Mandate of Heaven - Origins

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 Historical documents found in ancient China stated that a legitimate ruler could come from any spectrum of the society.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.