A Chinese scholar views business

Title

Creator

Hu, Kiang Kang

Language

English

Year

1968

Subject

Chinese.

Chinese philosophy.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Condensed from The Nation’s Business (November, ’29)

Fulltext

A CHINESE SCHOLAR VIEWS BUSINESS The word "business” con veys the idea of being busy. To us Chinese scholars, and in fact to all Oriental phi losophers, to be busy is dis tasteful. Why should we al ways be busy? What is it all for? Are we too busy to live? I think one can live much better without being busy, and I am sorry to see that there are many people in the world who are too busy to live. Are we too busy to die? Death is forever awaiting us, and >ve do not have to speed its approach. I can never understand or be accustomed to modem western life, especially the American business man’s life. Every one is busy every moment — hurry, rush, pull and struggle. One of our popular T’ang dynasty (618-906 A.D.) poets once expressed his lamenta tion in the following lines: "All events are experienced with too much anxiety. No one ever takes time to rest before he dies.” We Chinese believe that human life is composed ol two phases: the positive or active, and the negative or passive. It is vastly im portant that we should bal ance them well. We have always been carefully taught to apply our positive or ac tive forces inwardly, that is to say, spiritually, ideally, mentally and morally. The negative or passive forces should be directed to oppo site ends. In other words, we should sublimate our possessive ins tincts toward the acquisition of knowledge, virtue and in visible property, the ambi tion for conquest should be turned to the conquest of ourselves — our own evil thoughts, our bad habits and our vicious practices; the fighting spirit should be led toward literary and artistic 14 Panorama contests or muscular and physical training. In our outward and material life, we prefer to live simply, humbly and economically. We have also been taught that, when in government position or any official ca pacity, we should conduct our positive or active forces toward public utility, and our negative or passive for ces toward private ends. The things which belong to the community or which are for the good of the public must be well taken care of, improved and perfected, while one’s private belong ings are negligible from the eyes of a statesman or phi losopher. Now, consider some basic theories held in the psycho logy of the western business man from the viewpoint of a Chinese philosopher. First, we find in this country a firmly established money standard; in other words, a dollar-and-cent measurement of human acti vities and their values. I cannot agree that material conditions are the only de termining factors of history. I can still less agree with the idea that national welfare and personal success are in dicated mainly by the nu merical figures of incomes and expenditures. More pernicious yet is the growing conviction that everything is purchasable with money or that every phase of civilization can be valued only in terms of merchandise. Money, though a very convenient means of life, is certainly not the end. Why should we sacrifice every thing, even our lives for the accumulation of money, and reduce ourselves to machines and mechanisms? Unless there is some property in a nation or in a person that cannot be corrupted or bought^ by money, that na tion or that person is not worth living. Second, the belief in the struggle for existence by the creation of a busy and noisy world is increasingly un bearable. It is necessary to work earnestly and diligent ly: it is also necessary to work with ease, quiet, and good taste. The best effi ciency test is not how to exert one’s ability and ex haust one’s strength, but how to preserve them and recreate them. August 1968 15 So, a restful night is of importance to a working day, and the leisure hours are invaluable to the busy minutes. Until one knows how to regulate his labor and tranquilize his mind, he does not live but simply exists. Here again we must not mistake means for ends. Strife is but one phase of life: it is neither its final aim nor its original pur pose. Third, we notice a ten dency to promote luxury and extravagance for society as well as for individuals, and thus bring about the habit of money spending. One of the greatest American busi ness men, has emphatically admonished the American youth to spend all the money he can ipake and then al low himself to be driven by the burning desire for new wants, that he may be in duced to make more money for its realization. He ad vocates that the standard of life for both society and in dividuals will be lifted by more money spending and more money making. To be sure, such a poli cy does actually enrich the state, but it inevitably dis turbs people’s minds and menaces also their moral and physical orders. This in turn reacts upon the psychology and social condi tions of the community. So cial unrest, insanity, crimes, and revolutions are its na tural outcomes. Fourth, a new maxim is current in the business world, that discontent and dissatisfaction are the mo tive forces for improvement and progress. Mr. Kettering, President of General Motors Research Corporation, wrote recently in Nation’s Business: “Jn our particular line our chief job in research is to keep the customer reason ably dissatisfied with what he has.” It is a plain truth that if people are dissatisfied with the things they have, they will always long for some thing else and try to get it if they can afford it. In this way the business man will always make his money out of those who are striv ing harder and harder to catch up with the fashions and styles. Such persons are life-long slaves of their material de sires and vanity illusions. They are forever burdened by the increasing weight of 16 Panorama their self-made harness and lashed in the most merciless manner by the whip of an invisible master day and night. Death will be their only deliverance. Of course, it is possible that they are satisfied so long as they ful fill their desires? But how long will this last? There are always more desires, and always something else more desirable. Aside from all this indi vidual torture, the waste for society as a whole is also very great. We must work, and work hard, for spiritual realiza tion, mental enlightenment, moral perfection and cultu ral attainment. But in all matters that lie outside of ourselves, we must learn to take them lightly; to enjoy then! if we happen to be with them — possession is, however, not necessary — and to be still content if we must live without them. Life is always easier and hap pier for those who desire less, and depend less upon, things outside of themselves. Furthermore, we must work and work hard, for the improvement and the ad vancement of the communi ty, the state, the nation, and above all, for humanity, for it is humanity that will live long and not we. When we work for the benefit of hu manity, any merit surely lasts, but when we work for the benefit of ourselv.es, all merits become void upon our death or before. Therefore, we do well to apply our positive or active forces toward that which has a spiritual significance and is good for mankind, and our negative or passive forces to ward that which has only material value and is good only for ourselves. Only those who possess spiritual wealth can overlook material wealth; only those who love humanity know how to deny themselves. — By Kiang KangHu, condensed from The Nation’s Business (Novem ber, ’29). August 1968 17

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