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The term means order and bestowment from Heaven. “Mandate of heaven” mainly contains three different meanings: The first is the order of heaven over human affairs. Such order first of all focuses on a change of the supreme ruler’s authority: Heaven empowers the virtuous to attack and replace a ruler who has lost his virtue, and thus enjoy the highest and unsurpassed power and benefits. Secondly, mandate of heaven means fate, which is irresistible and imposes limit on human power. Thirdly, the term indicates the natural disposition bestowed by heaven upon human being. According to The Doctrine of the Mean, “Mandate of heaven endows one with his nature.” Song-dynasty Confucian scholars developed this idea, proposing that human nature was the “nature of mandate of heaven,” that is, the inherent pure and good nature one receives from heaven.
Tian (天) is a sacred and fundamental concept in ancient Chinese philosophy. It has three different meanings. The first is the physical sky or the entirety of nature (not including human society), the operations of which manifest certain laws and order. The second refers to a spiritual being, which possesses an anthropomorphic will and governs everything in the universe. The third denotes the universal law, which is observed by all things and beings, and which is also the basis of human nature, morality, and social and political orders.
This term refers to the moral character endowed to a person by Heaven, also known as “characters endowed by Heaven and Earth,” as opposed to the “character endowed by qi, or vital force.” Some early pre-Qin Confucian scholars maintained that human moral characters originated from Heaven. Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty, inheriting this concept, further propounded the notion of “characters endowed by Heaven,” meaning that all people were endowed by Heaven with moral characters. “Characters endowed by Heaven” are purely good, providing the inner basis for a person’s moral principle and conduct. However, as human characters are subject to other influences, “characters endowed by Heaven” can be obscured.
This term first appears in The Book of Songs. It means that there is no one who can forever remain a recipient of the bestowed supreme power by the Ruler of Heaven. The ancients believed that the heavenly order determined to whom the supreme royal power belonged. However, the choice of the recipient of such a conferment was not forever. Replacement of the Shang Dynasty by the Zhou Dynasty was brought about by the change of the recipient of Heaven’s bestowal of the mandate to rule. However, the change of the recipients of the mandate followed a fixed principle: such bestowal could fall only on a ruler who was virtuous. Once he had lost virtue, the mandate to rule would be withdrawn from him. Therefore, the concept of the change of the recipient of Heaven’s mandate served as a warning to the ruler, who must constantly cultivate his virtue in order to keep his rule.
Rejoice in complying with the way of heaven and recognize the limitations set by the mandate of heaven. This concept originates from The Book of Changes. The way of heaven regulates human affairs and its mandate defines the limit of human power. This is beyond human capacity to change and must be faced with calm, which man must understand and face with calm. While people are subject to regulation and limitation by Heaven and its mandate, they can cultivate their virtue and make great achievements through continuous efforts. That’s why people should rejoice in complying with Heaven and its mandate.
The term means taking power from a ruler. Ge (革) means to change or remove. Ming (命) first referred to the mandate of heaven and later came to mean a ruler’s decrees and his mandate to rule. Changing the mandate usually involves replacing a ruler and a change of dynasty, in other words, overthrowing an old regime and establishing a new one. People in ancient China believed that a ruler’s mandate to rule was ordained by Heaven and therefore any change of the mandate should in essence be carried out in response to the will of Heaven. However, change is a basic law of the universe, and the removal of a ruler’s mandate is a specific expression of this law. The legitimacy and success of such change depend on whether those who lead the change do so in response to the will of heaven and the popular desire of the people. In modern times, the term is used as an expression meaning revolution, denoting major social, political or economic changes.
Do away with the old and set up the new. Ge (革) and ding (鼎) are two trigrams in The Book of Changes. In Commentary on The Book of Changes, it is explained that the lower ge trigram symbolizes fire and the upper ge trigram symbolizes water. Since fire and water are opposed and in conflict, and they cannot keep an original state of equilibrium, changes are bound to occur. Consequently, the ge trigram implies change of an unsuitable old state of affairs. The lower ding trigram symbolizes wood and the upper ding trigram symbolizes fire. When people throw the wood into the fire, they can cook their food in a ding. Thus, the ding trigram signifies the creation of new things. Following the doctrine in Commentary on The Book of Changes, later people combined the two together to represent an outlook advocating changes.
The ancient Chinese believed that virtuous men followed the will of heaven in establishing a political regime and becoming its sovereigns; hence their success came from the mandate of heaven. This thought is similar to the Western notion of the divine right of kings; but it also emphasizes the wishes and will of the people, or people-centered thinking. In ancient China, this phrase was often used in praise of the founding of a new dynasty, and the implementation of major social reforms to justify its legitimacy.
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