Sunday, October 2, 2011
King David and Chinese Monarchs
Something that struck me during our class discussion on Wednesday is that in the Alter translation of the psalms, King David was seen as the seemingly the son of God. It was believed that he was descendant from God as was personally chosen by God to be the king of the Israelites. When we were discussing this fact, I couldn't help but be reminded of a class I took my sophomore about the arts of China and Japan. In this class, we learned that back when China was a monarchy, they believed in the "Mandate of Heaven" which stated that the emperor acted as the Son of the Heavens when in power. The Mandate of Heaven was something that the Chinese used to legitimize their leaders by claiming that the leaders had divine approval, and that divine approval would either approve or disapprove of the Emporer's leadership. This concept struck me as very odd three years ago, and I think it was because we today are so used to the separation of church and state. It struck me as odd that these people would view their political leader as the Son of the Heavens. When we were discussing the psalms in class, I found that I was having the same feeling when discussing David. Up until this point, I ignorantly thought that the Chinese were the only to think that their rulers were divinely blessed to rule, but I was definitely wrong. But I guess it does make sense that other cultures would believe that. The separation of church and state idea is such a modern concept. Thousands of years ago, everything was intertwined when it comes to the secular and sacred, so it makes sense that several cultures viewed their political leaders as sons of god.
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That's a very interesting connection, not only between the election of King David and the Chinese idea of the Mandate of Heaven, but also between the modern division of church and state, and the old lack of segregation there. If you think about it, though, many leaders were chosen because of some other religious reason. Even today, we've almost never had a president who didn't claim to be a Christian, and although it's not supposed to sway their opinion in making judgment, nor our opinion in electing them, it certainly does.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting connection. Studying ancient religion (such as the psalms) definitely does bring up a world where political and religious worlds are not split. I think it's good to grasp how differently people have thought about their world.
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