by: Lonely Cantonese Sith Lord · 

Source: Quora

The People’s Republic of China has proven itself once again to be the greatest peacemaker in the modern era, and worthy of the Mandate of Heaven.

For those of you who didn’t know, the Mandate of Heaven is not some oriental equivalent of the Divine Right of Kings. Chinese culture is fundamentally secular, and “Heaven” (we might call it “the universe” or “objective reality” today) does not play favourites – you have to earn Heaven’s favour with certain types of deeds.

I’ll give you an example.

One of the earliest known instances of the Mandate of Heaven being granted to a person or state happened 3,000 years ago during the late Shang Dynasty. The feudal lords of Yu (虞) and Rui (芮) were squabbling over a piece of farmland on their borders. Instead of seeking the arbitration of the King of Shang, who was the ruler of China at the time (known for being a brutal, warlike and incompetent monarch), they decided to seek King Wen of Zhou, who had a reputation as a wise and noble leader.

As the two lords travelled to the land of Zhou, they saw that the common folk there were happy, well fed, and warm to each other. They had no need to lock their doors at night, as everybody was honest, and the soldiers did their jobs right/did not harass the civilians.

The two lords then visited the royal court of Zhou, and saw that the government officials there were organised, courteous, and mindful of their duties and hierarchies. And the lords were overwhelmed with shame. They thought they were such petty men, unfit to set foot in such an honourable kingdom. The two lords were too embarrassed to even seek an audience with King Wen, and agreed to share the disputed farmland.

This incident marked the transferal of the Mandate of Heaven from Shang to Zhou. The son of King Wen would go on to overthrow the Shang Dynasty and found the Zhou Dynasty. Zhou lasted over 800 years, longer than any other Chinese dynasties.

As you can see, rather than being a religious doctrine like the Divine Right of Kings, the Mandate of Heaven is really an early form of political science that describes what gives legitimacy to a ruler or a regime. The people under your rule must be safe and content; your political ideology and economic system must be sustainable and effective; your society must be conductive to the pursuit of art, culture and happiness; and more importantly, you must be a bringer of peace instead of war.

What China has achieved in the Middle East recently is phenomenal, including by brokering peace talks between Shi’a Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, and by bringing about reconciliation between the various factions of Palestine. Neither of these was easy. This is especially true in Palestine, where up to 14 factions have been feuding with each other in spite of sharing a common enemy in Israel. Have a look at this photo:

Each of these men represent the five largest factions of Palestine. From left to right: Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (Secularism), Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Maoism), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Marxism-Leninism), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Sunni Islamism), and Hamas (Islamic fundamentalism).

None of these groups or their ideologies are entirely compatible with one another, and it is only natural that their conflicts would be much more heated than a mere land dispute between the lords of Yu and Rui.

And yet that was exactly what China did – the Chinese welcomed all these 14 incompatible groups to Beijing to make peace, and form a coalition government/united front against the genocidal forces of Zionism. China has also pledged to provide unlimited humanitarian aid to Palestine, and successfully involved the international community to oversee the enforcement of the Beijing Declaration.

When I hear people talking about how the 21st or the 22nd century is going to be the “Chinese Century”, this is the kind of thing I have in mind.

The last century of American hegemony has been an utter disaster for the people of the world. The ongoing genocide in Gaza is thanks to their unlimited support for Israel. But the American people themselves also suffer under this hegemony, with rapidly worsening physical and mental health, shortening life expectancies, widening wealth gaps, and skyrocketing levels of anti-intellectualism, hatred, crime and corruption.

America’s decline is inevitable, and the Mandate of Heaven is slowly but surely being transferred from America to China, as it once did from the sadistic Shang to the enlightened Zhou. Such is the way of Heaven/the universe. I would bet good money that future historians might be marking China’s Saudi-Iran Deal, or the Beijing Declaration, as the modern equivalent of Zhou bringing peace between Yu and Rui.

Long live the multipolar world order.