Strictly speaking, modern management is only 100 years old. For China, modern management emerged with the modern mass production after the Revolution of 1911. After 100 years of development, modern management has developed into many disciplines including enterprise management, social management, technical management, public management, strategic management and so on. But if we look at it from another angle, management is always accompanied by the whole human history. People are social animals, and they need to organize and coordinate their actions when they are engaged in collective production and social activities, so management is produced in such organization and coordination. China is an ancient civilization with a long history of 5,000 years. In the long history of the Chinese nation's long-term survival, reproduction and development, it has created splendid traditional national culture. Shang Shu Yao Dian records the division of functions and deeds of governing the country of Yao, Shun and Yu. From the12nd century BC to the 1 1 century BC, Zhou Li designed China's bureaucracy for the first time with 360 posts, and specified the corresponding levels and posts, with distinct levels and responsibilities, which reflected that China had developed quite complete national management thoughts around the 4th century BC. Sun Tzu's Art of War Spring and Autumn and Warring States is recognized as an outstanding work that systematically discusses management strategy and tactics. China's long-standing ancient traditional culture has nurtured profound management thoughts, produced colorful and unique management methods, and integrated into the historical development process of the whole Chinese nation, even having a far-reaching impact on Japan, Korea and Southeast Asian countries.

However, in the face of such a glorious history, modern China people have to face such an embarrassment: there has never been a real management scientist or a widely recognized management theory in China's 5,000-year history and even today's China society. So far, the management circles in China are still in the dilemma of what is the West. What caused today's situation? To solve this problem, I think there are several points that must be made clear first.

1. What was the management in ancient China?

It seems difficult to make it clear in a short space. However, we can roughly sum up the following points:

1, China ancient management content is mainly national management.

Throughout the management practice in ancient China, management and administration are basically integrated. As ancient China was a typical agricultural economy, administration was the most important way of social management. Therefore, any project and any management activities are carried out in the name of the country or the government, and management practice can only be shown in the process of combining with administrative management. In fact, all the management practices we know in ancient China are not administrative management practices.

2. China ancient management attached great importance to human factors in the process of management activities.

People in the management process include managers and managed people. Many managers are managed by others at the same time. China's ancient management thought has many insights in these two aspects, and there are many examples to test. The ancients in China emphasized the cultivation of managers, and Sun Tzu's Art of War believed that the qualities to be possessed included intelligence, faithfulness, benevolence, courage and strictness. Scholars in the Warring States period are the talent reserve group of managers, and later scholars are the whole school and the imperial examination system. All learning and training are to prepare for the future empire to train qualified managers and managed people. In addition, in the selection of materials, many sages have a great length of wonderful exposition. Mozi put forward that "observe what he can and be cautious as an official." Xunzi warned the rulers that "selfless people are career paths", and they must not be crony, but advocate meritocracy. Yan Zi further pointed out that people's talents are also different, so people should specialize in one thing instead of asking themselves to be omnipotent. The advantages of employing people, not his shortcomings; What a man is good at, don't use what he is not good at. This is the gist of appointing talents. Wang Anshi made a systematic theoretical exposition of the above ideas in the Northern Song Dynasty. His thought of employing people can be summarized as "teaching, nurturing, taking and releasing". Among them, the teaching method is to adhere to the consistency of learning and application and cultivate talents; The way of self-cultivation is to maintain the salary of government officials-"sparing their money", "meeting with courtesy" and "cutting it with law"; The way to take it is the way to choose officials; The way is to appoint talents according to their expertise. Such a complete exposition is of great reference significance even today.

3. Managers in ancient China often had excellent management strategies in the management process.

By comparing with the western feudal society, we can easily see that the feudal society in China is surprisingly stable and unified. This also illustrates the superb management level of ancient managers in China from one side. In the feudal society of more than two thousand years in China, centralized state management system, fiscal and tax management, selection and management of officials, management of population and land, management of market and industry and commerce, management of water transportation and postal delivery, management of documents and archives, etc. Successive dynasties have made new progress, and many outstanding management talents have emerged, showing outstanding management skills in military, political, financial, cultural, educational and diplomatic fields, and accumulating valuable management experience. The famous "Shang Yang Reform" in the Warring States period is an example of improving the level of state management through reform. The rule of Wenjing brought about the political stability and economic prosperity of the country. The construction of the Great Wall in Wan Li fully embodies the superb level of survey, planning and design, construction and project management at that time, and embodies the high management wisdom of the project commander. Dujiangyan and other large-scale water conservancy projects have comprehensively planned flood control, irrigation and drainage, and shipping, showing the superb level of ancient engineering construction and organization and management in China; Ding Wei presided over the palace construction project in Song Dynasty, which was an example of systematic management and overall planning. Such management practices are too numerous to mention, all of which reflect the superb management wisdom of the ancient people of China.

Second, why didn't China have strict management ideas in ancient times?

In the history of China, few people have comprehensively summarized the connotation of China management, and few people have comprehensively expounded China management. Looking through China's cultural classics, it is difficult to find a complete management monograph. However, people familiar with the history of China will find that the whole history of China is actually a history of managers and appointees. What is the reason for this seemingly contradictory phenomenon? There is only one explanation for this, that is, the management of China depends entirely on numerous classical cultural classics. Zhao Pu, the founding prime minister of the Song Dynasty, once said that half of the Analects of Confucius ruled the world. Although this sentence is a bit exaggerated, its meaning is worth pondering. If the Analects of Confucius didn't contain the Law of Governing the Country by Putting the Family in Order, I believe Zhao Pu wouldn't have said so. So another problem is before us. Since there is such a method, where is it? As mentioned earlier, the ancient management in China attached great importance to the human factor in the management process, and the cultivation of managers was accomplished through such classics as The Analects of Confucius. Such a person, while completing his self-cultivation, also means having the management ability, which has been unconsciously improved in the exercise of interacting with people at ordinary times. This is also the origin of the theory of honesty, self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world in universities. From this perspective, Zhao Pu's words are very reasonable.

An Analects of Confucius has such an effect. If we look at the knowledge of Yin and Yang, Mohism, fame, France and Germany at the same time as Confucianism with the same eyes, we are hardly talking about self-cultivation and governing the country, let alone clearly writing military theories on how to run the army.

Almost all theories attribute their management thoughts and other thoughts to Tao, which is invisible and intangible. When a person's accomplishment is almost "Tao", his knowledge and talent in management will naturally follow. The so-called "failure to do so is the supreme law" probably means this. This is why managers in the history of China can often use management so skillfully.

3. What is the difference between ancient management and contemporary management in China?

If we only regard China's management as the management theory and practical experience under the conditions of agricultural economy, and then compare it with the modern western management theory which has become a huge discipline group in the field of business administration and public administration after nearly a hundred years' development, obviously we can't get any good results. This has also become an excuse for some people to denigrate the ancient management of China. But these people often forget that such a comparison is first of all a comparison with colored glasses, and it is colored glasses that first branded ancient China as low-level and backward. However, even under this premise, China's ancient management is different from western modern management thought in the following aspects:

Scope of management. Western modern management theory is limited to industry and commerce and public affairs. The management in China is often all-encompassing, and there is no strict division of disciplines. From governing the country to saving lives, you can almost find it. Business administration and public affairs are naturally included, although China's industry and commerce have long been underdeveloped.

Manage goals. China's management has a higher concept and realm. Focusing on long-term stability, focusing on the sublimation of human nature and focusing on the overall harmony and win-win situation are the main characteristics of ancient management in China, while western management theories are often limited to the local and short-term effectiveness of management activities. Under this relationship, China's thought of self-cultivation and rule by virtue in management has theoretical connotations that western management cannot reveal.

Management theory. As mentioned above, China's management theory pays more attention to the inner cultivation of managers and managed individuals, while China's management has more philosophical and abstract elements, more at the level of big principles and principles, and more universal. Western management theory is a summary of modern western management practice, which belongs to the management method and technology level and has specific adaptability, but it also greatly limits its application scope. In connection with this, modern western management theories emerge one after another, which is often confusing. The management of China can guide these methods and technologies, or explain their laws from another side, which will help to grasp their development direction.

In a word, the management in ancient China focused more on the analysis of Tao, while the western management widely praised today can only be called "technique". Unfortunately, today's reality can only give us a sigh that "Tao is not long." The so-called "a gentleman unfortunately does not know the road, and a villain unfortunately dies."