Kingship, Chinese

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Kingship, Chinese. Traditional Chinese concepts of kingship were sacralized, the political, moral, and economic powers of the emperor all having a religious dimension. The emperor was seen as pivot and sustainer of the cosmic order, ruler of the four quarters of the world and mediator between Heaven and earth. As the ‘Son of Heaven’, he lived in a palace complex called the Purple Forbidden City, modelled on the Purple Protected Enclosure, where the God of Heaven (Shang-Ti) dwelt in the circumpolar region of the sky.

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Kingship, Chinese

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