The End of the Shang
In the late Bronze Age, the Shang Dynasty was losing power due to wars with tribes to the east and nomads to the north. Of course, it didn't exactly help that the Shang rulers had become cruel and greedy and not even their own people liked them anymore.
In 1043 B.C.E., the warlike tribe located in the valley of the Wei River called the Zhou (pronounced JOH) decided that it would be an extremely good time to take advantage of the Shang's weakened state. So, because they weren't big enough to do the job by themselves, they allied with other tribes and unhappy Shang city-states that would like the their rulers gone. The Zhou leader Wen Wang organized them, and his son Ji Fa (who changed his name to Wu Wang after his father died), and they waged war with the Shang for three years.
Tian Ming
In 1046 B.C.E., the Fellowship of the Zhou defeated the Shang and threw the ring into Mount Doom. Wait, what? Lord of the Rings, what hast thou done to me? Anyway, Zhou and company overthrew the Shang, but not everyone was convinced that the Zhou would be any better. I mean it's not like they just waged war for three years and killed a lot of people to get power or anything.
However, the Zhou had a secret weapon; Tian Ming, or The Mandate of Heaven. Ooohhh, that part in the Where I'm From poem makes sense now, huh? By the Mandate of Heaven, the Shang fell out of Heaven's favor and so it was the gods' will that the Zhou take over.
The Duke of Zhou (the ruler after Wu Wang died) in Sources of Chinese Tradition said "We do not presume to know and say that the lords of [Shang] received Heaven's mandate for so-and-so many years; we do not know and say that it could not have been prolonged. It was they that did not reverently attend to their virtue and so they prematurely threw away their mandate."
Chinese rulers later used Mandate of Heaven to explain the dynastic cycle. A dynasty lost power because it's rulers were corrupt, or that it was the gods' will that it be destroyed. (Note: Dynastic cycle = the rise and fall of dynasties.)
In the late Bronze Age, the Shang Dynasty was losing power due to wars with tribes to the east and nomads to the north. Of course, it didn't exactly help that the Shang rulers had become cruel and greedy and not even their own people liked them anymore.
In 1043 B.C.E., the warlike tribe located in the valley of the Wei River called the Zhou (pronounced JOH) decided that it would be an extremely good time to take advantage of the Shang's weakened state. So, because they weren't big enough to do the job by themselves, they allied with other tribes and unhappy Shang city-states that would like the their rulers gone. The Zhou leader Wen Wang organized them, and his son Ji Fa (who changed his name to Wu Wang after his father died), and they waged war with the Shang for three years.
Tian Ming
In 1046 B.C.E., the Fellowship of the Zhou defeated the Shang and threw the ring into Mount Doom. Wait, what? Lord of the Rings, what hast thou done to me? Anyway, Zhou and company overthrew the Shang, but not everyone was convinced that the Zhou would be any better. I mean it's not like they just waged war for three years and killed a lot of people to get power or anything.
However, the Zhou had a secret weapon; Tian Ming, or The Mandate of Heaven. Ooohhh, that part in the Where I'm From poem makes sense now, huh? By the Mandate of Heaven, the Shang fell out of Heaven's favor and so it was the gods' will that the Zhou take over.
The Duke of Zhou (the ruler after Wu Wang died) in Sources of Chinese Tradition said "We do not presume to know and say that the lords of [Shang] received Heaven's mandate for so-and-so many years; we do not know and say that it could not have been prolonged. It was they that did not reverently attend to their virtue and so they prematurely threw away their mandate."
Chinese rulers later used Mandate of Heaven to explain the dynastic cycle. A dynasty lost power because it's rulers were corrupt, or that it was the gods' will that it be destroyed. (Note: Dynastic cycle = the rise and fall of dynasties.)