Why did heaven favor Sima Yi?

Why did heaven favor Sima Yi?

Because he is only loyal to his ambition, not some stupid ideal or an incompetent emperor

Turns out the side with roughly 15 times the manpower has a massive advantage. Who'd have guessed?

Can someone explain the mandate of heaven to me? Was it someone who simply had a lot of good luck and fortune?

I think it was something like "if you won, then clearly the gods were on your side. If you lost, then the gods wanted you to lose". It's just an easy way to justify winning.

ah okay, thanks user

It also includes rebellions being lawful if they succeed and, due to backpedaling, the notion that rebellion is lawful if there's signs that the dynasty has lost the heaven's favour (famines, natural disasters, bad times in general).

It's sort of a complicated idea, but it entails slightly more than just 'winning'. You have to be de facto ruling and ruling well. Disasters, famines, plauges, there are all signs heaven does not favor you, and can justify lawful rebellion to restore things to a proper order. It's basically the embodiment of the idea that 'we don't care who's in charge as long as things are running smoothly', but if they ever stop running smoothly, you will be replaced and have your entire family line butchered, alongside everyone closely associated with you.

It also implies that the world runs on Fisher King rules.

thanks, it sounds incredibly unstabilizing though, like making bad situations way worse

On the contrary, it made China much more stable (and is the intent of the philosophy). Anyone in power is immediately confirmed as rightfully holding it, and you'd better fall in line or be a traitor. It is after all, divine will you fall in line. Anyone using the Mandate to seize power will be ignored mostly, unless the leadership is incompetent enough to demand their removal, in which case keeping them in power is the more unstable option. It only serves to confirm new leadership and retroactively justify your rebellion, it was usually not helpful in the actual rebellion itself, and I'd say it did not really promulgate more rebellion than would have happened anyways. Ambitious people are going to overthrow weak governments no matter what, the Mandate philosophy just kept more from doing it/holding out from the new central government.

I see, well thanks again.
btw, What would you consider to be a "must read" on Chinese/asian history?

Get a load of this retard.

'The Search for Modern China' by Johnathan Spence is probably the best entry-level overview for the last 300 or so years of Chinese history. Really anything by Spence is good shit in my opinion, but this is definitely his magnum opus.

If you want something more in depth on topics of Imperial China (the Mandate, Confucianism, literati culture, etc) I'd personally recommend Vol I of the 'Sources of Chinese Tradition: From Earliest Times to 1600' compiled by De Bary and Bloom. It's a compilation of a lot of the foundational texts of early to premodern Chinese thought and philosophy, each with a very clear editor's note explaining and contextualizing them. I think it'd be more useful to understand the many Chinese schools of thought than to just read a chronological account of the dynasties.

>According to the Book of Jin, Sima Yi believed that the Han dynasty would soon come to an end, and felt no motivation to join Cao Cao, who had already taken control of the Han government. He refused Cao Cao's requests to serve, saying that he was suffering from a disease. Cao Cao did not believe Sima Yi's excuse, and sent agents to check on him at night. Sima Yi, knowing this in advance, stayed in bed all night and did not move. In 208, Cao Cao became Imperial Chancellor and ordered Sima Yi to serve him, saying "If he dallies, arrest him." Afraid of what would befall him, Sima Yi finally accepted the position of Wenxueyuan. However, according to the Weilüe, Cao Hong, Cao Cao's younger cousin, requested the presence of Sima Yi in order to start a friendship with the latter, who did not have a very high opinion of Cao Hong and feigned illness by carrying a cane in order to avoid meeting him. Cao Hong went to Cao Cao in anger and told him what had happened, after which Cao Cao directly requested the presence of Sima Yi. Only then did Sima Yi officially enter Cao Cao's service.

Cao Cao fucked up, calling this lazy god into service. Wei had it coming.

"Refusing the call to adventure" is a cliche even in Chinese historiography that should not be taken too seriously. And Sima Yi's hesitance to get into politics should not be considered anything special considering so many others also were hesitant to get involved in the government of a failing dynasty. See for example Bing Yuan and Guan Ning.

Sima Yi wasn't even the smartest guy in Cao Cao's service. The absolute smartest ones tended to get eliminated as potential threats. See Yang Xiu and Zhou Buyi, both of whom were probably smarter than Sima Yi, for all the good it did them.

Xun Yu and Xun You were probably also smarter than Sima Yi, though they died of illness relatively early.

It was the will of heaven that they have more men.

>Cao Cao fucked up
How? By the time Jin took over the Cao line was a shade of itself, its talent dead with Cao Rui. Sima Yi's and Sima Zhi's presence if anything helped out prolonging the existence of Wei before another dynastic takeover.

Can you gimme sources on Yang Xiu and Zhou Buyi? I found some info on Yanfg Xiu but cant find any on Zhou Buyi.

the talent of wei died because of sima yi. There had been attempts by some prominent Cao clansmen to restore their emperor's power, but was thwarted, especially during the incident at Gaoping Tombs.

Zhou Buyi was a child prodigy said to be on par with Cao Cao's son Cao Chong. After Cao Chong died of illness, Cao Cao worried that whomever of his remaining sons that would be his heir would not be able to control someone as smart as Zhou Buyi, and so had Zhou Buyi killed. At the time Zhou Buyi was still a teenager.

Don't get me wrong, Sima Yi was smart, but he could not have been noticeably smarter than Cao Cao or else he would have never been permitted to gain power.