| Though the contemporary China has made great achievements in the material world, it has encountered confusion of selfhood in its spiritual culture. The Chinese society has fallen into the sea of confusion:the loss of personal faith, the disappearance of the spiritual sustenance, the strained relations among people, the imbalance among man, society and nature, which all lead to the anomie of the whole community. Specifically, the Chinese society presents such problems:environmental pollution is serious, fraud prevails, social wealth polarized and public power abused by evil people. People have no sense of security.One of the reasons that result in such problems is the gradual invasion of the Western industrial civilization and culture, which led to the loss of the traditional Chinese culture. China is fully copying the western culture, and abandoning its own culture and traditions, which causes the deviation from the original path.Western industrial civilization has been shown to be greedy, predatory, inhumane, brutally competitive and unsustainable for development. So the western management thought advocates such ideas:consumerism, competition, high efficiency, performance appraisal, institutional constraints, and line production. Which all reflect the characteristics of scientism and non-humanism. Western industrial civilization brings mankind survival crisis day by day, so it has been reflected and criticized by people. The western management thought also has been condemned morally.Today’s Chinese management theory has nearly copied the western management thought, which emphasizes on the scientism and despise humanity. In the specific management practices, the bloodiness and inhumanity of the capitalist initial stage have appeared in our society.The famous economist, Douglas Snow, who was awarded the Nobel Prize of economics in1993, put forward the "path dependence" theory. The theory advocates that things that once follow a certain path will depend on it, which is similar to the inertia theory of physics. The "Path Dependence" theory gives us the enlightenment that we shouldn’t abandon our traditional culture, or the whole Chinese society will fall into a confused state. Confucianism is characterized by its "harmony", so Confucian management thought is harmonious in essence. In Confucian thought, management is that one improves his self-cultivation and benefits others. In order to realize the satisfaction of human being and the hannony of society, Confucian management thought embodies human factors from the beginning to the end, which reflects the humanistic caring feelings.Confucianism has been taking a dominant position in China for more than2000years and has become the main source of the Chinese national spirit. To solve the social problems now and build a harmonious society, an important measure is for the Chinese people to return to the original path---the values advocated by Confucianism, which we are familiar with and accustomed to. The purpose of the thesis is to build the spiritual home for all Chinese by researching Confucian culture.This thesis begins with the "Book of Changes", which is the Confucian classical literature."Book of Changes" reveals two laws of the universe:first, the law of hannony of the universe; second, the law of yin and yang balance, with the first being the world view and second being the methodology."Book of Changes" considers that the universe is a harmonious unity, and the harmony among all things is one of the laws in the universe. For the universe as a whole, a hannonious state should includes regularity, interdependence, equality, cyclicity, moderation, holistic systematicness; For the universe as separated individuals, a harmonious state should be manifested in the situation in which every part of the universe should be in proper positions, do their best and get what they want.How is the state of harmony of the universe formed?"Book of Changes" believed that the driving force behind is the balance between yin and yang. In the perspective of "Book of Changes", the materials in the world are composed of yin and yang which depended, interacted and transformed between each other. They change in movement and develop in changes infinitely and repeatedly to maintain harmony and unity of the universe as a whole. All the changes of the world are the changes of yin and yang which aim to achieve the harmony of all things in the universe. This Heaven or the laws of nature is the highest law that governing the universe.There are two aspects of the influence of "Book of Changes" on the theories of management of Confucianism, worldview and methodology. The harmony ideas of Confucianism all contain a world outlook and methodology of the balance of yin and yang of heaven harmony, without exception."Yin Yang" has become one kind of relationship in Confucianism. Three representative figures of Confucianism all grasped the basic relationships of the community and discussed how to make various relationships balanced to make the community to achieve harmony in management theories.The backgrounds of the pursuit of harmony of Confucianism are as follows. First, the agricultural civilization at that time decided that all levels of the social culture all contained a tendency of harmony mindset which formed the social culture background of "the harmony of man and nature". It includes three levels of harmony:the harmony between man and nature, man and man, and oneself. Second, although there are many schools of philosophy, there was one thing in common that is the desire for harmony, peace and order. Moreover, before the Spring and Autumn period, there were already many ideologies about harmony which helped develop a profound social atmosphere and a common value of orientation. Those are the foundations of the harmonious thought of Confucianism. Then the chaos of the war aroused the Confucian’s thinking:What happened to this society and how to make this community back to a benign orbit.The harmony thought of Confucianism made such a summary in the "Rites":To implement the goal of highest moral stage means that everything belongs to the public. It also means the government should elect officers in accordance with their morality and ability, pay attention to public credit and harmonize well with the commoners. And it means that people should not just love their own relatives, but also love other people. It means to make the elderly have life guarantee, younglings have applications, children have supporting, the widows, widowers and the disabled have the life security. And it means to make men have divisions of labor and women have their reliance. And it also means to make the goods used and possessed by private owners. And it means the people with physical strength don’t be wasted and be utilized. Thus, the diplomatic intrigues can be suppressed and the crimes of robbery, theft and murder will not appear. When the commoners do not have to close their doors to protect themselves in nights, the social stage of "Da Tong" is achieved. It can be considered as the premise of the harmonious society of Confucianism. Three representative figures of Confucianism all put forward their own specific claims respectively. They are all based on the category of basic relationships of society and stated that every part of the universe should be in their proper positions, do their best and get what they want. In Confucian’s view, the fundamental social relationships are self-relationship, family relationship (father and son, husband and wife), the relationship between monarch and his subjects, and the international relations. When those relationships be balanced, the whole world would be in peace and tranquility.So the sequence of balanced relationships of Confucianism is self-cultivation, family management, country administration and world pacification.Among them, the balance of self-relationship is the premise of society harmony; the balanced relationship between the monarch and his subjects ensures social harmony; the balanced family relationship is the foundation of social harmony; the balanced international relationships are the external condition of social harmony.Confucians believe that the balance within oneself is to establish an equilibrium point between the inner and outer world, or between personal desires and the external constraints (social ethics). This process is called "self-cultivation" in Confucianism and is the premise of social harmony. Confucians advocate a responsibility of saving the nation and having a positive spirit of accession to the society. Confucians believe that the purpose of self-cultivation is to improve personal qualities, including knowledge, skills and moral cultivation, and ultimately serve for the ideal of the harmonious society. Confucians believe that the individual is the basic element of the family and society. So the improvement of personal quality will make families concordant, thus contribute to the social harmony and stability."Self-cultivation" is to balance the relationship between self and the outer world, or human desires and social ethics. Specifically speaking, it is to choose a gentleman personality or a villain personality, which exactly refers to loyalty and benefit. The gentleman is an ideal personality model, and it is also respected as an ideal political personality in Confucianism. In the aspect of the gentleman personality in self-cultivation, it is mainly reflected in the five points:"Mercy","Loyalty","Courtesy","Wisdom", and "Credit".Confucians believe that self-cultivation requires four steps:investigation of the world, extension of knowledge, sincerity and righteous. In the Confucian view, investigation of the world is a learning process of the exploration of the unknown world and accumulation of knowledge, which is the starting point of self-cultivation. Extension of knowledge refers to the subject’s thorough comprehension of the objects, which is the result of the investigation of the world. After the accumulation of knowledge, one can have a comprehensive understanding of the laws of nature and reduced the deficiency in cognition. Sincerity refers to that one should strive to achieve sincerity from the heart in estimation. The result should be of judgments of oneself rather than of others. In some extent, the sincerity refers to a firm will. Righteous means to be honest without prejudices. Then one can be objective and fair toward the world. In the Confucian view, a true gentleman is able to keep the mind steady and self-disciplined on any occasion at any time. The four steps reflect the Confucian thought of the progressive levels of personal accomplishment, which ultimately aims to achieve a highest ethical realm. However, self-cultivation is not the end, but serves for the aims of managing a household, administering a country and keeping the world in peace.The relationship among members of the family is kinship. The family tie of kinship is not only the initial state of all social formations, but also society’s basic units and organizational forms. The society is an organism and a family is the basic unit cell of it. If the improvement of personal qualities and harmony of interpersonal relations are the premises of social harmony, then we can say the harmony of the family is the fundamental to the social harmony. If the family lives in harmony, all affairs will prosper. Confucians believe that "It is not common for a filial man to rebel, nor is it possible for an obedient man to commit crimes." In the Spring and Autumn Period, the foundation of the whole society is patriarchal kinship. From the emperor Zhou to the dukes and nobles, and to the common people, they all practice the principle that the wife’s eldest son inherits the throne while the offsprings of concubines inherit parts of territory. The entire social, political, and economic structures are bound up with kinship ties. The harmony of family is a reflection of the social morality and order of that time and has a direct relationship with the social stability.The balance of family relationships includes three aspects:husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters. In the marital relationship, the Confucians proposed mutual pleasure, freedom and loyalty in views of love. In views of marriage, they advocate monogamy and certain etiquette of marriage ceremony. In views of conjugal relation, they advocate mutual love and respect in daily life. In the relationship between parents and children, Confucianism advocates that parents should be kind to their children. They should not only ensure to meet the reasonable needs of the children’s physiological development, but also provide a good education for them, including intellectual development and moral cultivation. Children should demonstrate filial piety towards parents, both materially and spiritually. On the relationship among siblings, Confucianism advocates respect and fraternal love."Respect" refers to the young’s respect to the elderly of the same generation."Fraternal love" refers to the love of the elder siblings towards the younger ones. These two are the cornerstones of a harmonious brotherhood.From the point of view of the country’s internal gradations, the basic relationship includes three levels:monarch and officials, monarch and commoners, officials and commoners.The relationship between the monarch and officials is an important relationship within the inner ruling class, a core relationship of a country, a guarantee of social stability. When the relationship between the monarch and officials are handled properly, the country would maintain harmonious and stable in politics. And the people will make a good living and are contented, each in his station. In order to handle properly the relations between monarch and officials, the officials should be loyal to the king, including the dedication to work, the selfless devotion, compliance with courtesy, respect for the monarch; specialization in learning, inauguration according to ability; serving with Tao and cessation on proper occasions. While the Monarch should treat the officials with courtesy, including respect for them, selection of talents on their merits, employment according to their ability, proper payment and transparent governance.For the balance of the relationship between the Monarch and commoners, Confucians believe that the Monarch has the initiative and advocate the policy of benevolence, which means to establish public consciousness, to run the country with morality and ritual, to assure the affluence of people’s lives, and to enlighten the people with etiquette.The class of officials is in the middle between the Monarch and commoners, which is the bridge and link of the two. The implementation of policies is all dependent on officials at all levels. Facing the Monarch, they are the representatives of the commoners. The good relationship with the commoners is fundamental for them, so they should improve their moral level and ability, strive to fulfill their duties, establish a public awareness and benefit the people.World pacification is the final step in the road map of Confucian harmonious management thought. It means that the government should handle international relations in order without war or plunder to achieve the goal of the social harmony. The balance of the international relations of Confucian conceptions has three aspects as followings:national unity, international exchanges and view of war. In the concept of national unity, Confucianism advocates the elimination of the national boundary to achieve universal harmony in the world. In the concept of the national exchanges, Confucianism advocates an honest and friendly foreign policy with neighbors. In the views of war, Confucianism opposed all unjust wars. The final conclusion of balance in international relations in Confucianism is "The benevolent is invincible".In conclusion,the thesis analyzed that social harmony is the urgent demand of current Chinese and Confucian harmony management thought is very important for China in constructing the harmonious society, which can help Chinese to cultivate humane feelings, and find the spiritual homeland; to reconstruct family ethics, and promote family harmony; to optimize enterprise management and bear social responsibility; to improve national governance, and to promote social stability; to harmonize international relations, and maintain world peace.This thesis mainly adopted equilibrium analysis method of relationships, also known as the system analysis, which is the innovation or the highlights of this thesis.In the study of the Confucian management thought, Scholars used to adopt the functional analysis of western textbooks, which includes planning, organization, leadership and control. Based on the four functions, scholars defined the Confucian management thought.According to system theory, the whole system is composed of the elements which are working towards the final objective, and contribute to the optimization of the whole system through mutual interaction.From the angle of the balanced relationship, which is more close to the essence of the Confucian management thought, the article used systems analysis method to research the Confucian management thought. And the author thought that management is essential for good balance of various relationships among the objects, which eventually make the whole team harmony.Based on the concept of "yin and yang balance" and "universe harmony" from "Book of Changes", this thesis generalized the Confucian thoughts of self-cultivation, family management, state administration and international managements, and made it clear how to balance the relationships in various management aspects.In addition, this thesis also adopted the following research methods:literature investigation, qualitative analysis, trans-disciplinary study and comparative analysis.Balance is a key concept in this thesis, and it means that all relationships can obtain their relatively best and satisfying return by mutual service. Balance is also named "golden mean" by Confucian concept,"equilibrium" by western economics concept.The deficiency of this paper is that when the analysis of the Confucian management thought is conducted from the angle of balanced relationship, it may seem deficient in theoretics and logicality. |
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