Confucian Business Spirit And The Construction Of Modern Chinese Entrepreneurial Spirit

How to view the value of traditional culture in the process of China's modernization? It has been a major problem faced by the Chinese since the Opium War.On the one hand,in order to save the nation from subjugation and reform the old and bring forth the new,a group of social elites who promote the reform regard the traditional culture as an obstacle for China's learning from the West and marching towards modernization.They thoroughly criticized the traditional culture.In particular,they think that the "Complete Westernization" proposed by May-Fourth-Movement and the "Destroy the Four Olds " activities proposed by the cultural revolution bring an inestimable loss to the traditional culture.On the other hand,another group of the social elites who cherish the tradition suggest that the traditional culture is not contradictory to modern society in many aspects.For them,it is just a matter of how to inherit and carry forward the traditional culture.From this perspective,they provided with several approaches,such as “Chinese Learning as Substance,Western Learning for application”,critical inheritance,abstract inheritance,selective inheritance,macro inheritance,modern interpretation,creative transformation,conscience trappings and so on.All the above arguments have their own philosophical wisdom and also they have logical connections and functional complements together.Those arguments play an important role in promoting the transition from traditional culture to modern society.There are also two different views within western academics: Max Weber as the representor of first groups thinks that the conservatism of Chinese traditional Confucian culture makes it unable to adapt to the instinct of innovation and opening of modern market economy.Toynbee as the representor of the other group thinks that only the tolerance and gentleness of Confucian culture can be a good medicine way to save human beings from the encounter of modernity.Overall,Chinese traditional culture,especially the Confucian culture,has been placed on the opposite side of China's modernization process.It is considered to be a conservative force that hinders the development,or a cultural tradition that is not conducive to the development of the modern market.The great achievements of Reform and Opening-up and the construction of socialist market economic with Chinese characteristics prove that Weber's view is wrong.In the meantime,at a time when human civilization has generally experienced the "Antinomy" of modernization,Toynbee's view has been fully demonstrated to be in line with the history.Domestic scholars capture this information and put forward the view of "History of Spirituality".They think that after experiencing the modernity,the traditional culture has the historical positive nature of saving the contradictions faced by human beings,human beings and nature,human beings and society,human beings and souls and various cultural conflicts.This is the manifestation of "History of Spirituality " from the ancient Chinese civilization in the process of the concept of "To challenge and take the challenge".The development of socialist market economy has proved that traditional culture is crucial for China's modernization process.Specifically,the spirit of Confucian businessmen based on altruism has the value of the times in the sense of the "cultural gene" of the construction of modern Chinese entrepreneurship.How to understand the historical positive impact of Confucian culture to commercial activities? Confucian businessman is a historical concept,which is the combination of Confucianism and businessmen.The emergence of businessmen and Confucianism together constitute the historical background of the emergence of Confucian businessmen.According to the literature,the earliest combination of the two is on the businessmen with Confucian thoughts such as Zigong and Fan Li.They put forward some basic ideas of Confucian businessmen in the pre Qin Dynasty,which laid the foundation for the formation of the spiritual characteristics of Confucian businessmen in the later ages.With the turning of the new Confucianism in Tang and Song Dynasties and the formation of merchants' self-consciousness,the interaction between "scholars" and "businessmen" in Ming and Qing Dynasties formed the Confucian Merchants Group represented as "Hui Merchants".They adhered to Confucianism as the guide of their business value.After they become successful in business,they are enthusiastic about promoting culture and the development of Confucianism to the bottom of society.They make outstanding contributions to the integration of Confucianism and business.In this process,Confucian businessmen formed three concepts,like "harmony","conscience" and "righteousness and benefit".Among them,harmony connects with the world outlook and cosmology of traditional culture of " unity of man and nature".The conscience connects with the outlook on life of traditional culture of "unity of knowledge and behaviour".The concept of "righteousness and benefit" can connect with the value of traditional culture of "righteousness for profit".How to understand the value of Confucian businessman's idea to the construction of Confucian businessman's spirit? According to The Development Logic of Hegel's Spiritual Philosophy,he said “idea is the rational idea and the prelude of spirit”.The concepts of "harmony","conscience" and "righteousness and profit" created conditions for the breeding and generation of Confucian businessman spirit.The spirit is "the consciousness of selection".The spirit of Confucian businessmen is the consciousness of selection among Confucian businessmen.The characteristics of Confucian businessmen spirit are the characteristics of Confucian businessmen spirit in business practice and the combination of consciousness and practice.The spiritual characteristics of Confucian businessmen are closely related to Confucianism,which embodies the three business concepts of "harmony","conscience" and "justice and benefit",mainly including philosophy of human nature,the spirit of self-examination,the text of virtue and the feelings of home and country.These characteristics are the product of Confucian business philosophy and business practice in a specific historical period.It is also an important part of the inheritance of modern Chinese entrepreneurship.The business environment and spiritual characteristics of modern Chinese entrepreneurs and Confucian businessmen are different.However,the business concepts of "harmony","conscience" and "righteousness and benefit" formed by traditional Confucian culture have been deeply rooted in every Chinese's blood.They become the collective unconscious behavior of every modern Chinese entrepreneur.The cultural gene of modern Chinese entrepreneurship is the code of conduct of entrepreneurs.Their conscious or unconscious values will show in the corporate daily operation.This is unique characteristics of Chinese entrepreneurs,which can differentiate them from those of other countries.This kind of cultural gene determines the ideological realm of modern Chinese entrepreneurs and it becomes an important spiritual resource for the growth of Chinese enterprises and economic development.According to the research results of some domestic scholars,this kind of cultural gene is the Confucian businessman spirit in the Chinese history.The soil for the development of modern Chinese entrepreneurship gene is the growth of Chinese modern enterprises and entrepreneurs since the reform and opening up.Modern enterprises are the soil for the growth and development of entrepreneurship,which is an important difference between the entrepreneurial spirit and the Confucian business spirit.The understanding of modern enterprise needs to be divided into three aspects:first,modern enterprise is an economic organization.Entrepreneurs shoulder the important task of enterprise survival and development.All this is based on the premise of enterprise profit,so profit-making is the primary responsibility of entrepreneurs.Secondly,modern enterprise is a kind of social organization.It replaces the family and families in traditional society.It redefines the professional skills and social identity of modern people.Employees can get social recognition by their work and level,while enterprises not only provides their employees with social security and economic resources,but also undertake various social responsibilities such as taxation,environmental protection,charity and so on.Third,modern enterprise is a kind of cultural organization.During the process of enterprise development,based on the cultural heritage,personality characteristics and practical understanding of the founders,the enterprise culture with different characteristics is gradually formed.This affects the values of the enterprise employees.The enterprise culture will also be transmitted to all aspects of the society through products and employee behavior.This can shape a kind of modern society beliefs and values with the social culture.This belief is the core concepts of entrepreneurs.The core idea of Chinese modern entrepreneurs and Confucian businessman spirit come down in one continuous line.Therefore,entrepreneurship is a way of life,a growth process and a steadfast job done in the modern society.The main factors that affect its development include: the market spirit of market economy,the external environment formed by social system,the business gene deeply rooted in traditional culture and the unique development process of each enterprise.Among these factors,the influence on entrepreneurship is the most unique one for firms' development.Entrepreneurship is the internal driving force of modern social and economic development.Since the reform and opening up,Chinese enterprises have made great progress and stepped onto the world stage.At the same time,the state attaches great importance to carrying forward the entrepreneurial spirit to an unprecedented height.Therefore,the construction of modern Chinese entrepreneurial spirit has become an important historical task in China.The construction of modern Chinese entrepreneurship is inseparable from the unique growth process of Chinese enterprises.In this paper,I divide the growth process of Chinese enterprises since the reform and opening up into three stages.The first stage is from planned economy to "planned commodity economy".The second stage is the establishment and development of the socialist market economic system.The third stage is the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.This paper explains the policy characteristics,entrepreneur composition,basic spiritual characteristics of the three stage and summarizes the achievements and lessons of this process.What kind of modern Chinese entrepreneurship do we need to build? From the perspective of modernity transformation of traditional culture,the first thing is to transform traditional ideas into the market spirit of socialist market economy.The second thing is to conform to the reality of China's modern industrialization,marketization and monetization.The third thing is to conform to the unity of socialist core values,national spirit and the spirit of the times.Six spiritual characteristics of modern Chinese entrepreneurs can be extracted from practice after combining with the growth process of modern Chinese entrepreneurs,including,monetary imagination,craftsmanship spirit,seeking certainty in uncertainty,Phoenix Nirvana spirit,altruism spirit,patriotism spirit.Under the historical background of opening up the development of modernity in China and on the basis of inheriting and carrying forward the three core concepts of "harmony","conscience" and "righteousness and profit" of Confucian businessmen,it is time to learn and absorb the scientific spirit of the unremitting pursuit of "quality" and "quantity" in modern western enterprise management and to form the spiritual characteristics of modern Chinese entrepreneurs integrating the advantages of eastern and western philosophy.The construction of modern Chinese entrepreneurship is a historical process of Chinese enterprises and entrepreneurs' consciousness and a practical philosophy under the guidance of the theory of socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics.This paper starts with two opposite views on Confucianism by Weber and Toynbee.Then it discusses the positive nature of Confucianism as "History of Spirituality" to the current Chinese history.The modernity transformation and innovative development of Confucianism is not the negation of the Western modernity.However,through the self-development and transformation of Confucian cultural gene,we can find a new ethical interpretation system that combines the theory of modern market economy with the practical experience of socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics.The deep interpretation of Confucian economic philosophy is based on the Chinese excellent Confucian cultural gene.It is the integration and transformation of Chinese and foreign excellent economic ethics,which has a new era significance.How to re--understand the positive nature of Chinese traditional culture to market economy is the key to understand China's modern development.From the perspective of Western modernity criticism,the following three pairs of categories can be compared and analyzed.First,the concept of "harmony and zero sum",which uses the holistic spirit of harmony to save the western modern society that has been shattered by the zero-sum competition of capital.This is the economy.Globalization and the inevitable requirement of a community with a shared future for mankind.Second,the concept of "conscience and sympathy",which suggests that human beings are the human spirit of purpose,and they are economic characteristics and the characteristics of enterprise development in the era of knowledge economy.Third,the concept of "righteousness",which makes profit and rational self-interest,and the hypothesis of "rational economic man" is replaced with altruism.This is the general trend of the future sharing economy.Obviously,the modern Chinese entrepreneurial spirit that inherits the three concepts of "harmony","conscience" and "righteousness" is a historical choice for mankind to deal with the consequences and encounters of modernity in the 21 st century.The contemporary significance of the construction of modern Chinese entrepreneurship is reflected in the following two aspects.On the one hand,it establishes spiritual guidance for modern Chinese entrepreneurs.Entrepreneurs are the internal driving force for the development of modern market economy,and so called "the king of the enterprise Kingdom".They are the era benchmark for people to pursue self-realization in modern commercial society.Modern Chinese entrepreneurs who have grown with the reform and opening up,their spiritual characteristics should become a part of the spirit of the current Chinese era.The construction of modern Chinese entrepreneurship is the spiritual guidance for entrepreneurs to continue to struggle for the future.On the other hand,we should determine the direction of self-discipline for entrepreneurs.In the modern business society,the entrepreneur group are both the creator and owner of material wealth.The warnings of the ancient sages about "being rich and not benevolent" and "wealth is the root of the degeneration of man's morality" are still around our ears.Marx's discourses on commodity fetishism and money fetishism is very thorough.In reality,the alienation of money capital to human spirit is also very prominent.Some entrepreneurs have corrupted their lives and morals after they have wealth,and even violated laws and disciplines and harmed the country and the people.Strength is responsibility.How can entrepreneurs maintain their noble personality in the creation of wealth? Entrepreneurs who want to maintain the nobility of personality in the creation of wealth must use the core concept of modern Chinese entrepreneurship to overcome the alienation of human nature by capital and establish the correct direction of self-discipline for their own life and cultivation.This is of great significance to the times to the construction of the modern Chinese entrepreneurship.