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It's not at all clear why the smaller and much less technically sophisticated Zhou were able to defeat the powerful and well organised Shang state.
技術相對落后、實力也較弱小的周如何打敗了強大而有組織的商，至今仍是未解之謎。
They seem to have had a striking ability to absorb and to shape allies into a coherent attacking force;
他們似乎有種特別的能力，能吸收整合異族，讓他們與自己并肩作戰，
but above all, they were buoyed up by their faith in themselves as a chosen people.
但最重要的是，他們被一種信念所鼓舞，相信自己是奉上天的旨意而戰斗。
In first capturing, and then ruling, the Shang kingdom, they saw themselves-as so many conquering forces do - as enacting the will of the gods.
與許多征服者一樣，他們推翻并接管商朝時認為自己是替天行道。
So they fought with the confidence born of knowing that they were to be the rightful inheritors of the land.
因此在戰斗中，他們堅信自己才是天下的合法統治者。
But-and this was new-they articulated this belief in the form of one controlling concept, which was to become a central idea in Chinese political history.
而且，他們明確地將其用思想控制的形式表達了出來一這在世界上尚屬首創—并使之成為中國政治史的核心。
The Zhou are the first to formalise the idea of the Mandate of Heaven:
周朝是第一個明確提出“天命”的王朝。
the Chinese notion that heaven blesses and sustains the authority of a just ruler.
中國人認為上天會庇佑正義的統治者。
An impious and incompetent ruler would displease the gods, who would withdraw their mandate from him.
對上天不敬或昏庸無能的統治者則會觸怒神明，使其收回天命。
So on this view, it followed that the defeated Shang must have lost the Mandate of Heaven, which had passed to the virtuous, victorious Zhou.
因此，戰敗的商朝必定是失去了上天的庇佑，神明轉而庇佑德行高尚的周。
From this time on, the Mandate of Heaven became a permanent feature of Chinese political life, underpinning the authority of rulers or justifying their removal, as Wang Tao, archaeologist at the University of London tells us:
從此，天命成為中國政治的永恒主題，為君王的統治提供依據，或成為改朝換代的理由。倫敦大學考古學家王濤博士這樣描述：
"That transformed the Zhou, because that allowed them to rule other people.
天命改變了周朝，給予他們統治他人的權力。
If you kill the king or senior member of the family, it's the biggest crime you could make.
弒君或殺害尊長是當時最嚴重的罪行。但任何反抗權威的行為都可以用天命來解釋。
So to turn the crime against authority or against a ruler into some justifiable action, you had to have an excuse, and that excuse is the Mandate of Heaven.
它內在的圖騰含義相當于西方的民主概念。在中國，如果你觸犯了神靈，或違背了民心，就會有兇兆預警—雷電、暴雨或地震。
