ABSTRACT
The cosmology of ancient China identi ed the temporal and natural orders. Thus harmony prevailed in nature when harmony prevailed in human relations of which the most fundamental relation was that of lial piety. The Emperor therefore ruled by ritualized ceremonies to placate Heaven and by regulating the social order through the restraint of his personal virtue. The Emperor’s virtue radiated out and was reflected down by the upright conduct of his hierarchy of of cials. This was the ideal at least. But in the natural course of dynastic succession the degree of virtue upheld by successive generations decayed. Corrupted rule then led to concomitant decline in the natural order. The resultant oods and pestilence and rapacious taxation left the people no option but to have to break from social harmony and join in rebellion against the established authority. The dynastic histories record that when a dynasty reaches the nadir of its rule that things are so disharmonious that in addition to the tragedy of famine and rampant immorality at all levels due to the generalized decay in virtue, there are also earthquakes, volcanoes erupt, women give birth to cows and birds start to y backwards. Then, following a civil war, Heaven transfers its Mandate to a new and vigorous dynasty with renewed virtue and the capacity to engage in prudent governance. Harmony is again restored and nature again provides ample grain for the granaries and the burden of taxation is tolerable once again. This narrative of the legitimacy of the rule of emperors in dynastic succession served China well over twentyfour dynasties for 3,000 years. But it could not survive the challenge of Western scienti c alternative ways of understanding man and his world that started to threaten the bases of legitimacy for China’s political and social order in the nineteenth century.
