The monarch was the minister's guiding principle.
The real author of these rules might have been an emperor, or perhaps a succession of emperors.
He controlled and crushed the world, no one dared to disobey.
But for one reason or another, this vertical order between monarch and minister carried the possibility of change.
If the emperor always remained dominant, he would keep all his ministers in check.
If the emperor were inwardly weak, then the ideal state imagined by the Great Scholar would emerge, with the Holy Celestial Son ruling without effort.
As long as the nation's fate did not collapse, this solid system could keep running indefinitely, while Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, martial, even Witchcraft Sect legacies would all be woven beneath it, bowing their heads and presenting themselves as vassals.
Until the mountains and rivers wavered, and the dynasty changed hands once more.
