zhou dynasty became less powerful, it was then wiped out by the Qin because they believed that the Zhou became unfit in ruling. This transition emphasizes the customary trend of Mandate of Heaven which provided leeway for the rise of new power. The Qin initially attempted to capitalize on the mistake/errors made by the Zhou, by either eliminating the source of error or reforming it. During this reformation, administrative changes were made and a system of legalism was developed which stated that the law is supreme over every individual, including the rulers. Although significant progress was made during the Qin Dynasty, however, the persecution of scholars and ordinary citizens led to an unstable state.

After the death of Emperor Qin Shihuangdi of the Qin dynasty, a widespread revolt by prisoners, peasants, and unhappy soldiers inevitably led to the fall of the Qin Dynasty to Han due to its tyrannical practices. The establishment of the Han Dynasty marked a great period in China’s history. This period was marked by significant changes in the political structure of China. During the Han dynasty significant changes were made in which the government introduced entrance examination known as civil service examination for governmental positions. Additionally the Han dynasty prospered economically through the Silk Road and other trading means. Throughout the reign of the Han Dynasty, the wealthy elites and the peasants benefited from the wise decisions made by the brilliant minds of the Dynasty.

Comparison

The Mandate concept is similar to the European notion of Divine Right, which legitimized rule, but the Mandate concept allowed the overthrowing of unjust rulers. In Chinese thought a successful revolt was considered evidence that the Mandate of Heaven had passed. In both systems it was wrong to revolt, but a successful insurrection was understood as evidence of divine approval. In Japan, rulers are thought of as unbroken successions of the sun goddess.

See also

• Auctoritas (secular equivalent in the roman republic which effectively gave way to a closer equivalent in the principate and dominate)
• Amaterasu
• Divine right of kings
• Impeachment
• Imperial Seal of China
• Tiananmen

Bibliography

• Mote, F.W. (1999). Imperial China: 900-1800. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-01212-7.