might, in the field of practical
politics and reform--or rather to restate it in such a way that
(according to his view) it might be applied.

He put the constituents parts of society in order of importance
as follows: the People; the Gods; the Sovereign: and this has
been a cardinal principle in Chinese polity. He saw clearly that
the Chow dynasty could never be revived; and arrived at the
conclusion that a dynasty was only sacred while it retained the
"mandate of heaven." Chow had lost that; and therefore it was
within the rights of Heaven, as you may say, to place its mandate
elsewhere;--and within the rights of the subject--as the logic of
events so clearly proved Chow had lost the mandate--to rebel.
Confucius had hoped to revivify Chow--had begun with that hope,
at any rate: Mencius hoped to raise up some efficient sovereign
who should overturn Chow. The Right of Rebellion, thus taught by
him, is another fundamental Chinese principle. It works this
way: if there was discontent, there was misrule; and it was the
fault of the ruler. If the latter was a local magistrate,
or a governor, prefect, or viceroy, you had but to make a
demonstration, normally speaking, before his yamen: this was
technically a 'rebellion' within Mencius' meaning; and the
offending authority must report it to Pekin, which then commonly
replaced him with another. (It would get to Pekin's ears anyway;
so you had better--and ususally did--report it yourself.) If the
offender was the Son of Heaven, with all his dynasty involved--
why, then one had to rebel in good earnest; and it was to be
supposed that if Heaven had really given one a mandate, one would
win. The effect was that, although nominally absolute, very few
emperors have dared or cared to fly quite in the face of
Confucius, or Mencius, of their religio-political system, of the
Board of Censors whose business it was to criticize the Throne,
and of a vast opinion.

There was the tradition an emperor ruled for the people. The
office of ruler was divine; the man that held it was kept an
impersonality as much as possible. He changed his name on coming
to the throne, and perhaps several times afterwards: thus we
speak of the great emperors Han Wuti and Tang Taitsong; who
might, however, be called more exactly, Liu Ch'e, who was emperor
during the period _Wuti_ of the Han Dynasty; Li Shihmin, who
filled the throne during the T'ang period called _Taitsong._
Again, there was