Mandate of Heaven (East Asian royal ideology)

Type Object Region China Time -11

The Mandate of Heaven holds that a ruler's legitimacy comes from Heaven and may transfer upon loss of virtue;…

Timeline

-11–-221Zhouyuan–Haojing · ChinaThe Zhou proposed 'the Mandate of Heaven is not constant; only the virtuous are assisted,' binding a ruler's legitimacy to his virtue and laying the intellectual foundation for later theories of dynastic change.
-206–220Chang'an · Han dynastyDong Zhongshu and others of the Han combined the Mandate of Heaven, yin-yang, portents, and imperial power, forming a systematic discourse on orthodoxy and succession that influenced imperial ideology for the next two thousand years.
1401–1410Beijing · Ming dynastyBetween 1401 and 1410, the Yongle Emperor systematically constructed the ideology of 'receiving the Mandate and continuing the orthodox line' through moving the capital to Beijing, building the Temple of Heaven, northern campaigns against the Mongols, dispatching Zheng He's voyages, and compiling the Veritable Records of Taizu, spreading it via the tributary system to Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere.

The Cambridge History of China, Volume 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 1 — Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett (1988)
The Cambridge History of Ancient China — Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy (1999)