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Hosted by the Sinyi Center for Culture Studies at the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies (IAHS) and by the World Ethics Institute Beijing (WEIB) at Peking University, the 1st Sinyi Lecture took place on December 8, 2016. Sinyi Lecture provides a platform for advanced exchanges and dialogues around the theme of the modern destiny, mission, and transformation of the Confucian tradition in the business context. It invites distinguished scholars and business leaders to discuss topics relevant to business practices, with the hope to span across disciplinary boundaries, to close the gap between theory and practice, and to uncover, enrich, and apply traditional Confucian resources in spirituality, morality, ethics, and social institutions to business. The lecture aims at advocating and broadening the value of ren (human-heartedness or humanity), and promoting exploration and construction of a new business ethics under the perspective of spiritual humanism.
Prof. Sun Chen, former President of National Taiwan University and a renowned scholar of economics, was invited to be the speaker of the first Sinyi Lecture. After his speech, Director of IAHS at Peking University Prof. Tu Weiming and Board Chairman of Sinyi Realty Mr. Chou Chünchi joined Prof. Sun for a dialogue on Business Ethics and the Confucian Tradition. Executive Vice-director of IAHS Prof. Ni Peimin presided over the lecture, and Vice President of PKU Prof. Wu Zhipan attended the lecture and delivered welcome remarks on the arrival of Prof. Sun Chen and Mr. Chou Chünchi with his delegation from Taiwan. Eminent scholar Prof. Liu Mengxi was also present at the event as an invited guest.
The first part of the event was Prof. Sun Chen’s keynote speech on the topic of Modern Economic Commission of Confucian Ethics. He mentioned in the lecture that Confucianism was formed 2,000 years ago during the time when economy was in stagnation and people’s welfare came from the society’s being harmonious and peaceful. However, modern western thoughts generated in an era of economic development about 200 years ago believed that, in addition to social harmony and peace, people’s welfares must come from economic growth and the increase of both people’s income and wealth. There is, however, no conflict between the core ideas of these two sets of thoughts.
Prof. Sun explained that Adam Smith once said, being concerned about one’s self-interest will lead to the virtue of prudence, and caring for other’s benefits will generate the virtue of justice and benevolence. In terms of ethical principles which modern enterprises should adhere to, Prof. Sun suggested that business ethics should contain four principles: First, ren (humanity), which means loving people. Enterprises need to go beyond their own interests and take the survival and development of the human race into consideration. Second, yi (justice or appropriateness), which aims at providing fare treatment of the interests of all the relevant parties, such as stockholders, managers, and customers. Third, cheng (sincerity), which means that enterprises must neither deceive themselves nor deceive others, and never do anything against their own conscience. Fourth, xin (trustworthiness), i.e. enterprises should maintain good reputation and being trustworthy.
The second part of the event was a dialogue on Business Ethics and the Confucian tradition participated by Prof. Sun, Prof. Tu and Mr. Chou. Prof. Tu pointed out that since 2013, the communities of Cultural China which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Macao and even the entire East Asia have reached a consensus that the increase of GDP could not be the only measure for the development of China and its interaction with the world. Besides the economic progress, we need to put more emphasis on considerations about politics, social and culture development, and environmental protection.
Prof. Tu emphasized that comprehensive development of a human being should include the following dimensions – the dimensions of one’s relationship to oneself, of human relationships, of the relation between human and the natural world, and of the relationship between humans and the way of heaven. There is a choice in dealing with values such as freedom, rationality, rights, rule of law, and various dignities. That means between yi (justice) and li (profit), yi must take priority. Without justice, the pursuit of profit will become indulgence. In emphasizing rights, we must emphasize responsibility; when talking about rule of law, we must emphasize ritual propriety; when talking about human dignity, we must emphasize social harmony; when talking about freedom, we must emphasize social responsibility. He indicated that broadening these values from within, especially in the realm of businesses, may create an opportunity for the turn of human civilizations.
Mr. Chou Chünchi, board chairman of Taiwan Sinyi Realty, also shared his experience of implementing business ethics. Chou said that in making management decisions, most enterprises would consider how to increase profits for the company and how to promote maximum benefits for their stockholders. However, about five or six years ago, Sinyi Realty pioneered in the business circle in setting up a position called “ethics manager,” which is responsible for developing education programs in the business and to promote the concept of justice. Since then, the most significant and the highest decision-making body of the enterprise became the Ethical Management Committee of the business.
“We set for ourselves five major parties that we must be responsible to: our customers, colleagues, stockholders, the public, and the natural environment,” Chou said. “Every significant proposal must be examined through the perspective of these five major parties. Besides the Ethics Manager, staffs from other departments must also review the proposals. A proposal may help the company to earn money and add values for our customers, yet if it may be harmful to the environment or may cause a disturbance to the community, we would examine it and, if it turns out that the proposal is not in accord with the ethical standard, we will withdraw it and propose a new one.”
Chou believed that there are three important pillars in business management: the first is being people–oriented; the second is to put yi (justice or appropriateness) before li (profit); and the third is vertical thinking, meaning to understand the demand and plan of the government. Chou pointed out that running business in this way will not reduce the profit of an enterprise. In fact since the establishment of his company, its capital has increased 20,000 times.
After the dialogue Prof. Sun, Prof. Tu and Mr. Chou opened the floor and responded to the questions from the audience. Then Prof. Tu presented gifts to Prof. Sun and Mr. Chou on behalf of IAHS, which are two pieces of Chinese calligraphy written by Prof. Ni Peimin (Executive Vice-director of IAHS). The event ended with warm applause from the audience.[:zh]
（会场）
（主题对话）
（杜先生为孙教授、周先生赠送倪教授亲笔书法作品）
2016年12月8日晚7时，由北京大学高等人文研究院信义文化研究中心、北京大学世界伦理中心举办的首场“信义讲座”在北京大学英杰交流中心阳光厅举行。“信义讲座”是北京大学高等人文研究院信义文化中心主办的一个大型讲座。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。
信义讲座的首讲，邀请到了前台湾大学校长、著名经济学家孙震教授。北京大学人文讲席教授、高等人文研究院院长杜维明教授，台湾信义集团的董事长周俊吉先生参与了之后的主题对话环节，共同围绕“企业伦理与儒家传统”一主题，表达了各自的观点。讲座由北京大学高等人文研究院执行副院长倪培民教授主持，北京大学常务副校长吴志攀教授出席并致辞欢迎孙震及周俊吉先生一行，著名学者刘梦溪教授也应邀出席了活动。
讲座的第一个环节是孙震先生的主题演讲，题目为“走出世界经济的困局——儒家伦理的现代经济使命”。孙震在讲座中提到，儒家思想是产生在我国经济停滞的2000多年前，在这一时期人民的福祉来自社会的和谐与安定。而200多年前处于经济成长时代产生的现代西方思想则认为，人民的福祉除了社会的和谐安定还要有经济的成长即人民所得跟财富的增加。但两种思想的基本核心理想并不冲突。
孙震解释，亚当·斯密曾提出，关心自己的利益所产生审慎的美德，关心他人的利益所产生公平的美德和仁慈的美德。审慎是追求自己的物质福利和社会地位与名声，公平则是不让别人的利益减少，仁慈是让别人的利益增加。
在提到现代企业经营应当遵循的伦理关系时，孙震表示，企业伦理应该涵盖四项原则，其一为仁即爱人，企业不能仅仅考虑自己的利益还要谋求人类生存发展的贡献；其二是义即公平，旨在让股东、经理人、顾客等任何利益方都得到应有地对待；其三是诚，要不自欺也不欺人，企业不能做违背自己良心的事情；其四则是信，即做有信誉值得信赖的企业。
讲座的第二个环节，是孙震、杜维明及周俊吉三位先生围绕“企业伦理与儒家传统”进行的主题对话。杜维明教授指出，自2013年文化中国包括中国大陆港台新加坡澳门乃至东亚华人社会形成一个共识，即GDP的发展不能够成为中华民族往前发展或者和世界互动的唯一标准。除了经济发展以外，更要注重政治的比较，社会、文化的发展以及生态环保。
因此，杜维明认为，一个人的全面的发展，要包括人的自我、人互相之间、自然地球，甚至包括在天人的关系。在自由、理性、权力、法制和各种尊严，中间有一个选择，这个选择就是义和利，要以义为先。假如没有正义观念的制衡，就会变成放任。即在强调权力的同时强调责任，强调法治同时带入礼的观念，强调个人尊严的同时强调社会和谐，强调自由时同时强调社会责任。他指出，如果这种内心价值的开阔，特别是在企业界，也许会是人类文明转向的一个契机。
台湾信义集团的董事长周俊吉也分享了其在探寻企业伦理过程中的实际体会，他表示，绝大部分企业做决策时想的都是怎么样去增加公司的利润，怎么去做对这个股东最大效益能够提升。但五、六年之前台湾信义企业集团首先在企业设置伦理长的职务，旨在推动企业的教育，推进公平理念。职务增设后，公司内部最重要也是最高的决策会议，变为全面伦理管理委员会。
“我们自己设定五个主要关系人，有顾客、有同事、有股东、有社会大众还有自然环境” 周俊吉说，“每一个重大提案都从五个主要关系中去检视，除了伦理长，其他单位的也都要来看，你提出来这个案子里面，你可能会帮公司赚钱，也可能帮客户增加价值。可是你这个作为是不是有一些会伤害到环境。有可能是造成社区的不安。我们就会这样去检视，不行的就退回，重新再提案。”
周俊吉认为，企业经营有三个重要的支柱，第一为以人为本、第二是先义后利、第三是纵向思考。他强调，所谓的先义后利就是先把一些正当的该做的事情做到了。企业本来就是要善待客人，为客人提供需要的东西你要提供。善待员工，提供给员工高一些的薪水和奖金。在内部推动，从员工的培养、企业制度到决策会议的实施遵循这样的原则，最终得到外部地鼓励。同时，周俊吉指出这样做并不会减损公司效益，仅其母公司的资本，从建立至今已经有两万多倍的增长。
他解释所谓的纵向思考指的是了解政府的需求和规划，这也是企业家必要的德行之一。而企业经营者有了以人为本、先义后利、纵向思想的观念并能实施，企业的经营的成功，应该是指日可待。
讲座最后的开放环节，三位嘉宾分别就观众提出的问题进行了回应。杜维明院长代表高研院分别向两位嘉宾赠送了由倪培民教授书写的书法作品，整场讲座在观众的热烈掌声中宣告结束。
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