Introduction
The mandate of heaven was a notion used to support the rule of kings in ancient emperors of China. The mandate of heaven depicted that heaven would approve a good and just king but would be discontented by an unjust ruler, and the mandate would be given to someone else, the mandate of a king had no time limit and that the rule depended on the performance and that to suit to be king it didn’t mean that one had to born royal. If the land was ruled by an unjust ruler, then the heavens would choose another family who would take over the mandate, which would overthrow the current king, and a successful overthrow was considered to be divinely approved.
The mandate of heaven was based on the following principles
- Heaven grants the right to rule
- There can only be one ruler at a time
- The rule is not limited to a single family
The advantage of the mandate of heaven concept is that it gives a ruler religious importance and also supreme power, and also it gives the ruler great power immediately because people believe that he has the mandate from heaven. However, this form of rule brings about some advantages, which are that the ruler is continuously checked for virtues that allow him to continue to rule and that it allows rebellion on an unjust ruler until the rebellion is successful.
The mandate of heaven is similar to the western notion of kings. Although the western notion did not allow the overthrowing of unjust rulers, the further occurrence of floods and famines in ancient china was considered as divine signs of violation of the mandate of heaven.
The mandate of heaven and western politics
The mandate of heaven notion is different from the western political practices; the notion advocates for an overthrow of an unjust ruler, but this is not the case in the current western political practices; according to the mandate of heaven, it is evident that the occurrence of natural disasters as a sign of unjust rule, the existence of unjust rulers will result to floods, tornados, and famines. Western countries have experienced such disasters in the past, and according to the mandate of heaven, this is a sign of unjust rule. The mandate of heaven depicts that all things that happen in the world are a result of action from heaven and that their occurrence is beyond human control.
It was believed that heaven ruled the earth but indirectly and that the ruler should be legitimate and just and also observe the welfare of the people it rules; from the western rule, it is evident that there are some rulers who are not concerned with the welfare of the people they rule, this notion depicts that the rule should be terminated or the occurrence of natural disasters in the country as a sign of unjust rule and that this disaster is beyond human control.
From the above explanation, the western countries can learn from the mandate of heaven and stop the rulers who are unjust, failing to be concerned with the people’s welfare of a country a leader rule is unjust. Some western countries go ahead and invade other countries in search of peace but end up making other people suffer; that why their countries will continue to experience natural disasters such as floods and tornados.
References
- F. Mote (1999) Imperial China: the mandate of heaven, Harvard University Press, Harvard
- Wikipedia the free encyclopedia (2007) mandate of heaven. Web.