Political Daoism in Singapore?

If you only rely on the web and internet on Singapore political development, quite obviously Workers’ Party (WP) seems to be practising political Daoism in Singapore. WP has a practice of not replying over the internet, less active in giving their views over the internet, even for budget comments, they will wait till Parliament debate.

This is like practising Daoism (Taoism) “wu wei”. Many people, especially non Chinese, don’t really understand what Dao Jia is doing and even for ancient Chinese, Daoism people were always classified as “隐士yinshi “ who live away from the society. Some even misunderstand them as religion Daoists (Taoists) and think they are a group of traditional priests practising in the temples or fortune tellers or Ghostbusters.

To have a better understand of Daoism, here are some explanations from Wikipedia:

“”
Wu wei (simplified Chinese: 无为; traditional Chinese: 無爲; pinyin: wúwéi, variantly written in traditional Chinese: 無為) is an important concept of Taoism (Daoism), that involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Another perspective to this is that "Wu Wei" means natural action - as planets revolve around the sun, they "do" this revolving, but without "doing" it; or as trees grow, they "do", but without "doing". Thus knowing when (and how) to act is not knowledge in the sense that one would think "now" is the right time to do "this", but rather just doing it, doing the natural thing.

Wu may be translated as not have or without; Wei may be translated as do, act, serve as, govern or effort. The literal meaning of Wu Wei is "without action" and is often included in the paradox wei wu wei: "action without action" or "effortless doing". The practice of wu wei and the efficacy of wei wu wei are fundamental tenets in Chinese thought and have been mostly emphasized by the Taoist school. The aim of wu wei is to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium, or alignment with the Tao, and, as a result, obtain an irresistible form of "soft and invisible" power.

There is another less commonly referenced sense of wu wei; "action that does not involve struggle or excessive effort". In this instance, Wu means "without" and Wei means "effort". The concept of "effortless action" is a part of Taoist Internal martial arts such as T'ai chi ch'uan, Baguazhang and Xing Yi. It follows that Wu wei complies with the main feature and distinguishing characteristic of Taoism, that of being natural. To apply wu wei to any situation is to take natural action.
“”

However, philosophical Daoism is highly respected in the western world. Some even regard Daoism as a representative of the highest level Chinese philosophy and regard Confucianism to the teaching of moral value only. Hence these highly intelligent people like Laozi and Zhaungzi are not only ordinary scholars. Daoism is perhaps the only other Chinese philosophy that can match and challenge (and co-exist with) the powerful Confucianism in the past and perhaps in the future. It has been proved that this philosophy can survive the long history of China. And today, it is still being appreciated and contributes to Chinese traditional values and cultures. Dao Jia believes “wu wei” is the best way to tackle the current situation (warring state period). In a warring state period, “wu wei” is the most appropriate survival weapon to remain alive and according to Dao De Jing, after the failure or darkness, the success or lightness will come. Just like the coming of the Jasmine revolution and the fall of Berlin wall. The only question is timing. Who has ever predicted it to be so soon?

For many netizens, they are quite puzzle and want to know why? How come WP is so inactive over the net? Are they cowards or moles of the ruling party? Partly because they had bad encounters with the authority and so to avoid getting into the “traps”, they have to maintain low profile. It could be also a strategy of less talk less mistake, as “misfortune comes from the mouth” so to say. In a democratic county, the best way is to get elected and then change the government. If one is not qualified to stand for election, there is no chance to get into the parliament. So, continuing remain silent will still be the strategy for WP prior to the dissolution of Parliament. When you are facing a giant opponent, work in silent and pretend to be doing nothing can serve as an effective strategy. Let be patient towards Dao Jia!

A brief history of WP looks also inline with Daoism. When it was formed in 1957 by David Marshall, it was not an aggressive major political force in Singapore even though David Marshall was once the chief minister of Singapore. He resigned from the post after a failed negotiation in London for a better Singapore. Resignation voluntarily as he could not meet his promise to Singaporeans. Sound likes Japanese. May be only in Daoism politics, one will happily make this decision and not wanting to hold on power forever. When the time comes for withdrawal, David Marshall did the gentleman way and obliged to his promise. Powered with this tradition, WP continues to last until now. And you may want to ask why WP can survive after 5 decades and still remain a recognised political force in Singapore.

You may call them opportunists. But for Daoism, the most important thing is to survive and live in harmony with the nature. When the situation and timing are right, you can re-appear and serve the people. It is why WP is quite difference from Barisan Sosialis (BS) in the past or SDP of today. Even though BS merged with WP in 1980s, it has not changed the “wu wei” principle of WP, especially after JBJ leaving WP.

However, they continue to work the ground as you can see from WP website, their members visit here and there from time to time. Some members have their own blogs and even books publication, but all are under their individual names. So, if individual gets into troubles, the main body is still there intact. Kaisuism you may call it, however this is politics of Singapore.

From “wu wei” to “Only those who work hard can succeed” as an unofficial anthem is a surprise! Are WP telling Singaporeans the right timing, right position and right harmony are coming soon?

More on Hundred Schools of Thought can be seen below or other websites.


Hundred Schools of Thought
In the turbulent Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC) and Warring States Period (475-221BC), many schools of thought were flourishing. The four most influential schools of thought that evolved during this period were Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, and Legalism. There were also other schools like Yin & Yang, Eclectics, Logicians, Coalition persuaders and Militarism. The hundred schools of thought showed the fierce political and class struggles for survival among regional wars between the rising landed class and slaveholder class. The flouring thoughts intensified activities and debates in the intellectual and ideology system in ancient China and exerted great influence on Chinese culture.
Confucianism
Confucius was the founder of Confucianism. He advocated a set of moral code on basis of five merits: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness. Among them, benevolence was considered as the cornerstone, which stands for faithfulness, filial piety, tolerance and kindness. He also requested people to keep in good harmony with each other and establish a community ruled by standard manners and behavior.
Mencius (372-289BC) was a Confucian in the Warring States Period (475-221BC). He repeatedly tried to convince rulers that the ruler should cultivate moral perfection in order to set a good example to the people and the ruler who governed benevolently would earn the respect of the people. He held the view that human nature was fundamentally good as everyone is born with the ability to recognize what is right and act upon it. He also believed that people were more important than rulers.
Xunzi (about 313-238BC), also a Confucian of the state of Chu, advocated the policy making a country rich and building up its military power, and sang high praise of the state of Qin.
Mohism
The Mohism founded by Mozi flourished in the latter half of the fifth century. It resembles Confucianism in its reverence for humanism. Master Mo called for a universal love encompassing all human beings in equal degree. He suggested a harmonious relationship between people on a reciprocal basis. Thus he was an assertor of unionism who suggested a practice of a political relationship of mutual benefit or dependence between states.
Taoism
The Taoism was founded by Laozi. The most important pre-Han Taoist bible was Laozi, also known as Dao De Jing (Classic of the Way and its Power). Laozi put forward a dialectic view: Good fortune follows upon disaster; Disaster lurks within good fortune. He tried to tell people not to exaggerate the importance of man too much because human life is only a small part of the universal and the only way can human actions make sense is to act in accord with the principles of the nature. It showed an integral concept of Taoism the withdrawal from the worldly affairs and the self-cultivation. Zhuangzi was a Taoist in the Warring States Period. He understood the Tao as the Way of Nature as a whole and the origin of the world. He believed that all things were in constant changes and there was no rule of right and wrong. In his mind, life was but a dream and only destruction could lead to the final peace of the society.
Legalism
The Legalist School sought by every means possible to strengthen the state and increase its military might. It began to take shape late in the fourth century. Earlier legalists were Shang Yang, Li Kui and Wu Qi. Later in the Warring States Period, the most important legalist named Han Fei advocated harsh rules and laws.
He was born in a rich family in the state of Han. In the book Han Fei Zi, he bent on organizing society on a rational basis and finding means to strengthen their states agriculturally and militarily. He also advised elaborate means for controlling people's lives and actions through laws and punishments. In his theories, law was the basis, strategies were the means in political struggle and power was the strength and high position. Only getting command of the three factors can a ruler establish a powerful state of central power. Han Fei's theory was applied by Qin and played an important role in unification of China by Qin Emperor Shihuang.

Source: chinaculture.org

Life is unpredictable

Good thing can easily turn into bad thing! Chinese wisdom always warns Chinese to be aware of pitfalls and to be humble in life.

On New Year Day, the Air Force chief of Taiwan was organising a wedding celebration for his son. It was attended by the Defence Minister and all senior military officers. A happy and honourable day for the wedding couple in deed!

Based on tradition, Air Force personnel will assist in preparation of the wedding party. However, this routine and bad tradition turned into a political issue and caused a demotion for the Air Force chief.

If we look at if from the Yi Jing perspective, it really is not a surprise. Yi Jing is advising talented people, especially those in power, to avoid making mistakes. A high ranking officer, with the potential to take over as the next Chief of General Staff (CGS) of the Taiwan defence force, the Air Force chief should learn to be humble and to be in alert of any possible conflict of interest in the eyes of the public.

Unfortunately, not only he did not stop the bad habit, he continued to allow his subordinates to draw up the strategic plan for the wedding. He even agreed to prepare the wedding party like a war plan with standard military operations procedures. He did not prevent this bad habit but continue to let it be. By Taiwan military tradition and logic, subordinates are allowed to assist superiors in celebration preparations, further other previous officers also practiced the same, so there is no reason to stop the Air Force chief to do the same. Bad luck to him, there are several weak points that he failed observe, in particular, timing, position and situation. These factors are highly stressed by Yi Jing.

Failure to observe Timing: Very soon, there will be a replacement for the Chief of General Staff (CGS) in the Taiwan defence force. By rotation, the CGS will have to come from the air force this time. Being the chief of air force, it is highly possible he will take over the CGS if he has made no mistake. If he has turned the wedding into a low key event, or even postpone the event to a later date, he would have change his “timing” and be in a favourable position.

Failure to observe Position: He had a good position until New Year Day. Being the most senior officer in the air force, quite naturally he will take over the post of CGS. But like the commercial world, other air force commanders are also aiming for the position of CGS. Even he has showed no strong desire to be CGS, other ambitious air force commanders may see him as an obstacle and knocking down the most qualified one, they will have the chance to move up. His “position” changed after the wedding party.

Failure to observer Situation: Since Ma Ying-jeou took over as President in 2008; he wanted to present a clean government. Even the Air Force chief had done nothing wrong as the subordinates were volunteering their services and he just kept the tradition of the military. But the political impact is very different. Perhaps, Chen Shui-bian might allow such a behaviour but certainly not Ma Ying-jeou. He needs to adjust to the changed “situation”.

To be humble
Out of the 64 hexagrams in the Yi Jing, only 1 hexagram (Humble Gua) is good in every (broken and unbroken lines) prediction. Humble Gua will bring luck and benefit to the person who draws it. However, all the guidance principles and instruction for Humble Gua are to be humble. Without practising humble, luck and benefit will be gone. This shows the importance of humility. Again, he is too proud to hold a luxury wedding party.

To be careful from start to end
Laozi even goes further to explain the importance of consistence of doing thing. Besides humility, to achieve success we have to be careful in every step from the beginning until the end. This is especially true that the last few steps are as importance as the first few steps. Many people fail at the end or half way because they do not practice consistency. They have relaxed themselves or lost their concentration and believe that success is within their reach in just a few steps away. It is not easy not to hold a grand party for our loved one’s wedding party but to achieve the final success, you will need to consider the timing, position, and situation.

Life is unpredictable as what the air force chief had experienced. But the Chinese wisdom is always there to remind us and unfortunately, we keep on forgetting the reminder!

The Stone Story of Red Chamber

The Stone Story of Red Chamber
A case study of business excellence and corporate culture

The Dream of Red Chamber is one of the 4 top Chinese novels and few have used it for business analysis. Similarly, Yi Jing as the first book in Chinese history is seldom used for management and organization change. Why?

Red Chamber is very different from the other 3 top Chinese novels (Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and The Journey to the West). Three Kingdoms is very popular for strategy and war study. Water Margin and The Journey to the West too are used for business and management case studies although at a lesser extent. Red Camber is different from the others in many ways: family and female centric, hidden meaning, political implication, cultural reflection of the time, different version etc. No wonder Mao Zedong valued and placed Red Chamber higher than the other 3 novels.

What can a love story teach us about business management? Also few will associate Red Chamber as a case study for business excellence and corporate culture. Perhaps like what Geoffrey James (see below) has described we are moving away from traditional business model (Three Kingdoms and Water Margin) to Silicon Valley business model (an inclusive type of family and community). This is how the soft power of Red Chamber will play a role.

Famously known as a book for romantic story and basically a love story with concentration of female characters (in surface), in what way can this book be a case study for Chinese wisdom in business? This will be discussed in the following sections.

Here comes a little background about the Red Chamber. It does not have a complete version and the commonly read version in fact is far from the original work of Cao Xue Qin.

This case study will not discuss the literature contributions, the content of the book, the beauty of the story, and the female characters. However, it will focus on the development of the Red Chamber as a publication, the writing experience, the up and down of the publication, and how it becomes popular and famous and now a master piece of Chinese literature. The study of Red Chamber will continue and the book is well read and commented by many famous writers, historians, and even politicians.

1. Imperfection is great

The Dream of Red Chamber is not complete. And its imperfection makes the book even greater. That leaves many rooms for study, discussions, improvements and corrections.

Many names: There are many names for Red Chamber. It is originally named Story of A Stone. Red Chamber’s story is about a stone in the heaven travelling to the earth and when it returns, its experience is recorded on back of the stone. Due to many female characters, the book is also called Twelve Beauties of Jinling. In total, there are 108 beauties as a comparison to 108 heroes in Water Margin. And because of some lustful descriptions, it is also being called “Masterpiece of wind and moon”. Wind and Moon have a double meaning of sex and love in Chinese. For example, the place of wind and moon is referring to bar, night clubs, etc. This is why Red Chamber also creates moral controversy and sometimes bans from reading.

Many versions: The now popular version has 120 chapters; however, it is widely acknowledged that Cao Xue Qin only wrote the first 80 chapters. Even the now remaining 80 chapters are not complete with many verifications and changes. Few chapters are even missing. The last 40 chapters were completed by another writer. So the widely popular book that we are reading is not the original masterpiece, and how come it can still be so popular? Some have argued that the complete version has only 108 chapters. Not only the number of chapters is an issue, the contents are also a great debate. There are many changes due to different copying, printing, editing, and re-writing, no one single known version can be considered as the original work of Cao Xue Qin.

Many people involved: Since its publication more than 200 years go, many people have read comments, researches, and study on various aspects of Red Chamber. Some look at it from the literature view points. Some link it to political development in Qing dynasty. Some uses it to study customs, food, culture and social development. Almost all famous people involved in Chinese literature of the 20th century and today have given their comments, opinions and researches on Red Chamber. Not to mention it has made into movies, plays, drama, TV series, and many other performing arts.

Many comments and hard work: The success of Red Chamber can be considered as an effective team work. Cao got many feedbacks and comments from others to perfect his writing. Every piece and every word used is careful studied and analysed. On top of that, he has to avoid the possible conflict with the authority. It takes 10 years, after 5 drafts, to complete the Red Chamber. At the same time, Cao was poor and under very difficult conditions. It must be a great determination to complete the work under hardship.

A reflection of Chinese characteristics: Red Chamber as a family unit is the refection of the society and nation of early Qing dynasty. No other Chinese writings have given a complete picture of the time as Red Chamber. Red Chamber provides the first hand knowledge of the living, customs, family life/relationship, official and government politics and life of lower class people. Their behaviours and how they mange life and face the political outcome are also well covered in the book. From here, you will see different faces of Chinese, how they react under crisis, how they become poor and how they get promoted, how they do bad things, and how they mange a family. All these show us the positive and negative aspects of Chinese characteristics.

2. Business excellence

Leadership:

Senior Executive Leadership
Organisation Culture
Responsibility to Community & Environment

Senior Executive Leadership
Red Chamber may be an accidental success, or at least never expected to be so successful. Cao wanted to make it a great book as he had spent 10 years writing it. But what he left behind is an incomplete publication. He may end up finishing the final draft but the final draft was never published in full. Nevertheless, even an incomplete version has made Cao a great contributor to Chinese literature.
As what he had said it was made up of blood and tears. He had demonstrated his leadership with assistances of others to envisage and vision the whole project.
What he may not anticipate is Red Chamber could be so successful and so popular. In such a way, he has shown the soft power of a leadership.

Organisation Culture
He had set his vision, mission and value very clear - to make Red Chamber a great book, to take a long time to write even under financial hardship, to make impact in Chinese culture and literature.
He was the master mind of the Red Chamber project and he was assisted by his group of family members and friends. It was a team project as relatives and friends had made comments, feedbacks and struggle together with him. He was not alone and his team was supporting him in one way or another, some even providing financial assistance.

Responsibility to Community & Environment
Qing dynasty was very sensitive about writings and wrong phases or words will bring troubles to the writers. Judging from the contents, the story involves a family from rich to poor and the cause and background were the political development of the time.
When Cao engaged in the Red Chamber writing project, he had made it clear that the story background, times, places, and male/female leads are all artificial. It looked true and untrue. This was to prevent conflict with the authority. Perhaps, it was because of this type of formats that make Red Chamber even more interesting as readers have to use his/her own judgements to find out the true/false and fact/smoke of the story.
Another interesting theme is Red Chamber is telling the story of women. Cao wanted to highlight them in the family. He valued them, gave equal right to them and stressed their importance in daily life.
In terms of writing responsibility, Cao was committed to his best and wanted to present the best to readers. One can see the life style and habit of the rich and famous during the early Qing dynasty.
There were many restrictions in writing such a book as the contents might offend the ruler. However, Cao had cleverly used his talented writing skills to complete the job.

Planning:

Strategy Development & Deployment

Strategy Development & Deployment
To write a great masterpiece, Cao knew he needed to have a long term plan and inputs from others. He had to evaluate the suitability of the structure, made corrections, added new comments and changed drafts after drafts. However, his core value and objective had not changed –to make Red Chamber a great book.
The story line and development is an excellent work. It takes 10 years for Cao to complete the writings. Cao’s strategy is very clear and wants to make it a record that will have impact in history and literature.
Due to careful planning, Red Chamber was never banned or got into troubles with the authority. If the book was banned, it will be a great loss to Chinese literature.
In the very first beginning, Cao had realized the possible consequence if the book angered the authority. Even he wanted to implicate some political events, he had to adopt the hidden tactics or use other past historical events to cover up. In fact, this book was widely circulated among officials and people were willing to spend high price to get it. This proved that even the government had agreed with its publication.
He had not benchmarked his book with others but believed in his own performance and improvement through blood and tears.

Information:

Management of information
Comparison & Benchmarking

Management of information
Red Chamber is a reflection of Chinese characteristics. A Chinese has a combination of 3 characteristics: Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. The book is a rich collection of these characteristics. In order to have Chinese characteristics in the book, Cao needed to have a rich understanding of the Chinese history and literature. He himself must acquire all these knowledge before writing.
In the process of writing, he will have to get help from other team members as well as research for more information to enhance his writing.

Comparison & Benchmarking
Cao had never clearly indicated that what he would like Red Chamber to be compared with others? However, he had clearly stated that he wanted to make a difference. Differences from the male centric of Chinese novels (like Water Margin, Three kingdoms), moving away from the historical events (like Water Margin, Three kingdoms),

People:

HR Planning
Employee involvement & Commitment
Employee Education, Training & Development
Employee Health & Satisfaction
Employee Performance & Recognition

HR Planning
To make an impactful book, Cao understands he needs inputs from others (relatives and friends). He had selected a group of friends and relatives who could contribute to the making of Red Chamber. He shared his drafts with them and asked for their comments to improve the writing.

Employee involvement & Commitment
Equally impressive was his group of supporters. His supporters were very engaged in their work and gave due feedbacks, for example, the arguments on the words used, the political sensitive issues, the story lines and developments, the hints etc.

Employee Education, Training & Development
Cao had very good foundation on the Chinese history and literature. This enabled him to use a lot of historical events, poems, arts, writings etc of other people.

Employee Health & Satisfaction
His team members were satisfied and willing to provide feedbacks to him. However, due to his financial condition, Cao had never maintained a good health. However, he too was satisfied with his achievement.

Employee Performance & Recognition
Inputs, feedback and comments from his team were valued and recognized. Cao had very good commentators on his book. They gave valuable inputs to him so that he could avoid conflicts and prevented sensitive subjects. Cao also appreciated their assistance. In the drafts or even published Red Chamber, readers can easily find the different comments given by different supporters. Few books were published with comments.


Process:

Innovation Process
Process Management & Improvement
Supplier & Partnering Process

Innovation Process
The process of writing Red Chamber is a very innovative one. Red Chamber may be the only Chinese book that you can find the comments, notes and other feedbacks from readers and commentators. Cao listened to the comments and input them into his drafts.

Process Management & Improvement
This is why only after at least 5 drafts/corrections; the final version of Red Chamber was out. Cao welcomed inputs and feedbacks so that he could improve his writings.
The process also involved suitable selection of words, chapters, story developments, arrangements of female characteristics (position of 108 of them).

Supplier & Partnering Process
This was a weak point. The original scripts went to too many hands for comments and advices. There was no proper control. Some readers did not return the drafts and some even lost them. Some liked it so much and refused to return.
The printing of Red Chamber is also not very smooth. The book as a draft form was “hand” copy and circulated around. It becomes more popular and achieved huge success after the addition of the last 40 chapters (after Cao dead) and entered commercialised printing and copying.


Customers:

Customer Results
Financial & Market Results
People Results
Operational Results

Customer Results
Customer Requirements
There is a demand for high quality publication. Readers are interested to know the romantic story, the hidden political meanings, the culture and literature of the Qing dynasty, etc. Red Chamber is able to fulfil these demands.

Customer Relationship
Although Cao has no direct relationship with readers, especially, readers after his death, Red Chamber is well received by many people, from young to old, from educated to uneducated, from rich to poor.
The relationship is established naturally and the readership base becomes bigger and bigger. There are people spending their whole life studying, analysing and researching the Red Chamber.

Customer Satisfaction
Red Chamber attracts many high quality readers. When it was first published, it was an immediate success. Many readers paid high price to get a copy. A lot of scholars, powerful families, wanted to collect the Red Chamber. It became a business to get people to copy the Red Chamber and sold it for a profit. The discussion of Red Chamber among officials after office hours was a hot topic and educated people who did not know about Red Chamber found no topic for discussion.
Even today, there is no lack of readers and they continue to spend time to re-read and research on Red Chamber.

Financial & Market Results
There were no financial results for Cao as we do not pay copy right to him. In fact, Cao was financially very poor. Most likely, he died in hardship.
However, Red Chamber was well known not only in China but all over the world as a masterpiece of Chinese literature and culture. Its market expansion has reached beyond China. Red Chambers was made into movies, TV series, drama, opera, books, etc. It is also a representative of Chinese literature.

People Results
Scholars are still studying Red Chamber from different aspects. “Hong xue” or the study of Red Chamber is an important branch of Chinese literature. Seminars, research papers, conferences, are held regularly. Red Chamber has become part of Chinese culture as a performing art, literature, research and study.

Operational Results
The innovation process of Red Chamber may not be easy to match for future writers. It is also hard to get so many qualified people to contribute to a book. The qualification and knowledge of Chinese customs, literature and history that Cao possessed is even hard to match.
However, it shows how a great a masterpiece is done and with better and improved technology, the drafting shortfalls can be verified.




3 Corporate Cultures

1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.
The publication of Red Chamber, due to its hidden political sensitivities, could lead Cao into great troubles. This was especially true in the early Qing dynasty as there were many resistances from Han people. There were many tragedies that buried the whole family. Some people got into troubles because of a sensitive and double meaning word. Some suffered because of other people ill intention.
Cao had to use many hidden tactics and reflection writings. He had to carefully select his words not only for the beauty of literature but also for political considerations. There were some chapters that he had to make changes or even sacrifice the writings.
He is in the battle flied and yet seeking a balance to live in an ecosystem.

2 Corporations are communities, not machines.
Red Chamber is “life” story of a family, a community. It is a reflection of the whole nation in terms of Chinese customs, culture, literature and history. Many of the thinking, behaviours, customs mentioned in the book are still valid in today’s China. You can find the Chinese characteristics there. It is not a history book but a book that readers can have interactions, exchanges, and associations.
As a creative work, Red Chamber cannot be written like a machine – standard operation procedures. Otherwise, readers will suffer form boring and discard it after few pages. Red Chamber is a life story of the writer, from rich and famous to poor and disgrace. The background is a family. It shows people staying in the big family and how they react to changes in life.

3 Management is service, not control.
The publication of Red Chamber is to serve the readers. The book has no intention to control or influence readers. However, it wants to engage readers and share with readers about the life and the sad story of a rich family. Readers can choose to read their favourable chapters based on their own interest. For example, poems society for young, old lady entering the big garden, burying flowers etc. Each can form individual piece for interest reading or research purpose.
Cao wanted to service the readers and presented a story that reflected his family, his period of Qing dynasty and the Chinese characteristics.

4 Employees are peers, not children.
Red Chamber comparing to the other 3 great Chinese novels (Three kingdoms, Water margin and The Journey to the West) has given equal right to female and poor people. In an old traditional Chinese society and family, Cao has projected a positive image for women (in terms of management, intelligence, knowledge and power) and poor people (sincerity, honesty and pure). For example,
• The most powerful figure is the grand mother.
• The best CEO is a female (Wang Xi Feng).
• There are many intelligent ladies in the family but men are projected as stupid and ugly.

Cao also treated his supporters or teammates as equal and accept their suggestions and advices.

5 Motivate with vision, not fear.
Cao had set a clear vision for himself. He also understood the consequences if the writings got into trouble with the authority. He was motivated by his belief that his work would become the most influencing writing of his time. He continued to write even under hardship and poor condition. Some times he not even had enough food. However, he was still committed to write the book. There were difficulties, fears, and hungry during his writing.

6 Change is growth, not pain.
Red Chamber made a lot of changes as compared to other Chinese writings. Some changes are
- female centric
- family as a reflection of a nation
- hidden political story
- up and down of a family from rich to poor
- hidden, negative and positive writings
- a collection of Chinese customs and arts.
However, the writing is a painful process.

7 Computers are servants, not masters.
Red Chamber used a lot of ancient Chinese idioms, history, the philosophy of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism and many hints.
However, Cao cleverly used his writings to combine all these into his book. His writing was never restricted or obstructed by the heavy historical past and the teaching of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism.
The past information was used to enrich his writing and not become his masters. In stead, Cao made use of these rich information and materials as backup to enhance his writings.

8 Work is play, not toil.
Although the process is a painful and difficult one, Cao never complained about the difficulty of the writing. He enjoyed writing it and especially, when he could share his writings with others and getting their feedback.
If Cao had never enjoyed in his writing, he would certainly abandon his work.
He must have found the happiness in the blood and tear of the stone story despite of the physical condition.

Chinese Wisdom and Corporate Culture

Geoffrey James’s “Success Secrets from Silicon Valley – How to make your teams more effective” introduces a new corporate culture for Silicon Valley companies, as compared to the traditional business model. He also mentioned 8 key differences between Silicon Valley and traditional corporate culture:

1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
2 Corporations are communities, not machines
3 Management is service, not control
4 Employees are peers, not children
5 Motivate with vision, not fear
6 Change is growth, not pain
7 Computers are servants, not masters
8 Work is play, not toil.

The former is adopting a pro-humanity approach as employees are different from machines. However, traditional business mindsets are still under the dark crowd of industrial revolution and believe in treating employees like a product, equipment or machine. The traditional corporate culture is very close to Legalism in China. Legalism promotes disciplines, rewards, control, fear and expansion to make a country strong.

Hence, can Chinese wisdom apply to his new corporate culture? How can Chinese wisdom be relevant to modern corporate culture in a practical way?

In the previous discussion, Chinese wisdom and business excellence was discussed. And we use Mengzi and Zhuangzi as representatives of Confucianism and Daoism to represent the yang and yin aspects of Chinese wisdom.

For corporate culture, it contains yin and yang and both are co-exiting in the keys and strategies. For Confucianism and Daoism, Confucius and Laozi respectively will provide inputs to illustrate and explain the new Silicon Valley corporate culture. We cannot divide yin and yang from a culture. The corporate culture should include both yin and yang, i.e. Confucianism and Daoism. However, the proportion of Confucianism and Daoism in each key is not equal, some keys have more yin and less yang, or vice visa.

Key 1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
Strategy 1 Encourage diversity
Strategy 2 Launch new generations
Strategy 3 Build symbiotic relationship

Daoism: The principle of Dao is nature (Chapter 25 道法自然). Daoism always stresses the co-existence of human beings with nature and we should leave things moving naturally without intervention. Daoism in principal is against war. In Laozi Chapter 77, the difference between human way （人道）and heaven way (天道) is heaven way uses the surplus to compensate the deficit. But the human way is doing the opposite.

Confucianism: Thousands of things live and grow in no contrary (万物并育而无相害). Although never mention about nature, Confucianism stresses all living things co-exist and live in harmony. Things do not hurt each other. Again, Confucianism is against war.

This key and its strategies are very Chinese, especially from point views of Daoism and Book of changes. Daoism stresses on no intervention (wu wei) and leave the environment develop itself. This natural movements and changes will reach its optimal level at the end under a non-intervention environment.

Key 2 Corporations are communities, not machines
Strategy 4 Communicate directly
Strategy 5 Create opportunities for social interaction
Strategy 6 Encourage hands-on charity work

Confucianism: Human nature is to stay together, but not with birds and animal (鸟兽不可与同禽，吾非斯人之徒与而谁与？). In his comment about the Daoism no interest in politics and society, Confucius felt that as human beings we should serve the community and get involved in the social movement. The difference between Confucianism and Daoism is one is to engage the society (入世) and the other is to move away from society (出世).

Daoism: Small community is the best (chapter 80, 小国寡民). The ideal society or nation is a small country, uses no machines or technology and moves back to the past and simple life style. Neighbouring countries do not contact each other until dead. Laozi wants to keep the community small and has less influence from outside.

This key and its strategies are more related to Confucianism. In Confucianism, the emphasis is Gentlemen who are honest, straight forward, concerns about the poor and society. Their aim is to serve the people and country even under difficult circumstances.

Key 3 Management is service, not control
Strategy 7 Increase power by dispersing it
Strategy 8 Encourage creative dissent
Strategy 9 Build autonomous teams

Daoism: Do not disturb people’s life and put pressure on their business (chapter 72，无狎其所居，无厌其所生). If there is no pressure, there will have no hate. Rulers understand/know themselves but they will not show off. They value themselves but will never intentionally raise their status. Daoism opposes control, and believe in natural cause.

Confucianism: Extend wishes to others (己欲立而立人，己欲立而立人). If leader wants himself to be successful, he should also extend this to other people. If leader wants to have improvements, he should wish other people having improvement. Leaders should think of others if he wishes to be successful, he should also help others to achieve their goals.

This key and its strategies are more towards Daoism – less is more, thinking out of the box, no intervention. They want to have no control and believe “less” is “more”. On the other hand, Confucianism is more structure and looks for compromise.

Key 4 Employees are peers, not children
Strategy 10 Hire the self-motivated
Strategy 11 Eliminate fancy perks
Strategy 12 Sacrifice the sacred cows

Confucianism: In harmony but keep the difference (和而不同). Confucianism always mentions 2 types of people: gentlemen and ordinary people. Gentlemen always want to live in harmony but still keep individual differences. However, ordinary people are of the same kind but not in harmony.

Daoism: Let it be naturally (chapter 57 我无为而民自化). One of the key concept of Daoism is no intervention (wu wei). Because of no intervention, people will develop themselves. Because of doing nothing, people self create their wealth.

The key and its strategies are more towards Daoism. Because of no intervention, people are self motivated and self developed. Laozi is against wastage and promotes saving and thrifty.

Key 5 Motivate with vision, not fear
Strategy 13 Create climate of trust
Strategy 14 Build a shared vision
Strategy 15 Compensate for missions accomplished
Strategy 16 Ruthlessly prioritize

Confucianism: Generals can be lost but not ambition (三军可夺帅也，匹夫不可夺志也). Confucianism places high priority and emphasis on ambition. A person without ambition will not succeed in life and make contributions to society. This is why during the war you may lose a general but the ambition (to win) must always be there. Once you have no ambition, even a great general will not win the war.

Daoism: “Way” for different people (Chapter 41 上下闻道). There are 3 attitudes toward Way. Talents that learn about Way will try their best to achieve it. Middle level talents only believe half of it. Lower talents just laugh it. Laozi comments that if lower talents are not laughing, then the Way is not the way. Different people have different opinions about vision, only those appreciate and believe it will aim to achieve it.

The key and its strategies have the mindsets of Confucianism or even legalism. To build a strong country, have a vision, award equally and build royalty are things that Confucianism and Legalism want to do.

Key 6 Change is growth, not pain
Strategy 17 Have long-term vision, short-term plans
Strategy 18 Keep jobs fluid and flexible
Strategy 19 Make decisions quickly and broadly
Strategy 20 Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

Confucianism: The original character is quite similar when born; however, learning makes the difference (性相近，习相远). Confucianism believes from young, the character of individuals is about the same, but later after education and learning, it makes a person different from others. Hence, Confucianism stress human beings must have ambition to learn and to improve.

Daoism: Not satisfied then replace old with new (chapter 15, 夫唯不盈，故能蔽而新成). Only when things are not full, for example, a cup of water, then there is a possibility to achieve fullness. People who believe in the (right) Way understand that they need to make changes replacing the old with the new thing to get perfection (full).

The Key and its strategies are linked towards Daoism. Daoism notices changes and believes changes in the natural way will produce the best outcome. Due to no intervention, hence, there is no pain. Laozi likes water and sees it as flexible and powerful. However, for vision, Confucianism has a clear mission.

Key 7 Computers (Technology) are servants, not masters
Strategy 21 Use electronic mail to flatten management
Strategy 22 Humanize electronic communications
Strategy 23 Reduce information pollution

Daoism: Simple and humble, reduce selfishness and desires (Chapter 19, 见素抱朴，少私寡欲). Daoism stresses on learning less and not more. They want people to act simple, maintain humble, reduce selfishness and has less desires. This is also in line with the principle of no intervention (wu wei). More information means giving more things for the people to digest. Laozi emphasises on reduction philosophy (减法哲学). He believes the more people know or learn, the more burdens they have.

Confucianism: Knowing one also knowing the other 3 (举一隅不以三隅反，则不复也). In a (square) room, having the knowledge of one corner enables one to know the other 3 corners. A learner should know how to figure and imagine the other 3 corners when he or she already has information of 1 corner. Continuing to depend on more information to find out the image of the room is overwork and that will make information the master.

The key and its strategies are closer to Daoism. Daoism believes in simplicity, back to basic, and no (intervention) control of information. They believe human beings should reduce their knowledge and do not burden by knowledge, i.e. understanding or leaning more by dropping more and more knowledge

Key 8 Work is play, not toil.
Strategy 24 Cultivate constant challenge
Strategy 25 Encourage informality
Strategy 26 Create a sense of balance

Confucianism: Sing together and in harmony. (子与人歌而善，必使反之，而后和之). Confucianism may be the only philosophies in China that emphasises music, arts, protocol in education and politics. Here, Confucius sings along with other people, when he is happy, he invites them to sing again and he himself will sing one more time. Confucius likes singing and only stops singing when he cries on a particular day. Confucianism focuses on the balance of work and life.

Daoism: Like a baby (Chapter 55 含德之厚，比于赤子). Daoism describes the Way is like the mother and the baby is the one understanding the Way. Mother is rich and forgives everything and baby has no desires. Hence, baby has no external demand and only wants to be with the mother (way). However, when baby grows up day by day, he or she has more desires, demands, and become less simple (pure). This means he is moving further and further away from the mother (Way). While working, work like a baby.

The key and its strategies are related to Daoism and Confucianism. Daoism is against formality. Confucianism believes in happy learning and working. Confucianism wants to keep on reminding people to be alert and face challenges.

Chinese Wisdom and Business Excellence

Have you ever thought of linking Chinese wisdom to business excellence? And how can it be done?

In general, Chinese wisdom and philosophy are guiding principles for Chinese people since their formation and have helped China to move around, up and down from centuries to centuries. It may not be easy to notice but Chinese wisdom is reflected in Chinese characteristics and behaviour in their daily life, including business practice.

There are many business excellence models in the world, for example, US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, European Quality Award, Australian Business Excellence Award and Japan Quality Awards. In Singapore, we have our own Singapore Quality Award. The overall excellence standards have 7 categories under SQA. There are Leadership, Planning, Information, People, Processes, Customers and Results. All these excellent models are quite similar and have considered these 7 factors in assessing an excellent company or organisation.

Assessors will evaluate and audit the performance considering the approach used and deployment of the approaches. The evaluation then moves further to cover the feedback system in a way of learning, innovation and creativity. It therefore also touches on the change process and continuation/improvement for organisation development. An organisation must continue to improve, face challenges and make adjustments under different changing environments.

Yi Jing, the Book of Change, is talking about changes, how to face changes and avoid mistakes. In reality the Book of Change involves 3 basic principles: changes, unchanged and simplicity. We should not look at the Book as a “change” management.
Yi Jing has 8 trigrams, 64 hexagrams and 384 (64x6) broken and unbroken lines. All these have its functions and patterns and standard movements and meaning. These are “unchanged”, like the positions of heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain and lake. The changes take place when one of the broken or unbroken line changes position from one to another and so the whole hexagram will also change to a new hexagram. In analysing the changes, one will need to simplify the change process, assess the situation and make the next move (decision).

When we look at SQA model, the flow from leadership to results, plus leaning and innovation are standard movements. These are “unchanged”. However, when facing new challenges, competitions and environment, the relationship of the 7 categories (and the 21 items and 100 questions) will need to make adjustments. Some problems may have to move from holistic (overall) approach to niche approach to faster react to changes. SQA has simplified the change and unchanged process and provides a clear and simple way to approach business excellence.

We will leave Yi Jing (ying and yang movements) as example for business excellence and move on to use other examples from Confucianism and Daoism, to explain how practical Chinese wisdom is relevant in today’s business world. These examples can help us further understand the practical application of Chinese wisdom.

Mengzi and Zhuangzi, the two representatives of Confucianism (representing the yang) and Daoism (representing the yin) will show us the practical uses of Chinese wisdom in business world. Both men are great in story telling and have left a lot of idioms to us. Mengzi is good at essay and arguments. His straight forward thinking has greater influence in Chinese politics. Zhuangzi, on the other hand, is romantic and imaginative. His free thinking has great influence in Chinese literature.

Leadership:
Mengzi: Courage and strength to lead. In the principle of the great “Qi” (spirit movement), a leader believes he is doing the right thing and his decision is benefiting people. He then gains courage to implement policies and strategies accordingly. He built up his internal strength, which becomes stronger and stronger to let him face challenges. Leaders must dare to make tough decision for the benefit of the organisation.
Zhuangzi: High and tall foresight. In the story of a big bird flying to the south, Zhaungzi described how a fish is transformed into a big bird and gets the energy to fly to the sky. While other small birds are satisfied with their flying height, the big bird wants to fly as further as possible. Leaders must think of the highest achievable level for the organisation.

Planning
Mengzi: Before rain, plan first. When the organisation is moving smoothly, the management needs to plan ahead to further improve organisation performance. This is to avoid complacency.
Zhuangzi: Same amount, different arrangements. In the story of feeding monkeys, giving 3 bananas in the morning and 4 in the evening is the same as 4 in the morning and 3 in the evening. However, monkeys think they have a better deal by having more bananas in the morning. Different plans could have the same result depending on how you look at it. On the other way, it is also a planning under limited resources.

Information:
Mengzi: Not to believe everything in the book. If a leader believes all the information in the book, it is better not to have the book. Businesses need to understand and analyse the information, pure data will do more harm than good.
Zhuangzi: The use of useless. The basic of usefulness is based on useless. When we stand on a small piece of land, only that particular area is useful to us. So, we remove all the useless land areas, at the end can we still stand on the piece of useful land? Hence, once we remove the useless, the usefulness will not appear. The meaning of useful information derives from useless information.
People:
Mengzi: Sole happy is not as good as group happy. In this story, the King is enjoying music, Mengzi advises him to share music with his country men. Management should not bring happiness to few people. As an organisation, every one should be happy and so all are willing to make contributions.
Zhuangzi: The real beauty is internal. In this story, a hotel owner has 2 wives, one ugly and one pretty. To everyone surprise, the owner praises the ugly one. His explanation is the pretty one thinks she is a beauty and always pretends and expresses her beauty. However, the ugly one is humble and concentrates working. So, the real beauty is internal and not external. There are many types of employees and who are the real pretty ones?

Process:
Mengzi: Half performance, double returns. Process should be designed in such a way that people only use half of their strength to gain double returns. This seems to refer to productivity and efficiency.
Zhuangzi: The master piece of ghost and god. A woodcrafter needs several processes to produce a master piece. After praying for 3 days, he thinks nothing about reward, another 5 days, he does not think of whether people are good or bad, another 7 days he forgets about his own body parts. He then goes to the forest to look for the wood and based on natural environment, he finally produces his master piece, like having the help of ghost and god. A company needs to produce outstanding products and services to attract business.

Customers:
Mengzi: Either left or right, there are waters. This is a smooth situation. Whether you turn to the left or right, you will be able to find the water and water always represent free and smooth flow. Customers are like waters and businesses welcome them.
Zhuangzi: Only on the surface. In country Lu, on the surface, there are many Confucian followers. However, a notice announcing only real Confucianism practitioners are allowed to wear Confucian dress, otherwise, offenders will face death penalty, the situation changes. 5 days after the notice, only 1 person put on a Confucian dress. Customers can be real and not real, when times come it will tell.

Results:
Mengzi: Family, no regret and education are 3 happy things. Healthy family, safety brothers and sisters are the first happy. Don’t feel sorry and regret in every thing done is the second happy. Finding talents and train them is the third happy. For a business, healthy employees and families are very important. Performing corporate social or citizen responsibility is equally important. For business continuation, new talents needed to be recruited and trained.
Zhuangzi: Eyeing profit, forget the danger. In a fruit tree garden, Zhuangzi is aiming a bird and the bird is aiming an insect. All are in full concentration on their targets. Suddenly, Zhuangzi realised that by doing so, it means someone is also aiming him. It turned out to be the garden owner who is aiming zhuangzi and beginning to chase him. When aiming for profit and return, have we ever thought of the danger of making quick money?