Who is mandate of heaven

What role did law play in the imperial effort to carry out the social reform programs? Jiang addresses these questions by examining the transformative role of the Code in educating the people about the Mandate of Heaven. The Code served as a cosmic instrument and moral textbook to ensure "all under Heaven" were aligned with the cosmic order.

By promoting, regulating, and prohibiting categories of ritual behavior, the intent of the Code was to provide spiritual guidance to Chinese subjects, as well as to acquire political legitimacy.

The Code also obligated officials to obey the supreme authority of the emperor, to observe filial behavior toward parents, to care for the welfare of the masses, and to maintain harmonious relationships with deities.

This set of regulations made officials the representatives of the Son of Heaven in mediating between the spiritual and mundane worlds and in governing the human realm. This study challenges the conventional assumption that law in premodern China was used merely as an arm of the state to maintain social control and as a secular tool to exercise naked power.

Based on a holistic approach, Jiang argues that the Ming ruling elite envisioned the cosmos as an integrated unit; they saw law, religion, and political power as intertwined, remarkably different from the "modern" compartmentalized worldview.

In serving as a cosmic instrument to manifest the Mandate of Heaven, The Great Ming Code represented a powerful religious effort to educate the masses and transform society. Introduction — Religion and Chinese Legal Cosmology 2. Conclusion — Manifesting the Mandate of Heaven. For students interested in these and other questions concerning Chinese law or religion in the late imperial period, Jiang's learned study should be an obvious starting point.

The book is a necessary correction to the conventional views [that Chinese law was irrational, entirely secular, and an instrument of state control]. Of course, drought or floods often led to famine, which in turn caused peasant uprisings, so these factors were often interrelated. Although the Mandate of Heaven sounds superficially similar to the European concept of the "Divine Right of Kings," in fact it operated quite differently.

In the European model, God granted a particular family the right to rule a country for all time, regardless of the rulers' behavior. The Divine Right was an assertion that God essentially forbade rebellions, as it was a sin to oppose the king. In contrast, the Mandate of Heaven justified rebellion against an unjust, tyrannical, or incompetent ruler. If a rebellion was successful in overthrowing the emperor, then it was a sign that he had lost the Mandate of Heaven and the rebel leader had gained it.

In addition, unlike the hereditary Divine Right of Kings, the Mandate of Heaven did not depend upon royal or even noble birth. Any successful rebel leader could become emperor with Heaven's approval, even if he was born a peasant. Zhou leaders claimed that the Shang emperors had become corrupt and unfit, so Heaven demanded their removal. When Zhou authority crumbled in turn, there was no strong opposition leader to seize control, so China descended into the Warring States Period c.

It was reunified and expanded by Qin Shihuangdi, beginning in , but his descendants quickly lost the Mandate. The Qin Dynasty ended in B. This cycle continued through the history of China. In , the Ming Dynasty lost the Mandate and was overthrown by Li Zicheng's rebel forces.

A shepherd by trade, Li Zicheng ruled for just two years before he was in turn ousted by the Manchus, who founded the Qing Dynasty This was China's final imperial dynasty. The concept of the Mandate of Heaven had several important effects on China and on other countries, such as Korea and Annam northern Vietnam , that were within the sphere of China's cultural influence.

Fear of losing the Mandate prompted rulers to act responsibly in carrying out their duties towards their subjects. The Mandate also allowed for incredible social mobility for a handful of peasant rebellion leaders who became emperors.

Finally, it gave the people a reasonable explanation and a scapegoat for otherwise inexplicable events, such as droughts, floods, famines, earthquakes, and disease epidemics. Map of Zhou Dynasty. This map shows the location of the ancient Zhou Dynasty.

If a king ruled unfairly he could lose this approval, which would result in his downfall. Overthrow, natural disasters, and famine were taken as a sign that the ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven. The Mandate of Heaven did not require a ruler to be of noble birth, and had no time limitations. Instead, rulers were expected to be good and just in order to keep the Mandate. The Zhou claimed that their rule was justified by the Mandate of Heaven. In other words, the Zhou believed that the Shang kings had become immoral with their excessive drinking, luxuriant living, and cruelty, and so had lost their mandate.