In the Chinese language, there is a word very typical of China: 天命tiān mìng—literally “the will of the heaven”. Ancient Chinese people believe that something is destined, it is “天命”, you can not decide anything, but everything is decided by the will of heaven.

The Will of Heaven is, however, imaginary. It only exists in people’s imagination and therefore had to be realized in human actions. So the emperors act the role to his citizens, and parents bear the role to their children. They address the emperors’ order as “天命”, it is easy t understand, because here “天” represents “天子tiān zǐ—the son of the heaven”, i.e., the emperor; and “命” means “order”. So you can’t disobey “the order of the emperor”. Also, the parents’ order is also “天命”. This kind of thing is quite real in the feudal society, now it is rare.