Probably, but more broadly China's "philosophy" around rule is much more pragmatic than Western royalist brainrot. There is no divine right to rule if you lose the Mandate of Heaven. Nobody gives a shit if you can like trace your ancestry back to the last Song dynasty emperor, because obviously the Song lost the Mandate of Heaven to rule (since they haven't rule China for ~1000 years) so why the fuck would a scion of a dynasty that lost the mandate have any "right" to claim they should rule? If that scion wanted to raise an army and take over China, they're welcome to do so, and if they succeed they obviously attained the Mandate of Heaven, but that's on them. So it's very hard for a Chinese guy to be like "ah yes the third line removed of the second Sui emperor should be restored to the throne because of divine right" since that's just not how succession or rule works in Chinese history.

[–] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 17 points 3 days ago

As an addendum to this, (please forgive me for what I'm about to post) in the Netflix series "Bling Empire," which is a reality housewives-esque show that traces the lives of very rich Asian-Americans living in Los Angeles, one of the characters on this show claims he can trace his ancestry back to one of the Song dynasty emperors. Nobody gives a shit about this except for Westerners, and he's just a doctor now. His ties to "nobility" aren't meaningful because In China there isn't a feudal noble class to speak of, and there's no like ancestral wealth he can tap into.