In some cases, such as during the Southern Song dynasty, political power in East Asia was effectively split among several governments; nonetheless, the political fiction that there was but one ruler was maintained.
南宋時代のような場合、東アジアの政治権力は、事実上いくつかの政権に分割されていたが、それでもなお君主は唯一人しか存在しないとする政治的虚構が維持された。