The development of management in ancient China, who knows ah?

A few questions about management in ancient China Strictly speaking, modern management is only 100 years old. For China, modern management emerged with the modernization of mass production after the 1911 Revolution. After 100 years of development, modern management has developed into many disciplines including business administration, social management, technology management, public **** management, strategic management and so on. However, if we look at it from another angle, management is accompanied by the entire human history. Man is a social animal, engaged in collective production and social activities, necessarily need to carry out the necessary organization and coordination of action, so the management of the organization and coordination in the emergence of such. China is an ancient civilization with a long history of 5,000 years, in the long history of the Chinese nation's long-term survival and reproduction and development of the long river, created a glorious traditional national culture. It is recorded in the Book of Songs . Yao Dian" contains the records of Yao, Shun, Yu and Gaotao on the division of functions and the management of the state. In the 12th-11th centuries B.C., the Zhou Li, for the first time, designed the Chinese bureaucratic organization as 360 positions, with corresponding grades and numbers of posts, with clear hierarchies and responsibilities, reflecting the emergence of a fairly complete idea of state management in China around the 4th century B.C. The Zhou Li, which was written in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, is the first book of its kind in China. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, Sun Tzu's book The Art of War was recognized as an outstanding work that systematically discussed management strategies and tactics. The ancient Chinese traditional culture has nurtured profound management ideas and produced colorful and unique management styles and methods, which have been integrated into the historical development of the entire Chinese nation and even had a profound impact on Japan, Korea and Southeast Asian countries.

However, in front of such a splendid history, modern Chinese people have to face such an embarrassment: China's 5,000 years of history and even today's Chinese society, have not appeared a real sense of management scientists, have not appeared a management theory widely recognized by the world. So much so that to this day, China's management community is still in a dilemma that must be called the West. What exactly is the reason for such a situation today? To solve this problem, I think there are a few points that must first be made clear.

One, the ancient Chinese management is what kind of management?

To clear this issue in a short space seems to be a very difficult thing. However, we can summarize a few points:

1, the content of ancient Chinese management is mainly state management.

Overall view of the ancient Chinese management practice can be seen, management and administration are basically integrated. Because ancient China is a typical agricultural economy, administration is the most important mode of social management, therefore, any project, any management activities, all in the name of the state or the government, management practices only in the process of fusion with the administration to have the opportunity to perform. In fact, what we know about management practices in ancient China, without exception, is not the practice of management in administration.

2. Ancient Chinese management attached great importance to the human factor in the process of management activities.

People in the process of management include both the manager and the managed, and many managers manage others while being managed by others. Ancient Chinese management thought on these two aspects have a lot of insights and there are many examples can be examined. Ancient Chinese people put great emphasis on managers emphasizing their own cultivation, and Sun Tzu's "Art of War" believed that the qualities to be possessed by a manager include wisdom, faith, benevolence, courage, strictness and other aspects. During the Warring States period, the scholars were the reserve group of managers, and later on, all the learning and cultivation of the Xiu Cai Lifu Ren and even the whole school and imperial examination system were prepared for the future empire to cultivate qualified managers and the managed. In addition, many sages have written extensively and brilliantly about the selection of materials. Mozi proposed to "examine their abilities and give them to the officials with care". Xunzi admonished the ruler "no private official career", not nepotism, and advocate meritocracy, meritocracy. Yan Zi further pointed out that people's talents were different, and that one should let a person specialize in one thing, rather than requiring him to be omnipotent. Use a person's strengths, not his weaknesses; use what a person is good at, not what he is not good at. This is the key strategy of appointing talents. Wang Anshi of the Northern Song Dynasty on the above aspects of the idea of a more systematic, theoretical discussion. His idea of employing people can be summarized as "teaching, raising, taking, appointing". Among them, the way of teaching, that is, to adhere to the consistency of learning and use, to create talents; the way of raising, that is, to maintain the government officials to live the salary compensation should be taken by the policy - "to spare the money", "about the rites of passage The way of support, i.e., the approach to be taken to maintain the salaries and rewards of government officials - "spare with money", "make it a matter of courtesy", "cut it with law"; the way of taking, i.e., the way to select officials; and the way of appointment, i.e., the way of appointing talents according to their expertise. Such a complete exposition is very meaningful even today.

3. Ancient Chinese managers often had very skillful management strategies in the process of management.

By comparing China's feudal society with that of the West, we can easily see that China's feudal society was surprisingly stable and unified. This also shows one aspect of the superior management skills of ancient Chinese administrators. During the more than two thousand years of feudal society in China, the centralized state management system, the management of finance and taxation, the selection and management of officials, the management of population and acres of land, the management of market, industry and commerce, the management of transport and postal service, the management of paperwork and archives, and so on, had seen a new development in each successive dynasty, with the emergence of many outstanding managerial talents, who had displayed excellent managerial talents and accumulated valuable managerial experience in the fields of military, politics, finance, culture, education and diplomacy. In the fields of military, politics, finance, culture, education and diplomacy, many outstanding management talents have demonstrated their excellent management talents and accumulated valuable management experience. During the Warring States period, the famous "Shang Yang's Change of Law" was an example of improving the management level of the country through the change of law; the reign of Wenjing made the country politically stable and economically prosperous; the construction of the Great Wall of China fully reflected the high level of surveying, planning and designing, construction and project management at that time, and the high management wisdom of the project commanders; large-scale projects such as Dujiangyan and other large-scale projects have shown outstanding management talents and accumulated valuable management experience. Management wisdom; Dujiangyan and other large-scale water conservancy projects, flood control, drainage, irrigation, navigation and integrated planning, showing the high level of China's ancient project construction and organization and management; Ding Pian presided over the "three in one," the palace construction project is known as the use of systematic management, integrated planning example. Such management practices are numerous, reflecting the ancient Chinese superior management wisdom.

Two, why did not appear in ancient China into a strict system of management thinking?

In Chinese history, few people have made a comprehensive summary of the connotation of Chinese management, and few people have made a comprehensive exposition of Chinese management, through the Chinese cultural texts, almost impossible to find a complete treatise on management. However, those who are familiar with Chinese history will find that the entire history of China is actually a history of managing people and appointing people. What exactly caused such a seemingly contradictory phenomenon? There is only one explanation for this, and that is that Chinese management science is completely dependent on the many classical cultural texts. Zhao Pu, the founding prime minister of the Song Dynasty, once said that half of the Analects of Confucius ruled the world. Although this statement is a bit overstated, the meaning of it is worthwhile for us to savor. I believe that Zhao Pu would not have said this if the Analects did not contain the method of unifying the family, ruling the country and calming the world. So another question is before us, since there is such a dharma, where is it. As mentioned above, ancient Chinese management highly emphasized the human factor in the management process, and the cultivation of managers was precisely accomplished through such texts as the Analects of Confucius. In this way, a person completes his own cultivation at the same time means that he has the ability to manage, and his own management ability is unconsciously improved in the usual exercise of dealing with people. This is also the origin of the saying of sincerity, cultivation of the body, unification of the family, governance of the country, and pacification of the world in The Great Learning. From this point of view, Zhao Pu's words have a lot of truth in them.

The Analects of Confucius has such an effect. If we look at the several schools of thought of the same period as Confucianism, such as yin and yang, ink, name, law and morality, with the same vision, there is almost none that does not talk about cultivating oneself and governing others, none that does not talk about management, not to mention the doctrine of military affairs, which is explicitly written about how to govern the military.

Almost all of the doctrines of the management of their ideas and other aspects of the idea of attributed to the "Tao" in the Tao is invisible, when a person's cultivation nearly get "Tao", the management of knowledge and talent will naturally be The so-called "no law, but the law, is the most law" is probably the meaning of this. This is also why Chinese managers throughout history have often been able to apply management in such an extraordinary way.

What is the difference between ancient Chinese management and contemporary management?

If we simply regard Chinese management as the theory and practical experience of management under the conditions of an agricultural economy, and then compare it with the modern Western management theory which, after nearly a hundred years of development, has become a huge group of disciplines in the field of business administration and public **** management, it is obvious that we will not get any good results. This has also become a pretext for some people to denigrate ancient Chinese management. However, these people tend to forget that such a comparison is, first of all, a comparison with colored glasses, first to the ancient Chinese on the low and backward hat. However, even under such a premise, the ancient Chinese management also has its own different aspects with the Western modern management thinking, mainly in:

The scope of management. Western modern management theory is limited to business and public **** affairs. While Chinese management is often all-encompassing, and there is no strict disciplinary division. From ruling the country to securing the state to treating people, you can almost always find relevant discussions. Business administration and public **** affairs are naturally included, although for a long time China's industry and commerce were underdeveloped.

Management goals. Chinese management is much more ambitious. Focusing on long-term governance, on the sublimation of human nature, on the overall harmony and **** win, etc. are the main features of ancient Chinese management, while Western management theory is often limited to the local and short-term effectiveness of management activities. In this relationship, the Chinese management of the cultivation of the mind and the idea of moral governance, etc. have the theoretical connotation of the Western management theory can not be revealed.

Management theory. As mentioned above, Chinese management theory focuses more on the inner cultivation of the manager and the manager, and the philosophizing and abstraction in Chinese management theory is more at the level of principles and principles, which is more universal. Western management theory is the summary of modern western management practice, more belongs to the level of management methods and techniques, more specific adaptability, but also greatly limit the scope of its application. In connection with this, modern Western management theories have emerged in an endless stream, often making people confused and not knowing where to start. Chinese management science can precisely unify these methods and techniques, or explain their laws from the other side, which helps to grasp the direction of their development.

In short, the ancient Chinese management science is more focused on the "Tao" level of analysis, while today's much-vaunted Western management science, can only be called a "technique" only. Unfortunately, today's reality, but can only give us to the "Road of not exist also long time" sigh. The so-called "gentleman is unfortunate not to hear the main points of the road, the small man is unfortunate not to be able to get to the zephyr of governance", sigh sigh.