Mandate of Heaven

The Mandate of Heaven (Chinese: 天命; pinyin: Tiānmìng) is a traditional Chinese philosophical concept concerning the legitimacy of rulers. It is similar to the European concept of the divine right of kings, in that both sought to legitimize rule from divine approval; however, unlike the divine right of kings, the Mandate of Heaven is predicated on the conduct of the ruler in question. The Mandate of Heaven postulates that heaven (天; Tian) would bless the authority of a just ruler, as defined by the Five Confucian Relationships, but would be displeased with a despotic ruler and would withdraw its mandate, leading to the overthrow of that ruler. The Mandate of Heaven would then transfer to those who would rule best. The mere fact of a leader having been overthrown is itself indication that he has lost the Mandate of Heaven.

The Mandate of Heaven does not require that a legitimate ruler be of noble birth, and dynasties were often founded by people of modest birth (such as the Han dynasty and Ming dynasty). The concept of the Mandate of Heaven was first used to support the rule of the kings of the Zhou Dynasty, and their overthrow of the earlier Shang dynasty. It was used throughout the history of China to support the rule of the Emperors of China, including 'foreign' dynasties such as the Qing Dynasty.

The Mandate of Heaven is a well-accepted and popular idea among the people of China, as it argues for the removal of incompetent or despotic rulers, and provided an incentive for rulers to rule well and justly. The concept is often invoked by philosophers and scholars in ancient China as a way to curtail the abuse of power by the ruler, in a system that otherwise offered no other check to this power. The Mandate of Heaven had no time limitations, instead depending on the just and able performance of the ruler. In the past, times of poverty and natural disasters were taken as signs that heaven considered the incumbent ruler unjust and thus in need of replacement.

Origins

The concept is first found in the written records of 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 considered by many to have been the originator of the idea. The notion of the Mandate of Heaven was later invoked by Mencius, a very influential Chinese philosopher, considered by most to be the second greatest Confucian philosopher next to Confucius.

The Mandate of Heaven was first used by the Zhou Dynasty to justify its overthrow of the Shang Dynasty and would be used by many succeeding dynasties in the same way. 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. Eventually, as Chinese political ideas developed further, the Mandate was linked to the notion of the dynastic cycle. Severe floods or famines were considered portents and monitions indicating divine disapproval of the recent activities of the ruler.

The Shang had legitimized their rule by family connections to divine power. The Shang believed that their founders were deities, and their descendants went to join them in Heaven. As shown by the divination texts preserved on oracle bones from the later Shang, Heaven was thought to be very active and to interfere in mysterious ways with earthly rule. The philosophy of the Mandate of Heaven changed the right to rule from one of purely divine legitimization to one based on just rule.

Although the Mandate had no time limitation, it held rulers to a clear standard. Over the passage of time, there would inevitably arise a ruler who would cause Heaven to withdraw its Mandate. As the Mandate of Heaven emphasized the performance of the ruler, the social background of the ruler became less important. Historical documents found in ancient China stated that a legitimate ruler could come from any spectrum of the society. The Zhou said that the Xia Dynasty had existed long before the Shang, and that they too were overthrown by reason of their losing the Mandate. The existence of the Xia dynasty is attested only in legend. Archaeological finds indicate human habitations including fairly large cities before the Shang, but so far no evidence has surfaced that would verify either the names of those who ruled over these cities, their form of government, or any other specifics. There is, likewise, no evidence that anyone before Zhou times had enunciated the idea of Tian Ming, the Mandate of Heaven. On the other hand, this idea appears in more than one context in the 書經 Shū Jīng (Book of Records) as an accepted fact of life rather than something that needed any introduction.

The Mandate of Heaven is based on four leading ideas:

1. The right to rule China is granted by Heaven.
2. There can be only one legitimate ruler of China.
3. The right to rule is based on the virtue of the ruler and his good performance as a steward for Heaven.
4. The right to rule may be passed down from father to son, but only on the conditions established above. Once the Mandate is lost, the will of Heaven towards a successor will only be known by the working out of the imponderable force of events in human history.

These four leading ideas have important implications:

1. Legitimization of the ruling house in the eyes of the people who come under its sway
2. Times of divided rule require some rationalization after the fact to establish which ruler can claim truly to have the Mandate
3. The rulers put checks on their own behavior, and are encouraged to invest in the well-being of their subjects.
4. The rulers necessarily fear rebellion, possibly because they believe in active intervention from Heaven, and/or possibly because they know that misbehavior will give positive sanction to attempts by others to overthrow them.

Transition between the Shang and the Zhou

The Shang Dynasty had its prosperous times fill with many outstanding accomplishments. Notably, the dynasty lasted for a considerable number 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 citizens could make a good living. The government was originally able to control most of its internal affairs due to the firm support provided by the people. As time went on, however, the rulers' abuse of the other social classes led to social unrest and instability. The corruption in this dynasty created the conditions necessary for a new ruling house to rise. It became the Zhou dynasty. Rebellion against the Shang was led by Zhou Wu. They explained their right to assume rule as coming from the will of heaven. They believed that the Shang ruling house had become morally corrupt, and that the Shang leaders' loss of virtue entitled their own house to take over. The overthrowal of the Shang Dynasty, they said, was in accord with the 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 mistakes/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 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 examinations known as civil service examinations or imperial examinations 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.

Five Dynasties Period

Main article: Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, there was no dominant Chinese dynasty that ruled all of China. This created a problem for the Song Dynasty that followed, as they wanted to legitimize their rule by claiming that the Mandate of Heaven had passed on them. The 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 was the most powerful Chinese kingdom of its respective era, 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.

In Contemporary China

The idea of the Mandate of Heaven was developed by the Zhou as an ideology of legitimation, and it continues to serve this function. By emphasizing the unity of the Chinese nation into pre-historic times, the concept legitimates the rule of a single centralised state and implicitly relegates any other potential power holders (both historical and contemporary) to positions of subordination or illegitimacy. Although the archaeological record shows clearly that multiple cultures and kingdoms existed in the area that was to become China, Chinese archaeologists continue to date all Bronze Age sites to the Xia, Shang or Zhou, implying that the territory controlled today belonged to the ancestors of the current Chinese state. In Chinese schools today the concept is not taught explicitly, but by tracing the origins of the Chinese state to the Xia, Shang and Zhou, rather than emphasizing the diversity of the actual archaeological record, the Chinese education system continues to promote the idea of the Mandate of Heaven.

Japan

In Japan, the concept of a divine political legitimacy that is conditional and could be withdrawn was ideologically problematic. In Japan this problem was obviated because the Imperial House of Japan claimed to be descended in an unbroken line from the Japanese sun goddess, Amaterasu. Nevertheless, while maintaining this role, the Japanese emperor became politically marginalized in the Nara and Heian periods by powerful regents of the Fujiwara clan who seized executive control of state. Even though the Japanese imperial line itself remained unbroken after the eighth century, actual political authority passed through successive dynasties of regents and shoguns which cycled in a manner similar to that of Chinese dynasties. Even after the Meiji restoration in 1868, when the emperor was placed back in the center of the political bureaucracy, the throne itself had very little power vis-à-vis the Meiji oligarchy. Actual political power has passed through at least four systems since the Meiji restoration: the Taishō democracy, the militarists, the Occupation of Japan, and postwar democracy. The emperor today is a political figurehead and not a ruling sovereign. It could be said the imperial line of Japan survived for so long precisely because it did not have control over the state, and that the turmoil of succession was projected onto a series of proxy rulers.

Divine right in other countries

The Mandate of Heaven is similar to the European notion of the Divine Right of Kings in that both sought to legitimize rule using divine approval. However, the Divine Right of Kings granted unconditional legitimacy, whereas the Mandate of Heaven was conditional on the just behavior of the ruler. Revolution is never legitimate under the Divine Right of Kings, but the philosophy of the Mandate of Heaven approved of the overthrow of unjust rulers. Chinese historians interpreted a successful revolt as evidence that the Mandate of Heaven had passed. In China, the right of rebellion against an unjust ruler has been a part of political philosophy ever since the Zhou dynasty, and a successful rebellion was interpreted by Chinese historians as evidence of that divine approval had passed on to the successive dynasty.

The greatest theologians of Europe, from John Calvin and John Knox to Thomas Aquinas, Robert Bellarmine, and Juan de Mariana, were closer in their beliefs to the Mandate of Heaven than to the Divine Right of Kings. In the Institutes of the Christian Religion, first published in 1536 and the foundational document of Calvinism, Calvin argued that legitimate governments are those ruling with the consent of the governed and in covenant with God and the people. When ordinary citizens are confronted with tyranny, he wrote, ordinary citizens have to suffer it (whereas in the Mandate of Heaven and in the theology of the Jesuits Bellarmine and Mariana, they have the right to rebellion and tyrannicide), but magistrates have the duty to "curb the tyranny of kings," as had the Tribunes in ancient Rome, the Ephori in Sparta, and the Demarchs in ancient Athens -- and indeed the Censorate of China.

See also

• Tianxia
• Auctoritas
• Divine right of kings
• Hua-Yi Distinction
• Impeachment
• Imperial Seal of China
• Tiananmen
• Zhou Dynasty

Bibliography

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