The ultimate guarantee of harmony was the ruler’s justness, which permitted him to enjoy the “mandate of heaven”; the people had a right, indeed an obligation, to rebel against a tyrant. But while the ethical basis of Neo-Confucianism was crucial, the Chinese also understood the need for a morally motivated bureaucracy, and thus perfected in the seventh century the world’s first examination system for selecting bureaucrats, with the Confucian canon as the syllabus.
和谐的终极保证是统治者的公平，这使他能够行使“天降大任”；人民有权利，甚至可说是有义务反抗暴君。虽然新儒教的伦理基础至关重要，但中国人同时也明白具有高度的道德操守的官僚体系的必要性。于是他们在7世纪完善了世界上第一个以儒教经典为课程大纲的选拔官员的科举制度。