Social Studies, help!!! What is meant by Mandate of Heaven?
The Mandate of Heaven was the Chinese belief that the gods picked the emperor to rule but the gods could also remove a bad emperor from power. The Mandate of Heaven can be viewed as the right to rule. The ruler kept the Mandate of Heaven for as long as he ruled effectively. Confucius supported the Mandate of Heaven. He said that the ruler must provide good government for his subjects. The rulers subjects, in turn, owed the ruler loyalty and obedience. It is very much similar to the European “Divine Right of Kings” in which a divide power such as the Christian God choose who was to be born King and when he was going to lose his thrown.
