The Chinese Middle Way （中国人的中庸之道）

The Chinese believe in too much is as no good as too little. This is, literally, translated into the Middle Way, also translated as the Golden Mean, in Chinese language, Zhong1 yong1 zhi1 dao4,中庸之道. The middle way has shaped the Chinese life in all of their aspects and it is rooted in the thinking of almost all the Chinese people. And, throughout history, till the contemporary age, governors also adopt this ideology to manage their countries in China. All in all, the middle way is an unseparated part of people’s life in China and it finds its deep roots in the Chinese culture and history.

Zhong Yong, the Doctrine of Golden Mean, was first established in literature by the book of Zhong Yong《中庸》during the Warring States. The book’s author is Zi Si 子思, who lived in between of B.C. 483 – B.C. 402. He was the grandson of Confucius.

In this short essay by me, we don’t go back to the ancient books to translate sentence by sentence what’s written in the books. Rather, interestingly, we talk about how the people in China have found influences in their everyday’s lives with this philosophy.

Overdoing one thing is as no good as under-doing one thing. Most Chinese believe in a medium amount of everything, that goes to no extreme. Of course, as with everything else, there are always exceptions. This goes to one’s pursuit of wealth, the state of happiness and sorrowfulness, the conditions of one’s friendships with others, the beliefs of one ideology or doctrine, etc. and etc.

Having too much, is, the same as if having too little, will, in a way, find its setbacks. Take our emotions for instance, when we have too much happinesses or sorrows, they hurt our emotional well beings. Even too much happinesses don’t do you good in real life. So, for the ordinary Chinese, they prefer to a life style with everything that goes in a between. This, in a way, is helpful for one to achieve a balancing life.

This goes to our relationships with our immediate family members, or our spouses or lovers, too. When we love someone to the extreme and in case the relationship goes to a tough state or when it breaks, we easily hurt ourselves and end up with something that is even not desirable. When we reserve some of our love to other things including ourselves, we have spare energy to take care of other things that are equally important in our lives too. And especially, when a relationship goes undesirably to an end, we don’t find ourselves burning our whole heart and mind and we are more likely to recover from the emotional breakdowns. Although I am not saying that every relationship will find itself ended by no time. Sometimes we hear life stories that someone unfortunately commits suicidal when he/she breaks up with his/her lover because of too much emotional pains. Hence, loving someone dearly while loving someone appropriately is a philosophy that the Chinese have brought from the doctrine of Golden Mean that they wisely apply to their immediate relationship life too. This is a way to protect them from being hurt when it perhaps goes to extreme and to the end they spare their life and time to other meaningful things in life as well.

So, how does the Chinese corporate this Golden Mean into their management styles in terms of managing a company? In the Chinese language, there is an idiom that’s called gang1 rou2 bing4 ji4, 刚柔并济。This, perhaps, best literates the golden mean, which means, coupling softness with hardness. You can’t be too tough and you can’t be too soft either. A lot of times, you have to best balance your deeds and words between of these too. When you go too tough, you yourself or you need someone to soften it a bit for you so that your staff won’t end up with any hard feelings. Principles need to be forced when something does not touch base the principles, there are always room for flexibility and hence a lighter atmosphere.

So next time, when there are three ways, the left, the right and the middle, ahead of you and you are about to ask a Chinese which way to take, and yes, of course, the Chinese guy would point at you, the middle way! Haha! That’s, of course a joke from me for the day. But the truth is, more than often, a Chinese always takes the middle way when they are faced to make a decision in their work and life, not to too left and not to too right, just the right amount and with the right appropriateness.

In the real world, everyone chooses his/her own life style. There is often no right or wrong as long as you find what suits you the most. And, at times, when you are feeling too tired of pursuing too much at one of your goals, just take a deep breath and stop for a while, learn from the Chinese Golden Mean and you might as well call for an end when you already have established sufficiently. After all, having too much is almost the same as if having too few. It does not necessarily bring you all the happinesses that you deserve.