ABSTRACT
In studying the legitimation practices and scholars’ views related to the Northern Wei dynasty’s legitimacy issue, various foundational doctrines and criteria of legitimacy begin to stand out. In analyzing the Northern Wei dynasty’s legitimacy issue, one comes across five main criteria. These criteria can be classified under five broad headings: Cosmological, moral, historical, ethnic, and geographical. To account for the differences in terms of views on legitimacy and the Northern Wei legitimacy dispute throughout Chinese history, three major types of factors are examined: Dynasties’ distinct historical backgrounds, scholars’ differing social statuses, and these scholars’ distinct historical circumstances. The Northern Wei legitimacy dispute serves as a vivid example of the dynamism and complexity of traditional Chinese views on legitimacy. Thereafter, not only China’s modern regimes, whether the Republic of China or the People’s Republic of China, but also most modern Chinese scholars abandoned traditional Chinese view of legitimacy, moving to espousing Western doctrines, such as democracy and Marxism.
