Religion / idea
Mandate of Heaven
The Mandate of Heaven, tianming in Chinese, is the doctrine that Heaven grants the right to rule to a virtuous ruler and withdraws it from a wicked or incompetent one. It was formulated by the early Zhou to justify their overthrow of the Shang dynasty around 1046 BCE. Later Chinese thinkers and dynasties used it to explain the rise and fall of ruling houses, treating rebellion, disasters and defeat as signs that the mandate had been lost.
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Mentioned in 1 state history
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Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Mandate of Heaven. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mandate-of-heaven
- MLA
- “Mandate of Heaven.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mandate-of-heaven. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Mandate of Heaven.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mandate-of-heaven.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Mandate of Heaven’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mandate-of-heaven (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻