The Emperor's Teacher (6)—Table of Contents-a

[a] Structured RF

I am devoting 2012 to one of the projects closest to my heart/mind (心). It is called The Emperor's Teacher, and deals with lessons that need to be understood by managers all over the world. "Managers?," I hear you ask? But I am a parent, a teacher, an employee, and, at home, a busy cook, bookkeeper, and sometime voter. I'm not a manager.                            Yes, you are. 

We are all managers, and we would do well to learn abiding lessons of how to make managing work. Some people in our midst (and in human history) have spent inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out how we might manage ourselves (since if you can't get your self right, you'll have a hard time with anything bigger...right?), our families (since a family is a whole bunch of interrelated selves in social communion), and the whole enchilada...all under heaven (天下). The latter term was used traditionally in China to refer to running the empire, but it had both moral and governmental innuendo that we would do well to consider in our own lives today. All three ideas (oneself, one's family, and all under heaven) are versatile enough to be read in secular or sacred terms, and, indeed, early Chinese cosmology had a plethora of ways of interpreting such matters. Interpret away. The concepts are big enough for all of us, as even Dong Zhongshu might have agreed.

[b] Window RF

My book, The Emperor's Teacher, introduces the greatest management book of all time (Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Ruling), and then explains its key teachings to readers in the twenty-first century. This is challenging stuff for readers today (in East Asia and the West, I might add), just as it was ten centuries ago. No book is deeper or richer with lessons you need to learn to manage your career, your family, your football team... 

Attention Coach Belichick: Your Art of War really needs this updated "app" (call me)

...or the corporation you lead. We all need it. My book takes you through the lessons found in a thousand year-old text. The "Talking Points" that follow in the next few posts will give a sense of the book as a whole. Close readers of Round and Square will know that I have already posted all of chapters one and two, and the first parts of chapters three on this blog (look for them below). I will post the entire "blog draft" on Round and Square in 2012. 

Front Matter:
Talking Points-a          Talking Points-b          Talking Points-c          Talking Points-d          Talking Points-e  
Table of Contents-a                                        Table of Contents-b                                        Table of Contents-c

Chapters:         
1-Breaking the Vessel (12)      2-Living and Learning (12)     3-Spring and Autumn Roles (12)      
4-The New Hierarchy (4)

Preface 
The preface presents a short discussion of themes in Western management books, as well as the Art of War and several other Chinese works popular with business audiences.  This is told as part of a story (similar to the first pages of the accompanying book proposal) that sets the tone for the work as a whole.  It is meant to capitalize on the interest in China among today’s readers while creating a sense of familiarity (through stories with reminders) of the themes in popular Western business texts. 

Part One—You’ve Read the Art of War…Now What?

Chapter One
Breaking the Vessel 

[c] Ingenuity RF

The chapter begins with a famous story (it appears in primary school readers throughout China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) of a child who has the ingenuity to save a playmate from certain death, even as all of the other children cowered.  This little boy would grow up to write the Comprehensive Mirror, one of the greatest historical texts ever written.  Sima Guang, the lifesaver and author, articulated key ways to learn from texts (we would call them case studies today) and translate that knowledge into action.   

Chapter Two
Lessons for Living 
Sima Guang wrote within a tradition that intensely debated the relationship between living and learning, and the chapter provides a series of stories and legendary anecdotes that constitute “a step beyond” the Art of War and prepares the reader for the focused “lessons” that follow.  It might be said that the chapter is intended to “lull” the reader into the culture of Chinese management by way of stories.  The purpose is serious, however.  Each story will craft an approach to understanding the material in subsequent chapters. 

Front Matter:
Talking Points-a          Talking Points-b          Talking Points-c          Talking Points-d          Talking Points-e  
Table of Contents-a                                        Table of Contents-b                                        Table of Contents-c

Chapters:         
1-Breaking the Vessel (12)      2-Living and Learning (12)     3-Spring and Autumn Roles (12)      
4-The New Hierarchy (4)

[d] Lessons RF