In this paper, we unify various axiomatisations of the core of TU games by means of consistency with respect to different definitions of reduced games. First, we introduce a general definition of reduced games including the reduced games due to Davis and Maschler (1965), Moulin (1985), and Funaki (1995) as special cases. Then, we provide a general theorem from which the characterisations due to Peleg (1986), Tadenuma (1992), and Funaki (1995) can be obtained. Our general theorem clarifies how the three characterisations of the core differ and are related.