Views: 132How China’s Mandate of Heaven redefined legitimacy Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  20.08.2025 For millennia, rulers have sought divine justification for their power but none framed it as conditionally as China’s Mandate of Heaven. Unlike Europe’s rigid divine right of kings, this ancient doctrine tied authority to moral governance, allowing rebellion when rulers failed. From peasant uprisings to Manchu conquests, the mandate shaped empires through cosmic accountability. Yet its legacy endures, echoing in modern debates about leadership and legitimacy. What can this philosophy teach us about power’s fleeting nature and the price of losing heaven’s favour? The mandate of heaven: moral legitimacy and cultural power in imperial China The mandate of heaven (天命, tiānmìng) stands as one of history’s most enduring political doctrines, blending divine authority with tangible moral accountability [1]. Originating in the Zhou dynasty’s overthrow of the Shang (circa 1046 BCE), it established a revolutionary principle: rulers governed not … Continue reading The right to rule