The Mandate of Heaven

The Dynasties of China

-Fictional

Bonus

Four Principals of the Mandate of Heaven

• Both the Han dynasty and the Ming Dynasty had rulers of common birth.
• After the Zhao's overthrew the Shang's the Shangs still ruled small kingdoms according to Zhao rules.
• The Zhao dynasty excelled in the field of philosophy, literature, and technology
• Some of the best chinese classics were written at this time. Including the Book of Change,Book of History, Book of Song, and Book of Rites to name a few.
• China gets its western name from the Xin Dynasty, Chin-a

1.Heaven grants the emperor the right to rule.

2.Scince there is only one heaven, there can only be one emperor at a time.

3.The emperor's virtue determines the right to rule.

4.No Dynasty has a permanent right to rule.

End of the Dynastic Cycle

After over 3000 years, the Dynastic cycle crumbles to communism.

The (Short) Qin Dynasty

In 1911, the Qing Dynasty met its end, but instead of a new dynasty, the first Republic of China was founded. The Mandate of heaven was discarded along with the emperor and into the history books.

This dynasty lasted 15 years and was when the infamous book burnings took place.

The Five Dynastic period

At this time there was no single dynasty ruling all of china.

While the Qin fixed or reformed the problems left by the Zhao, Persecution of scholars and ordinary citizens led to a very unstable state.

After the death of the First Emperor, widespread rebellion took down the Qin and instated the Han. After significant political changes such as imperial examinations for political candidates, The chinese economy prosperes along the silk road and other... less famous means

The Song Dynasty wanted to legitimize their rule at this time, and they were assisted by a scholar-official named Xue Juzheng argued that all of the dynasties ruled the Chinese Heartland of Huang. Although the other dynasties clearly fell short of the Mandate.

• The Zhu and later Liang were extremely brutal
• The Later Liang, Later Jin, and Later Han were all ruled by an ethnic minority.

The Song did eventualy rule China after conquering them.

The Decentralized Government

The Mandate of Heaven

Due to the Zhao's growing empire, they couldn't handle the enir country as they once did. So the kindom was broken into sections and assigned administrators. This eventually led to the downfall of the Zhao because they no longer held compete influence.

Acceptance of the Mandate

The Mandate was used to legitimatize the Zhao's rise to power. It was well accepted scince it argues that a ruler may only keep power if they rule well, and allows the removal of incompetent rulers. As well as an incentive f0r rulers to behave well.

Shang to Zhao

Concept

After 17 prosperous generations of Shang rule, abuse over social classes led to instability and political corruption. This allowed the Zhao to take over

The Mandate Of Heaven is an ancient Chinese belief that Heaven is what grants emperors the right to rule based off their ability to rule fairly.

Details of the Mandate

According to the mandate a ruler does not have to be of noble birth. There is also no time limit, a dynasty lasts as long as the rule goes well.