 According to most Neo-Confucians, revering the emperor meant both ritual respect for the role of the emperor and obedience to the legitimate authority of the emperor, but not unthinking loyalty to the ruler no matter what he might do or say. Ultimate loyalty is owed to no individual but to the Way, which Neo-Confucians also discuss in terms of “cosmic Pattern (tianli)”—that is, the ultimate harmony of all things. Neo-Confucians lived in a public culture in which it was expected, at least in principle, that ministers show their loyalty by courageously pointing out flaws and remonstrating with their rulers. And many Neo-Confucians, including Zhu Xi, quietly or reluctantly acknowledged that there are cases when one should not obey one’s emperor, presumably after all attempts to dissuade the misguided ruler had been exhausted (Schirokauer 1978: 141–43). We already saw some of this in the Donglin incident, discussed above; there are numerous other cases in which ministers, either individually or as a group, seek to upbraid or reform an errant ruler. Often these disputes revolved around ritual matters, since the stability of human relationships as expressed through ritual was central to the overall harmony of the society and cosmos. Throughout much of the Neo-Confucian era political actors also find it necessary to justify their proposals through reference to classical texts, which one contemporary scholar has therefore argued serve a partly “constitutional” role (Song 2015). Notwithstanding the various ways in which literati can partly constrain the choices of rulers, though, there is little question that the power of rulers remains paramount. And while the deep-seated belief that harmony relies on the well-being of the people is no doubt responsible for the peasantry living better lives than they might have otherwise, in the end Neo-Confucian socio-political thought grants them only one political outlet: revolt (Angle 2009: ch. 10).