Liu Zijian is an expert in Song history, and he once said the following:
"In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, during the Qingli era, learned scholar-officials began to gain prominence. They were Confucian officials among the civil servants, adhering to principles, valuing ideals, and generally speaking, the scholarly ethos at the time could be considered the best. But even if it was good, there were still corrupt individuals... Even when the scholarly ethos was good, bad things still happened. Conversely, a good scholarly ethos mainly relies on positive guidance; such corrupt individuals do not hinder major affairs."
"Such corrupt individuals do not hinder major affairs." This sentence is very important. Humans often suffer from naivety, thinking that good should mean absolutely good. A prosperous era should have no problems. However, just as good people also have flaws, a good era is one with flaws. The more vibrant the era, the more contradictions arise, and it may be precisely because of its vitality and change that more contradictions are exposed.
A good era is one with a bottom line, where the majority of aspects are good. The Northern Song Dynasty was a good era, and the core of the Song scholar-officials was centered around fairness and loyalty. As a group, they appeared on the historical stage. If the emperor represents the maintenance of imperial power, then this group of scholar-officials had a conscious adherence to the "orthodox tradition": ministers are loyal through fairness, serve their rulers according to the Way, and follow the Way rather than the ruler.