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 academy 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.
Read more about this topic: Mandate Of Heaven
Famous quotes containing the words contemporary and/or china:
“The shift from the perception of the child as innocent to the perception of the child as competent has greatly increased the demands on contemporary children for maturity, for participating in competitive sports, for early academic achievement, and for protecting themselves against adults who might do them harm. While children might be able to cope with any one of those demands taken singly, taken together they often exceed children’s adaptive capacity.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“It all ended with the circuslike whump of a monstrous box on the ear with which I knocked down the traitress who rolled up in a ball where she had collapsed, her eyes glistening at me through her spread fingers—all in all quite flattered, I think. Automatically, I searched for something to throw at her, saw the china sugar bowl I had given her for Easter, took the thing under my arm and went out, slamming the door.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)