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88-514: During the Warring States period , it was common practice for learned men whose careers might have been frustrated in their homelands to travel to other countries in search of service and patronage. Li Si himself was such an individual, having been born in the State of Chu but unable to progress in an official career there. The initial policy of openness to outsiders changed in 244 BC, due to

176-438: A 'horizontal' or east–west alliance called lianheng ( 連橫{ ), in which a state would ally with Qin to participate in its ascendancy. There were some initial successes in hezong , though mutual suspicions between allied states led to the breakdown of such alliances. Qin repeatedly exploited the horizontal alliance strategy to defeat the states one by one. During this period, many philosophers and tacticians travelled around

264-467: A calming effect on Qi's own population, which experienced great domestic tranquility during Wei's reign. By the end of King Wei's reign, Qi had become the strongest of the states and proclaimed itself "king"; establishing independence from the Zhou dynasty (see below). King Hui of Wei (370–319 BC) set about restoring the state. In 362–359 BC he exchanged territories with Han and Zhao in order to make

352-549: A covenant and started planning an attack on Zhao. Mandate of Heaven Philosophers Works The Mandate of Heaven ( Chinese : 天命 ; pinyin : Tiānmìng ; Wade–Giles : T'ien -ming ; lit. 'Heaven's command') is a Chinese political ideology that was used in Ancient China and Imperial China to legitimize the rule of the king or emperor of China . According to this doctrine , Heaven ( 天 , Tian ) bestows its mandate on

440-552: A few states gaining power at the expense of many others, the latter no longer able to depend on central authority for legitimacy or protection. During the Warring States period, many rulers claimed the Mandate of Heaven to justify their conquest of other states and spread their influence. The struggle for hegemony eventually created a state system dominated by several large states, such as Jin , Chu, Qin, Yan, and Qi, while

528-535: A foreigner, was also caught up in the purge; his petition was composed while he was being expelled from Qin. Ying Zheng finally accepted Li Si's suggestion and withdrew the order. Twenty years later, Ying Zheng unified ancient China and became the first Emperor of China , thus marking the establishment of the unified Qin dynasty . Warring States period The Warring States period in Chinese history ( c.  475  – 221 BC) comprises

616-456: A good relationship with his Qi counterpart, with both promising to recognize the other as "king". Early in the Warring States period, Chu was one of the strongest states in China. The state rose to a new level of power around 389 BC when King Dao of Chu ( 楚悼王 ) named the famous reformer Wu Qi as his chancellor. Chu rose to its peak in 334 BC, when it conquered Yue to its east on

704-413: A great defeat at the hands of Qin. King Kao of Zhou had enfeoffed his younger brother as Duke Huan of Henan. Three generations later, this cadet branch of the royal house began calling themselves "dukes of East Zhou". Upon the ascension of King Nan in 314, East Zhou became an independent state. The king came to reside in what became known as West Zhou. Towards the end of the Warring States period,

792-707: A justification for rule by divine political legitimacy. In Korea , the kingdom of Goguryeo , one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea , adopted the Chinese concept of tianxia which was based on Mandate of Heaven, however in Goguryeo it was changed to be based on divine ancestry. In the Goguryeo story, Jumong was born to Hye Moss, the son of the Emperor, and Yu Hwa, the daughter of Habaek, the god of water. When Yuhwa

880-459: A period of shifting alliances and wars on several fronts. In 376 BC, the states of Han, Wei and Zhao deposed Duke Jing of Jin and divided the last remaining Jin territory between themselves, which marked the final end of the Jin state. In 370 BC, Marquess Wu of Wei died without naming a successor, which led to a war of succession. After three years of civil war, Zhao from the north and Han from

968-523: A son of King Hui by a concubine (i.e. a younger half-brother of King Wu) could be established as King Zhao , who in stark contrast to his predecessor went on to rule for an unprecedented 53 years. After the failure of the first vertical alliance, Su Qin eventually came to live in Qi, where he was favored by King Xuan and drew the envy of the ministers. An assassination attempt in 300 BC left Su mortally wounded but not dead. Sensing death approaching, he advised

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1056-456: A successful revolt as evidence that Heaven had withdrawn its mandate from the ruler. Throughout Chinese history , times of poverty and natural disasters were often taken as signs that heaven considered the incumbent ruler unjust and thus in need of replacement. The concept of the Mandate of Heaven also extends to the ruler's family having divine rights and was first used to support the rule of

1144-468: A succession struggle in 307, yielded to the new coalition and appointed Lord Mengchang its chief minister. The alliance between Qin and Qi was sealed by a Qin princess marrying King Min. This horizontal or east–west alliance might have secured peace except that it excluded the State of Zhao . Around 299 BC, the ruler of Zhao became the last of the seven major states to proclaim himself "king". In 298 BC, Zhao offered Qin an alliance and Lord Mengchang

1232-465: A virtuous ruler. This ruler, the Son of Heaven , was the supreme universal monarch , who ruled Tianxia ( 天下 ; "all under heaven", the world). If a ruler was overthrown, this was interpreted as an indication that the ruler was unworthy and had lost the mandate. It was also a common belief that natural disasters such as famine and flood were divine retributions bearing signs of Heaven's displeasure with

1320-440: A wicked ruler and punishing a common criminal. The more conservative Xunzi , writing not much later, regarded rebellion as the apical manifestation of an unfit ruler's ineptitude, only justified if already inevitable. Meanwhile, the authoritarian Han Feizi rejected entirely the concept of a just rebellion, going as far as denouncing such culture heroes as Tang of Shang and Wu of Zhou , rebels who founded successful empires. By

1408-399: A young age and passed tax laws to encourage raising multiple children. He also enacted policies to free convicts who worked in opening wastelands for agriculture. Shang abolished primogeniture and created a double tax on households that had more than one son living in the household, to break up large clans into nuclear families. Shang also moved the capital to reduce the influence of nobles on

1496-566: Is remembered in the second of the Thirty-Six Stratagems , "besiege Wei, save Zhao"—meaning to attack a vulnerable spot to relieve pressure at another point. Domestically, King Hui patronized philosophy and the arts, and is perhaps best remembered for hosting the Confucian philosopher Mencius at his court; their conversations form the first two chapters of the book which bears Meng Zi's name . The title of king ( wang , 王 )

1584-494: Is that they all ruled the traditional Chinese heartland. However, there were certain other areas where these dynasties all clearly fell short. The brutal behavior of Zhu Wen and his Later Liang was a source of considerable embarrassment, and thus there was pressure to exclude them from the Mandate. The following three dynasties, the Later Tang , Later Jin , and Later Han were all non-Han Chinese dynasties with rulers from

1672-573: The Record of the Warring States , a work of history compiled during the early Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). The political geography of the era was dominated by the Seven Warring States , namely: Besides these seven major states other smaller states survived into the period. They include: The eastward flight of the Zhou court in 771 BC marks the start of

1760-416: The 2014 and 2019 Hong Kong protests . In imperial times , Chinese emperors invoked de by striving to be good influences and performing rituals to benefit their status and keep the Mandate of Heaven. Also, the Mandate could not be given to several emperors or rulers at once. Because of China's influence in medieval times, the concept of the Mandate of Heaven spread to other East Asian countries as

1848-584: The Battle of Maling . After the battle all three of the Jin successor states appeared before King Xuan of Qi , pledging their loyalty. In the following year Qin attacked the weakened Wei. Wei was devastatingly defeated and ceded a large part of its territory in return for truce. With Wei severely weakened, Qi and Qin became the dominant states in China. Wei came to rely on Qi for protection, with King Hui of Wei meeting King Xuan of Qi on two occasions. After Hui's death, his successor King Xiang also established

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1936-629: The Shatuo ethnic minority. Additionally, none of them were able to defeat the powerful states to the south and unify the entire Chinese realm. However, Xue Juzheng concluded that the Mandate had indeed passed through each of the Five Dynasties, and thus onto the Song Dynasty when it conquered the last of those dynasties. The Mandate of Heaven was thought to emanate from the Dao, especially in

2024-778: The Song dynasty . The Qing dynasty was established by the Manchus who conquered the China proper . Nurhaci , who was regarded the founding father of the Qing dynasty, was originally a vassalage to the Ming dynasty and later rebelled against the Ming with the Seven Grievances . But according to the Qing rulers it was the peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng who overthrew the Ming, and so

2112-806: The Spring and Autumn period . No one single incident or starting point inaugurated the Warring States era. The political situation of the period represented a culmination of historical trends of conquest and annexation which also characterised the Spring and Autumn period. As a result, there is some controversy as to the beginning of the era. Proposed starting points include: The Eastern Zhou dynasty began its fall around 5th century BC. As their influence waned, they had to rely on armies in allied states rather than their own military force. Hundreds of smaller polities coalesced into seven major states which included: Chu, Han, Qin, Wei, Yan, Qi and Zhao. However, there eventually

2200-453: The Zhou conquest of Shang , his legitimacy passed to his heirs. Early on in the dynasty, there was some debate as to whether Heaven's mandate had fallen to the senior sons of King Wen's line, or to the house of Zhou as a group, as exemplified by an exchange surviving in the classic Book of Documents . The Zhou dynasty was marked by early success and expansion until the death on campaign of King Kang's successor, King Zhao of Zhou . During

2288-454: The state of Qin became disproportionately powerful compared with the other six states. As a result, the policies of the six states became overwhelmingly oriented towards dealing with the Qin threat, with two opposing schools of thought. One school advocated a 'vertical' or north–south alliance called hezong ( 合縱 ) in which the states would ally with each other to repel Qin. The other advocated

2376-429: The 600s BCE, multiple inscriptions attest to this idea. It is unclear whether the Qin rulers meant they believed they had celestial approval to replace the Zhou kings, whether they believed themselves the appointed heirs of the Zhou should the royal line come to an end, or whether their receipt of Heaven's mandate was construed as issuing through the Zhou king to give them legitimate authority over their own lands. When

2464-576: The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, there was no dominant Chinese dynasty that ruled all of China. This created a problem for the Song dynasty that followed, as they wanted to legitimize their rule by establishing a clear transmission of the Mandate from the Tang through to the Song. The scholar-official Xue Juzheng compiled the Old History of the Five Dynasties (五代史) during the 960s and 970s, after

2552-543: The Han. A sequence of written statements by various officials followed, culminating in Emperor Xian of Han 's formal announcement of abdication and Cao Pi's accession. The announcement of abdication explicitly mentioned that the mandate of Heaven was not permanent, and no one argued that the virtue of the house of Han had not been in decline for some time. In the eyes of these authors, Heaven's mandate followed virtue. While

2640-485: The Mandate of Heaven and who has lost it, some Chinese scholars consider it to be a sort of victor's justice , best characterized in the popular Chinese saying "The winner becomes king, the loser becomes outlaw" (Chinese: “ 成者爲王，敗者爲寇 ”). Due to this, it is considered that Chinese historical accounts of the fall of a dynasty and the rise of a new one must be handled with caution. Chinese traditional historical compilation methods produce accounts that tend to fit their account to

2728-429: The Mandate of Heaven. Retaining the mandate is contingent on the just and able performance of the rulers and their heirs. Corollary to the concept of the Mandate of Heaven was the right of rebellion against an unjust ruler. The Mandate of Heaven was often invoked by philosophers and scholars in China as a way to curtail the abuse of power by the ruler, in a system that had few other checks. Chinese historians interpreted

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2816-518: The Pacific coast. The series of events leading up to this began when Yue prepared to attack Qi to its north. The King of Qi sent an emissary who persuaded the King of Yue to attack Chu instead. Yue initiated a large-scale attack at Chu but was defeated by Chu's counter-attack. Chu then proceeded to conquer Yue. King Xian of Zhou had attempted to use what little royal prerogative he had left by appointing

2904-592: The Qing were not responsible for the destruction of the Ming dynasty. Instead, the Qing argued, they had obtained the Mandate of Heaven by defeating the many rebels and bandits that the Ming had failed to control and restoring stability to the empire. Just as stability was a sign of Heaven's favor, difficulties were a sign of Heaven's displeasure. Thus, emperors in the Qing and earlier dynasties often interpreted natural disasters during their reigns as reasons to reflect on their failures to act and govern correctly. Mencius stated that: The people are of supreme importance;

2992-522: The Shang ancestral temple. A poem about the last years of the Shang dynasty reads "Heaven sends down death and disorder; famine comes repeatedly." Paleoclimatic data show a long-term period of cooling in the northern hemisphere, which reached its maximum right around the fall of the Shang. In 1059 BCE, two unusual celestial phenomena took place: in May, the densest clustering in five hundred years' time of

3080-447: The Shang and Zhou claimed divine ancestry, the Zhou were the first to use the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to explain their right to assume rule and presumed that the only way to hold the mandate was to rule well in the eyes of Heaven. They also stated that the Shang came into power because the Xia had lost their mandate, which had then been bestowed upon the Shang, leading to the fall of

3168-546: The Song dynasty had taken northern China from the last of the Five Dynasties , the Later Zhou . A major purpose of the book was to establish justification for the transference of the Mandate of Heaven through these five dynasties and thus to the Song dynasty. He argued that these dynasties met certain vital criteria to be considered as having attained the Mandate of Heaven despite never having ruled all of China. One

3256-514: The Xia and the rise of the Shang. The Xia gave precedent and legitimacy to the Zhou's own rebellion. No Western Zhou bronze inscriptions mention the Xia, or any other dynasty preceding the Shang. The Zhou believed that the Shang ruling house had become morally corrupt and that the Shang leaders' loss of virtue entitled their own house to take over. The overthrow of the Shang Dynasty, they said,

3344-429: The Zhou court. This marked a major turning point: unlike those in the Spring and Autumn period , the new generation of rulers ascending the thrones in the Warring States period would not entertain even the pretence of being vassals of the Zhou dynasty, instead proclaiming themselves fully independent kingdoms. During the early Warring States period Qin generally avoided conflicts with the other states. This changed during

3432-494: The Zhou dynasty did come to an end, Qin absorbed the remainder of their lands, as well as those of all their competitors . The Mandate of Heaven did not play a direct part in their public relations, going unmentioned in all surviving material. The Qin dynasty was not long-lived: after the death of first emperor Qin Shihuang , widespread revolts by prisoners, peasants, unhappy soldiers, ambitious minor officials, and remnants of

3520-552: The administration. The rise of Qin was recognized by the royal court, and in 343 BC the king conferred the title of Count (伯 Bó) on Duke Xiao. As was customary, a conference was hosted which the feudal lords attended, and during which the Son of Heaven bestowed the title. After the reforms Qin became much more aggressive. In 340 Qin took land from Wèi after it had been defeated by Qi. In 316 Qin conquered Shu and Ba in Sichuan to

3608-452: The alliance. In 383 BC it moved its capital to Handan and attacked the small state of Wey . Wey appealed to Wei which attacked Zhao on the western side. Being in danger, Zhao called in Chu. As usual, Chu used this as a pretext to annex territory to its north, but the diversion allowed Zhao to occupy a part of Wei. This conflict marked the end of the power of the united Jins and the beginning

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3696-404: The altars of soil and grain come next; last comes the ruler. That is why he who gains the confidence of the multitudinous people will be Emperor... When a local lord endangers the altars of soil and grain, he should be replaced. When the sacrificial animals are sleek, the offerings are clean and the sacrifices are observed at due times, and yet floods and droughts come [by the agency of heaven], then

3784-482: The altars should be replaced. Thus, the Mandate of Heaven does not confer an unconditional right to rule. To retain the Mandate of Heaven, a ruler's performance had to be just and effective and not excessively expand and maintain power outside the nation's borders. The people retained a right to rebel. Of the political philosophers of the Warring States period , Mencius was perhaps the most radically revolutionary, deliberately eliding any distinction between overthrowing

3872-513: The beginning of the Warring States period, Sima Qian 's choice of 475 BC is the most often cited. The era largely corresponds to the second half of the Eastern Zhou period, where the king of Zhou formally ruled as Chinese sovereign , but had lost political power and functioned in practice as a figurehead. This dynamic served as the backdrop for the machinations of the eponymous Warring States. The label "Warring States period" derives from

3960-522: The boundaries of the three states more rational. In 364 BC, Wei was defeated by Qin at the Battle of Shimen and was only saved by the intervention of Zhao. Qin won another victory in 362 BC. In 361 BC the Wei capital was moved east to Daliang to be out of the reach of Qin. In 354 BC, King Hui of Wei started a large-scale attack on Zhao. By 353 BC, Zhao was losing badly and its capital, Handan ,

4048-608: The controversy surrounding the Zhengguo Canal ; the State of Han had dispatched Zheng Guo , a skilled engineer, to Qin on the pretext of helping them build an irrigation canal. Subsequently, however, it was discovered that this was really a scheme by Han to weaken Qin by diverting its resources towards canal construction. At the instigation of a clique of officials within the Qin court, suspicion soon became widened to include all guest officers from outside Qin, and Ying Zheng issued an order to expel all foreigners. Li Si, himself

4136-484: The diplomat Su Qin spent years visiting the courts of Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, Qi and Chu and persuaded them to form a united front against Qin. In 318 BC all states except Qi launched a joint attack on Qin, which was not successful. King Hui of Qin died in 311 BC, followed by prime minister Zhang Yi one year later. The new monarch, King Wu , reigned only four years before dying without legitimate heirs. Some damaging turbulence ensued throughout 307 BC before

4224-401: The dukes Xian (384–362 BC), Xiao (361–338 BC) and Hui (338–311 BC) of Qin as hegemons, thereby in theory making Qin the chief ally of the court. However, in 325 the confidence of Duke Hui grew so great that he proclaimed himself "king" of Qin; adopting the same title as the king of Zhou and thereby effectively proclaiming independence from the Zhou dynasty. King Hui of Qin

4312-465: The end of Jiang rule, and now openly assumed power. The new ruler set about reclaiming territories that had been lost to other states. He launched a successful campaign against Zhao, Wey and Wei, once again extending Qi territory to the Great Wall. Sima Qian writes that the other states were so awestruck that nobody dared attack Qi for more than 20 years. The demonstrated military prowess also had

4400-439: The end of the western Han , he used the acceptance of the theory of Heaven's Mandate to his advantage. Auspicious unusual events were said to portend Heaven's choosing a new heir, so Wang fabricated omens indicating that Heaven had changed its mandate, and that it had chosen him. Following the restoration of the Han house to power, the Mandate of Heaven stood on uncertain grounds. Some theorists decoupled judgements of virtue from

4488-431: The ensuing centuries, central authority waned overall, driven by socioeconomic pressures. This culminated in a succession crisis which saw the aristocracy split between two competing candidates for a number of years. When the crisis resolved, the royal house retained only a tiny amount of land and no real military power. This marked the beginning of the Eastern Zhou . During the decline of the royal house, although real power

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4576-481: The establishment of four major families, the Han, Zhao, Wei and Zhi. The Battle of Jinyang saw the allied Han, Zhao and Wei destroy the Zhi family (453 BC) and their lands were distributed among them. With this, they became the de facto rulers of most of Jin's territory, though this situation would not be officially recognised until half a century later. The Jin division created a political vacuum that enabled during

4664-625: The final centuries of the Zhou dynasty ( c.  1046  – 256 BC), which were characterized by warfare, bureaucratic and military reform, and political consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the wars of conquest that saw the state of Qin annex each of the other contender states by 221 BC and found the Qin dynasty , the first imperial dynastic state in East Asian history. While scholars have identified several different dates as marking

4752-411: The first 50 years expansion of Chu and Yue northward and Qi southward. Qin increased its control of the local tribes and began its expansion southwest to Sichuan . In 403 BC, the court of King Weilie of Zhou officially recognized Zhao, Wei and Han as immediate vassals, thereby raising them to the same rank as the other warring states. From before 405 until 383 BC the three Jins were united under

4840-417: The first emperor. In this portrayal, it is clear the Qin had lost the Mandate, if they had ever possessed it to begin with. It was an uncomfortable fact that Han founder Liu Bang rose to power from a background outside the aristocracy, and achieved victory through military accomplishments. To accommodate this, Liu Bang was ascribed a magical birth, and later a divine ancestry. When Wang Mang took power at

4928-485: The five planets visible to the naked eye could be seen in the constellation of Cancer, and a few seasons later Halley's Comet appeared. One or more of these was interpreted by the powerful Lord of Zhou as a visible sign indicating supernatural approval. Early records, such as the inscription on the Da Yu ding , employ language more descriptive than theoretical: "the great command in the sky" ( 天有大令 ). Although both

5016-500: The idea that Cao Wei was Heaven's legitimate successor predominated for several centuries, the alternate theory that Heaven's mandate instead fell to the rival state of Shu Han was first articulated by Xi Zuochi in the 300s, and was universally accepted by the much later Song dynasty . The last Wei emperor abdicated in turn to the Western Jin . This dynasty soon lost control of northern China to non-Han ethnic groups, and in

5104-538: The kings of the Zhou dynasty to legitimize their overthrow of the earlier Shang dynasty . It was used throughout the history of China to legitimize the successful overthrow and installation of new emperors, including by non- Han dynasties such as the Qing dynasty . The Mandate of Heaven has been called the Zhou dynasty's most important contribution to Chinese political thought, but it coexisted and interfaced with other theories of sovereign legitimacy, including abdication to

5192-592: The leadership of Wei and expanded in all directions. The most important figure was Marquess Wen of Wei (445–396 BC). In 408–406 BC he conquered the State of Zhongshan to the northeast on the other side of Zhao. At the same time he pushed west across the Yellow River to the Luo River taking the area of Xihe (literally 'west of the [Yellow] river'). The growing power of Wei caused Zhao to back away from

5280-509: The literature of the southern dynasties that followed there began to appear an object called the State-Transmitting Seal . This magical talisman was the physical manifestation of Heaven's mandate, tied up in the fortunes of ruling families, allowing the exiled southern aristocracy to retain their sense of cultural superiority and maintain the validity of Heaven's mandate in the face of counterfactual political reality. During

5368-534: The mandate, seeing it primarily as inherited through ancestry, while others abandoned the concept altogether in favour of five phases theories. The final Han emperor abdicated to the powerful minister Cao Pi in CE 220, and in this transfer of power the idea of Heaven's mandate played a large role. The court prognosticator Xu Zhi ( 許芝 ) enumerated in a lengthy memorandum the signs he had located in divinatory and historical texts showing that Cao Pi's Wei should succeed

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5456-442: The newly crowned King Min have him publicly executed to draw out the assassins. King Min complied with Su's request and killed him, putting an end to the first generation of Vertical alliance thinkers. King Min of Qi came to be highly influenced by Lord Mengchang , a grandson of the former King Wei of Qi . Lord Mengchang made a westward alliance with the states of Wei and Han . In the far west, Qin, which had been weakened by

5544-542: The present Silla. the earliest records are from Joseon Dynasty , which made the Mandate of Heaven an enduring state ideology. The ideology was also adopted in Vietnam, known in Vietnamese as Thiên mệnh ( Chữ Hán : 天命). A divine mandate gave the Vietnamese emperor the right to rule, based not on his lineage but on his competence to govern. The later and more centralized Vietnamese dynasties adopted Confucianism as

5632-464: The recently defeated aristocracy rapidly downfell the central government. The ensuing Chu–Han contention ended with the success of Liu Bang and establishment of the Han dynasty . Surviving historical documents from the Han dynasty paint the preceding Qin in a deeply unfavourable light, emphasising tyrannical policies, the incompetence of the second emperor, and giving an account of illegitimate birth for

5720-415: The reign of Duke Xiao , when prime minister Shang Yang made centralizing and authoritarian reforms in accordance with his Legalist philosophy between the years 356 and 338 BC. Shang introduced land reforms, privatized land, rewarded farmers who exceeded harvest quotas, enslaved farmers who failed to meet quotas, and used enslaved subjects as rewards for those who met government policies. As manpower

5808-445: The ruler, so there would often be revolts following major disasters as the people saw these calamities as signs that the Mandate of Heaven had been withdrawn. The Mandate of Heaven does not require a legitimate ruler to be of noble birth, depending instead on how well that person can rule. Chinese dynasties such as the Han and Ming were founded by men of common origins, but they were seen as having succeeded because they had gained

5896-471: The smaller states of the Central Plain tended to be their satellites and tributaries. Other major states also existed, such as Wu and Yue in the southeast. The last decades of the Spring and Autumn era were marked by increased stability, as the result of peace negotiations between Jin and Chu which established their respective spheres of influence. This situation ended with the partition of Jin, whereby

5984-472: The son of God. Silla is similar to Goguryeo. According to Silla's founding story, there was no king in the area where Silla was located, but the sixth degree and its sixth degree held a meeting of painters and ruled. They wanted a monarchy in which a king existed rather than the current political system, but one day they found an egg near a well and one was born out of it. It is said that the village chiefs named him Park Hyuk-geose and appointed him king to create

6072-456: The south invaded Wei. On the verge of conquering Wei, the leaders of Zhao and Han fell into disagreement about what to do with Wei, and both armies abruptly retreated. As a result, King Hui of Wei (still a Marquess at the time) was able to ascend the throne of Wei. Zhao extended from the Shanxi plateau across the plain to the borders of Qi. Wei reached east to Qi, Lu , and Song . To the south,

6160-447: The southwest. Development of this area took a long time but slowly added greatly to Qin's wealth and power. In 341 BC, Wei attacked Han. Qi allowed Han to be nearly defeated and then intervened. The generals from the Battle of Guiling met again ( Sun Bin and Tian Ji versus Pang Juan ), using the same tactic, attacking Wei's capital. Sun Bin feigned a retreat and then turned on the overconfident Wei troops and decisively defeated them at

6248-737: The state ideology, which led to the creation of a Vietnamese tributary system in Southeast Asia that was modeled after the Chinese Sinocentric system in East Asia. In Japan, the title "Son of Heaven" was interpreted literally where the monarch was referred to as a demigod , deity , or "living god", chosen by the gods and goddesses of heaven. Eventually, the Japanese government found the concept ideologically problematic, preferring not to have divine political legitimacy that

6336-489: The state was divided between the houses of Han, Zhao and Wei, leading to the seven major warring states. The rulers of Jin had steadily lost political powers since the middle of the 6th century BC to their nominally subordinate nobles and military commanders, a situation arising from the traditions of the Jin which forbade the enfeoffment of relatives of the ducal house. This allowed other clans to gain fiefs and military authority, and decades of internecine struggle led to

6424-487: The states, recommending that the rulers put their respective ideas into use. These "lobbyists", such as Su Qin , who advocated vertical alliances, and Zhang Yi , who advocated horizontal alliances, were famous for their tact and intellect, and were collectively known as the School of Diplomacy , whose Chinese name ( 縱橫家 'the school of the vertical and horizontal') was derived from the two opposing ideas. Beginning in 334 BC

6512-435: The successive dynasty. The Right of Rebellion is not coded into any official law. Rather, rebellion is always outlawed and severely punished; but is still a positive right grounded in the Chinese moral system. Often, it is used as a justification for actions to overthrow a previous dynasty after a rebellion has been successful and a new dynastic rule has been established. Since the winner is the one who determines who has obtained

6600-478: The theory, emphasizing aspects tending to prove that the old dynasty lost the Mandate of Heaven and the new one gained it, and de-emphasizing other aspects. In the 20th and 21st centuries, Confucianist elements of student rebellions often claimed the Mandate of Heaven has been forfeited, as demonstrated by their large-scale activism, with notable instances including the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan and

6688-480: The time of the Han dynasty, the right to rebellion was a politically sensitive topic, as the Han rulers could neither deny their own history as being birthed in rebellion nor embrace the idea that they should themselves be overthrown. The right of rebellion against an unjust ruler has been a part of Chinese political philosophy ever since the Zhou dynasty, and the successful rebellion was interpreted by Chinese historians as evidence that divine approval had passed on to

6776-423: The weaker state of Han held the east–west part of the Yellow River valley, surrounded the Zhou royal domain at Luoyang and held an area north of Luoyang called Shangdang . Duke Kang of Qi died in 379 BC with no heir from the house of Jiang, which had ruled Qi since the state's founding. The throne instead passed to the future King Wei , from the house of Tian. The Tian had been very influential at court towards

6864-457: The worthy and five phases theory. The prosperous Shang dynasty saw its rule filled with multiple outstanding accomplishments. Notably, the dynasty lasted for a considerable time during which 31 kings ruled over an extended period of 17 generations. The rule of the Shang kings has been described as hegemonic. Royal authority flowed from the person of the king, enforced by his military. Neighbouring clans were allied through marriage and adopted into

6952-512: Was a shift in alliances because each state's ruler wanted independence. This caused hundreds of wars between 535 and 286 BC. The victorious state would have overall rule and control in China. The system of feudal states created by the Western Zhou dynasty underwent enormous changes after 771 BC with the flight of the Zhou court to modern-day Luoyang and the diminution of its relevance and power. The Spring and Autumn period led to

7040-519: Was driven out of Qin. The remaining three allies, Qi, Wei and Han, attacked Qin, driving up the Yellow River below Shanxi to the Hangu Pass . After 3 years of fighting they took the pass and forced Qin to return territory to Han and Wei. They next inflicted major defeats on Yan and Chu. During the 5-year administration of Lord Mengchang, Qi was the major power in China. In 294, Lord Mengchang

7128-477: Was guided by his prime minister Zhang Yi , a prominent representative of the School of Diplomacy . He was followed in 323 BC by King Xuanhui of Han and King Yi of Yan , as well as King Cuo of the minor state Zhongshan. In 318 BC even the ruler of Song , a relatively minor state, declared himself king. Uniquely, while King Wuling of Zhao had joined the other kings in declaring himself king, he retracted this order in 318 BC, after Zhao suffered

7216-437: Was held by figurehead rulers of the Zhou dynasty, while the rulers of most states held the title of duke ( gong , 公 ) or marquess ( hou , 侯 ). A major exception was Chu, whose rulers were called kings since King Wu of Chu started using the title c.  703 BC . In 344 BC the rulers of Qi and Wei mutually recognized each other as kings: King Wei of Qi and King Hui of Wei , in effect declaring their independence from

7304-507: Was implicated in a coup d'état and fled to Wei. His alliance system collapsed. Qi and Qin made a truce and pursued their own interests. Qi moved south against the state of Song whilst the Qin General Bai Qi pushed back eastward against a Han/Wei alliance, gaining victory at the Battle of Yique . In 288, King Zhao of Qin and King Min of Qi took the title di ( 帝 'emperor'), of the west and east respectively. They swore

7392-406: Was in accordance with the mandate given by Heaven. Even at the time of the inauguration ritual of third-generation King Kang of Zhou , the royal command read out to the new king explicitly stated the belief that Heaven had changed its mandate. In the political theory of the Zhou, legitimate authority flowed directly from Heaven to their founding dynast , King Wen . Although he did not live to see

7480-437: Was pregnant, she entrusted her body to the king of Buyeo and laid an egg, and the person who came out of the egg was Jumong. When Jumong, who was born of eggs, grew up and performed various strange tricks, the sons of King Buyeo became jealous, and Jumong eventually fled Buyeo and built a country called Goguryeo. This is a case in which Goguryeo claimed the legitimacy of expelling Buyeo under the command of heaven by setting him as

7568-404: Was short in Qin relative to the other states at the time, Shang enacted policies to increase its manpower. As Qin peasants were recruited into the military, he encouraged active immigration of peasants from other states into Qin as a replacement workforce; this policy simultaneously increased the manpower of Qin and weakened the manpower of Qin's rivals. Shang made laws forcing citizens to marry at

7656-461: Was under siege. The state of Qi intervened. The famous Qi strategist, Sun Bin the great-great-great-grandson of Sun Tzu , the author of the Art of War , proposed to attack the Wei capital while the Wei army was tied up besieging Zhao. The strategy was a success; the Wei army hastily moved south to protect its capital, was caught on the road and decisively defeated at the Battle of Guiling . The battle

7744-454: Was wrested from their grasp, their divine legitimacy was not brought into question, and even with the king reduced to something of a figurehead, his prestige remained supreme as Heaven's eldest son. However, there is epigraphic evidence that, in private, the rulers of the state of Qin (which would go on to conquer everyone else and become the first dynasty of the imperial era) held that their ancestors had received Heaven's mandate. As early as

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