What is right leadership? An ancient problem that had plagued the minds of Warlords

[charlie cho]

I have realized recently that Leo has been talking about politics a lot. I never knew there were sages in the past that talked about politics at all. I thought they hated politicians and wanted to stay away from it as far as possible. But maybe I was wrong. Though it is quite true that sages and enlightened people tried to stay away from politics, they did not completely deny talking about it too. 

In the warring states period when Sun Tzu had lived, right before Emperor Chin had united China and created the first empire, these warlords vouched for power in the realm and they realized rather quickly that war was not the only way to dominate the world. They realized right leadership, government, right treatment, and the support from the people were main driving forces to dominate and realize their dreams of becoming emperor. Because of that, Confucius rose to fame. Legalism rose to fame. But weirdly Taoism had also been adopted as a school of thought. 

We think Taoism is just a life philosophy, though it may be true, most Chinese leaders thought of Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism as like self help books of how one should govern their country and make their land prosperous and rich. I on one hand thought Taoism had no relation to politics, but it does!

I've read Dao De jing and now I'm reading Chuang Tzu's parables and Confucius's writings of the history of spring and autumn annals, and Sima Qian's History book. And by far, Confucius is just plain rubbish to my eyes, and you can see that reading Chuang Tzu's parables making fun of how stupid and confused Confucius is about. However, I won't tell anyone interested in delving into politics to not read Confucius. Though he is just any other philosopher, he did seriously think about politics and leadership. And many kings inspired by Confucius were able to govern a good country. 

Added Book recommendations for people interested in politics that you may have not known 

1, Book of Han Fei Zi (about legalism - inspired by taoism and repelled by confucianis's thoughts, he heavily criticizes the ways of mannerisms and hierarchies confucius talks about. He truly believes people are so conditioned by their reptilian mind that only law, reward and punishment is the way to inspire people to attain order in life. Emperor Qin loved Han Fei Zi's thought and started implementing legalist's ideas in his country. Killed many many confucius scholars. Many people critisize Legalism because although their ideas are true, it can propogate much hate and anger throughout the people. Han Fei zi is like the machiavelli of china 2000 years ago.)

***** second favorite 2. Shiji - by Sima Qian - (A record of awesome parables that will make you think about what right leadership is but also how one should live one's life. Sima Qian once asked his Emperor not to be so cruel to one of his friends but he got punished for being so direct. The punishment was to get his balls cut off. Sima qian respects both legalism, Taoism, and Confucianism and asks the reader to decide himself what leadership is the best to govern the country. He accounts people who followed various routes of governship, records their deeds and faults, so we can decide ourselves who is best. He doesn't answer for us)

3. Dao De Jing - Various accounts of why Lao Tzu wrote this, but the prominent one is this. He decided to go to the mountains to live by himself. One policeman asked him to write his wisdom or he will not let him go. Lao Tzu does. I say read this as a person who is interested in politics mainly because Chuang Tzu was a disciple of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu talked about politics a lot. 

**** My favorite4. Chuang Tzu's parables - Chuang Tzu is the epidemy of a guy who supports governship through nature, through Tao if you will name it that way. (WTF?) It seems impossible, but if you read the texts you will just nod and nod to his words. But after you go on with your day, you realize how impossible it is to achieve the vision he has. But you eventually realize that is the only answer to right govern ship. I could see where OSHO got a lot of inspiration from while reading this book.  And i realized why OSHO kept shitting on Politicians (a little to harshly than they might deserve), but he sometimes praised many ancient kings and emperors in the past, now I know why he was that way. Chuang Tzu is like a rebel. He mocks Confucius so bad that I feel confucius scholars would cry if they read his book because it's so true. The reason I keep talking about Chuang Tzu is because you realize how fucking genius he is the more you know about eastern philosophy. You realize how courageous and how much big balls he had to talk about what he did at the time. If anybody talks about Chuang Tzu in China or Korea, people would fucking slaughter him. Americans would just think he's a little crazy. But anyways, it amazes me that a guy 2000 years ago can have such big pair of balls against so many savages then. 

5. Confucius spring and autumn annals

6. Art of War - Politics is like war. But Sun Tzu's way of war seems to be most humane. Chuang Tzu said in his texts "A sage warlord with 10,000 troops may dominate another land with war, however the people of the dominated nation will not be disheartened or be trodden with fear but be filled with happiness that the sage has come to lead them. I feel Sun Tzu talks about how to do that with his book "art of war" There are military texts from Legalists philosophers who won many wars, but they are very cruel and unforgiving. Confucius scholars hated to talk about war and thought anybody talking about war should be locked in jail. Anyways, Sun Tzu adopts mostly Taoist ideas in his book. Beautiful book. 

7. Confucius Analects

Did these ideas help warlords create beautiful civilizations? I don't know you tell me. In the end, western civilization has dominated asia in the end. But you have to understand, many Taoists knew from the beginning how corrupt Confucius's thought was. And in the later part of China and Korea, Confucianism was the dominant philosophy, not taoism, buddhism....etc. While Japan scoffed at Confucianists' thought and later created a powerful empire with their own ideas of Zen buddhism. If you ask me, Confucianism reflects much of Communism and emphasizes mannerisms over meritocracy. It takes rituals and experiences more than nature, which is its worst sin. 

Edited December 24, 2020 by charlie cho