Confucian dynamism, culture and ethical changes in Chinese societies – a comparative study of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong

Abstract

Confucian ethics, as the essence of the Chinese traditional culture, have been widely applied to social sciences from economics to business. Confucian dynamism, a concept proposed by researchers during the 1980s, was understood to boost Asian economies. According to the previous studies, the rankings of Chinese societies in terms of Confucian dynamism followed the order China>Hong Kong>Taiwan. Based on an empirical investigation of 504 individuals in these areas, this study finds that this ranking has changed owing to rapid economic and political transformations of recent decades. Occidentalized Hong Kong and communist China have environments unfavorable for maintaining Chinese traditions. This transformation also influences the ethical cultures of different Chinese societies. The understanding of Confucian ethics can not merely help Western managers to understand business people, companies and human resources in China better, but it can also help explain the cultural and ethical changes in Chinese societies. Further, this study also addresses managerial implications of Confucian ethics for business organizations and human resource management.

Keywords:

• China
• Confucian dynamism
• cross-cultural research
• cultural change
• culture
• ethical change
• Hong Kong
• human resource management
• Taiwan

Notes

 1. Qian (1976) wrote that, ‘I think the spirit of Chinese culture should be on the ethics. The Chinese history is formed from the spirit of ethics, and the same is the Chinese culture’ (p.114).

 2. Confucius was the earliest philosopher in ancient China mainly because he was the first to establish a systematic and conscious theory (Confucianism), which was valuable to the Chinese culture (see Lao 1991, p. 101). Confucius's philosophy, thus, was the beginning of Chinese philosophy although it is not so mature on the concepts of ontology and cosmology.

 3. To discuss the interaction between Confucian ethic and the economy, Lam (2003) indicated these four crucial stages of development of Confucianism, including, ‘the Classical Confucians in the agrarian economy, the Neo-Confucians in the commercialized economy, the reformist Confucians’ political economy and the Modern Confucians in the global economy’ (p. 154). Boardman and Kato (2003) were also concerned with the development of the Neo-Confucianism in Japan, which was strongly influenced by the philosophy of two Chinese neo-Confucians, Chu Hsi (1130–1200 AD) and Wang Yangming (1472–1529 AD). This also proved that Confucianism has a great impact on other East Asian countries.

 4. Mou considered that The Four Books and I Ching provided the core values of Confucianism. Since the main thoughts of Confucian Analects, and The Works of Mencius were on the benevolence, righteousness and other concepts concerning ontology; on the other hand, The Doctrine of the Mean and I Ching discussed more about cosmology. It is necessary to analyze The Four Books and I Ching simultaneously when discussing Confucian philosophy (Mou 1983, pp. 69–76).

 5. For example, Hsu (1969) wrote, ‘The meaning of the Way can be explained from two respects. Firstly, the Way is the representation and valuing of human being; and secondly, the Way is the common path of each person’ (p. 119).

 6. Lau (1992) wrote, ‘The Way, then, is a highly emotive term and comes very close to the term “Truth” as found in philosophical and religious writings in the West’ (p. xi).

 7. To translate the Chinese term, ‘chun tzu,’ James Legge (1971) uses the term ‘superior man’, Richard John Lynn (1994) uses the term ‘noble man’, and D.C. Lau (1984) uses the term ‘gentleman’ to denote the benevolent individual. We used ‘gentleman’ in this study for two reasons. First, the term ‘chun tzu’ indicated the official governor or a nobleman in the class system before Confucius' time. However, Confucius taught students to break the unequal treatment in the ancient class system. The discrimination between a ‘chun tzu’ and a ‘small man’ is on the virtue and personal ability, and that is the only standard by which to choose the leaders and governors in the government. Thus the characteristic of a ‘chun tzu’ is on personality and morality, not on position. Second, as a representation of benevolence, Confucius and his students had defined ‘chun tzu’ in many chapters in The Analects, for instance, Tsze-hsia said, ‘Looked at a distance, the gentleman appears stern; when approached, he is mild’ (The Analects, XIX/9) and ‘The Master is mild, and yet dignified’ (The Analects, VII/37). So, the term ‘gentleman’ is appropriate to reflect the Chinese term ‘chun tzu.’

 8. Mencius (372–289 BC), who lived in the period of wartime, studied under Confucius's grandson and endeavored to enhance and glorify Confucius's philosophy all his life.

 9. Hsu (1969) wrote, ‘Confucius intensified the meaning of benevolence, and reveled the origin of loving. Thus, the idea of benevolence construct the theory of Confucian, and, the doctrine of Confucius is on the doctrine of benevolence’ (p. 90).

10. For example, see Tuan and Ryan 2000, p. 347.

11. The real name of Confucius (551–479 BC) was Kung Chiu and traditionally honored as Kung Fu-Tzu, that means ‘The Master Kung’ in Chinese. The Latinized name of Confucius came from his honored name of Kung Fu-Tzu. In this study, ‘The Master said’ is identical to ‘Confucius said’.

12. See Lau 1992, p. xx.

13. Although words ‘profit’ and ‘decorum’ are translated by the word ‘li’, they are homophones in Chinese. The word (profit) is a hieroglyph that means cutting rice grain () with a knife (). It was later extended in meaning as profit. The word (decorum) came from the ancient word in which symbolizes putting two strings of jades into utensil and symbolizes a cooking vessel used in sacrificial rites. Thus means to offer jades and meats with containers in a sacrificial altar for gods. So the original meaning of this word is to respect gods and the extended meaning is that a gentleman should comply with norms and codes. See details in Common Dictionary for Ancient Chinese (1993) by Tin-Lin Wong, Publishers of Literature, History, and Philosophy, Taipei.