We have read how the First Intermediate Period and its attendant chaos, famine,

Question

We have read how the First Intermediate Period and its attendant chaos, famine, and local rule affected the people's ideas of their king -- if he was doing his job properly, and properly maintaining ma'at, how could this have happened to Egypt?

There's an ancient pre-Communist Chinese concept -- the Mandate of Heaven -- that basically says that an emperor who is no longer fit to rule loses the Mandate of Heaven. In other words, a corrupt or simply bad emperor of China would lose his right to rule. Invariably tied up with this are natural disasters, affecting the health of the country.

There is also the ancient European idea that the physical abundance and health of a country is tied to the physical health of the king who rules. We see this clearly with the Fisher King, whose country is ailing, just as is its king (I love to talk about the Arthurian Legends). We also talked about this a bit when we discussed the idea of divine kingship.

In Chinese history, natural disasters always heralded or accompanied a change in leadership. The same seems to have happened in Egypt, in both the First and Second Intermediate Periods.

What do you think? Is there some link, as the Chinese seemed to think, between a time for a change and natural disasters? Or is it just a coincidence?

Explanation / Answer

Most of the countries have different superstitious beliefs. At times, they connect the natural disasters with the person who rules. Popular theories suggest that a worthless or corrupted king brings disaster but in my opinion, it’s only a coincidence. In most of the countries, people tend to connect naturally occurring events with something that happens during that time. People connected natural disasters with the kings who were not ruling justly. In my opinion, it’s only a coincidence and there is no real connection because there were plenty of cruel kings in history but very few were connected with the natural disasters.

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