After the Chou dynasty fell into chaos, the philosopher Confucius (born in 551 BC) championed the need for ethical social structures to bring harmony to a vast land. Revered by his disciples as the Master, Confucius taught beliefs as “the cake of custom” passed on through generations: children obey their parents, parents respect their ancestors, villagers respect their chiefs, and so on.
However, as societies grew more complex, Confucius enjoined leaders to come up with “deliberate custom,” defined by US professors Robert Locke and JC Spender as “a consciously derived system of moral education, appropriate to the time, that could establish a homeostasis between the expression of free will in individuals and a consciousness of their interpersonal rights and duties in society.”
A sprawling nation with more than a billion people, China “needs an ethic of harmony to give their densely populated society time to increase the economic pie to the point where most Chinese can escape grinding poverty,” the authors say. In this sense, China has succeeded: lifting almost a billion people out of poverty in one generation is an astounding feat.
Confucius said that people have a duty to act for the betterment of the country, such as practicing discipline and following laws (wearing masks in quarantine, driving defensively, paying taxes). At the same time, the government has to provide for the welfare of citizens (providing living wages for vulnerable sectors, constructing pothole-proof roads and other infrastructure, delivering timely services). This pact is two-way; just as we citizens fulfill our functions to the best of our ability, our elected leaders must truly work for the benefit of all.
Confucian thought became the basis of the so-called “Asian values” often linked to the economic success of countries such as Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea. As early as 2000, Harvard University spearheaded a forum on “Confucianism and Economic Development” to explore the issue in depth.
According to Locke and Spender, several heirs of family businesses from Asian countries, including Japan, increasingly choose to take their MBAs from Chinese business schools which combine the best of East and West, such as Hong Kong University or Cheung Kong Graduate School in Beijing and Shanghai. In the Philippines, Confucius Institutes in universities like Ateneo de Manila delve into how Asian values can be adapted to the local context.
Due to our colonial and historical circumstances, it is debatable whether Asian values may work as effectively in the Philippines as in the countries mentioned above. We rightly take pride in being a democracy, where our Constitution guarantees inalienable freedoms to everyone, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, political beliefs, socioeconomic status, and where national norms often take a backseat to individual, family, clan, or regional preferences.
Today, inequality remains deeply entrenched in our country, exacerbated by the pandemic. While some sectors such as information technology and delivery services burgeoned in the lockdown, the most badly hit, as usual, are Filipinos who live hand-to-mouth, risking their lives to survive.
Caring for the underprivileged was emphasized by former Chinese president Hu Jintao in his 2006 speech “Eight Do’s and Don’ts”: “Love, do not harm the Motherland; Serve, don’t disserve the people; Uphold science, don’t be ignorant and unenlightened; Work hard, don’t be lazy and hate work; Be united and help each other, don’t gain benefits at the expense of others; Be honest and trustworthy, no profit-mongering at the expense of your values; Be disciplined and law-abiding instead of chaotic and lawless; and know plain living and hard struggle, do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.”
May our leaders heed these words and act on them.
Queena N. Lee-Chua is with the board of directors of Ateneo’s Family Business Center. Get her book “All in the Family Business” at Lazada or Shopee, or the e-book at Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks. Contact the author at blessbook.chua@gmail.com.