A Search for the Truth

by Bill Doughty

Who or what is the North Star, the Pole Star, of leadership?

Those who are educated in the West often rely on philosophers from ancient Greece, Judeo-Christian faith, Renaissance, and modern science to provide ethical, moral and practical principles on leadership.

A depiction of Master Kung - Confucius

What can the East, particularly Confucius ("Master Kung") – who influenced much of Asian thought and culture – say about leadership? Getting past the chauvinism and arguable misogyny of ancient times, there may be great value in learning advice from Asia's Pole Star on what it means to be a good leader.

In "Confucius: The Analects" translated by Arthur Waley (Alfred Knopf, 2000, first published 1938), "Master" refers to Confucius, and "gentleman" can be interpreted for our purposes as "leader" or "commander" or "CO."

From Book II:

1 The Master said, He who rules by moral force is like the pole-star, which remains in its place while all the lesser stars do homage to it.

2 The Master said, If out of the three hundred 'Songs' I had to take one phrase to cover all my teaching, I would say, 'Let there be no evil in your thoughts.'

3 The Master said, Govern the people by regulations, keep order among them by chastisements, and they will flee from you, and lose all self-respect. Govern them by moral force, keep order among them by ritual and they will keep their self-respect and come to you of their own accord.

Book IV:

2 The Master said, Without Goodness a man
Cannot for long endure adversity,
Cannot for long enjoy prosperity.

16 The Master said, A gentleman takes as much trouble to discover what is right as lesser men take to discover what will pay.

17 The Master said, In the presence of a good man, think all the time how you may learn to equal him. In the presence of a bad man, turn your gaze within!

Book XII:

16 The Master said, The gentleman calls attention to the good points in others; he does not call attention to their defects. The small man does just the reverse of this.

Book XIII:

1 ... Lead them; encourage them! ... Untiringly.

2 ... Get as much as possible done by your subordinates. Pardon small offenses. Promote men of superior capacity ...

Statue of Confucius at Yushima Seido, Tokyo

6 The Master said, If the ruler himself is upright, all will go well even though he does not give orders. But if he himself is not upright, even though he gives orders, they will not be obeyed.

Book XV:

17 The Master said, The gentleman who takes the right as his material to work upon and ritual as the guide in putting what is right into practice, who is modest in setting out his projects and faithful in carrying them to their conclusion, he indeed is a true gentleman.

18 The Master said, A gentleman is distressed by his own lack of capacity; he is never distressed at the failure of others to recognize his merits.

19 The Master said, A gentleman has reason to be distressed if he ends his days without make a reputation for himself.

20 The Master said, 'The demands that a gentleman makes are upon himself; those that a small man makes are upon others.'

22 The Master said, A gentleman does not
Accept men because of what they say,
Nor reject sayings, because the speaker is what he is.

23 Tzu-kung asked, saying, Is there any single saying that one can act upon all day and every day? The Master said, Perhaps the saying about consideration: 'Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you.'

Book XVI:

10 Master K'ung said, The gentleman has nine cares.

• In seeing he is careful to see clearly,
• in hearing he is careful to hear distinctly,
• in his looks he is careful to be kindly;
• in his manner to be respectful,
• in his words to be loyal,
• in his work to be diligent.
• When in doubt he is careful to ask for information;
• when angry he has a care for the consequences,
• and when he sees a chance of gain, he thinks carefully whether the pursuit of it would be consonant with the Right.

Right Matters

How do we know what "the Master" taught? Like Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha, Confucius had disciples who carried on, interpreted and reinterpreted his teachings about what is right.

Evidence of those teachings are found on ancient manuscripts on bamboo strips once buried in history, according to Yale lecturer and author Annping Chin.

In 1993 archeologists and scholars came into possession of two batches of "manuscripts" written on bamboo strips, some "pilfered by grave robbers and then sold on the Hong Kong antiques market before the manuscripts were bought, a few bundles at a time, by the Shanghai Museum," Chin writes.

"The texts were written around Mencius and Xunzi's time, 300 BC or earlier, before China was unified in the period known as 'the Warring States.'" What can the words on these bamboo strips tell us about life, moral cultivation and political thought in China before the Imperial Age?

From "The Authentic Confucius: A Life of Thought and Politics" by Annping Chin (Scribner, 2007):

"One Chinese paleographer I got to know told me about the risks of removing the ancient mud from the bamboo. As the strips lie in their cleaning solution, he said, and the words begin to emerge, some of the words literally rise from their bamboo surfaces, seeking flight or freedom in their demise. This is the closest I have come to thinking of words as alive. Sometime after, I made a wish. Even as I accept the impermanence of life, I said, I want words to be the exception – not all words, but surely words in the classics and histories, words of the early poems, philosopher's words, and the words of Confucius. I want them to stick around so that we can taste them again and again and play with their flavors in our head."

Anchored in Tradition

Author Michael Schuman – "Confucius: And the World He Created" (Perseus, 2015) – finds relevance for Confucianism for the world in general and China in particular – not to mention for leaders in the United States.

"The Confucius I have come to know over the course of researching this book ... was not a pawn of autocrats or a tool of suppression. That Confucius, though far from perfect, was a voice of boundless humanity and unswerving determination. He was a man who refused to compromise his principles for fame, wealth, or status. He would not submit to the will of immoral men or abusive regimes. He told the most powerful people of his day that they were wrong, directly to their faces. He judged men not by their riches or birth, but on their sincerity and benevolence. He could laugh at himself. He envisioned a society in which everyone fulfilled their responsibilities and placed the welfare of their families and communities over their own. He strove to transform a world convulsed by selfishness and war into one of selflessness and peace. He thought our society could be perfected if we first improved ourselves. Most of all, he thought that any one of us who took the time and made the effort to become a better person held the power to change the world."

Like the traditions of the U.S. Navy, the traditions of Confucianism promote rituals, manners, duty and "love of learning."

Schuman interprets "the Master's" position on authority and power: "No one, not even a person in a position of great power, is permitted to abuse that power," he writes. "The Confucian idea that people ought to blindly submit to anyone in a position of authority is beyond the Western mentality."

According to Confucius's Analects anchored in Schuman's book, "Let the superior man never fail reverentially to order his own conduct, and let him be respectful to others and observant of propriety – then all within the four seas will be his brothers." Just as the Pole Star guides good leadership, an anchor can secure it.