Author: Gong Yuzhen Vice Dean of BiMBA Business School and Deputy Director of academic committee of Peking University Development Institute
Source: Masawajima Decision Reference, December 2021 issue
This article is excerpted from "Iron Horse Autumn Wind Collection: How Enterprises Learn from the Army to Win battles", written by Gong Yuzhen.
To understand the competitive strategy of Chinese, we must first understand the competitive philosophy of the Chinese. Competition is a pervasive social phenomenon, whether political, economic, military or international.
Around the social phenomenon of competition, different schools of thought during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period of China have thought about it and developed a unique set of competition philosophies. To understand the competitive behavior and strategy of Chinese, it is necessary to understand the competitive philosophy of Chinese.
The traditional Chinese philosophy of competition, which is basically composed of the schools of Confucianism, Law, Taoism, and Bing, understands competition from different angles, and together constitutes the Chinese view of competition, which affects the competitive behavior of Chinese, and to this day.
Confucianism is a philosophy of competition with morality as the core, jurists are a philosophy of competition with strength as the core, Taoism is a competitive philosophy with patience as the core, and Bingjia is a competitive philosophy with strategy as the core.
01. Confucianism: a philosophy of competition with morality as the core
The core concept of Confucianism is benevolence, and benevolence is love. The basic Confucian view of the concept of social competition is that "within the four seas, all brothers are also brothers" and "the world is one family, and China is one person".
In the Confucian view, in essence, human relations should be harmonious, benign interaction, and interdependence, not tense, conflicting, and antagonistic. The consciousness of unity and the pursuit of harmony are fundamental to understanding the Confucian concept of competition. Confucianism takes the unity of the world as its cultural ideal and the harmony of all nations as the basic principle for handling relations with neighboring nations and countries.
Since the beginning of Confucius, Confucianism has maintained an optimistic attitude of trust in human nature and has fervent expectations for a positive human interaction relationship full of human values, which is fully reflected in Confucius's belief that "one wants to stand up for oneself, and one wants to reach one's own". In the Song Ming theorist, this fervent expectation has risen to the realm of the unity of heaven and man and the unity of all things. Cheng Hao said, "The benevolent one, with heaven and earth and all things as one." ”
In this context, the basic value of Confucianism in competition is the pursuit of harmony. "The use of etiquette, harmony is precious, the way of the first king is beautiful", this is Confucius's concept of harmony; "Baohe Taihe, Nai Li Zhen", which is the harmonious view of "Yi Chuan"; "Harmony, the Tao of the World", this is the harmonious view of "Zhongyong"; "DeMo is greater than harmony" and "The way of heaven and earth is beautiful in harmony", which is Dong Zhongshu's concept of harmony.
The pursuit of harmony can be said to be a consistent tradition of Confucianism. This is an important feature of the Chinese concept of competition, competition itself is not the end, competition is to achieve harmonious cooperation.
Simply put, the Confucian understanding of competition is manifested in: First, harmony is the essence of the world. Harmony is the basic state of the universe, while competition and conflict are nothing more than unnatural disorder and imbalance, with no permanent meaning.
Second, harmony is the trend of change and development in the world. It is true that there are phenomena of difference, relativeity, discord, and hostility in the world, but Confucianism believes that the general direction of the entire universe, human society, and personal life is basically toward harmony and unity, and the conflicts, defects, and contradictions in the universe and life experience are just a transitional phenomenon.
Third, harmony is the ultimate goal of competition. In the Confucian value system, harmony and good are aligned, while competitive conflict is associated with evil. Only for the sake of harmonious and good competition can there be value legitimacy and desirable competition.
I call the Confucian concept of competition a philosophy of competition with morality at its core. In the Confucian view, a gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness, and a villain is a metaphor for profit. The battle of gentlemen is a struggle of morality, and the struggle of villains is a struggle of interests. Good competition should be a gentleman's struggle, that is, it should be used for moral purposes, and it should be morally regulated.
Confucians believe that morality has a strong appeal and influence, in the words of Confucius, "the virtue of a gentleman, the virtue of a villain", to put it bluntly, morality is power. Therefore, Mencius said that "benevolent people are invincible to the world" and emphasized "subduing people with virtue". Confucianism in general believes in moral values and moral power.
The value of the Confucian concept of competition lies in the fact that it fully reveals the possibility of human benevolence and cooperation.
The Analects' "Establish oneself as oneself, and attain one's own desires" and "Do not do to others what one does not want" emphasizes moral self-discipline in competition. The "Terrain Kun, Gentleman with Virtue" in "Yi Chuan" emphasizes the generous character in competition. "All things are nurtured without harming each other, and the Tao is parallel but not contradictory", and Zhang Zai's "Hatred must be reconciled and solved", emphasizing the persistence of human peace, harmony and the common destiny of mankind, representing a great royal spirit. This is all a precious legacy left to us by Chinese culture.
However, the overemphasis on "harmony" and "oneness" has also led to a tendency of Confucianism to devalue conflict and competition in general. For a long time, when Chinese talked about competition, he instinctively thought that this was an immoral, abnormal, and disgraceful behavior, hoping that people and people, countries and countries would be harmonious and courteous to each other, even if the dispute was also a dispute between gentlemen, and the exchange of courtesy was a competition under moral norms and constraints.
Chinese are reluctant to acknowledge the existence of competition for each other's interests, and even if there is competition, they do not easily tear their faces, which is largely influenced by Confucianism.
From the confucian view of competition, if both sides are humble gentlemen, have a strong sense of cooperation, and are out of the goodwill of establishing themselves and reaching out of their own desires, they can definitely achieve the positive and cooperative game mentioned in game theory.
This is obviously the best state of competition. It is also the ideal competition pursued by Chinese. However, the reality is that not all people are gentlemen, and seeking profit is also human nature.
Zeng Guofan had long discovered the limitations of the Confucian concept of competition, and the more gentlemen gave way, the more arrogant the villains became. The more the gentleman gives in, the more arrogant the villain becomes, and the villain will regard the gentleman's concession as weakness, so he will have to extort more benefits.
The most painful thing for Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang was to discover that "foreigners are unreasonable in their arguments." In an era of powerism, you cannot use morality to wishfully impress the Western powers that believe in the weak, and morality without strength can sometimes be worthless. Before the ships of the great powers were strong and strong, without strength, you could only bend and give in step by step. This is the biggest dilemma encountered by the Confucian concept of competition.
02. The Lawyer: A Competitive Philosophy with Strength at its Core
If the Confucian philosophy of competition pursues harmony, the philosophy of competition of the Legalists points directly to reality. Among the Hundred Sons, the Dharma is a school that openly acknowledges the existence of competition. Unlike the Confucian quest for harmony, the Dharma believed that the world was essentially a world of competition. What to fight for? Fight for interests. What do you rely on to fight? Rely on strength.
Therefore, Han Feizi said that this era is "the world of great controversy.". Liu Xiang said that the Warring States era of "giving gifts and giving favors to wars, abandoning benevolence and righteousness and using deceit" was an era of non-prestige and non-power.
Han Feizi said it very bluntly: When the world of great strife follows the path of concession, the rule of non-saints is also. In such a time of great controversy, the use of the Confucian set of modest rules is of no use at all, and it is a pedantic act. In the view of the Dharma, the history of mankind is mainly the history of competition, the ancients competed for morality, the Middle Ages competed for wisdom, and today they compete for strength.
The era of competition for morality is long gone, and our society speaks by strength, and if there is more power, more power is the people, and the weaker is toward the people. If you have strength, others will submit to you, and without strength, you can only submit to others. It's a jungle society, and the only way for a country to survive is to be rich and strong.
The Jurists were actually particularly like the realist schools of our international relations theory today. Realism holds that the international community is a self-help system in anarchy, that each country uses power as a means to achieve national interests, and that international ethics and morality do not have much meaning.
In such a state of power, the relationship between countries is more of a confrontational relationship, embodied in the conflict and confrontation of national interests, in order to security and survival, the country must develop a variety of power means based on military strength.
Since the state cannot define how much power it has to achieve its interests, the state tends to develop its military power without restriction, believing that it will only be safe if its own power is stronger than its opponents. All countries try to fight for power and increase their own power, so they will always be in a security dilemma.
Compared with Confucianism, the philosophy of competition of the Dharma is utilitarian and cold to us today, but it is very realistic. Although competition requires moral norms and pursuits, competition also needs to be based on strong strength, and must not rely solely on the goodwill of others, otherwise we can only talk about our hearts and minds in peacetime, and repay the king when we are in danger.
Whether it is between countries, organizations, or people (workplaces), after all, they all speak by strength. In a competitive environment, strength is more important than anything else. Only by daring to fight can we make peace. Competition sometimes means learning to aim at profit, to base itself on strength, and to seek peace through struggle. This is where the sobriety and reality of the Legalists lie, and it is also the significance of the Philosophy of Competition of the Legalists.
But there are also problems with the legalists' view of competition. Too much emphasis on competition, too much emphasis on immediate interests, too much emphasis on confrontation, too much belief in strength, sometimes will make you fall into narrow-mindedness and arbitrariness.
In the eyes of the Dharma, the competitive nature of this world is a zero-sum game, in which either victory is king or defeat is defeated. Paying whatever it takes to compete often leads to an escalation of competition.
Kill a thousand enemies and inflict eight hundred self-inflicted wounds. If you defeat all your opponents, but you also suffer heavy losses, if you have won the world, the world has been destroyed, what is the point of such a victory? Whether it is national competition, enterprise competition or interpersonal competition, we will see such examples: escalating vicious competition, step by step, evolves into competitors to hurt each other, and ultimately makes there no real winner on the stage of competition.
What is the purpose of competition? Is it to beat the opponent? No, rational competition is to create a good environment for self-development that is more conducive to long-term development. Competition should not be a simple confrontation and conflict, the use of mutual harm means, can only fall into a greater vicious competition.
03. Taoism: A competitive philosophy with patience as the core
If the Legalist view of competition is concerned with the outcome of the conflict, then the Taoist concept of competition is concerned with long-term development. In other words, if the Dharma understands competition from the dimension of space, the Taoist understands competition from the dimension of time. From the very beginning, Taoists have understood competition from the perspective of the evolution of natural life, not from the perspective of the conflict between competitors.
Lao Tzu observed a phenomenon in the evolution of life in nature: "Man is born weak, and his death is strong." The life of the grass and trees is also soft and brittle, and its death is also withered. Therefore the strong, the dead, the weak, the living. "When a person is alive, his body is soft, and when he dies, he becomes stiff.
When the grass and trees are thriving, they are soft, and when the flowers and leaves fall, they become dry. The reason for this is that the "strong" things have lost their vitality, while the weak things are full of vitality. Although the newborn has to go through many setbacks and many tribulations, the future must belong to the new. True strategists can see the prospect of "immeasurable strength" from the appearance of weakness, so as to see hope and see the future.
Therefore, Lao Tzu said, "The weak is better than the strong, and the soft is better than the strong" and "the weak is better than the strong." Why can weakness prevail over strength? All things that are strong have their fatal fragility, and soft things have the power of long-lasting life.
From the point of view of conflict, Taoism is to look at competition from a natural point of view. Lao Tzu realized from the water that the highest state of competition is the philosophy of "indisputable". The so-called indisputable dispute is the great controversy. "Not arguing" is not blindly passively backing down, but not acting arbitrarily and not arguing. Only in this way can we achieve the goal of "winning without controversy".
"The way of heaven is to win without controversy", that is to say, "no dispute" is actually a high-level form of "struggle", "the husband is only indisputable, so the world cannot compete with it". Therefore, in Lao Tzu's view, the so-called "non-contention" transcends simple vicious competition, but has a larger pattern and a greater mind. He introduced the dimension of time, seeing competition as a process in which forces traded off rather than directly confronted, which required time.
From the perspective of competition, another reason why weakness is better than strong is that "weakness is not disputed". Lao Tzu once again realized this truth from natural phenomena, and he said, "The good is like water." Water is good for all things without controversy, and is evil to all, so it is more than the Tao. ...... Husbands are indisputable, so there is no worry. ”
All desire to be strong and the water is soft, all want to be good and the water is evil, and all want to fight and the water is not disputed. But he is weak, so he can be strong; but he is evil, so he is good; but he is not in dispute, so he can fight deeply. Lao Tzu said, "Know its males and keep their females." Because if you don't argue with people, you don't fight with people. If people do not fight with each other, they can recuperate their strength and reserve the opportunity, and once the time comes, the time will move, and the struggle will be won, and the struggle will be won.
In this case, the nodes of power transformation and power dissipation are particularly important. Lao Tzu said "when moving is still time", Fan Li said that "the saint is not lucky, the time is reversed", we must wait for the time to move. As a result, The Taoists developed a complete set of competitive concepts of avoiding the enemy's sharp edge, taoguang and cultivating obscurity, preserving strength, attacking from behind, soft and rigid, and defeating the strong with the weak.
Fan Li, a famous strategist in the Spring and Autumn Period, applied this concept to the real Wu-Yue dispute. He once warned the Yue king, who was anxious for revenge, "Heaven does not do, And The Buddha is a guest; no one can afford it, and the Man begins." Now the king is not overflowing, not prosperous and proud, not working hard but reserving his work, the heavens do not do but the first guest, the people do not rise and the beginning, this is against the sky and do not know the people. If the king does this, he will hinder the country, and the king will bow down."
If the other side does not have a natural disaster, do not launch an attack; if the other side has no disaster, do not provoke an incident. Now the king did not wait for the country to become rich, he took excessive actions, did not wait for the country to be strong and prosperous, began to pride himself, did not pay much and began to boast of his own merits, the other side began to attack without natural disasters, the other side began to provoke incidents without human disasters, so that against The will of Heaven lost people.
If the king does this, he will inevitably endanger the country and harm himself. "When the time is not up, it must not be forced; if nothing is investigated, it must not be forced." When the time is not ripe, we must not act hastily; we are not sure of the law and cannot move against the sky. And when the time comes, "the time is not slack, the time will not come again; heaven will not take it, but it will be a disaster."
From the perspective of competitive strategy, Taoism provides a concept of grand strategy, emphasizing self-control, low-key, soft-hearted, and standby, rather than blindly being strong. The biggest influence of Taoism on the concept of Chinese competition is not only to focus on the temporary gains and losses, but also to focus on the long-term growth of power.
Don't just focus on the temporary life and death, but also focus on the evolving overall situation, which requires competitors to have enough strategic patience, to learn to be patient, restrained and patient. In fact, restraint and patience are themselves the characteristics of a good competitive strategy.
04. Bingjia: A competitive philosophy with strategy as the core
Soldiers are engaged in war, which is the highest form of competition. The works of the soldiers, represented by Sun Tzu's Art of War, can be said to be specialized in the study of strategies for winning in confrontational environments, and have strong operability, so I call it a competitive philosophy with strategy as the core. "Sun Tzu's Art of War" is the most concentrated embodiment of the concept of competition and the wisdom of competition in Chinese.
Interestingly, the Chinese warriors were greatly influenced by The Taoists in their philosophy of competition. The Taoists believe that the best competition is indisputable, and the warriors believe that the best victory is total victory. "Liutao" says that "all victories are no fights, and the soldiers are not creative."
This reflects the soldiers' understanding of the highest level of competition. Therefore, Sun Tzu said: "A hundred battles are won, and the good who are not good are also good." Soldiers who yield without fighting, and those who are good are also good. "A person who wins every battle is not a master in a mastery. Those who can win without fighting are the masters of the master.
At first glance, Sun Tzu's concept seems to be different from our ordinary people's concept: a hundred battles and a hundred victories, what a good general! What manager doesn't want a general to have a victorious general under him? Why does Sun Tzu say, "A hundred battles are won, and the good who is not good is also"?
Where is the focus of "100 battles and 100 victories"? "War". "War" is confrontation, that is, conflict. Constantly winning through confrontation and conflict will definitely bring you great consumption. There are often examples in wars where you win the immediate but lose the long term; you win the part but lose the overall situation.
The same is true in management. We often have such friends around us: excellent eloquence, no obstacle to eloquence, and a strong competitive spirit. When debating with others, we must compete for a high or low level. The result? You argue with the client, you win the debate, but you lose business. You argue with the leader, you win the debate, but you lose the environment in which you live. You argue with the team, you win the debate, but you lose the support of others. You argue with your family, you win the debate, but you hurt your feelings.
If you fall too deep into local competition, you will lose the ability to grasp the overall situation. Dealing with things with a confrontational mindset, even if it wins, is often a last resort.
Competitors, of course, should pay attention to competition and rivals. But pay too much attention to the opponent, and your vision will be limited by the opponent. Too much competition and hostility will limit your vision and pattern, affect your judgment and thinking, as well as your strategic choices, and make you fall into the dead knot of competing with your opponents.
If you look back at your own career or that of friends around you, you will find an interesting phenomenon. When you're new to the job, or when you're just starting a business, you'll often value every win and give it your all for every win.
But over time, you will find that not every victory is so important, and not all victories can only be achieved through confrontation. Sometimes the non-confrontational approach, or even the cooperative approach, makes the cost smaller, the cost lower, the win more, and the result more perfect.
Therefore, in the eyes of the soldiers, it is best to win without fighting, and if you want to fight, you must also use wisdom to fight. This is what Sun Tzu called "the military plot." Therefore Chinese understanding of competition is not a simple showdown of strength, but a contest of wisdom.
Hence these principles in the art of war: the Five Things, the Seven Plans, Total Victory, First Victory, Anypower, Defeat, Trickery, Surprise, Combined Strength, Initiative, Chance, Prophet, and so on. These principles, in fact, are to make you better use strategy to win the competition, and the guidance of competition is therefore extremely operational. This is also why Sun Tzu's Art of War is considered a competing classic.
05. Diamond model of traditional Chinese competitive philosophy
Confucianism, Dharma, Taoism, and Bingjia constitute a complete Chinese philosophy of competition, and at the same time constitute the four elements of competition: Confucianism, morality; Dharma, strength (strength); Taoism, patience; and bingjia, strategy.
Kissinger once said of the world order: "Order will always require a delicate balance between restraint, power and legitimacy." He revealed three elements of competition: strength, patience, and morality. These three elements are ultimately manifested in competitive behavior, which must be reflected in strategy.
I call it a diamond model of traditional Chinese competitive philosophy, as shown in the following figure:
Therefore, these four theories have constituted a complete system of competitive philosophy. Good competition should be based on strength and moral pursuit, while also having strong patience and clever strategies.
This system can help us transcend the hustle and bustle of time and place in turbulent times, and better grasp our competitive strategies in the long run and fundamentally, so as to grasp our own destiny.