Mandate of Heaven
In the Chinese historical tradition, the rulers of the Zhou displaced the Shang and legitimized their rule by invoking the Mandate of Heaven, the notion that the ruler (the "son of heaven") governed by divine right (granted by the Supreme God of Heaven) but that his dethronement would prove that he had lost the mandate. The doctrine explained and justified the demise of the Xia and Shang dynasties and at the same time supported the legitimacy of present and future rulers. The Zhou dynasty was founded by the Ji family and had its capital at Hào (near the present-day city of Xi'an). Sharing the language and culture of the Shang (Yin), the early Zhou rulers, through conquest and colonization, gradually extended Shang (Yin) culture through much of China Proper north of the Yangtze River.
According to the Zhou, the Shang had ruled unethically, squandering the resources of the kingdom. The mandate required rulers to rule justly. Each succeeding generation had to justify the dynasty's continued claim to hold the mandate. Negligence and abuse could revoke the mandate. The will of the people, ultimately, sanctioned the king's rule.
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