Name: Federico Mina
Researcher – National University of Córdoba
I studied philosophy in the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. Now I am part of a research group focused on China. My main interest is reading Chinese philosophy from the perspective of a Way of Life, particularly Ruist tradition. Since 2020, I have been linked to Sinological Development Charitable Foundation (SDCF), and coedited a book for that foundation.
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In the broad sense, a leader is someone who has control over a group of people. That group can be students, family members, workers, or the citizens of a country. As we will see, in one of the Confucian Four Books, the sphere of influence of a person who cultivates herself starts with their own person and ends with ruling the entire world. So, in a first glimpse, we can identify this definition of leader with that of a junzi who is in charge of others. But that identification will be greatly misleading.
In the first place, a junzi is not necessarily a leader; in many cases, if the conditions dictate, he can choose to hide away from society and live in reclusion (tui). This is true, especially in highly corrupted times, where showing himself can not only lead to failure to make any positive change in society, but it can even be dangerous (Analects 8.13: “危邦不入，亂邦不居。天下有道則見，無道則隱。”). Living in seclusion and having the high ideal of bringing peace to the entire world are not contradictory, because it’s always the conditions that move someone to decide either to advance or retreat. A person living in seclusion could be preparing herself to appear as soon as conditions change. Or could live his entire life promoting knowledge even if she fails to influence the society of his times. Let’s remember that the two greatest sages of Confucianism, Confucius and Mencius, spent their entire lives travelling from one state to another trying to implement their ethic-political ideals without success, but when times changed, their works marked an entire civilization. It’s not a shame to not be a leader for a junzi, even when human nature is defined as very susceptible to moral shame according to Mencius.
But when conditions are propitious, it’s the moment to advance (Jin). The junzi must become a leader, and start to be in charge of groups of people. He can become a teacher or scholar, run a charity or non-profit organization, or promote positive values from a position of power. But while in these conditions the junzi must become a leader, not every leader -as defined in the broad sense- could be identified with what ancient Chinese philosophy called a junzi. The junzi as a leader is moral, self-reflective, generous, open-minded and inspires others to become the best version of themselves. This certainly contrasts with many leaders in today’s world: politicians who rise to power by way of insulting or promoting divisiveness in social media, corporate managers who lay off workers or destroy the environment just for the seek of profit, TV programs that gain ratings by showing semi-nude models in their shows, etc. All of these contrast with the calm and composed deportment of a real leader. In this regard, let’s see what the American psychologist Abraham Maslow had to say about a politician:
“Some guy gets ambitious to be governor or something of the sort. Then he throws his hat in the ring and says, “I want to be governor.” Then he goes out in a campaign to fight against all the other people who want to be governor (…). From a point of view of B-psychology, this is a very unsuitable and even dangerous way to do it. And in any case, is a very poor way of getting the right functional leaders for the right jobs.
It’s dangerous because it tends to leave the selection of candidates to just exactly those self-seekers, those people who neurotically need power in the sense of power over other people (D-power), rather than getting into office the person who is best suited to the job and who may be modest and humble about the matter and would not like to push himself forward. (…) Such people are apt to use the power very badly; that is, use it for overcoming, overpowering, hurting people, or to say it in other words, they use it for their own selfish gratifications, conscious and unconscious, neurotic as well as healthy” (Maslow, A. (1998) On Management, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 154-155)
These sentences point to an important aspect of the kind of leadership inspired by ancient Chinese Classics. While those books were written in a time when psychological concepts like “neurotic” didn’t exist, both Confucianism and Daoism explicitly criticize the kind of leadership mentioned by Maslow in the quote.
So, what Confucianism would say about the kind of self-seeker leader? To answer this is important to consider the most important distinction in the Analects of Confucius: that of the junzi(Gentleman) and the xiaoren (petty people). Using that dichotomy, he states what are the values he approves or disapproves. For example, he tells us that the xiaoren is interested in profit, nervous, happy with receiving things even at the expense of others, and arrogant; on the contrary, the junzi is worried about what is right, self-composed, and pleased only with what is done morally (Analects, 4.16; 7.37;13.25;13.26). In the Yizhuan (part of the Yijing as explained before) it is said that the petty person is not ashamed of doing what is wrong and that he will only act if he can see some profit (Xici II, “小人不恥不仁，不畏不義，不見利不勸”). Also says that he doesn’t care about doing even small good actions because he can’t profit from them, while he does small bad actions believing that they are not important (Xici II, “小人以小善為无益，而弗為也，以小惡為无傷，而弗去也”). While we can expand on each of these passages, this is sufficient to see that the wisdom on how to act according to Confucianism is not a group of empty techniques to be used by anyone. These books are not talking to the entrepreneur who is looking to be rich, to the politician who seeks to get promotions at any cost, the neurotic self-seeker described by Maslow. Greedy capitalism is at odds with Confucianism which seeks a selfless leader, not an individual who is unworried about how he gets its objectives. Empathy and righteousness are what makes a good leader move forward or retreat according to circumstances, and not the opportunity to make a profit. In fact, the kind of individualism promoted by the powerful in Western society would be severely reproached by traditional Confucianism (many contemporary Confucians actually do that). Our own self is impossible to understand as separate from our families and the entire society. Those lessons from over two thousand years from now are more live than ever, in a world where many of our leaders (either in the financial or political world) just don’t care about environmental or sustainability considerations when they exploit our resources.
Let’s now try on what Daoism would say about the neurotic leader described by Maslow. If Confucianism would reproach him because of his profit interest, Daoists would launch even a more penetrating critique. They not only critique the quest for profit, but even have a deep suspicion against desire itself, as something that is at odds with the naturalness and spontaneity that promotes. Its ideal is not that of the junzi but has instead different terms to refer to someone who has deep wisdom and self-cultivation. They believe that sages model themselves following the way that nature works, so it rejects the artificial luxuries that civilization provides and promotes a more simple way of living. That allows people to live at ease, after they have eradicated their desires. For example, Zhuangzi says “The True men of old did not dream when they slept, had no anxiety when they awoke, and did not care that their food should be pleasant. Their breathing came deep and silently. (…) Where lusts and desires are deep, the springs of the Heavenly are shallow.” (Zhuangzi (Legge transl.), chapter , “古之真人，其寢不夢，其覺無憂，其食不甘，(…)其耆欲深者，其天機淺。”). And the Daodejing says “Simplicity without a name, Is free from all external aim. With no desire, at rest and still, All things go right as of their will.” (chapter 37, Legge Translation, 無名之樸，夫亦將無欲。不欲以靜，天下將自定。”). The self-cultivation in these quotes promotes one to be free of desire. If you are blindly seeking to promote yourself, or wanting to be rich, all you are going to do is to injure yourself. The mind that has desires cannot act spontaneously according to our own nature. So a leader as described by Maslow, the neurotic who cannot think but of himself, is also an example of a bad path for self-cultivation for Daoism. In this philosophy, the aim is not to forget about profit in an individualistic way to promote a more equitable and sustainable society but to get rid of all artificialities. That implies retreating from society, which imposes a “normal” behaviour that includes the culture of empty consumerism, and learning to have a more mature mind who is calm and can see things clearly. Maybe we are not attracted to the more extreme form of Daoism, but we can take lessons from strategic retreating. Daoism teaches that sometimes, not acting (wuwei, either literally, or understood as not acting when your mind is clouded with concepts, aims, purpose or desire) can lead to a more successful result. For example, nature (Dao) “The Dao in its regular course does nothing (for the sake of doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do.” (chapter 37, Legge’s translation, “道常無為而無不為”). As in the entire universe, there is order, things grow and reach their perfection, without natural things actually having a mind full of desires, we should imitate that in some cases, and let thing follow their process without interfering. The Yijing, in his Sun(diminution) hexagram also promotes one to be free of strong emotions and desires; as Cheng Yi says commenting on this Hexagram: “When the noble man observes the image of Diminution, he uses it as a guide to bring Diminution to himself. In the course of cultivating himself, the things that he ought to diminish are, of course, anger and desire.” (quoted in Lynn, The classic of changes, note 6, page 393). At odds with Daoism, the Yijing only says that when a specific circumstance has arisen (the one of the Sun Hexagram) one should free oneself of desires and will reach success.