Living and Learning (8)—Losing the Way

Click here to go to section one of "Living and Learning."
Click below for the other "Living and Learning" posts.
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The Emperor's Teacher—Chapter Two
During the month of June I will be posting segments of The Emperor's Teacher (the big business book that will rock the world). Chapter two is called "Living and Learning," and forms (along with chapter one, "Breaking the Vessel") the first section of a three-part book.
If you have read The Art of War, you have arrived at the doorstep. Still, no one ever managed anything in China having just read Sunzi (Sun-tzu), but don't despair. You are now ready for what comes next in leadership. Compiled nine-hundred years ago, it is the greatest management book ever written, and there are only two problems: (1) it is in "medieval" Chinese; (2) it is 10,000 pages long. No worries, though. That's what I am here for. I have been studying this stuff for thirty years, and I have been waiting for you. Welcome. 歡迎. 
Let's begin to study real Chinese management together.

[a] Stuck   RF

After reading chapter one, "Breaking the Vessel," you will have some acquaintance with Sima Guang and the Comprehensive Mirror (資治通鑒). Now, it is time to consider how people learned "management" lessons in early China. From there, we will begin to tackle the heart of the management book in the rest of this summer's entries (July and August), which will deal with practical lessons from the Comprehensive Mirror.

Don't worry.  If you want to start here and loop back to chapter one (Breaking the Vessel) in due time, that is fine.  This chapter should stand on its own as a way of thinking about living and learning (and living) at any time and in any place.

VIII

Losing the Way

How we deal with losing our Way is a further dimension of learning and living. What do we do when we are cutting up a big side of beef with a dull blade, or hacking away at a fast-spinning wooden wheel?

There will always be times of conflict and challenge. Remember the tumult of the Warring States period, when most of the quotations you have read were written. There was state-building and war-making. There was also just plain nastiness. It was a time that made it difficult just to follow one's own path, to be left alone, or to pass one's days in contemplation. It reminds me of the young basketball player who develops an impressive three-point shot. Great. Now do it when two defenders have hands in your face. Following the Way under pressure is the skill that makes it "real." It is also the skill that is most directly relevant in a difficult world in which many people—sometimes it seems to be "most people"—don't play nice.

[b] 釦子   RF

What happens when someone else's chariot runs you right off your calmly followed path and puts you in the ditch? The Way is blocked, and It is the very example of the key not fitting the lock, the golf swing resulting in a nasty hook, or a deeply embarrassing use of language, when you just cannot get it right—not unlike the day, on a street corner in Taipei, when I attracted a monstrous crowd that was eager to hear a foreigner speak Mandarin, and, by confusing the words kuzi (trousers) and kouzi (buttons), insistently asked a shopkeeper "why don't your shirts have trousers on the collars like we have back in the United States? They are very convenient!"

As adept as you might "learn" to be at crafting your path, your Way, you will occasionally shank it in life. Or, worse yet, someone who has little concern for you will hit your Titleist® into the deep rough, and you will have to play it from there. You may be minding your own business, even trying to do good deeds, but you cannot control those who—either through nastiness or "mere" clumsiness—cough during your backswing, forget to rake the sand traps, or leave unsightly divots on your fairway. And no matter how bad it gets for you, it is unlikely to match what a certain man (his name sounds like the first syllable in "hurt," which happens to be surprisingly apt) experienced in the state of Chu.

Mr. He, a man of Chu, came upon a piece of jade in the mountains.  He went to court and presented it to King Li.  King Li ordered a jeweler to examine it.  The jeweler reported that it was only a stone.  The king, angry that Mr. He had deceived him, had He’s left foot amputated as a punishment.  After King Li died, and King Wu ascended the throne, Mr. He again attended court and presented his jade piece to King Wu.  King Wu ordered the jeweler to examine it, and he again declared that it was a stone.  The king again assumed that Mr. He had deceived him and ordered that his right foot be amputated.  When King Wu died and King Wen ascended the throne, Mr. He clutched his jade piece and sobbed at the foot of the mountain for three days and three nights.  

He cried tears, after which he cried blood.  The king heard of this and ordered an official to ask for the reason that he was sobbing.  The official said, “Those who have had their feet amputated in punishment are numerous; why do you weep with such sorrow?”  Mr. He responded, “I do not weep over my penal amputations.  A precious jade is held up as a mere stone, and a loyal servant is called a deceiver—these are the reasons why I weep.”  The king then ordered the jeweler to polish the piece, and its precious nature was, at last, seen.  The piece then came to be called Mr. He’s Jade.

The world kept knocking Mr. He off of his path, and not many stories can match his for severity or perseverance. For everyone, though, adversity never goes away. This is true both for people with plans (Confucians in particular) and those who disdain plans altogether. Overcoming adversity is something that Daoists and Confucians reflected upon, and they answered in different ways. Both kinds of answers are very far cries from "turning cheeks," as we shall see.

We have all been told that life is not fair, and Mr. He had a more concentrated lesson in it than most people. Everyone who has ever lived...and learned...however, has faced grave conflict. Every social group and government has as well. Everyone will again.

How do we deal with it?

Living and Learning 1          Living and Learning 2            Living and Learning 3           Living and Learning 4
Living and Learning 5          Living and Learning 6            Living and Learning 7           Living and Learning 8
Living and Learning 9          Living and Learning 10          Living and Learning 11         Living and Learning 12

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Like Water

Enough said—for now.