>>31607676Decentralized religion works in this context to a certain extent; the Emperor would need to have some sort of control over villages, (you can decide how big or small you want it to be). Monks were some sort of philosophers in ancient Japan and China. Confucius never held any political office if I'm not mistaken, but he could control his followers against the Qi, but he didn't. Especially at that time, political leaders had to appoint priests favorable to their regime so that the people wouldn't rebel against them.
