The Mandate of Heaven is an ancient concept that was originated during the Zhou Dynasty. The Mandate of Heaven is established on spiritual truth and seeking your true self, the gods passed the Mandate of Heaven to the Zhou, who “treated a lot of people well.” It expanded the idea to explain the dynastic cycle or also the rise and fall of dynasties. Also it was first used to support the rule of the kings of the Zhou Dynasty and they took control over the Shang Dynasty. There were signs that a dynasty had lost the favor of heaven which were floods, famine, or other disasters which is also in the cycle. It is granted by the gods and if the ruler cares about his people than himself.
The cycle first starts off with a New Dynasty, where a good family member has control. This is also where peace is restored, appoints loyal officials, and there are built canals, irrigation systems, and roads. After this, it’s The Aging Dynasty, where the family member from the New Dynasty has a great grandson and they take control. As they are in control, if they are not doing a good job and problems occur, this is not limited to only one dynasty or family. So therefore a new family can take control, which starts the cycle backup.
Around 1100 B.C, a belief was founded by The Zhou Dynasty that heavens gift divined the right to rule to whoever that was morally worthy, this belief was called The Mandate of Heaven. It had a good and fundamental influence on Chinese history. It established that a ruler must be wise and just follow the way of heaven. Shang King has done so much cruelty, that they declared and had an outraged on the gods that they don’t ruin on him. So then they passed the Mandate of Heaven to Zhou and he treated them very well, with respect and kind.
Later on that’s when the Chinese expanded the idea of the Mandate of Heaven to show them the Dynasty Cycle, also known as the rise and fall of dynasty. But as long as the rulers were weak and evil the chinese had faith that heaven would let go of it’s support, but if the dynasty served a good government, they enjoyed the Rules of the Heaven.
During the five dynasties and the ten kingdom period, there were no strong Chinese Dynasty that ruled all of China, that created a problem for the Song Dynasty. They wanted to legitimize their rule that The Mandate of Heaven was passed on to them. There were certain areas where these dynasties had fell short, the brutal behavior Zhou Wen and then later Liang, it was a source of true embarrassment and thats when it was pressure of preventing them from the Mandate.
The Zhou Dynasty was wiped out by the state of Qin. Qin believed Zhou became weak and their rule switched up. Qin tried to take up for Zhou, Qin either tried to get rid of Zhou’s mistakes or takes up for him. During the reformation changes has been made and a system of legalism had been brought up, which means that the law is supreme over every individual, including the rulers and such other high supreme govern, but important progress been made during the Qin Dynasty. Scholars and ordinary citizens led it until an unstable state.
The people say that men follow the earth and the earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Dao, and the Dao follows whatever that’s natural. The Dao was the same way of life of the mandate. There's a little difference but they both look the same way. If their ruler isn’t doing his job right, the minster and the people may overthrown him such as how Shang Tang defeat Xia Jie, the last emperor of the Xia Dynasty. The Mandate of Heaven is basically a way of life, and how they follow it and make your life good. But even better when you pass away. The Mandate is rules you have to follow while you’re still alive.
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