Page 264 - Cultures and Organizations

Yesterday, Now, or Later? 237

And on the opposite side:

5. Reciprocation of greetings, favors, and gifts
6. Respect for tradition
7. Protecting one’s “face”
8. Personal steadiness and stability

Students of Chinese culture recognized in these values elements of the
teachings of Confucius, to whom we referred in Chapters 3 and 4.
Confucius (or K’ung-tzu, as he is called in Chinese) was an intellectual
of humble origins in China around 500 b.c. He sought, rather unsuccess-
fully, to serve various local rulers in the divided China of his day. He did
succeed, however, in gaining a reputation for wit and wisdom, and in his
later life he was surrounded by a host of disciples who recorded his ideas.
Confucius thus held a position rather similar to that of Socrates in ancient
Greece, who was his virtual contemporary (Confucius was born about
eighty years before Socrates).
The teachings of Confucius are lessons in practical ethics without a
religious content. Confucianism is not a religion but a set of pragmatic
rules for daily life derived from Chinese history. The following are the key
principles of Confucian teaching:

1. The stability of society is based on unequal status relationships between
people. This part of Confucius’s teaching was described in Chapter 3.
He distinguished five basic relationships (the wu lun): ruler-subject,

father-son, older brother–younger brother, husband-wife, and senior
friend–junior friend. These relationships are based on mutual and
complementary obligations: for example, the junior partner owes the

senior partner respect and obedience, and the senior owes the junior
protection and consideration. Value 3, “ordering relationships by status

and observing this order,” fits this principle.
2. The family is the prototype of all social organizations. A person is not
primarily an individual; rather, he or she is a member of a family. In
Chapter 4 we already stressed the importance in the (collectivist) fam-
ily of shame (rather than guilt). Value 4, “having a sense of shame,” is
essential in the Confucian family-based society.
3. Virtuous behavior toward others consists of not treating others as one
would not like to be treated oneself. In Western philosophy this precept is