Does a Peasant Uprising Seizing Imperial Power Count as Theft?

This first depends on whom imperial power actually belongs to—who is the owner and holder of the imperial power. If it belongs to the emperor and his family, then a peasant uprising would be stealing from the reigning emperor. But who can be emperor forever? After an emperor dies, if he has no son to succeed him, someone else of the ancestral surname becomes emperor. This shows that the emperor is not a fixed, unchanging position. Since it can change, anyone among the people with great merit and ability can likewise become emperor. Therefore, if peasants rise up and successfully become emperor, it does not count as stealing.

If this power belongs to everyone, then peasants rising up to become emperor also does not count as stealing. Public power is not private property; it would be wrong to gradually occupy it and make it private. Seizing imperial power with the selfish desire to be number one under heaven is stealing; acting wholeheartedly for the sake of all under heaven is not stealing. Historically, many peasant uprisings were the product of officials oppressing the people into rebellion. If the class holding power becomes corrupt and benighted, implements tyrannical rule, and disregards the lives of the people, then when the people rise up, remove that public power, and rescue themselves, it does not count as stealing. However, if the insurgents gain power and likewise abuse public power for private ends, becoming even more corrupt and tyrannical than their predecessors, then the insurgents are likewise guilty of the act of stealing.

One must look at what all sentient beings at the time thought—who benefited and who was harmed. One cannot use worldly morality to explain cause and effect. Judging from the characteristics of feudal dynastic rule, dynastic changes throughout history benefited the ruling class the most; ordinary people were never the greatest beneficiaries. If someone occupies the throne and does real, practical things to benefit the people, it probably does not count as stealing either—it depends on the intention and on the conduct. Then, when an emperor appropriates imperial power as his own and passes it down through hereditary succession, is that not stealing? Is the emperor's imperial power not something stolen?