 The idea that the succession of the Way can come apart from the more superficial succession of monarchy has a number of important implications, especially when combined with the view of governance operating at two levels (maintaining social order and achieving moral transformation). Borrowing a term from classical antiquity, Neo-Confucians argue that a ruler who is successful at keeping order but who falls short of achieving broader transformation is a mere “hegemon” rather than a true “king”. It is better to be a hegemon than a cruel tyrant, to be sure, but even the successful hegemon still needs to aspire to something greater. The gatekeepers to these greater achievements, meanwhile, are those scholars who have attained the succession of the Way. According to this manner of thinking, therefore, monarchs must accept that leaders of the literati should be their teachers or even co-rulers, or that the monarch’s central authority should be reined in so that morally cultivated literati can hold sway over local affairs. Over the Neo-Confucian period literati had varying degrees of success in asserting authority derived from the succession of the Way.