A common assumption when considering the '
Mandate of Heaven' is that the Mandate is lost by one Dynasty and then cleanly passed to another, yet throughout Chinese Dynastic History this is only occasionally true. During the Three Kingdoms Period, the 16 Kingdoms Period, the Northern/Southern Dynasties Period and many other Periods, ownership of the Mandate of Heaven has frequently been contested - as it is today.
In today's
Modern Period, also known as the
Two Dynasties Period, the Gang and Later/Northern Qing Dynasties each claim the Mandate for their own, a dispute taking the form of an actual Territorial dispute until the
Inter-Dynastic Treaty was signed. Today, the two dynasties still claim the holy birthright as their own, but exist simultaneously in a slightly uneasy status quo, with the ancient concept of the Mandate having to be balanced with modern diplomatic and trade relations. Rather than live out the old tradition of a dynasty conquering another and reunifying China, the facts of geopolitics has made two Dynasties inevitable: the Qing Dynasty is militarily far too weak to conquer it's Southern neighbor, a proposition made all the more impossible by the Chinese Empire's
large nuclear arsenal, and the Gang Dynasty cannot conquer Manchuria without disrupting the region's unsteady balance of power and causing war with Japan, a proposition made all the more dangerous by Japan's
quite similarly sized nuclear arsenal. Thus, the Gang and Qing dynasties exist side-by-side, divided only by the Great Wall and the modern facts of geopolitics.
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On the matter of inter-dynastic diplomacy, the current sovereign of the Chinese Empire, the
Shiquan Emperor (born Yuan Liyang) has made great strides to further normalize relations between the Gang and Qing Dynasties. A member of the
House of Yuan, Liyang ascended to the throne in 2003 after over a month of squabbling and bickering during the
2003 Chinese Succession Crisis, as the much-beloved Emperor Shan died without legitimate heirs. Throughout 2002, a huge host of illegitimate sons and pretenders angled for power, and the Emperor's sudden death at the beginning of 2003 sparked a fierce internal struggle lasting nearly 2 months.
Thus, the Shiquan Emperor entered office surrounded by new questions regarding the throne and it's power - the fierce battle for the crown had cost Liyang a great deal of goodwill and political capital, and the Emperor ascended more as a compromise pick than anything else. However, while his predecessor had been praised as a wise and reform-minded sovereign, the Shiquan Emperor has done a great deal to re-centralize power in the monarchy, consolidate political strength and remove opponents from Chinese politics. Reform edicts were swiftly overwritten, allies quickly assumed control of the
Imperial Chinese Military and state press outlets were suddenly brimming with praise for the young emperor. After nearly 20 years of rule, Liyang shows no signs of slowing down.
^^