Confucius (551–470 BCE)

Confucius (551–470 BCE)

Baoyan Cheng

Chinese philosopher

Confucius is more important than any other single person in China's five-thousand-year history. Similar to Christ for Christianity, Buddha for Buddhism, and Muhammad for Islam, Confucius is the symbol of a great cultural tradition—Confucianism—that still exerts great influence on the lives and the social ethics of a large population, mainly in East Asia. As a scholar, philosopher, teacher, academic leader, and government minister, Confucius was naturally concerned with leadership and deliberated about it deeply. His thoughts on leadership constitute an important part of his doctrine; they laid a theoretical foundation for the establishment and development of China's political system and the management of social life for more than two thousand years. The significance of Confucius's thoughts has not diminished with time, and a close reading of them has much to offer today's study of leadership.

The Life of Confucius
The word Confucius is the Latin rendering of the Chinese term Kong Fuzi, meaning Master Kong. Confucius's name in Chinese is Kong Qiu; following the style of Chinese names, Kong is the family name and Qiu is the personal name. Confucius lived during an era of Chinese history called the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BCE). During this time, although China was in name ruled by the court of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BCE), the power of government had actually fallen into the hands of the hundred or so feudal lords, each of whom controlled his own state. Confucius was born in the state of Lu which is in Shandong Province in today's China; while his ancestors supposedly had aristocratic roots in the state of Song, when Confucius was born, his family had lost much of its fortune as well as its social status. His father died when Confucius was only three, and Confucius started his learning with his mother. (There was no formal schooling at that time; youngsters were usually taught by private tutors if their families could afford it.) From childhood, Confucius had an insatiable desire to learn everything, a desire that lasted throughout his life, whether in his early years, when he had to make a living playing musical instruments in a band and working as the manager of a warehouse, or in his later years when he was commonly recognized as an academic authority. Mostly through self-education, though he always sought good teachers, Confucius mastered the six arts that were required for a fully educated person—ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and arithmetic.

All these skills and his special interests and knowledge in poetry and history made him a wellknown scholar at a young age, and he started teaching in his thirties. He set up a school that was open to all people regardless of their social class; historians consider it to be the first school in Chinese history. With a style similar to that of Socrates, Confucius taught his students through storytelling and conversation, often debating with them. It is said that he had three thousand students, some of whom later were also regarded as sages in the established Confucian tradition.

Confucius was not only a scholar and teacher, however; he was determined to participate in politics and to put his ideas into action. He dreamed of seeing a world in which a justified social order was established and people's consciences were awakened and fully cultivated. Such a social order would mean the realization of li (righteous social order) and ren (love for humanity), the two most essential values in Confucius's doctrine.

In his forties and fifties, Confucius held several government posts in his home state of Lu, including magistrate and minister of justice. Unfortunately, his service in the Lu government did not provide him with the opportunity to carry out the political ideas he advocated; although the King of Lu admired Confucius's scholarship, he was not really interested in his political advocacies. Confucius then left Lu and, accompanied by a group of loyal students, started a twelve-year journey, attempting to find a feudal state where his ideas would be not only heard but also practiced. But there was no place in China, then mired in wars and conspiracies, for Confucius to fulfill his visions. After experiencing many disappointments, frustrations, and even great dangers, Confucius returned to his hometown of Qufu in his late sixties and died there several years later. In the last years of his life, Confucius concentrated on writing and editing books on history, philosophy, ritual, poetry, and music. Some of his works have been lost, but most have remained as classics of Chinese culture.

Confucius's Thoughts on Leadership
While it is a complex system, Confucius's doctrine can be understood basically as a philosophy of life and a social ethic, both based in ren. Confucius believed that human nature endowed human beings with ren, but that each individual needs to cultivate it. Ren is the essence of humanity and thus the foundation for any individual's self-development, and for any just social order, or li. Li, a key principle for Confucius, literally means “ritual” but also refers in a more general sense to order and justice. “The realization of ren is to conquer oneself and reestablish li” (Analects 12:1): This fundamental relationship between individuals and society is profoundly reflected in Confucius's thoughts on leadership.

Becoming a Junzi
Confucius tried in many different ways to get involved in local and state leadership; he also encouraged his students to do so, and some did become leaders on different levels. One of his purposes in running his school was to train potential leaders to carry out his political ideas. Whether one was destined to be a leader or not, Confucius emphasized that one should cultivate oneself to be a junzi, or noble man. Like Plato's philosopher-king, only a junzi can be a leader in an ideal society. Yet, whereas a philosopher can only be decided, according to Plato, by a “divine dispensation,” any human being can become a junzi. This difference characterizes the humanistic nature of Confucius's doctrine.

According to Confucius, being a junzi required certain virtues. First was ren, the love for mankind. That love is specific and practical for Confucius. Since the people one loves most dearly are one's parents, xiao, or filial piety, is the core of ren. Next to xiao is ti, one's care and feelings for siblings; then yi, friendship. Thus, ren is presented in ever wider circles from family to community, state, and eventually the whole world. To strengthen the belief in ren and enhance its practice in life, a junzi should also have the virtues of cheng, honesty to oneself and to others; of zhong, loyalty to community and society; of zhi, intelligence and rationality; of xin, credibility and reliability; of lian, cleanness in service; and of chi, the sense of shame. These qualities having been acquired, a junzi is “one whom riches and honors cannot taint, poverty and lowly station cannot shift, majesty and power cannot bend” (Menzi 3B2). So said Mencius (372–289 BCE), the second-most prominent figure in the Confucian tradition.

Further Requirements for Leadership
Confucius believed that a leader, in addition to needing to be a junzi, needed to fulfill other requirements as well. Above all, leadership requires commitment to and responsibility for others and in a broader sense for the world. A leader must have the persistence to maintain that commitment no matter how difficult. As Zeng Shen, one of Confucius's favorite students, put it, “A leader must be resolute and steadfast, for his burden is heavy and his road is long. To practice the virtue of benevolence in the world is his burden, is that not heavy? Only with death does his journey come to an end, is that not long?” (Analects 8:7). Leadership also requires comprehensive education, since Confucius implied that only the learned are to rule. On the other hand, a leader “does not have to be an expert of specific skills” (Analects 2:12) but must acquire fundamental knowledge. A leader should be a diligent person. Confucius took himself as an example: “Wherever people live, there are honest and trustworthy people like me; yet they may not be as diligent as I am in learning” (Analects 5:28). Hence, a leader would “never feel bored in study, and never get tired of teaching others” (Analects 7:2). Another basic quality is modesty, for a good leader should always try to learn from others. “Wherever there are three people,” said Confucius, “there must be one who can be my teacher” (Analects 7:22). A good leader can also “work with people who have different ideas” (Analects 13:23); a leader “does not recommend a man on account of what he says, neither does he dismiss what is said on account of the speaker” (Analects 15:23). Along with modesty comes selfcriticism: “When you meet a man of virtue, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal; when you meet a man without virtue, look within and examine your own self” (Analects 4:17). Zeng Shen was put forward as a good example for engaging in introspection three times a day.

All these requirements for a leader illustrate Confucius's axiomatic belief that although law and rules, rewards and punishment are necessary for order and formality in any community and society, government and leadership can be built only upon ren, love for humankind, because the underlying function of any society and organization is to promote it. To govern is not only to regulate people's behavior, but more importantly, to guide their minds. The art of leadership, accordingly, requires first a virtuous leader. To lead others, one must be morally a good example for others. “To govern is to be upright. Who dares not to be upright if the leader is upright?” (Analects 12:17). To urge people to work hard, “the leader should work hard first” (Analects 13:1). “If the leader acts in an upright way, the people will obey him without being ordered to; if the leader does not act uprightly, the people will not obey him even after repeated injunctions” (Analects 13:6). “Why should a leader have any difficulty in administering if he himself is upright? How could a leader correct others if he himself is not upright?” (Analects 3:13). When a state minister asked Confucius how he could make people respect and be loyal to their superiors and inspire each other in service, Confucius replied, “Be upright in their presence, and they will hold you in respect; be filial and benevolent, and they will be loyal to you; use the righteous and instruct the unqualified, and they will inspire each other in service” (Analects 2:20).

The Confucian Golden Rule
The art of leadership requires respecting and understanding people. “You do not have to worry that others do not know you well; you may worry that you do not know others well” (Analects 1:16). And respecting and understanding lead to forgiving and encouraging. When Zeng Shen was asked by his fellow students what was the real key that he had learned from Confucius, he answered, “Nothing but honesty and forbearance!” (Analects 4:15). Understanding and forgiving, nevertheless, are not the means in leadership, but the display of ren. The golden rule of Confucius is “Do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you!” (Analects 15:23). Logically, the other side of the rule also holds: “A man of humanity, wishing to establish himself, also establishes others, and wishing to enlarge himself, also enlarges others” (Analects 16:28).

A poetic passage in Analects, the most revered work of Confucius, expounds vividly Confucius's general view on leadership and serves as fitting concluding words here (Analects, 2:1): “A leader who rules society on a moral basis would be supported by the people, just as the Polar Star is encircled by all the other stars.”

Baoyan Cheng 10.4135/9781412952392.n61 Further Reading Confucius. (1994). Lun Yu[Analects of Confucius] (Lai Bo, & Xia Yuhe, Trans.). Beijing, China: Sinolingua. Chen, J. (1990). Confucius as a teacher: Philosophy of Confucius with special reference to its educational implications. Beijing, China: Foreign Languages Press. Dawson, R. S. (1982). Confucius. New York: Hill and Wang. De Bary, W. T. (1989). Confucius as a noble man. Singapore: Institute of East Asian Philosophies. Do-Dinh, P. (1969). Confucius and Chinese humanism (C. L. Markmann, Trans.). New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Fingarette, H. (1998). Confucius: The secular as sacred. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Kaizuka, S. (2002). Confucius: His life and thought (G. Bownas, Trans.). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. Mencius (372-289 BCE). (1998). Mencius. Translated by David Hinton. Washington, DC: Counterpoint. Smith, D. H. (1973). Confucius. New York: Scribner's. Szuma, C. (1979). Confucius. In Yang Hsien-yi and G. Yang (Trans.), Selections from records of the historian (Shi Ji) (pp. 1–46). Beijing, China: Foreign Languages Press. Tu, W-M. (1989). Confucianism in a historical perspective. Singapore: Institute of East Asian Philosophies.

Photo : A highly idealized portrait of Confucius, dating to about 1650. Historical Picture Archive/Corbis.

Source: Encyclopedia of Leadership George R. Goethals & Georgia J. Sorenson & James MacGregor Burns