In the movement of life, there are actually only two kinds of people's survival and enjoyment, one is physical and the other is spiritual. In fact, the process of "being a Confucian" is the process that the soul wants to be satisfied, and the process of "being a businessman" is the process that the body wants to be satisfied. Of course, body and soul are dialectical unity, and they are contradictory sides. For example, physical illness will lead to mental pain, and mental unhappiness will also lead to the aggravation of physical illness. Between "Confucianism" and "Shang", there are also times when they are antagonistic. For example, "Confucianism" thinks that "Shang" values profit over morality, but is only for profit and will not achieve the atmosphere; However, "Shang" thinks that "Confucianism" is sour and false, so it is mysterious, and it will only be an armchair strategist and will not be actually operated.
The pure pursuit of money in human survival activities will lose the best part of human nature. The greed of human nature is innate, and commercial behavior is an activity to satisfy human greed. The success or failure of this activity is the same as that of other gambling activities, which can stimulate the expansion of material greed. This kind of expansion and endless greed for material will make the soul sink into dirty dirt. Some people get into the bad habit of gambling, lust and even taking drugs, because after they get enough money, they don't know how to stimulate their lives and get enough enjoyment and entertainment. In life without Confucianism, it is really difficult for us to find a more appropriate way of life consumption. Confucian businessmen, on the other hand, are different. Material abundance only provides them with a guarantee for survival, because people can't talk about elegance and culture all day on an empty stomach. The more thorough pursuit is to let the soul enjoy. In this state, only culture can cleanse the dirt of the soul and make people noble.
Therefore, the beautiful realm of human existence is the realm of Confucian businessmen. This is the most abundant and perfect living state of human beings in "body" and "soul".
Confucian businessman spirit: a banner of Chinese businessmen all over the world
The concept of Confucian businessman spirit refers to a unique business personality and code of conduct formed by aiding Confucianism to enter the business. The so-called Confucian businessman means that as a businessman, he should have the spirit, tolerance and moral code of Confucianism, conduct business according to the moral ideal and pursuit of Confucianism, and infiltrate benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and practice advocated by Confucianism in his business behavior.
In the era of agricultural economy, people's understanding of the economy has been greatly limited, social concepts tend to belittle and belittle business, and the economic value of business has not been recognized realistically for a long time. This situation even led to the era of shouting to cut off the tail of capitalism and anti-speculation. At that time, although there was an order of industry, agriculture, military, learning and business, learning and status were low, and business was even less important, ranking among the four people with traditional businessmen in China. The circulation of commodities does not increase social wealth, and no businessmen are unscrupulous and unscrupulous, which almost becomes the evaluation of businessmen and businesses. In this context, doing business is actually like committing an original sin. Businessmen should also regulate themselves according to the Confucian code of conduct and moral standards respected by society, or take Jia Er's Confucianism as a means to improve their social status. In this case, Confucian businessmen came into being.
when did Confucian merchants originate? This question is difficult to answer directly, and should be roughly inferred according to the width defined by Confucian businessmen. If a scholar plus a businessman, that is, a businessman with a culture, is a Confucian businessman, then there are Confucian businessmen from the beginning, and Fan Li, Zi Gong, Bai Gui and Sang Hongyang of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are all representatives of Confucian businessmen. However, this explanation is obviously not satisfactory. Because the real confluence of Confucianism and merchants can greatly improve the social status of merchants, create brilliant commercial civilization and form a relatively stable and socially recognized commercial morality, the emergence of Confucian merchants as a group will not be too early, but it is appropriate to take the Ming Dynasty with budding capitalism as a large number of Confucian merchants, and the rise of Huizhou merchants as a merchant group in the middle of Ming Dynasty should be regarded as the real emergence of Confucian merchants. They have a clear idea of doing business with Confucian morality, and they also have the practice of doing business with Confucian businessmen. They think that a good man should not be ashamed of Confucianism, and that it is important to be Confucian as well as business. In business practice, they regard the Confucian moral principles such as honesty and trustworthiness, a gentleman's love for money, proper access to it, benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trustworthiness as business ethics, and pay equal attention to being a man and doing business, and do business with the pursuit of being a man. This makes the Huizhou merchants group generally have a business ethics that is progressive even from today's perspective. Many Huizhou merchants have a strong moral cultivation, and their moral consciousness and self-discipline have reached an amazing level at the beginning of China's commercial civilization, because it is rooted in the fertile soil of Confucianism and is a purely localized civilization.
Confucianism, which has been circulating for a long time, has come down in one continuous line for more than 2, years, which has influenced the thinking of Chinese people to a great extent and formed their unique behavior and thinking mode. We compare the spirit of Confucian businessmen with Confucian teachings, which helps us to further understand the connotation of the spirit of Confucian businessmen. There is a cloud in The Analects: "Wealth is what you can ask for. Although I am a whipping man, I will do it." It can be seen that Confucianism does not "talk about profit", but "being unjust and rich and expensive is like a cloud to me". To discuss the debate between "righteousness" and "profit", it is necessary to distinguish between what is in line with "righteousness" and what is not. The former's pursuit of profit belongs to "taking the right way" and the latter's pursuit of profit is "villain metaphor" This directly led to another theory of Confucianism, that is, "not demanding", and "not demanding a penny", and "taking it properly". Moreover, Confucianism has a serious moral judgment on "demanding" and "not demanding", which is a villain and should be regarded as a Confucian businessman. In essence, the spirit of Confucian businessmen opposes being rich and heartless, and emphasizes taking advantage of justice. From the viewpoint of Confucianism's poverty and generosity, it is necessary to benefit the society to assist Confucianism to enter the business, that is, to be poor is good and generous, and to make the real Confucian businessmen have a strong sense of social responsibility and a spirit of charity, that is, to assist Confucianism to enter the business also needs a spirit of "altruism", at least, to consider themselves. It can be said that Confucian businessmen should be engaged in purely utilitarian business, but they always have super-utilitarian moral pursuit, which makes their business behavior always have a very rich moral color. This is a typical business philosophy of Confucian businessmen and a unique contribution of Confucian businessmen's spirit to world business civilization. Therefore, aiding Confucianism to enter the business is the practice of Confucianism in business, and it is a kind of good Confucianism.
We can see the influence of Confucianism on traditional business ethics by comparing the classic teachings of Confucianism with our traditional business ethics. Confucianism emphasizes the use of courtesy, harmony is precious, and the traditional business concept is to make money with harmony; Confucianism emphasizes that you should not do to others what you don't want others to do, that you want to be a man, that you want to be a man, and that you want to be a man. Both traditional and modern business ethics emphasize that you can consider problems from the standpoint of customers, that you are genuine and innocent, and that you can get commercial benefits while customers get perfect service. Confucianism emphasizes the debate on profit, and progressive business ethics also emphasizes that the interests of businessmen cannot be placed above the overall interests of society, and that the interests of consumers and even the interests of the state cannot be harmed by seeking personal gain. It is immoral to seek benefits only for personal gain by hook or by crook, which is a kind of greed and vicious expansion. The classic Confucian doctrine emphasizes that a man must keep his word and his deeds will bear fruit, and honesty and trustworthiness is a basic business ethics at all times. Confucian righteousness, in essence, is appropriate, that is to say, to do what should be done and what conforms to social justice, such as helping the poor, helping each other and being enthusiastic about social welfare undertakings, and so on. These are all obligations that people should do to society. One of the biggest characteristics of Confucianism is that it always puts people in the social background, considers and regulates the relationship between people, and regulates the relationship between people with the power of morality, never talking about natural persons, and requires a person to achieve self-interest without harming public interests or the interests of others. The same is true of business philosophy, which emphasizes cooperation and not harming others and benefiting themselves. Confucianism emphasizes the doctrine of the mean, while traditional business ethics emphasizes not profiteering, not predatory management, paying attention to business ecology, and paying attention to the coordinated development among businessmen and between businessmen and customers. Confucian businessmen actually pursue the theory of business moral order, and pay attention to maintaining business order with moral power. Confucian businessmen are in business, but their taste exceeds that of business. In the process of engaging in business activities that should be purely utilitarian, they always hope to improve their spiritual world. This is the spirit of Confucian businessmen.
therefore, the spirit of Confucian businessmen should include business ethics such as abiding by credit, honesty as the foundation, honesty without bullying, benefiting from justice, taking money with righteousness, and sparing money with justice. It is to implement the ethical principles such as honesty, faith, righteousness, tolerance and concession in business operations, and try to wash away the habits of businessmen who blindly seek profits with Confucian spirit. Or: the purpose of businessmen's business is to pursue profits, and to pursue the maximization of profits. Isn't it at the expense of commercial efficiency to advocate the spirit of Confucian businessmen? In fact, there is a question of whether to pursue the individual interests of businessmen or the maximization of local interests or the maximization of social interests. However, in the social system, individual businessmen disregard public morality and seek profits by hook or by crook, and even pursue the maximization of profits, which is just the chief culprit of the deterioration of business ecology. Efficiency seems to exist, but as far as society is concerned, fairness has been put aside. Losing the so-called efficiency of fairness and justice is a disaster for society. The value of the spirit of Confucian businessmen lies in emphasizing the principle of fairness, and this fairness does not come from an external coercive force, but from the moral consciousness of businessmen infiltrated by Confucianism. There is a debate between good nature and evil nature in Confucian classics. Advocating the spirit of Confucian businessmen is to maintain a kind of good nature in business operations, so that the beautiful things in human nature, such as honesty, faithfulness and righteousness, can be transformed into excellent business character and into the conscious behavior of businessmen, not just relying on institutional and legal constraints. In essence, the spirit of Confucian businessmen is the moral self-discipline of businessmen influenced by Confucianism in their business behavior, not heteronomy. From a macro perspective, advocating the spirit of Confucian businessmen can greatly reduce the operating cost of the whole social management system. As far as businessmen themselves are concerned, it is also unfavorable for commercial activities to get caught in the vortex of complaints and commercial disputes. We can firmly believe that with the development and expansion of the ranks of Confucian businessmen in our society, the commercial order will be fundamentally improved.
in other words, the spirit of Confucian businessmen, as mentioned above, actually advocates a kind of self-discipline rather than heteronomy. Is it feasible to use moral self-discipline to resist the almost instinctive desire for profit? In fact, this is the essence of the spirit of Confucian businessmen. A large number of Confucian businessmen with lofty business ethics and extraordinary achievements have proved that Confucianism and business can be combined. Confucianism and law are two different theories in China's ancient thought, which emphasize self-discipline and heteronomy. Confucian thought is to help people's hearts and rectify society by advocating moral ethics and awakening people's moral consciousness. Of course, these ethics are mandatory once they are fixed, such as Neo-Confucianism and etiquette in later generations. Legalists use harsh laws to regulate people's behavior. Confucianism emphasizes that moral consciousness leads to the front, while legalists' harsh laws lead to the back, so Confucianism is essentially a study of moral order, paying attention to maintaining social order with moral power, and making people pursue a kind of spiritual consciousness. Confucianism has always only emphasized the social attributes of people, and human relations are actually interpersonal relationships. Only by adjusting the interpersonal relationship can the social development be harmonious and stable. Nowadays, the society has entered the era of commodity economy. The harmonious development between man and nature, the business ecological civilization in which people live in harmony with each other, and the business ethical spirit of harmony and unity of righteousness and benefit, cooperation and competition, self-improvement and self-discipline advocated by the spirit of Confucian businessmen have very strong significance in the times. The spirit of Confucian merchants is the progressive business ethics of Confucian merchants, their unique understanding of the nature of production, operation and exchange under the influence of Confucianism, the unique humanistic spirit and humanistic thought formed by businessmen immersed in Confucianism in their business operations, and their unique contribution to the world business culture.
culture, especially business culture, is a reflection of economy, and economy is the foundation of culture. What kind of economy will produce what kind of culture, culture will also act on the economy in turn, healthy culture will promote the economy, while backward culture will hinder the economy. Since its birth and increasingly clear, the spirit of Confucian businessmen has played a positive role in regulating commercial behavior, which shows that in our ancient country, although our commercial civilization has not reached the developed level of the west, our commercial cultural spirit has not lagged behind those developed countries in the west. Nowadays, we have entered the era of commodity economy. In order to make our economy develop healthily and orderly, we must advocate the spirit of Confucian businessmen and progressive business ethics. Otherwise, our economy cannot develop healthily, orderly, continuously and stably.
Pure Confucian businessmen are not simple businessmen and literati, and they have nothing to do with the kitsch behavior of using knowledge as a facade after making some commercial profits. The key of Confucian businessmen lies not in how profound their knowledge is and how profound their education is, but in their practice of Confucian ethics. Although some businessmen are not highly educated, they have the idea of being good in essence, and have a natural wisdom on Confucian businessmen's thoughts, as Buddhists say. They naturally insist on not demanding, taking the right way, and being good at handling the relationship between public interests and personal interests in their business activities. They don't take profit as their sole and ultimate purpose, and they can also be called Confucian businessmen, and they are Confucian businessmen with a gentleman's style.
Business behavior has always had two sides. One is to promote the circulation of commodities, stimulate commodity production and bring social prosperity. But on the other hand, businessmen's pursuit of profit has a spontaneous tendency of unscrupulous and mercenary. The spirit of Confucian businessmen can not only correct businessmen's selfish interests, but also play an important role in the whole commodity society. Rong Desheng, one of the founders of Rong's enterprise, once said: The sages of the ancient times, whose words and deeds are nothing more than the wisdom of the Great Learning, the sincerity of the Doctrine of the Mean, and self-cultivation, will eventually rule the country and make the world peaceful. When we start a business, we should be sincere, realistic and successful. If we blindly seek profit, and the villain is in power, what can we do for Wang Mingyang? From this passage, we can easily see some pursuits of Confucian businessmen. First of all, Mr. Rong Desheng, as a generation of Confucian businessmen, has such a consciousness: to be a good businessman and to be a moral and noble person at the same time, the two must be unified in business behavior, otherwise it will be mercenary and only a villain will be in power. Secondly, we should not only be a good businessman, but also be a noble person. The way to achieve this is to learn from the ancient sages and Confucianism, to be well-known, sincere, self-cultivation, and to seek truth from facts, rather than forgetting the benefits. In this way, our career will be successful. This is just as Wang Mingyang, a great thinker in the Ming Dynasty, pointed out in "The University Question": Although businessmen are trading all day long, they are not harmed as sages, and their return lies in the way of benefiting strangers, as long as they can lead a conscience in business activities and abide by Confucian teachings.
what are the connotations of Confucian spirit? We can learn from the behavior of China as a representative figure of Confucian businessmen in history. Representatives of Confucian businessmen who surpassed personal utility included Fan Li and Ji Ran in the Spring and Autumn Period and the chord height in the Warring States Period. Bai Gui, who has improved his way of doing business with excellent cultural level, has won the market essentials by abandoning me and taking others for me as a way of doing business. Tang Zhen, a thinker in the early Qing Dynasty, regarded getting rich by doing business as a way to achieve peace. He said in "Hidden Books and Examination of Merits": Those who govern should not enrich the people.