Tu Weiming (杜维明)

At 7 p.m. on November 22nd, 2017, the second “Sinyi lecture”, sponsored by Sinyi Cultural Research center of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, PKU and World Ethics Institute, PKU, was held at Sunshine Hall of Ying Jie Communication Center at Peking University. “Sinyi lecture” is a lecture of large-scale, held by Sinyi Cultural Research Center at the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, PKU. It aims at providing a high-level platform for communication. With the theme of modern destiny, mission and transformation of the Confucian tradition under the backdrop of commercial society, the lecture invites well-known scholars and elites in the field to discuss about the related issues emerged in the commercial practices. Thus it hopes to cross discipline boundaries, bridge the differences between theory and practice, explore, enrich and apply the resources provided by the Confucian tradition on spiritual, moral, ethical and institutional aspects. It also hopes that the value of Jen can be highlighted and expanded and thus promote the exploration and construction of the new commercial ethics under the perspective of spiritual humanism. On December 8th, 2016, Professor Sunzhen, the former president of Taiwan University and the famous economist, was firstly invited to the Sinyi lecture and gave a speech entitled “Confucian ethics and the mission of modern economy”. On November 22th, 2017, the second Sinyi lecture continued to focus on “The modern destiny, mission and transformation of the Confucian tradition” and “Confucian tradition and Entrepreneurship”. Moreover, it sought to explore the role, value and contingency of the Confucian tradition under the present age of internet economy, the field of business and even the holistic cultural-China perspective.

Professor Xu Shijun, the well-known management scientist and educator in Taiwan, professor of “Renyan” lecture at Feng Chia University, Taiwan, the first president of the school of management at Taiwan University, was invited as the guest speaker of Sinyi Lecture this time. Centered around the topic of “Confucian tradition and the Entrepreneurship”, Professor Tu Weiming, the chair professor of humanity at Peking university and the president of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, entered into a dialogue with Professor Xu Shijun. Their way of “dialogue” inspired many and questions raised by the audience were discussed and answered. The lecture was hosted by Professor Tu Weiming and a speech was given at the beginning by Mr.Zhou Junji, the board chairman of Sinyi Enterprise Group in Taiwan. 43 international students and teacher delegates from the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development of the National School of Development at Peking University also attended the lecture.

Before the lecture, Professor Tu Weiming firstly explained to the audience the meaning of “Sinyi” of the Sinyi lecture. “Sin” and “Yi” both trace to a paragraph in The Analects from Confucius: “The profound person takes righteousness (yi) as his root, act according to propriety (li), speak with modesty and fulfill his wishes with faith, what a profound person!” From “Taking righteousness as his root” to “Fulfilling his wishes with faith”, “Sinyi” has not only been a name of an enterprise (Sinyi Enterprise Group), but also represented a kind of social conscience and an advance idea of creating value for the society.

The first part of the lecture was a speech from Professor Xu Shijun which was entitled “How to do the Governance when the Market and Government Lose Effectiveness? On the Ethical Basis of the Internet Economy”. Based on his 50 years’ teaching experience of business management, Professor Xu pointed out that the connotation of  “Entrepreneurship” in the age of internet economy was widely different from that in the past and carried new spiritual outlook. In the age of internet economy, ethical basis is what the entrepreneurship needs the most and Confucianism correspondingly becomes a spiritual resource for it.

Then, Professor Xu distinguished the differences between the key words “governance” and “management” in his lecture and explained the two “hands” in the governance mechanism, which were the market mechanism (the invisible hand) and the government supervision (the visible hand). He believed that under the governance mechanism led by market ,the business organizations that aimed at lowering transaction cost couldn’t avoid the situation like fierce competition, zero-sum game and the survival of the fittest and even unscrupulously chase after self-interest. All of these could lead to ecological crisis and problems like inequality between the rich and the poor. Hence social responsibility should be of prior concern of the enterprise, otherwise, the harmony of the human society would be hard to sustain.

Professor Xu dialectically elucidated the function of the internet economy and proposed that in the age of internet economy, internet and things were connected, virtuality and reality were integrated and the boundaries of enterprise and industry were blurred. Together with these phenomena, transaction costs and logistics costs were cut down significantly and the formation of the new mode of economy like sharing economy have subversively influenced the theories and assumptions in the traditional system of economy. In a positive sense, the running of the enterprise tended to be more ecological, the structure of the industry was more and more virtualized. A business ecosystem which focused more and more on its impact on nature and ecosystem gradually took its shape. And in a negative sense, the internet economy had also brought problems like the monopoly of the leading business and unfair competition.

At the end of the lecture, Professor Xu returned back to the topic of Confucian ethics. He asked: how to build up an effective, collaborative and sharing governance mechanism in the age of Internet economy? He then pointed out that the Confucian ethical spirit as a social capital in the contemporary time was helping and would achieve helping us to balance the conflict of the benefit and problems brought by the progress in technology. It would also lead us back to an emphasis of morality, ethics and spirit of mutual assistance.

The second part of the lecture is a dialogue around the topic “Confucian tradition and the Entrepreneurship” among Professor Xu, Professor Tu and the host— Doctor Wang Jianbao from the Institute of Advance Humanistic Studies, PKU. Professor Tu firstly acknowledged the insights given by Professor Xu and then analyzed the position of individual, family, enterprise and nation from a Confucian perspective. He indicated that, facilitated by the platform of internet, in the sense of how to become a man, the idea of “Just as you would like to establish yourself in the world, so allow others to establish themselves. ”,the notion of “Consider others in one’s own place.”and the thought of “One should not impose on others what he himself does not desire.”had the impact to turn the predatory and hegemonic age resulted from the earlier capitalism to an age of universal benevolent government emphasizing humanity, communion, mutual learning and win-win situation.

In response to the presence of 43 international students from the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, especially those from Africa, Professor Tu proposed three cultural ideas of the African natives to show that just like Confucianism and Daoism, these cultural ideas in Africa could also provide valuable thought resources in the transition of hegemonic to benevolent government. These three cultural ideas of the African natives were: “The earth is not an abundant resource given by our ancestors, but our unlimited future.”; “I am because you are”; The connection between individual and the whole ethnic group is not interior but exterior.”

Later on, Professor Xu and Professor Tu exchanged their thoughts on the following aspects: from the expanded notion of “myself” to the interest of the public; from the four basic aspects of an individual (personal aspect, social aspect, natural aspect, aspect of the way of heaven) to the question of how belief becomes a basis for the union and peaceful coexistence of human society; from the decentralization brought by the internet to the decentralization of the international situation and further to the outlook of “All the people of the world are brothers.”

Professor Tu specifically mentioned what Mr. Qianmu had pointed out in his article: one of the contribution of Chinese nation to the world culture is answering the question of how the human mind can be united with the way of heaven. Given this, Professor Tu further asked: In the age of internet with decentralization as its tendency, can Confucianism contribute to the mutual learning among different nations, values and cultural systems through a spirit of dialogue? He believed that China had been accumulating its national confidence, methodological confidence and cultural confidence and was trying to solve the problems and conflicts within the human destiny community through dialogue and negotiation. So did Professor Xu respond to the thought of Professor Tu from the perspective of “governance” at the end of the conversation. He considered over the questions such as above the level of enterprise and nation, how to reach mutual prosperity under the premise of respecting difference and how to utilize the spirit of Confucianism for our coexistence and growth.

In the Q&A session of the lecture, Doctor Wang Jianbao briefly summarized the dialogue between Professor Tu and Professor Xu and started the session by raising the conundrum of ethical choices related to governance. Professor Tu and Professor Xu provided their understanding of several issues including the ebbing of property, cultural dialogue, social capital, the Confucian interpretation of free will and how the internet can make the world a better place. In the end, as a representative, Doctor Wang Jianbao advocated that we should carry on all the fine tradition from the east and the west in order to contribute to the establishment of human destiny community. The lecture ended in the applauses of the audience.

讲座现场

许士军教授演讲

许士军、杜维明主题对话现场

2017年11月22日晚7时，由北京大学高等人文研究院信義文化研究中心、北京大学世界伦理中心举办的“信義讲座”第二讲在北京大学英杰交流中心阳光厅举行。“信義讲座”是北京大学高等人文研究院信義文化中心主办的一个大型讲座，旨在提供一个高层次的对话平台，围绕商业社会背景下儒学传统的现代命运、使命及其转化这一主题，广泛邀请知名学者和业界精英就商业实践中出现的相关议题进行探讨，以期能跨越学科界限，融通理论和实务区隔，发掘、充实和运用儒学传统在精神、道德、伦理及制度等层面的资源，凸显并扩展“仁”的价值，推进精神性人文主义视域下新商业伦理的探索和建设。2016年12月8日，信義讲座的首讲曾邀请台湾大学前校长、著名经济学家孙震教授，讲解“儒家伦理的现代经济使命”。2017年11月22日，信義讲座的第二讲继续围绕“儒学传统的现代命运、使命及其转化”的论域，与首讲一脉相承地进一步探讨“儒家传统与企业家精神”，深入思辨儒家传统在当下的网络经济时代、在企业界乃至整个文化中国的时空论域内的角色、价值与权变。

本次信義讲座的主题演讲嘉宾是台湾著名管理学家、教育家，台湾逢甲大学“人言”讲座教授、台湾大学管理学院首任院长许士军教授。北京大学人文讲席教授、高等人文研究院院长杜维明教授和许士军教授在主题演讲之后围绕“儒家传统与企业家精神”展开了深入的对话，以“会讲”的方式激发出诸多洞见，并就听众的问题予以精到解答。本次讲座由杜维明教授主持，台湾信義企业集团董事长周俊吉先生在讲座前致辞，来自北京大学国家发展研究院-南南合作与发展学院的43位国际学生和教师代表也应邀出席了活动。

在主题演讲开始之前，北京大学高等人文研究院院长杜维明教授首先为与会听众阐释了信義讲座之“信義”内涵。“信“、“义”二字溯源自《论语》中孔子的一段话：“君子义以为质，礼以行之，孙以出之，信以成之，君子哉！”。从“义以为质”到“信以成之”，“信義”不仅代表一个企业名称（信義企业集团），更代表一种社会的良知和为社会创造价值的先进理念。

讲座的第一个环节是许士军教授的主题演讲，题目为“当市场和政府失效时如何统理——论网络经济的伦理基础”。许教授根据自己50年来教授企业管理课程的思考，指出网络经济时代的“企业家精神”的内涵已与以往显著不同，具备新的精神面貌；在网络经济时代，企业家精神最需要伦理依托，而这就要靠儒家传统来赋予企业家精神以核心内涵。

接下来，许士军教授就讲座关键词“统理”（governance）与“管理”（management）的内涵差异进行了深入辨析，并详细阐释了两“手”典型的统理机制，即市场机制（看不见的手）和政府监理（看得见的手）。他认为，在市场主导的统理机制之下，旨在降低交易成本（transaction cost）而成立的企业组织，避免不了激烈竞争、零和博弈、适者生存、优胜劣汰的局面，甚至会产生为求自利而不择手段，乃至造成生态危机和贫富不均等问题。因此，企业就需要讲求社会责任（social responsibility），否则，人类社会就难以维系和谐的状态。

许教授辩证地阐释网络经济的作用，指出在网络经济时代，网网互通，物物互联，虚实整合，企业边界和产业边界变得模糊，交易成本和物流成本显著降低，共享经济等新经济形态的形成对传统经济学理论及假设产生了颠覆性的影响。从积极的方面讲，企业的经营活动向生态化发展，产业的结构也趋向虚拟化，逐渐形成人法地、地法天、天法道、道法自然的商业生态系统；从消极的方面讲，网络经济也带来了诸如龙头企业垄断和不公平竞争的问题。

主题讲座的最后，许教授把论题的落脚点回归儒家伦理。他追问：在网络经济时代如何建立有效的协同共享统理机制？指出儒家的伦理精神作为当代的社会资本（social capital）正在并将会帮助我们平衡科技进步带来的好处和问题之间的矛盾，指引我们回到人的道德、伦理思想和互助合作的精神。

讲座的第二个环节是许士军教授、杜维明教授及对话主持人北京大学高等人文研究院博士王建宝三位先生围绕“儒家传统与企业家精神”进行的主题对话。杜维明教授首先充分肯定许士军教授演讲中的洞见和精神鼓励，进而从儒家的立场分析网络时代的个体、家庭、企业和国家的定位。他指出，从如何做人的角度来看，“己欲立而立人，己欲达而达人”的观念，到“推己及人”的观念，到“己所不欲勿施于人”的观念，可以在互联网平台的作用下将资本主义早期所带来的掠夺和霸权的时代，转变成一种强调以人为本、强调共融、互鉴、共赢的普世价值的王道的时代。

因为本次讲座有43位北大南南学院的国际学生，特别是来自非洲的留学生，杜维明教授举出三个有关非洲原住民的文化观念来阐释不仅像儒家、道家这样的传统文化，也包括原住民文化都可为从霸权到王道的时代转向提供宝贵的思想资源。这三个非洲原住民文化观念分别是“地球不是我们的祖先传给我们的一种丰富的遗产，而是我们无穷的未来”；“我的存在是因为你的存在“（I am because you are）”；“个人和整个的族群是一种内在的联系，不是一种外在的联系”。

随后，许士军教授与杜维明教授开启对话式思辩，讨论焦点涉及从扩大化的“我”的观念到公众的利益，从一个个体的四个基本面向（个人面向、社会面向、自然面向，天道面向）到信仰如何成为人类社会凝聚与和平共处的基础，从网络的去中心化到企业和国际格局的去中心化再到“四海之内皆兄弟”的天下图景。

杜先生特别提到，钱穆先生曾撰文指出：中华民族可能对世界文化做出的最重要的贡献之一，就是人心和天道怎么样能够合一的问题。基于此，杜维明教授进一步追问：儒家在去中心化的网络时代，能否通过对话的方式实现不同的民族，不同的价值，不同的体系进行相互学习、相互参照和相互借鉴？他认为中华民族正走出一条有民族自信、道路自信、文化自信的道路，不是用排斥性的霸道的方式而是用王道的方式，通过对话和协商来解决人类命运共同体中的问题和冲突。许士军教授也在对话最后从“统理”的视角回应杜教授的思考，审视在超越企业机构和国家的高层维度上，如何在尊重差异的前提下实现共同繁荣发展；如何评论儒家的精神以融合共存，共享成长。

在本次信義讲座的问答环节，北京大学高等人文研究院王建宝博士对杜维明教授和许士军教授的“会讲”式对话做了精要总结，并以统理相关的伦理选择难题开启问答环节。许士军教授和杜维明教授分别就产权退潮、文明对话、社会资本、儒家对自由意志的看法以及互联网如何让世界变得更美好等问题给出了简要并切实的回应和解答。在本次信義讲座的结尾，王建宝博士代表信義讲座倡议大家发扬古今中西的各种优良传统，为企业的发展和人类命运共同体的建设做出我们每一个人的贡献！整场讲座在听众的热烈掌声中结束。