[a] Structured RF |
We are all managers, and we would do well to learn abiding lessons of how to make managing
work. Some people in our midst (and in human history) have spent
inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out how we might manage ourselves (since if you can't get your self right, you'll have a hard time with anything bigger...right?), our families (since a family is a whole bunch of interrelated selves in social communion), and the whole enchilada...all under heaven
(天下). The latter term was used traditionally in China to refer to
running the empire, but it had both moral and governmental innuendo that
we would do well to consider in our own lives today. All three ideas
(oneself, one's family, and all under heaven) are versatile enough to be
read in secular or sacred terms, and, indeed, early Chinese cosmology
had a plethora of ways of interpreting such matters. Interpret away.
The concepts are big enough for all of us, as even Dong Zhongshu might have agreed.
My book, The Emperor's Teacher, introduces the greatest management book of all time (Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Ruling), and then explains its key teachings to readers in the twenty-first century. This is challenging stuff for readers today (in East Asia and the West, I might add), just as it was ten centuries ago. No book is deeper or richer with lessons you need to learn to manage your career, your family, your football team...
...or the corporation you lead. We all need it. My book takes you through the lessons found in a thousand year-old text. The "Talking Points" that follow in the next few posts will give a sense of the book as a whole. Close readers of Round and Square will know that I have already posted all of chapters one and two, and the first parts of chapters three on this blog (look for them below). I will post the entire "blog draft" on Round and Square in 2012.
Front Matter: [b] Window RF |
My book, The Emperor's Teacher, introduces the greatest management book of all time (Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Ruling), and then explains its key teachings to readers in the twenty-first century. This is challenging stuff for readers today (in East Asia and the West, I might add), just as it was ten centuries ago. No book is deeper or richer with lessons you need to learn to manage your career, your family, your football team...
...or the corporation you lead. We all need it. My book takes you through the lessons found in a thousand year-old text. The "Talking Points" that follow in the next few posts will give a sense of the book as a whole. Close readers of Round and Square will know that I have already posted all of chapters one and two, and the first parts of chapters three on this blog (look for them below). I will post the entire "blog draft" on Round and Square in 2012.
Talking Points-a Talking Points-b Talking Points-c Talking Points-d Talking Points-e
Table of Contents-a Table of Contents-b Table of Contents-c
Chapters:
1-Breaking the Vessel (12) 2-Living and Learning (12) 3-Spring and Autumn Roles (12)
4-The New Hierarchy (4)
1-Breaking the Vessel (12) 2-Living and Learning (12) 3-Spring and Autumn Roles (12)
4-The New Hierarchy (4)
Preface
The preface presents a short discussion of themes in Western management books, as well as the Art of War and several other Chinese works popular with business audiences. This is told as part of a story (similar to the first pages of the accompanying book proposal) that sets the tone for the work as a whole. It is meant to capitalize on the interest in China among today’s readers while creating a sense of familiarity (through stories with reminders) of the themes in popular Western business texts.
Breaking the Vessel
The chapter begins with a
famous story (it appears in primary school readers throughout China, Taiwan,
and Hong Kong) of a child who has the ingenuity to save a playmate from certain
death, even as all of the other children cowered. This little boy would grow up to write the
Comprehensive Mirror, one of the greatest historical texts ever written. Sima Guang, the lifesaver and author,
articulated key ways to learn from texts (we would call them case studies
today) and translate that knowledge into action.
Chapter Two
Lessons for Living
Sima Guang wrote within a tradition that intensely debated the relationship between living and learning, and the chapter provides a series of stories and legendary anecdotes that constitute “a step beyond” the Art of War and prepares the reader for the focused “lessons” that follow. It might be said that the chapter is intended to “lull” the reader into the culture of Chinese management by way of stories. The purpose is serious, however. Each story will craft an approach to understanding the material in subsequent chapters.
Front Matter:
Talking Points-a Talking Points-b Talking Points-c Talking Points-d Talking Points-e
Table of Contents-a Table of Contents-b Table of Contents-c
The preface presents a short discussion of themes in Western management books, as well as the Art of War and several other Chinese works popular with business audiences. This is told as part of a story (similar to the first pages of the accompanying book proposal) that sets the tone for the work as a whole. It is meant to capitalize on the interest in China among today’s readers while creating a sense of familiarity (through stories with reminders) of the themes in popular Western business texts.
Part One—You’ve Read the
Art of War…Now What?
Chapter OneBreaking the Vessel
[c] Ingenuity RF |
Chapter Two
Lessons for Living
Sima Guang wrote within a tradition that intensely debated the relationship between living and learning, and the chapter provides a series of stories and legendary anecdotes that constitute “a step beyond” the Art of War and prepares the reader for the focused “lessons” that follow. It might be said that the chapter is intended to “lull” the reader into the culture of Chinese management by way of stories. The purpose is serious, however. Each story will craft an approach to understanding the material in subsequent chapters.
Front Matter:
Talking Points-a Talking Points-b Talking Points-c Talking Points-d Talking Points-e
Table of Contents-a Table of Contents-b Table of Contents-c
Chapters:
1-Breaking the Vessel (12) 2-Living and Learning (12) 3-Spring and Autumn Roles (12)
4-The New Hierarchy (4)
1-Breaking the Vessel (12) 2-Living and Learning (12) 3-Spring and Autumn Roles (12)
4-The New Hierarchy (4)
[d] Lessons RF |
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