How did the belief of the Mandate Of Heaven justify power struggles in ancient china?

Question

How did the belief of the Mandate Of Heaven justify power struggles in ancient china?

Answer 1

There are several really good links here, http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=en&q=...

Good Luck

Answer 2

Everyone had their own subjective interpretation of how & who Heaven was mandating!

Answer 3

Basicaly it was believed that if a person was mandated by heaven to be ruler than nothing any mortal could do would dethrone them. So if you revolted against a king and won out it would prove that they had no heavenly mandate to be there in the first place. This would mean that if a rebellion succeeded the people of china would see that they were following a false leader and the reprisal against the rebel group would be minimal as they could now claim that since they won the throne they were mandated by heaven to be there. This in turn would cause another rebel group to try and take over and prove their heavenly mandate, and so on and so forth. This is a gross simplification but its got the jist of what your looking for.