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Rulers of both ancient Rome and China legitimized their political power by
associating with a higher power. Romans 13:1 says, “Everyone must submit
himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that
which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established
by God.” and verse four, “For he [the one in authority] is God's
servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear
the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment
on the wrongdoer.” Authority comes from God alone, so it is natural for
rulers to point that out, however, Rome and China legitimized their power in
very different ways.
Divine authority appeared in Rome because of the imperialistic nature of the
government and the influence of other nations. Due to Rome’s imperialism,
the oligarchy needed strong respect to control the large dominion. By calling
the leader of Rome divine, he and his descendants’ throne would be better
secured.1 Already this method
had been used in Egypt and Hellenistic kingdoms and these conquered nations
were influencing Rome.2 The Roman historian Sullust believed that the most important
factor in Roman history was the degeneration of morals, and this was partly
due to the corrupting Greek Influence.3 The lack of rich culture in Rome almost
served as a vacuum to pick up the ideas of other nations and absorb them; thus
the governmental beliefs of other nations like Egypt and Greece naturally entered
into Rome as well. Conquered Asia was accustomed to “divine” rulers
and first began to call the Roman emperors divine. As the power of Rome increased
its rulers were also elevated to the brink of divinity.
Caesar started the trend of using the gods to legitimize power. He did this
by attempting to “deify” himself; this was an imitation of the Greeks
who often granted Hellenistic kings divine status while on earth, making them
shrines and sculptures like they did for the gods.4
Caesar implied his deification by using symbolism and emphasizing a relationship
to Venus, the god of love.5
A line of emperors followed Caesars example, but attained deification only after
death.6 Not until the emperor
Diocletian came into power did an emperor receive the honor of a deity and was
actually worshipped. Caesar was limited to associating himself with the gods
while alive, but he was later worshipped as a god after his death. Other rulers
built upon this to establish their own divinity as a support for ownership of
power.
The Roman emperor’s method of legitimizing power contradicts Biblical
thought. According to Romans 13:4, the ruler is God’s servant, not in
anyway a god. The glorification of the Roman emperors usurped the glory of God,
yet in God’s eyes the great Roman emperors were mere servants to accomplish
His justice.
Chinese emperors legitimized their power much differently. They claimed authority
had been invested in their rulers. The Chou dynasty originally introduced this
idea called the “mandate of heaven” when they replaced the Shang
dynasty. The Chou people were taught that a Cosmos like power gave a Mandate
of Heaven to the ruler who was called a Son of Heaven; the Duke of Chou told
this to the conquered Shang saying that Chou leaders where only doing the will
of Heaven when they conquered Shang.7 Instead of claiming divinity, the Chinese
rulers only claimed to have been invested with the authority to rule.
The Chinese mandate of heaven ideal has similarities to the Bible. A document
composed during the Chou dynasty expresses what the chief minister said to the
new Shang king on the mandate of heaven during the Shang dynasty. The chief
minister, Yi Yin, supposedly says, “Oh! Of old the former kings of Xia
cultivated earnestly their virtue, and then there were no calamities from Heaven.
The spirits of the hills and rivers alike were all in tranquility; and the birds
and beasts, the fishes and tortoises, all enjoyed their existence according
to nature. But their descendant did not follow their example, and great Heaven
sent down calamities, employing the agency of our ruler – who was in possession
of its favoring appointment. The attack on Xia may be traced to the orgies in
Ming Tiao.” Yi Yin continues on to say, “The ways of Heaven are
not invariable: -- on the good-doer it sends down all blessings, and on the
evil-doer it sends down all miseries.”8
The Bible also warns kings to obey God’s commandments in Deuteronomy 17:18--20,
“Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he
shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the
Leviticus priests. It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of
his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing
all the words of this law and these statues, that his heart may not be lifted
above his counrtymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to
the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may continue long in
his kingdom in the midst of Israel.” The mandate of heaven doctrine says
that a king will stay in power as long as he cultivates virtue and is a good-doer.
The Bible says that in order for the sons of the king to reign, the king must
not turn aside from the Lord’s commandments. Thus the mandate of heaven
agrees with the Bible that there is a law to be followed for a king and his
descendants to stay in power; the difference is that the Chinese virtues arise
from "the law written on their hearts" (Romans 1) whereas Israel was
given the very commandments of God (Exodus 20).
Thus Roman and Chinese rulers legitimized their power in different ways because
of differing motives. Roman emperors were influenced by pagan cultures and desperate
to uphold their great power throughout the world; so they pretended divinity
ensure their power. The Chinese on the other hand developed the mandate of heaven
doctrine often times through political philosophers such as Confucius. Although
it may have originated as a justification for the Chou revolt, it still resembles
the Biblical belief of legitimate power.
2Santosuosso, Storming the Heavens, 85
4Santosuosso, Storming the Heavens, 83
5Santosuosso, Storming the Heavens, 84
6Encyclopedia Britannica Volume 19, Encyclopedia Britannica, inc. (William Benton publisher, 1964©), 503
7Charles O. Hucker, China's Imperial Past, (Stanford, California. Stanford University Press 1975), 55
8Chinese Cultural Studies: The Mandate of Heaven Selections from the Shu Jing (The Classic of history)(6th Century BCE). Brooklyn College. "Chinese Cultural Studies"< http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/shu-jing.html> (November, 2003)
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