Editing Mandate of Heaven (section)

=== Era of disunity ===
The final Han emperor abdicated to the powerful minister {{nowrap|[[Cao Pi]]}} in {{nowrap|CE 220,}} and in this transfer of power the idea of Heaven's mandate played a large role. The court prognosticator Xu Zhi ([[:zh:許芝|許芝]]) enumerated in a lengthy memorandum the signs he had located in divinatory and historical texts showing that Cao Pi's [[Cao Wei|Wei]] should succeed the Han.{{sfnp|Chen and Pei|loc=vol. 2, pp. 63–64}} A sequence of written statements by various officials followed, culminating in [[Emperor Xian of Han]]'s formal announcement of abdication and Cao Pi's accession.{{sfnp|Chen and Pei|loc=vol. 2, pp. 62–75}} The announcement of abdication explicitly mentioned that the mandate of Heaven was not permanent, and no one argued that the virtue of the house of Han had not been in decline for some time.{{sfnp|Chen and Pei|loc=vol. 2, pp. 62, 66–68}} In the eyes of these authors, Heaven's mandate followed virtue.{{sfnp|Farmer|2001|pp=51–52}} While the idea that [[Cao Wei]] was Heaven's legitimate successor predominated for several centuries, the alternate theory that Heaven's mandate instead fell to the rival state of [[Shu Han]] was first articulated by [[Xi Zuochi]] in the 300s,{{sfnp|Chittick|1998|p=48}} and was universally accepted by the much later [[Song dynasty]].{{sfnp|Yong|1782|loc=vol. 45, p. 17}}

The last Wei emperor abdicated in turn to the [[Western Jin]]. This dynasty soon lost control of northern China to non-Han ethnic groups, and in the literature of the southern dynasties that followed there began to appear an object called the [[Heirloom Seal of the Realm|State-Transmitting Seal]]. This magical talisman was the physical manifestation of Heaven's mandate, tied up in the fortunes of ruling families, allowing the exiled southern aristocracy to retain their sense of cultural superiority and maintain the validity of Heaven's mandate in the face of counterfactual political reality.{{sfnp|Rogers|1968|pp=61–62}}