A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
A player, 9 May 2010
Cowed By Wisdom Reaction: Before an action's resolution: Negate the action's movement of Personalities that are not yours from the current battlefield.
Preserving Honor Battle: Target an enemy Personality. His controller chooses either to bow him, or to choose another location and move him there. If the bowing or movement is negated, remove the Personality from the game.
The question: If the opponent chooses to move their personality away from the current battlefield, may I react with Cowed By Wisdom and thereby remove the personality (and attachments) from the game? Or are they able to re-choose.
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 9 May 2010
The question: If the opponent chooses to move their personality away from the current battlefield, may I react with Cowed By Wisdom and thereby remove the personality (and attachments) from the game? Or are they able to re-choose.
The timing of Cowed by Wisdom is such that you must react with it before the choice is made at all. Its trigger is "Before an action's resolution", which would be after your (required) targeting of the Personality but before anything else (including the choice) occurs.