How did early chinese rulers use religion to justify and strengthen their power?

The Mandate of Heaven (or rule book the dynasty ruler had to follow) required the Son of Heaven - or the ruler - to be a good king because the "gods" had placed him in that leadership position. If he did poorly as a ruler and abused his power, normally an outside dynasty would rise up and take over the power. They justified the downfall of the previous king not by saying "Oh, the other family was stronger." but rather through saying "He was a bad ruler the gods didn't bless anymore.". This idea strengthened the power the dynasty had over the land and cause the people to have respect for him. This entire system influenced the family system in China also. The stereotypical patriarchal family had a lot of distant family members living together. The head of the household, a man, was to be obeyed by his wife. The eldest son obeyed by the eldest daughter and the younger sons by the younger daughters. This may seem strict, but the actual Chinese family was close knit. There are works that state how a man is blessed when a laughing child is in his lap, so obviously it wasn't a dictatorial rule. But that was a tangent...