If you choose to write a political science paper, choose one of the three questions below to write on.
1) What are the unifying and dividing forces at play in Imperial China? In general, would you say it tends toward unity or disunity?
2) What gave legitimacy to Chinese emperors? Did it change from one dynasty to the next?
3) On p.139 of the Fairbank’s chapter 6, “Government in the Ming Dynasty”, he writes “The contradiction between Ming China’s superior capacity for maritime expansion and conservative Neo-Confucian throttling of it suggests that Ming China almost purposely missed the boat of modern technological and economic development”. Why would Ming China do this? How does it relate to Confucian thought broadly? Is there evidence of such behavior in earlier periods?
Chinese Emperors and Imperial rule
What gave legitimacy to Chinese emperors? Did it change from one dynasty to the next?
The Imperial Rule in Ancient China is marked by the most notable developments in Chinese history which are the emergence of the bureaucratic government. Back in time, Chinese monarchs were priests and kings. The people believed that a particular dynasty was chosen to rule following a clear demonstration of its ability to handle the position. Chinese dynasties are a unique system of power as it is not fixated on branches of a single line. The system allows the founder of a new regime to come from the simplest background and to rule the people or worse still come from a non-Chinese ethnic group. The legitimacy of Chinese Emperors is grounded in their natural ability to maintain order and govern (Connolly, 1984).
According to Ebrey & Chow (2003), Chinese Emperors obtained their legitimacy from the ‘Mandate of Heaven.’ The ‘Mandate of Heaven’ was adopted in 1100BC and was defined as the right to rule. This refers to a political notion that one should be offered a position of leadership once they prove eligible to rule (Eno, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). The political legitimacy also contained the conditions to overthrow a ruler. This was only justified upon proof that the ruler has betrayed the supreme being, adopted wicked ways and had lost the trust of the people. The Chinese Emperor, once instated is not granted .absolute power as expected. The Emperor has to go through tests such which included basic political expectations alongside proper behaviors as an integral part of the cosmic order. The ideal image of an Emperor was being exceptional, sage and having the ability to mediate the cosmic forces skillfully.
The Mandate has four distinct principles:
• The Heaven grants the power to rule
• There being only one Heaven, so is the Emperor.
• The right to rule is established through virtue
• No dynasty is permanent
The above factors are elaborated as follows. To begin with, the ‘Mandate of Heaven’ is earned by the ruler through virtue and moral integrity. It is these two acts that had a natural effect on social order (Zhao, 2009). The intervention of a breach in the social contract between the people and the ruler, the mandate from which the ruler draws his powers from will be withheld and hence the collapse of the dynasty. The mandate applies to all the dynasties and is easily withdrawn when the Emperor violates his relationship with the Chinese people. There were specific indications that revealed that the Emperor had lost the ‘Mandate of Heaven.’ Such indications included the uprising of peasants, invasion by foreign troops, floods, famine, and earthquakes among others.
The legitimacy of Chinese Emperors does not change from one dynasty to the next. This is because the determining factor on whether one can rule is the ‘Mandate of Heaven.’ The mandate was adopted as a procedure to determine rulers and hence applicable to every dynasty in China. It is through the ‘Mandate of Heaven’ that the growth and decay of dynasties are possible. It allowed the rise of new dynasties one the reigning dynasty has been proven as corrupt (Zhao, 2009). This is essential in maintaining the status of China as a state. As much as the Mandate of Heaven is likened to the ‘Divine Rights f Kings’ it is dissimilar to an extent. The Mandate of Heaven allows for the outward rebellion against unjust, incompetent and tyrannical rulers. The success of a rebellion against a ruler was a clear sign that the Emperor had lost its mandate.
References
Connolly, W. E. (Ed.). (1984). Legitimacy and the State. New York University Press.
Ebrey, P. B., & Chow, J. (2003). A visual sourcebook of Chinese civilization. Patricia Buckley Ebrey.
Eno, R. (2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). Inscriptional Records of the Western Zhou. Indiana University, History G380.
Zhao, D. (2009). The mandate of heaven and performance legitimation in historical and contemporary China. American Behavioral Scientist, 53(3), 416-433.
