Corruption is not unique to China's contemporary political system. It is essentially a byproduct of thousands of years of China's imperial court, which was characterized largely by authoritarian rule and the concept of the "rule of man" (emphasizing the emperor's moral leadership and the hierarchy of relationships) embedded in the country's Confucian culture. Yet China's historical tradition of patronage and nepotism, which outsiders are quick to identify as corruption, also helped to embed important features, such as institutional continuity and security of the imperial court, before the establishment of the institutions of the Communist Party. Dynastic cycles can take various forms in a country as large and geographically diverse as China, but the interconnection between bureaucratic corruption and the historical cycle is remarkably similar.