For the couple thousand years before the Revolution of 1911, it seems the title of this post encapsulates the political system of China pretty well. Emperors always had unlimited power over their subjects, as they believed he was the “Son of Heaven” with a divine mandate to rule. However, this mandate had an exception—if he failed to rule righteously and in a way that preserved harmony, his right to rule was lost and rebellion was an option.
Here is the catch though: a rebellion was only justified if it was successful. If it was crushed, this was taken to be a sign that the emperor was still in the right. This sort of reminded me of how things are remembered in the West; the American Revolution is generally thought of as being a noble and just cause, but that is only the case because we won. If we had lost, it would have been a treasonous rebellion. I guess things were the same back East.
Although there were all kinds of power shifts during China’s long history, it seemed this pattern of imperial rule always remained intact (until 1911): emperors had a divine right to rule, unless they sucked at it.
(Source: Contemporary Chinese Politics, by James C. F. Wang)
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