The five relationships — ruler and subject, parent and child, husband and wife, elder and younger sibling, friend and friend — are the Confucian map of obligation, and four of the five are hierarchical. The crucial and often-missed point is that every one is reciprocal: a ruler owes benevolence in exchange for loyalty, a parent owes care in exchange for deference, and a superior who fails their duty forfeits the claim. Mencius pushed this to its edge, arguing a tyrant may be deposed because he has stopped being a ruler.