The Zhou are the first to formalise the idea of the Mandate of Heaven: the Chinese notion that heaven blesses and sustains the authority of a just ruler. An impious and incompetent ruler would ...

According to Chinese tradition, Chinese civilization is 5,000 years old, though the ancient China of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou ...

The Zhou are the first to formalise the idea of the Mandate of Heaven: the Chinese notion that heaven blesses and sustains the authority of a just ruler. An impious and incompetent ruler would ...

Their age, estimated at 2,300 to 2,500 years, places them in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, whose rulers governed portions of China from 771 and 256 BCE. Wang and colleagues write in their report ...