For emperors, famines were not only disasters that could, and frequently did, cause rebellion. They were also the ultimate insult; emperors were ‘tian zi’, the sons of heaven, and as such they were the link between the earth and the celestial authorities that controlled the rain, wind and temperature. Thus droughts, floods, famine and other natural disasters were often seen among the people as evidence that heaven had withdrawn its favour from its son – that the emperor had lost ‘tian li’, heaven’s mandate. For example, according to one legend , the emperor Shangtang of the Shang distany (1766-1122 BC) decided to sacrifice himselft after the country had suffered seven years of drought. He chose self-immolation on a pyre of firewood as the preferred manner of his death, but at the very instant that the wood was lit, the celestial powers took pity and made it rain, thereby putting out the fire and ending the drought with one stroke.
China Shakes the World, The Rise of a Hungry Nation por James Hynge
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