ABSTRACT
Throughout the history of China, rulers of every dynasty attached great importance to the question of the legitimacy of the foundation of their own political power. However, political practice is always different from the reflections in political philosophy. Political practice is concerned with how to obtain and reinforce political power, while political philosophy is more concerned with the source of political power and the question of legitimacy of the employment of power. A typical case is the debate on the legality of King Tang’s and King Wu’s revolutions against the tyranny of King Jie and King Zhou, which was debated between Yuan Gusheng (辕固生) and Huang Sheng (黄生) before King Jing of the Han dynasty (汉景帝). Huang Sheng held that King Tang and King Wu illegally killed their rulers, for they did not receive the mandate of Heaven, which was then believed to be the source of legality of political power.
