In Confucianism, whether to allow the expulsion of a disqualified monarch had been a difficult problem to deal with, but the Tokugawa Shogunate adopted a position taken from the standpoint of Mencius (a Chinese thinker in the fourth century BC) concerning the teachings of Zhu Xi, and approved of the Tang-Wu revolution (the expulsions of disqualified monarchs by King Tang and King Wu) and the revolution (change of dynasty) decreed by Heaven (when the incumbent emperor is found lacking in moral virtue).
儒教では、放伐を認めるかどうかが難題とされてきたが、徳川幕府は朱子学について孟子的理解に立ち、湯武放伐、易姓革命論を認めていたが、それを認めると天皇を将軍が放伐してよいことになり、山崎闇斎を始祖とする崎門学派が湯武放伐を否定して、体制思想としての朱子学を反体制思想へと転化させた。