Final answer:
The Zhou dynasty faced internal conflicts and weakening central authority after losing the Mandate of Heaven. This loss signaled divine disapproval, leading to the dynasty's fragmentation and the rise of new dynasties like the Song, who claimed the heavenly mandate for themselves.
Step-by-step explanation:
Loss of the Mandate of Heaven and the Zhou Dynasty
When the Zhou dynasty lost the Mandate of Heaven, it faced increasing challenges to its authority and legitimacy. The Mandate of Heaven was a profound concept in Chinese history, signifying that a dynasty could rule only with divine approval, justified through moral governance and the welfare of the people. Loss of the mandate was evident through natural disasters, famine, and social unrest. In 950 BC, after King Zhao’s failure and the increase in attacks on the capital, the unity of the Zhou was threatened. This rupture allowed non-Zhou peoples and competing branches of the Zhou royal family to challenge the dynasty's right to rule, indicating that the Zhou no longer had the heavenly mandate. History records these events as evidence of celestial dissatisfaction with a dynasty's rule, prompting a legitimate transition of power to a more worthy successor. In the case of the Zhou dynasty, after many generations had passed, the burgeoning number of relative claimants to power diluted close ties, and internal strife intensified. The subsequent disunity and weakening of central control led to the fragmentation of the dynasty and eventually to its eventual downfall and replacement by other dynastic houses, like the Song dynasty.
In the larger context, the Mandate of Heaven provided the ideological underpinning that enforced moral leadership and offered a mechanism for dynastic change. It became a foundational justification for the rise and fall of dynasties within Chinese civilization, ensuring a continuity of the cultural and political framework throughout Chinese history. Later dynasties would continue to use, and at times revise, the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to legitimize their own rule and to mark the end of their predecessors.