 This warning epitomizes what may be considered the major dividing line between Legalists and their opponents. Despite their pronounced belief in monarchic form of rule, most thinkers of the Warring States period insisted that the monarch would never succeed without a worthy aide. Their common desideratum was attaining harmonious relations between the ministers and the rulers; not coincidentally, the common simile of these relations was that of friends, i.e. of equals. Some thinkers were even more assertive in their interpretation of a worthy minister as the ruler’s de facto superior, a teacher and not just a friend (Pines 2009: 163–172). One of the most radical manifestations of this pro-ministerial mindset of the Warring States era was the idea of abdication, according to which a good ruler may consider yielding the throne to his meritorious aide (Allan 2016; Pines 2005). For Legalists, in contrast, this very idea proved that the pro-ministerial discourse of their rivals was usurpation in disguise. Ministers should never be trusted: they are neither the ruler’s friends, nor his teachers, but his bitter foes and plotters, who should be checked and controlled rather than cherished and empowered. This sober realization—promoted, ironically, by the members of the ministerial stratum—added certain tragic dimensions to the Legalists’ political theory.