It is a little odd for me to do back-to-back posts, but the current flooding in China is horrific. A couple of typhoons hit northeast China. The flooding was already bad, but then Peking, including the Forbidden City, started to flood as well. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) couldn't have that, so they opened flood gates and completely swamped the surrounding cities and villages. This obliterated a lot of their homes, businesses, farmlands and the current crops.
The officials haven't done much of anything but film propaganda videos supposedly showing their amazing rescue efforts. Meanwhile, food and goods that have been donated for the people in need have been taken and locked up in warehouses where they'll no doubt turn a tidy profit for corrupt officials. Needless to say, the people are not happy at all.
It's all quite horrible. It brings to mind the Mandate of Heaven, the Confucian version of the Divine Right to Tule, and how it can be revoked. These are ideas that still have some purchase among the Chinese.
Mencius pointed out that "Heaven does not create people for the sake of the sovereign. Heaven made the sovereign for the sake of the people". The ruler must, therefore, at all times be guided by the principle of benevolence or jen. He is both the mother and father of the people. Further, if there were suitable omens such as floods and droughts and the ruler was proving less capable of fulfilling his mandate than he ought to have been, then Mencius considered it legitimate for the people, if not actually to overthrow their ruler and find a new one, then at least to show their disapproval through rebellion and protest. World History Encyclopedia.
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