Practice question · True or false
The Mandate of Heaven can be used to predict, in advance, when a dynasty will fall.
Hints
- The only evidence of losing it is having fallen.
- That makes the theory impossible to test in advance.
Show the answer
False
Why
It works only backward. The sole proof a ruler lost the Mandate is that he fell, which makes the theory unfalsifiable and, not coincidentally, the most durable political doctrine ever devised.
Practise Ancient China: Qin and Han
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on Ancient China: Qin and Han
- Complete the description of the Mandate of Heaven.
- Why did the Qin dynasty collapse after only about fifteen years?
- Which did the First Emperor standardize across his new empire?
- The Han kept the Qin's centralised administration while denouncing Qin cruelty. What does that combination…
- Order the rise and reinvention of imperial China.
- Sort each trait: characteristic of the Qin or of the Han?