1. Righteousness and Profitableness:
The Moral Choices of Contemporary
Confucian Entrepreneurs
Tak Sing Cheung
Ambrose Yeo-chi King
ABSTRACT. The present study takes Confucian
entrepreneurs as an entry point to portray the dynamics
and problems involved in the process of putting moral
precepts into practice, a central issue in business ethics.
Confucian entrepreneurs are defined as the owners of
manufacturing or business firms who harbor the moral
values of Confucianism. Other than a brief account of
their historical background, 41 subjects from various parts
of Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and
Kuala Lumpur were selected for in-depth interviews. By
studying the moral choices they made in the market, it
was discovered that, contrary to the prevalent mode of
inquiry in economics either to reduce all social phe-
nomena to rational calculations or to consider moral ac-
tions in terms of utilitarian values, their economic action
cannot be accounted for by the postulate of utility max-
imization, and that the efforts to do business according to
their moral principles can be very costly. The study also
attempts to document how these Confucian entrepre-
neurs reconciled the conflict between the moral values
they cherished and the instrumental goals they pursued,
and will seek to uncover how they responded when faced
with this dilemma.
KEY WORDS: business ethics, material interest, moral
values, rationality, confucianism, entrepreneurs
The struggle between the pursuit of material interest
and the adherence to moral values is a perennial
problem of human existence, and to put moral
precepts into practice constitutes a central issue in
business ethics. The present article takes Confucian
entrepreneurs as an entry point to examine how they
engage in such a struggle by putting moral precepts
into action in the business world. Confucian entre-
preneurs are defined here as the owners of manu-
facturing or business firms who harbor Confucian
moral values and gives primacy to moral principles
over material gains. They are selected as the entry
point for the study because they are a group of
people for whom the clash between material interest
and moral imperatives takes on particular salience.
In the Confucian tradition, such a struggle is
manifested in the dialogue on the relationship be-
tween yi (righteousness) and li (profitableness),
which began with Confucius (551–479 B.C.). He
said, ‘‘The gentleman can be reasoned with what is
moral. The common man can be reasoned with
what is profitable’’ (Analects, Book 4:16). He ap-
pealed to others to think of righteousness when
seeing the opportunity for gain and profitableness,
Tak Sing Cheung obtained his Ph.D. from SUNY at Buffalo.
He is currently Professor in the Department of Sociology at
the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests
are mainly in Confucianism and modernity and sociological
analyses of Chinese social thought. Other than a number of
journal articles appearing in international journals, his pub-
lication is mainly in Chinese, including an award winning
book on Confucianism and social order in imperial China
(1989), another award winning book about social change and
the development of Chinese social thought in modern China
(1997), and a recent book about Confucian entrepreneurs
(2002).
Ambrose Yeo-chi King obtained his Ph.D. from the University
of Pittsburgh. He is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and
former Vice-Chancellor of The Chinese University of Hong
Kong. A fellow of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan since
1994, his research interest has been in sociological studies of
Chinese culture and modernization all through. He has
written a number of books, including Ideas of University
(2001), The Salient Aspects of Chinese Society and Culture
(1992), The Salient Aspects of Chinese Politics and Culture
(1997), and From Tradition to Modernity (1992), all
written in Chinese. His English publications appeared in
Daedalus, British Journal of Sociology, and Asian Journal of
Social Science, among others.
Journal of Business Ethics 54: 245–260, 2004.
Ó 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

2. saying that ‘‘Wealth and high station are what men
desire but unless I got them in the right way I would
not remain in them. Poverty and low station are
what men dislike, but even if I did not get them in
the right way I would not try to escape from them’’
(Analects, Book 4:5). This position to subordinate
material interest to moral principle was carried on
and amplified by another great Confucian master,
Mencius, about a century after Confucius’ death.
The book that bears Mencius’ name begins with a
conversation between him and the warlord of a
kingdom, who asked him what profit he could bring
to his country by traveling thousands of miles to visit
him. Mencius’ answer was straightforward: ‘‘Your
Majesty, what is the point of mentioning the word
‘profit’?’’ He then went on to argue the primacy of
righteousness over profitableness in managing the
country’s affairs (Mencius, Book 1:1).
These two Confucian masters set the tone for
subsequent dialogues in the Confucian tradition. In
the eyes of the Neo-Confucian in the Song and Ming
dynasties (960–1279 A.D.; 1368–1644 A.D.), righ-
teousness versus profitableness were most of the times
referred to as li (principle) versus yu (desire), repre-
senting the forces of good and bad, respectively and
are seen as irreconcilable. As Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi) put it,
‘‘All there is in the case of a person is … heavenly
principle and … human material desire. If this one is
victorious, that one withdraws. If that one is victo-
rious, this one withdraws. In this process there is no
possibility of circumventing this principle of advance
and withdrawal’’ (Quoted by Metzger, 1977, p. 108).
The Neo-Confucian believed that, because of
‘‘the universal weakness of the human will; and an
inherently degenerative force immanent in the very
flow of existence’’, there is ‘‘the tendency towards
evil’’ in the world (Metzger, 1977, pp. 110–111).
However, probably inspired by Mencius’ optimism,
‘‘Neo-Confucians stressed the power of evil while
still in an almost contradictory way regarding evil as
something inherently prone to dissipate’’ (Metzger,
1977, p. 109). ‘‘One could indeed ‘wash away the
moral filth of heaven and earth’. Yet at the same
time the recurring failures to do so proved that the
force of evil, whether or not inexorable, was im-
mense’’ (Metzger, 1977, p. 109). The Neo-Confu-
cians were therefore trapped into a dilemma
between the need for moral perfection, on the one
hand, and the almost impossibility of doing so in a
world of moral bewilderness, on the other. This
struggle against evil created a moral tension in the
ethical life of the Neo-Confucians to a certain extent
comparable with that experienced by the Calvinists.
Starting from the middle of the Ming Dynasty,
probably due to a large movement of Confucian
scholars into the trade of business as will be described
in more detail in the next section, there was a fusion
of the horizons of the world of scholars and the
world of merchants, and a subtle change in the
conception of the relationship between righteous-
ness and profitableness accordingly. They were seen
as a duality rather than as being diametrically op-
posed to each other (Yu, 1996). But this so-called
new conception of the relationship between righ-
teousness and profitableness had never become the
mainstream of social values in late imperial China. It
was only promulgated by a very small circle of
merchants and the scholars who were closely asso-
ciated with them (Cheung, 2002, p. 29).
It is true that, in some situations, moral com-
mitment and profit consideration do go hand in
hand in business activities. For example, honesty lays
the foundation for interpersonal trust, which in turn
minimizes transaction costs and helps to establish a
brand name in the long run. But in other situations,
as will be documented below, entrepreneurs can
find themselves in a disadvantageous market position
if they insist on upholding their moral principles.
Under these circumstances, tensions exist between
two opposing forces – the moral force to be righ-
teous and the material force to make profit. Entre-
preneurs then have to make moral choices so as to
strike a proper balance between them. Their actual
choices may vary from individual to individual, but
as a whole their decisions are likely to involve an
element of resistance to the temptation from mate-
rial interest.
Though there is a massive pool of literature on
Chinese business behavior (Yao, 1987, 2002; Wong,
1988; Hamilton and Kao, 1990; Chan and Chiang,
1994; Greenhalgh, 1994; Tong and Yong, 1998; Lui,
1998; Yeung, 1999; Peng, 2000; Keister, 2001;
Todeva, 2001), its main line of inquiry has been
confined to guanxi, network, or other terms with
similar meanings. Sociological studies of contempo-
rary Confucian entrepreneurs addressing the intrinsic
tension between their moral commitment and
material interest are virtually non-existent. It is
246 Tak Sing Cheung and Ambrose Yeo-chi King

3. therefore the objective of the present study to artic-
ulate a seldom addressed issue rather than the more
familiar one on the Chinese people’s concern for
human relations and an individual’s obligations in
those relations.
The study of Confucian entrepreneurs or mer-
chants so far has been confined to historical inves-
tigations (Zhang, et al., 1985; Yu, 1996; Lufrano,
1997). A major limitation in studying Confucian
merchants historically is that they are no longer alive
so that we have to rely on existing documents to do
so. We can still locate an abundance of historical
documents about the lives of a few of these Con-
fucian merchants, including biographies, diaries, and
personal letters. However, descriptions of how they
conducted their business, especially with regard to
the way they handled conflicts between moral
considerations and material gains, are extremely rare
and, when mentioned at all, are brief if not out of
context. One obvious advantage of studying living
Confucian entrepreneurs is that we can inter-
view them. With good rapport and effective inter-
viewing techniques, some respondents can be guided
to reveal their feelings and thoughts about their
business experiences, thus allowing the investigator
to gain insight into the complexities and subtleties
involved in making moral choices under the pressure
of market forces.
The section that immediately follows traces the
historical origin of Confucian merchants as a new
social type during the 15th and 16th centuries in
China, a period roughly corresponding to the
Renaissance in Western history. The next section
describes our sample of contemporary Confucian
entrepreneurs and discusses their moral character. The
subsequent two sections discuss the moral choices
these Confucian entrepreneurs made in the market.
Contrary to existing literature in the mainstream of
economic sociology that stresses the compatibility
between social institutions and cultural values on the
one hand, and economic rationality on the other, the
experience of our respondents shows that adherence
to moral virtues can be very costly. Especially in
markets where price is the decisive factor for selling
products, and the law is not effectively enforced in
ways that guarantee fair play among competitors,
doing business in an honest way is an uphill battle,
involving intricate mental struggles. There is, there-
fore, a matter of choice in the philosophy of life.
The Confucian merchant as a historical
phenomenon
Although Confucian merchants can be traced back to
as early as Zhu Gong, one of Confucius’ disciples in the
500s B.C., they did not constitute a significant social
stratum until the latter part of the Ming Dynasty
(1368–1644) when a sizable number of Confucian
scholars left the traditional career path of seeking a title
in officialdom and chose instead to become busi-
nessmen. Yu (1996, p. 46) maintains that this change
was largely due to the increased population pressure at
that time. China’s population is estimated to be
around 65 million in the late 1300s, but increased to
about 150 million in 1600. While the population size
had thus more than doubled over the previous two
centuries, the quota for admission into officialdom
through the channel of public examination did not
increase accordingly. This meant the chance for
scholars to attain an official title would have been
drastically reduced. A large number of Confucian
scholars were forced for this reason to seek opportu-
nities elsewhere. At around the same time, the capi-
talist mode of economic activity, however primitive it
might have been, was spreading, especially in the
Yangzi River Delta (Fu, 1956). Since running a
business requires more mental ability than physical
strength, it became a natural option for the Confucian
scholar looking for ways to support himself.
Apart from demographic changes, geography also
mattered. Because of the poor condition of farmland
and its relatively easy access to commercial oppor-
tunities in adjacent areas, Huizhou prefecture in the
southern part of Anhui Province produced one of
the most successful and dominant merchant syndi-
cates in late imperial China. Another was the re-
gional syndicate from the provinces of Shanxi and
Shaanxi (Dillon, 1989; Lufrano, 1997). As Xie
Zhao-zhi, a scholar in the Ming Dynasty, wrote:
‘‘Among those merchants who reigned in the
commercial world, it was Huizhou in the south and
Shanxi in the north of the (Yangzi) River’’ (Dillion,
1989, p. 1). It was reported that 7 out of its 10
residents in Huizhou prefecture were engaged in
commercial activities (Zhang, et al., 1985, p. 1). A
saying circulated in the area south of the Yangzi
River at that time that ‘‘a town could not be con-
sidered a town if it did not have Huizhou mer-
chants’’ (Lufrano, 1997, p. 47).
Righteousness and Profitableness 247

4. Huizhou prefecture happened to be the home-
town of Zhu Xi (1130–1200 A.D.), the great
Confucian master who developed Neo-Confucian-
ism to the fullest extent in the Song Dynasty (960–
1279). This combination of commercial success with
a strong Confucian tradition helped to create during
late imperial China a merchant culture in which the
moral values of Confucianism were deeply embed-
ded (Lufrano, 1997). Many of the merchant manuals
that were used to teach aspiring newcomers to the
commercial world how to become a successful
businessman were written by Huizhou merchants.
Besides supplying the reader with facts and advice on
various kinds of commercial activities, these manuals
emphasized the importance of the cultivation of
good character in accordance with the moral pre-
cepts of Confucianism. By doing so, the mer-
chants who occupied a low position in the social
hierarchy in imperial China could obtain the status
of a gentleman. The Confucian way of life also
provided them a sense of certainty and direction in a
minimally regulated world of commercial activities.
As Lufrano (1997, p. 2) notes, ‘‘A properly cultivated
personality helped the merchants to avoid the pitfalls
of their economic environment and to conduct their
trade profitably without compromising their stand-
ing as respectable gentlemen’’.
Thus, as a consequence of the relatively large scale
movement of Confucian scholars into commercial
trades during the latter part of the Ming Dynasty and
the early part of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911),
there was a melding of the worlds of the Confucian
scholars and the merchants. As a Confucian mer-
chant at that time remarked, ‘‘Scholars and mer-
chants pursue different occupations but share the
same mind’’ (Yu, 1996, p. 48). Therefore, ‘‘a truly
good merchant can cultivate lofty conduct while
amidst the arena of money and trade, and conse-
quently remained undefiled in spite of any profit
they may take’’ (Yu, 1996, p. 61).
Jing Yuan-shan (1841–1903) is an example of a
Confucian merchant par excellence. He was born into
‘‘a family of book fragrance’’, a traditional Chinese
expression referring to the scholarly stratum, in
Southeast China. Because of financial difficulties, his
father had to abandon the career path of a traditional
scholar and subsequently accumulated great wealth
by engaging in business. Jing, his son, moved to
Shanghai in his early childhood and followed in his
father’s footsteps to become a merchant when he
was 17. He took over his father’s enterprises soon
after the latter died in 1865 and thereafter became a
prominent merchant in Shanghai and its environs.
Although Confucianism is not strictly speaking a
religion, Jing’s commitment to Confucianism was
no less pious than that of a religious believer. He was
willing to devote his whole life to conducting
himself in a way that followed in the footsteps of the
Saints and Sages, without betraying the aims of
Confucianism. He acknowledged that his ‘‘capacity
for understanding [Confucianism]was not as good as
his ancestors and that the only thing he could do was
to closely adhere to what was said in the Confucian
classics so as not to be distracted’’ (Yu, 1988, pp.
238–239). He placed maxims from ancient sages on
his desk and constantly re-read them as a reminder
of the need for continuous self-cultivation. Once in
bidding a farewell to his two brothers, who were
going to the drought-stricken areas in Northern
China for charity work, he gave them tens of vol-
umes of Confucian classics for them to read on their
journey. He advised them that these books could
not only nourish one’s body and mind but could
also provide effective solutions for whatever prob-
lems arise. He indicated that he agreed with an old
saying that ‘‘[acquiring] half of The Analect could
[make one well equipped enough to] run the
world’’ (Yu, 1988, pp. 124, 126, 13). These
examples all show how he lived a methodically
Confucian way of life.
In following the Confucian tradition, Jing
emphasized that moral attainment was more
important than the search for material well-being.
For example, he stated that ‘‘I am afraid that we
cannot forever own the things external to us. To
accumulate moral virtues is more important than to
bequeath gold [to children]’’ (Yu, 1988, p. 1). In
promoting charity work that occupied most of the
early part of his adult life, he appealed to others to
dispose of their wealth. He mentioned that ‘‘Money
is just like a spring. It has to have an origin but also
has to flow away’’ (Yu, 1988, p. 8).
In the collected works that cover almost all of
Jing’s adult life, there is very little information about
how he managed his business. A diary he wrote in
retrospect indicates that he failed to maximize profit
in a business deal when he was 32 (1873). He deeply
regretted this failure but soon realized that fortune
248 Tak Sing Cheung and Ambrose Yeo-chi King

5. came with fate, which was beyond the individual’s
control. He believed that if he had suddenly acquired
a great fortune at that stage of his life, it might have
corrupted his spirit, leading him to pursue an
indulgent lifestyle. He therefore reasoned that his
failure to make a great fortune was in fact a blessing
in disguise: ‘‘From thence onward I was contended
with what I had and I refrained from competing
with others [for] profit in the market’’ (Yu, 1988,
pp. 241–242).
Contemporary Confucian entrepreneurs
The advantage of studying contemporary Confucian
entrepreneurs over historical investigation is offset
by a disadvantage: for the reason stated below, it is
difficult, if not impossible, to locate today Chinese
entrepreneurs who live a Confucian way of life as
methodically as that of Jing Yuan-shan.
Just as Christianity in the West has undergone a
process of secularisation in the centuries since the
Renaissance and the Reformation, Confucianism in
China likewise encountered formidable challenges
with the waning of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911),
the last dynasty of imperial China. The eventual
abolition of the imperial examination in 1905 sev-
ered once and for all the historic and institutional
links between Confucian classical education and the
reward distribution system in China. By the time of
the New Cultural Movement (1915–1921), Con-
fucianism had already become a major target of
criticism. Its previously revered status as the hege-
monic source of Chinese cultural values was chal-
lenged by tides of liberalism and socialism in
successive order. In contemporary Hong Kong,
Taiwan, or the Mainland, Confucianism hardly ap-
pears in official state ideology in any form. Since
Confucianism has long lost its institutional support,
it lingers on mainly as a residue of Chinese cultural
tradition. It is therefore difficult to find individuals
today who are strongly committed to Confucian
values, especially in the business world where
instrumental rationality has come to dominate.
The Confucian entrepreneur is thus a rapidly
disappearing social type. Because of this, we con-
ducted our research with a compelling sense of ur-
gency. Our main concern in doing so however is
not primarily to put on record a ‘‘living fossil’’ be-
fore it disappears completely but rather to better
understand how Confucian entrepreneurs experi-
ence the tensions between moral and instrumental
concerns and how they reconcile these tensions.
We identified our respondents mainly through
referrals from those who have connections with them.
We collected data from them mainly by in-depth
interviews. To strengthenthe reliability and validity of
the interview data, we adopted Denzin’s (1978)
method of ‘‘triangulation’’, examining the subjects
from a variety of sources such as analysis of the
respondents’ biographies and the newsletters pub-
lished by their companies, if available. In fact, one of
our respondents, Mr. L, was interviewed five times
within the span of 18 months. In addition, we inter-
viewed six of his colleagues from different ranks in the
company and three others who knew him well.
We could not be certain prior to the actual inter-
view whether the individual would fit our definition
of a Confucian entrepreneur. So we started with any
businessman who appeared to hold a set of values
different from those whose decision was guidedpurely
by instrumental concerns. We interviewed altogether
41 entrepreneurs between 1997 and 2000. To conceal
their identity, each of the respondents cited in this
paper is represented by a letter.
The respondents live in Mainland China, Hong
Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Their
businesses are diverse, covering shipping, chemical
engineering, food and restaurant, real estate, finance,
marketing research, garments and textiles, breweries,
computer sales, toy manufacturing, publishing,
bookstores, image design, advertising, electronics,
home appliances, automobile spare parts, building
and construction, and the steel industry. The size of
their companies ranges from a one-person business
to an enterprise employing over 3000 workers. In
terms of ownership, these enterprises cover state-
owned as well as private enterprises.
Except six or possibly seven of the respondents
who turned out to be either Christians, Muslims,
Taoists, Buddhists, or Communists, and a few others
whose value commitments were hard to identify, a
majority of the entrepreneurs we interviewed could
be considered what Peter Berger referred to as
‘‘vulgarized Confucians’’, a term he used to denote
the Confucian tradition that was embedded in the
Chinese people’s normative and behavioural orien-
tations instead of the ‘‘high’’ Confucianism of the
Mandarin elite in traditional China. As he pointed
Righteousness and Profitableness 249

6. out, many ordinary Chinese, despite the fact that
they have never read a Confucian classic and have
had little formal education, Confucian or otherwise,
exhibit ‘‘a positive attitude to the affairs of this
world, a sustained lifestyle of discipline and self-
cultivation, respect for authority, frugality, an
overriding concern for stable family life …’’ (1988,
pp. 7–8). This conception of the Confucian orien-
tation of the Chinese people is similar to Solomon’s
(1971, pp. xiv–xv) observation that the social and
political orientation of the Chinese people he stud-
ied reflected very strongly the values of the Confu-
cian tradition even though they were not formally
schooled in classical Confucian literature. Madsen
(1986, pp. 11–12) proposed a similar generalization
in his study of the peasants in the Chen Village in
Guangdong province, China.
The majority of our respondents fit Berger’s
description of ‘‘vulgarized Confucians’’. For exam-
ple, when we asked Mr. L whether he was knowl-
edgeable about Confucianism, he responded:
As far as books on Confucianism or Confucius are
concerned, I really do not know much. However, as
far as the Confucianism or the Confucius as discussed
in the newspapers are concerned, then, [we are subject
to] Confucian influences, especially for a long time
due to our educational background, [and] the family
background.1
He then described an incident in his own family
concerning his daughter who after becoming preg-
nant felt discomfort. His wife took care of her,
asking her to rest in bed, and prepared nutritious
soup for her. Later, their Filipina maid also became
pregnant and felt discomfort. His wife took care of
her in the same way as she did to her daughter. His
daughter grumbled and complained that his wife was
doing too much for the maid. His wife then quoted
a saying from Mencius, the Confucian sage who was
regarded second only to Confucius, ‘‘[We should
first] take care of our children and then extend this
to other children’’. Mr. L then added,
I believe that ‘‘[we should first] take care of our
children and then extend this to other children’’,
which expresses an idea from Confucianism. Confu-
cius mentioned it. Am I right? In our life, there are
plenty of examples like this.2
This quotation clearly shows that Mr. L endorses the
virtue of extension of love from those who are close
to others, in descending order of priority, a virtue
central to the moral values advocated by Confu-
cianism.
If we take Jing Yuan-shan as a typical model of
the Confucian entrepreneur, the value orientation of
the entrepreneurs we interviewed falls along a con-
tinuum, ranging from those whose values are similar
to Jing’s at one extreme to those whose values fall at
the opposite end, closer to the model of economic
man. One respondent who most impressed us was
Mr. C, who came from a county on the outskirts of
Nanjing in Southern China. As the CEO of a private
enterprise engaged in producing food-related com-
modities and in restaurant management, he was 47 at
the time of our interview. Established in 1993, his
company employed two to three hundred people.
Through a friend’s referral, the interview took place
in the company’s office located in an economic
development zone. As soon as we sat down and
started talking, the interviewer could immediately
feel Mr. C’s personal charm. As refined as a Con-
fucian scholar of the traditional style, he spoke with a
peaceful tone, continually smiling, creating an
atmosphere of comfort and ease. Though it was only
our first encounter, he appeared to be candid and
sincere, without trying to deliberately impress the
interviewer as to the kind of person he was.
He inherited most of the Confucian ideals from
his father, who was educated in the tradition of the
Confucian classics. He had suffered a lot during the
Cultural Revolution because of his family back-
ground but did not want to delve into the details.
What motivated him to do business was not so much
for the money as for the opportunity to do some-
thing that was meaningful and significant. He said,
I came out to run this private enterprise, without
thinking that when I have money in the future I will
build a house, or I want this and that. These don’t
matter to me at all. Life is ephemeral. I say life is like
those ants on the road. When someone wearing a lea-
ther shoe steps on them, that’s it. The point is, when I
lie down on bed, thinking it over, I feel I have to do
something. I am now forty-seven years old. I often
think of finding something to do, and one of my ideas is
to build a school, I feel somehow that education is the
foundation [of society], and that moral education
should get even more attention. When I was small, my
250 Tak Sing Cheung and Ambrose Yeo-chi King

7. father often repeated something Zeng Guofan had said,
‘‘Morality is the mother of national salvation’’.3
Mr. C is clearly a good example of the vanishing
Confucian entrepreneur. His emphasis on education
in general and moral education in particular in na-
tional salvation is a typical Confucian standpoint, one
that was epitomized in a statement by Zeng Guofan, a
typical Confucian scholar-general in the Qing dynasty
(1644–1911). The first interview lasted for about
2 hours and was recorded. Unfortunately, when we
wanted to contact him again a few months later for
further study of his case, we could not get in touch
with him. We were told that he was seriously ill. We
later succeeded in locating him again, only to find him
lying seriously ill in the hospital. We thus had to drop
his case for the time being. Though incomplete, we
report it here to show that even in a society where
Confucianism had been suppressed for a long time,
there are still people deeply committed to its values.
Another example is Mr. H, who fulfilled his fa-
ther’s wish to establish an academic press in Taiwan.
Mr. H was born into a notable family in a county in
the Northern part of Jiangsu province in southern
China. His family lost everything following the
Japanese invasion in the 1930s and then the Com-
munists’ occupation. He led a hard life during his
childhood, moving from one place to another and
struggling to survive. He was thus deprived of the
opportunity to receive any kind of formal education.
As a child of ‘‘a family filled with book fragrance’’,
this kind of fate was hard to bear.
His family moved to Taiwan after the Communist
takeover in 1949. Perhaps as compensation for what
he had missed earlier in life, he was determined to do
something cultural that was academically respectable.
He decided to concentrate on the publication of
books on sociology, then an emerging academic
discipline in Taiwan and one he was deeply inter-
ested in. Then, as now, the Taiwan market for
Chinese academic publications in sociology was
small. It was virtually non-existent outside Taiwan.
A quarter of a century after he established his aca-
demic press his company had become famous but it
only provided him with sufficient means to maintain
an adequate standard of living for the family. During
those years, Taiwan’s economy was growing signif-
icantly. He indicated that he had plenty of oppor-
tunity to make money had he chosen to publish
books catering to the mass market. But he was
reluctant to do so because this would mean aban-
doning his career ideal.
If I opted for a living, or for making money, I could
have gained more by doing some other business.
However, I chose to be a publisher. I felt I am pro-
ducing knowledge, which is valuable. I myself could
not produce knowledge. I helped others to produce
knowledge. As I see it, I am not quite satisfied with
merely having a job, an occupation, or purely for the
sake of making a living. In other words, there must be
a career with intrinsic values … Therefore, it has al-
ways been my hope to pursue (my) career together
with finding an occupation.4
Unlike Mr. C and Mr. H, Mr. L did not start his
business as a means to realize his ideals but to make a
living instead. However, also because of his father’s
influence, he acquired in early childhood a strong
moral character that placed constraints on the way he
conducted his business activities. He was born in
1941 in a fishing village in the Eastern part of
Malaysia. His father owned a grocery store and could
afford to send him to a good secondary school but not
for higher education. He joined an automobile
company in 1962, starting from the lowest rank in
the warehouse, and eventually became the general
manager of that department. In 1980 he started his
own business selling automobile spare parts. Despite
intense competition in the trade and the tremendous
difficulties involved in the formative stage of the
company, he insisted on conducting his business with
honesty and propriety. This put him in a disadvan-
tageous position in some respects as will be discussed
in more detail below.
Other than his father’s early influence on the
formation of his strong moral character, Mr. L
indicated that he was also greatly enlightened and
encouraged by the ideas of Mr. Matsushita, a Japa-
nese business tycoon who established the Matsushita
company that produces home electrical appliances,
after reading his book entitled Not for Bread Alone.
Mr. L commented:
After I read this book, I made a great discovery! I used
to hear others saying that merchants are hurting people
and that one can never be a merchant without being
cunning and dishonest: scholars, peasants, artisans, and
merchants, with merchants being ranked at the bottom
Righteousness and Profitableness 251

8. [in the hierarchy of occupational prestige]. It has al-
ways been a struggle in my heart, the struggle between
righteousness and profitableness. After I read the book
by Mitsushita, I had a very great … I discovered a very
noble direction. As he put it, we can create profit
through running enterprises, and then pay the profit
back to society, bringing peace, stability, and happiness
to society. Oh! Doing business to create profit is not a
bad thing at all. By creating employment opportuni-
ties, you create prosperity. It is a beautiful career in-
deed! I was greatly enlightened by this, [and thereafter]
regarding the running of [business] enterprises not only
as [a way of] making money but as a sacred under-
taking.5
From this quotation and the one by Mr. H
mentioned above, we can see in their minds that a
career is clearly distinguishable from an occupation.
Their insistence on choosing a career with a sense of
moral commitment reflects the Confucian concern
of the primacy of righteousness over profitability.
Moral choices in the market
If the market is a place where purposive-instrumental
rationality is bound to prevail, then we are led to ask:
How does the Confucian entrepreneur survive in the
highly competitive market? Are there situations in
which they have to make a choice between what is
morally proper and what is economic expediency? If
so, where does the pressure come from? What are
their choices? What considerations come into play in
making these choices? Before we try to answer these
questions, we need to consider briefly into the
structure of market competition.
An analogy is sometimes drawn between a market
and a battlefield. Both are arenas where the struggle
for survival is intense and purposive-instrumental
rationality prevails. In both cases, the end is given
(victory or profit-making), and the actors are under
tremendous pressure to find the most effective
means to attain the end. Under this circumstance, as
Ellul (1964) suggested, the actor simply has no
choice because the choice is made a priori. But there
is a fundamental difference between the business
world and the battlefield: the nature of struggle for
supremacy is not the same. To begin with, a war is
simply a zero-sum game: either defeat your foe or
else be defeated by him or her. There is no room for
benevolence and sympathy.
Though this kind of situation may some-
times appear in markets, it is not an intrinsic fea-
ture of them. Unlike a battlefield, the market has
a multi-dimensional structure of competition,
hence the possibility of attaining success
through ‘‘positive (or benign) competition’’, a con-
cept our respondents mentioned frequently. This is a
situation where an entrepreneur succeeds in ways
other than by deliberately seeking to undermine his
competitors. One can excel in the business world by
innovation, by constantly creating new things that
satisfy the customer’s needs. Mr. N, the founder and
the managing director of an enterprise producing
beverages in Taiwan, expressed this point as follows:
In a small place such as Taiwan, survival will be in
question if your performance is inferior to others.
[However], this does not mean [that you have] to
eliminate others. Rather, [you should] think everyday
as to how the quality of your products can be improved
and their shortcomings be overcome. Naturally, this
would be transformed into one’s competitive edge.6
When we asked him if there had been any circum-
stance in which he had to exhaust all means available
to crush his competitors, he answered in this way:
This is how I think … ummm … to crush others …, I
have never had such a logic [in my mind]. In my
opinion, in order to enter into a new business, we
should think about how to introduce a product that is
different from those existing in the market. We should
find a niche [in the market] by diversifying our
products. Their customers’ need is such a need. Our
customers’ need is such a need. They are not the same
need. Our intention is not to eliminate others, but to
attract more consumers to our products.7
Mr. S’s analogy between a track race and compe-
tition in the market is more illuminating. He is the
managing director of a brewery firm in Qufu City at
Shandong province in northern China. He said his
strategy could be summarized by three points: First, to
observe closely those who run ahead of him; second,
to strive to overtake them; third, not to trip over
others.8
Theoretically at least, there is much scope for
pursuing different competitive strategies in the
252 Tak Sing Cheung and Ambrose Yeo-chi King

9. market, thus allowing seemingly inexhaustible
opportunities for survival. This exempts righteous-
ness and profitability from necessarily confronting
each other as a zero-sum game. This does not
means, however, that there is no tension whatsoever
between moral commitment and instrumental ac-
tion. One example is the case of Mr. L mentioned
above. His insistence on doing business in an honest
way put him in a disadvantageous position in the
automobile spare parts market where smuggling and
fabrication of the price for imported goods were
widespread practices. Competition was very keen in
this market and price was more often than not a
decisive factor in gaining and keeping customers.
His company felt the pressure in the first few years
and gradually realized that the only way they could
survive in the market was to avoid cutthroat com-
petition by becoming the sole agent of particular
products. Partly because of the company’s good
reputation, and partly because of the customer
network he developed over the years, Mr. L’s
company succeeded in securing the franchise for a
few products.
However, these franchises did not guarantee
profitability for two reasons. First, other products
serving similar functions could substitute for his
franchised products. For example, his company used
to be the sole agent for a rubber hose manufactured
in Japan. The import tax for this commodity in his
country was set at over 30% of the original price, a
rate so high that it encouraged smuggling of similar
products into the country. Consequently, his
company’s franchised product lost market compet-
itiveness because its price was 10–20% higher than
that of the smuggled products that served similar
functions. Eventually, the company had to give up
the franchise for this product. Second, the franchise
could always be retrieved when the contract ex-
pired. If a franchised product was very well received
in the market, the foreign company that awarded
the franchise might consider it more profitable to
take back the franchise and set up a new company
to sell the product themselves. On the other hand,
if Mr. L’s company did not do a good job in
marketing the franchised product, it was very likely
that the franchise would be transferred to other
agents.
By the time the interview took place, Mr. L’s
company still retained the franchise for two prod-
ucts, a wiper blade from France and a brake pad from
Australia. Since the import tax for the wiper blade
was only 5%, it did not make sense for others to try
and smuggle similar products into the country. The
company thus enjoyed a comfortable market share
for this product, serving more than 20% of the
vehicles belonging to the premium class. The import
tax for the brake pad, on the other hand, was over
30%. The company thus faced a challenge in selling
this product similar to that of the rubber hose
manufactured in Japan. But they were reluctant to
give it up this time because the market prospect for
this product was judged to be much more promis-
ing. The company eventually found a solution by
setting up a subsidiary in Singapore where no import
tax was imposed on this product. Their customers
could then buy this product from the Singapore
subsidiary and arrange their own method to bring
this product into the country.
Since securing the franchises for certain products
did not guarantee profits, Mr. L’s company had to
maintain its market competitiveness by developing a
better image, by a proper positioning in the market,
and by providing better service to the customer. Mr.
L acknowledged that they had to give up those
customers who were interested only in the cheapest
price for a product. This was the major problem
encountered by his company because an over-
whelming majority of its customers belonged to this
category. Due to the relatively high price for the
products they sold, they had to target the businesses
serving higher-class customers such as the repair
shops for Benz-Mercedes and other brand names
with similar status.
A major bargaining chip for securing a franchise
for a particular product was to maintain a viable
network of customers that could not be easily re-
placed should the franchise be transferred to other
agents. To maintain such a network, Mr. L
emphasized that it was important to look after the
customer’s interests. He added that he sometimes
had to spend time with the customer on personal
matters. He mentioned for example that he had just
dined over the weekend with a couple, who were
his customer and who wanted to seek his views on
some family problems. Encounters like this, though
falling outside the scope of business activities,
helped to fortify the relationship with customers.
He said,
Righteousness and Profitableness 253

10. This is how [the network of customers] was main-
tained. So it is not simple at all, and [in fact] it is quite
difficult. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn’t.
Therefore, as far as running a business is concerned, it is
like telling the story of one thousand and one Arabian
nights. It is an endless story. There are new challenges
everyday, with unforeseen difficulties … 9
To recapitulate, Mr. L did not start his business by
taking honesty as a strategy to find a niche in the
market. On the contrary, he had developed a moral
conscience long before he started his own business
and carried it into the business world, probing his
way through until he eventually found his market
niche. He experienced conflicts over the years be-
tween moral commitments and instrumental goals.
Honesty in his case was costly. But he tried his best
to stick to the moral principles he cherished. The
following excerpt from the interview is revealing of
his inner feelings.
Q: Generally speaking, would it be an advantage or a
disadvantage to do business in a righteous and
proper way?
A.: Ah …, it would be a competitive disadvantage.
But it can still be done and it is not necessarily true
that business can be done only by breaking the
rules. In the long run we still believe in honesty
and propriety. It can be done, but in a very dif-
ficult way, facing a lot of challenges.’’
Q: But that would be very tough!
A: Yes, of course. Because of this, we have been
growing very slowly. Many people in our trade
have made a lot of money. We did not make as
much money as they did but we also gained other
things. We won others’ respect and approval. (At
this point, he took out a chart showing the growth
trend of his company) See, we are still developing,
keep growing, though we did not earn as much
money as they did.
Q: Have you ever thought this way: Why should I
make things so difficult for myself? Won’t the
business develop faster just by following what
others did?
A: It’s a matter of value commitment.
Q: Did it ever occur to you … or was there any
conflict?
A: Ummm …, I did not agree with what they did.
But what I am doing is very tough, … facing a lot
of difficulties.10
During our interview, Mr. L had never indi-
cated that he avoided engaging in illegal activities
for fear of being caught. On the contrary, he
expressed that it was entirely a matter of moral
commitment. This can be corroborated by other
pieces of evidence.
Mr. L’s nephew and the managing director of the
company recalled an incident in the early years soon
after they started the business. At that time, they
were still selling automobile spare parts over the
telephone. One day, they received a phone call from
a customer, saying that the automobile roof-top they
ordered was broken. The cost for this item was over
700 Malaysian dollars, an amount considered quite
substantial in those days. Moreover, to reduce the
cost of delivery, it was not insured. When they told
this to the postman, with whom they had a good
relationship, the postman said, ‘‘Don’t worry! Buy
insurance now. I can backdate the effective date.’’
This was a very tempting offer since, though illegal,
the chance of being caught cheating was minimal
given that the postman had the discretion to do what
he offered and only two parties were involved. But
Mr. L and his colleagues quickly realized that this
would be dishonest and violate the spirit of moral
integrity they promoted in the company. Eventually,
they declined the postman’s offer and compensated
their customer instead.11
Ms. W, the warehouse manager of Mr. L’s
company, told the interviewer about another inci-
dent that occurred about three weeks prior to the
interview. One of her staff discovered an extra
amount of one hundred brake pad sets when he
unpacked the goods they had ordered from the
manufacturer. These items, estimated to be worth
more than eight thousand Malaysian dollars, were
not recorded in the delivery note nor in the invoice.
There was thus no way the sender could have
known about this should they decide to keep the
extra sets. But they chose instead to notify the sen-
der, giving the sender the option either to issue a
new bill or to have these items returned. Incidents
like this apparently happened quite often in the past
although the amount of goods unaccounted for was
usually smaller.12
254 Tak Sing Cheung and Ambrose Yeo-chi King

11. Another example from Mr. S, the managing
director of a brewery company in Qufu City, shows
the Confucian entrepreneur’s willingness to forgo
material advantage out of moral considerations. He
was once approached by a man from the district
court in his city to ask whether he was interested in
buying a large volume of malt, the material for
making beer, at RMB2500 per ton, from a company
at the brink of bankruptcy. Mr. S’s initial reaction
was that it would be a good deal as the price was
very cheap indeed. But when he discovered that the
malt came from one of their long-term business
partners, he immediately told the district court em-
ployee that he would not take it even if the price was
set at RMB1000 per ton, because he considered that
equivalent to beating a person when he was already
down. He then sent a representative to the malt firm
to find out what had happened there and came up
with a solution by offering to buy the malt at
RMB2700 per ton so that the company would have
enough money to pay off its debt. This example
shows that Mr. S had based his decision on moral
grounds rather than trying to maximize profits for
his company.13
The priority given by the Confucian entrepre-
neurs to moral commitment at the expense
of material benefits can further be observed in Mr.
H’s efforts to draw a line between practices within
legal boundaries that were morally worth doing and
those that were not. His company specialized in
publishing in Taiwan sociology books written in
Chinese. These publications fell into two broad
categories, namely, textbooks and academic works.
Mr. H considered publication of the latter more
meaningful and valuable because they were more
creative, especially in terms of spreading and pro-
moting new ideas. However, the company could
hardly survive by just focusing on this category of
publication because of its small market. Therefore,
the profits generated from the publication of text-
books were used to cross-subsidize the publication of
academic works. He initially set the ratio between
academic works and textbooks at 7–3 but subse-
quently adjusted this to 6–4 to maintain the com-
pany’s economic viability.
As mentioned above, Mr. H did not make much
money from his small company established in the
1970s even though the Taiwan economy boomed in
the years that followed. He lived a very frugal live,
seldom traveling by taxi even within Taipei city.
The investigator asked him whether it ever occurred
to him that his standard of living could have been
much better had he decided to publish more text-
books. He replied:
I do not regret. … This does not matter much. In
those days when I published books about the envi-
ronmental crisis and the impact of automation, the
ideas involved were unfamiliar [to people] in our
country. At that time, what environmental crisis could
[Taiwan] possibly have? None [of these books] could
be [easily] sold. It was not until the 1980s that people
gradually began to pay attention to these books,
thereby increasing sales volume. Sales were the best in
the 1990s, the later the better.14
In his view, the function of a business enterprise is
to increase the value of a commodity, a value that
carries moral connotations. He insisted that one
should not get more than one actually deserved,
otherwise he/she would become an unethical mer-
chant. When asked how he determined whether one
got more than one actually deserved, he replied as
follows:
Then that’s [a matter of] commercial conscience. You
make your own judgment, on the ground of how
much service you have provided, or how much labor
or mental energy you have contributed.15
The interviewer then asked him whether he had
experienced any market pressure or financial crisis
since the company was established in the 1970s. He
answered that since the market for sociology books
written in Chinese was only a small market and was
hardly profitable, the big publishers in Taiwan were
not even interested in having a share in it. Some
publishers did publish textbooks and even academic
titles in sociology, but throughout the years, the
image of his company had become firmly established
in Taiwan. Whenever an author had a sociology
book manuscript and started to look for a publisher,
he/she would usually think of his company. The
same was true for the customer. He indicated that,
from the very beginning, he had defined his com-
pany as a small enterprise, seeing no prospect of its
ever developing into a big business. As he saw it, a
small enterprise had to be carefully managed. He
Righteousness and Profitableness 255

12. recalled that there had been several cycles of ups and
downs in the publishing business in Taiwan in the
past two or three decades and that many people in
the business had become bankrupt due to over-
expansion. He was quite conservative as far as
expansion of his business was concerned. This po-
sition, however, helped to protect him from the
vicissitudes of market fluctuations. The important
point is that he was content with what he had
achieved. He found meanings in a career of his own
choice, albeit with meager financial returns.16
Dilemmas in distorted markets and mental
struggles
Mr. H appears to have experienced much less market
pressure than Mr. L. One reason for this is that in
Mr. L’s case, as mentioned above, the pressure came
more from market distortions than from the market
per se. When markets are effectively governed by
law, economic actors can compete by following a
common set of rules. Success will depend on vision
and competence as well as on luck. But the business
environment for Mr. L hardly approximates this
condition. This is the situation that Confucian
entrepreneurs have to face on a daily basis in their
struggle for survival in the Mainland Chinese market
where the rule of law has yet to be fully institu-
tionalized.
Mr. X, owner of several restaurants in Wuxi, a
city in Jiangsu province in southern China, resented
that he could not run his business in a fair and
transparent environment. He complained that he
had to spend most of his energy liaising with people
in power. Without a good relationship, he said, one
could hardly borrow money from the bank, which
was essential to start a business. Another problem
was to obtain a license. Because of the overlapping
bureaucratic supervisory systems, he had to deal with
a large number of government departments and
bureaus, such as those in charge of security, hygiene,
commerce, environmental protection, and taxation,
encountering endless troubles and harassment. He
said,
They came without a reason, picked this and that up,
charging you hygiene fee, garbage fee, … If your
business is good, they could charge you twenty
thousand yuan (1 US dollar ¼ 8 yuan) per year,
without giving any reason. They could also charge
you one thousand. That all depended on how good
your relationship was with them. If the relationship
was good, they would charge you less. If the rela-
tionship was not good, they would charge you
more.17
One incident in particular made him feel both
furious and very frustrated: His business partner
owed him several million yuan and refused to pay
him back. He took the case to court which ruled in
his favor. But the defendant ignored the ruling. He
then applied for coercive implementation. When the
case reached this point, both the plaintiff and the
defendant had to initiate a process of liaison with
proper authorities in the court, trying to win their
support. As he felt he had a solid case, the effort and
resources he was prepared to devote for a favorable
ruling in his case were naturally less than for the
other party. As a result, the judge in charge of this
case not only failed to help him get the money back
but tried to persuade him to accept instead a certain
amount of not so valuable goods from the defendant
as compensation. The interviewer asked him whe-
ther he could seek help from other channels. His
answer was negative because matters like this fell
entirely within the court’s jurisdiction. Even if the
judge in charge of the case were replaced, he said,
the defendant would continue to behave in the same
way so that the result would remain pretty much the
same. He concluded with a sigh saying that those
who harbored Confucian values had better not en-
gage in business.18
According to Mr. Y, the owner of a company
selling personal computers in a big city in southern
China, one should not do business in Mainland
China if one did not have enough political recourse,
by which he meant a ‘‘protective umbrella’’ from
powerful officials in the government. This protec-
tive umbrella is in most instances geographically
based. If one wants to extend one’s business beyond
its reach, one then has to be extremely careful,
especially to make sure that ‘‘the web of relation-
ships’’ in the intended locality has been well taken
care of. Otherwise, no matter how good one’s
business is, the money one earns could hardly cover
various kinds of penalties that could be imposed.19
256 Tak Sing Cheung and Ambrose Yeo-chi King

13. Even collectively owned enterprises were not
exempt from the whims of extortion. According to
Mr. S, the managing director of a brewery firm in
Qufu City in Shandong province in northern China,
the beer his company produced was in short supply
in its initial phase of production. At that time, nearly
every department or bureau in the city government
came to him, asking for a certain share of his product
for which demand was very strong. He recalled that
a bureau chief demanded 3000 bottles of beer for
one order but the total amount at his company’s
disposal was only about 60,000 bottles. In view of
the demands from the city government of Qufu
which had some 68 departments, large and small,
and another 60–70 departments in the district gov-
ernment of Jining to which the city of Qufu belongs,
not to mention the company’s other customers and
clients, it is simply impossible for the company to
entertain such a sizable amount of request. So Mr. S
only supplied half of what that bureau chief de-
manded.
Apparently annoyed by this move, that bureau
chief later kept trying to find fault with the com-
pany, maintaining that the quality of its products was
not up to standard, thereby forcing its production
lines to a standstill. Under this circumstance, Mr. S
had to mobilize his ‘‘web of relationships’’ to settle
the crisis. He had to arrange, albeit unwillingly, to
wine and dine with that bureau chief, a typical oc-
casion used by Chinese for conflict resolution. Asked
whether the conflict could have been satisfactorily
resolved without dining with the bureau chief, Mr. S
replied that the situation would most likely remain at
a standstill forever, thus putting the company’s sur-
vival in jeopardy.20
Like Mr. S, other Confucian entrepreneurs
frankly admitted that they would occasionally do
something under certain circumstances that they did
not want to do. The following excerpt from the
interview with Mr. C, the CEO of a private
enterprise producing food-related commodities and
running restaurants in a county on the outskirts of
Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu province in
southern China, is one example
Q: While doing business, is there any occasion in
which you have to do something against your
conscience in order to keep business running?
A: You mean while doing business? Yes, there is. It is
inevitable. In order to do more (business), (one)
sometimes has to go against (one’s) conscience to
say a few words that are not true. It is inevitable.
Q: Under what circumstances do you have to say
words that are not true?
A: For instance, when a client came to negotiate
business deals with me, asking for information
about similar products in the market, I would say
‘‘I don’t know’’ even though in fact I know.
Q: But you can say ‘‘I don’t want to tell you’’.
A: I can’t say that. I can only say ‘‘I don’t know’’.21
He continued to talk about his philosophy of life,
maintaining that one had to ‘‘twist’’ oneself some-
what once a while, just as an actor had to put on
make-up while singing opera on stage. Sometimes it
was necessary to say something that was not quite
compatible with his conscience in order to strike a
deal. But he insisted that there was a baseline which
he would not cross, namely, to cheat or to trap his
clients with malicious intention, such as selling fake
or sub-standard products.22
Mr. U, CEO of a private enterprise in the
advertising business in Nanjing had a similar expe-
rience and adopted a similar stance. When doing
something not quite consistent with his moral stan-
dard, he often tried to rationalize his action on the
ground that moral standards should be adjusted
according to concrete situations. That did not mean
he had given up his conscience. He emphasized that
his ‘‘real conscience’’ existed in the inner core of his
heart, and that beyond the outer limit of this ‘‘inner
conscience’’ he allowed himself to have a certain
degree of flexibility. When the interviewer asked
him to further clarify what constituted such a limit,
he responded as follows:
This limit refers to the basic conscience that we have.
We all have such a basic conscience in moral and
ethical terms, something that is essential for normal
human beings. If it is against this (basic) conscience,
i.e., when I feel shameful, then I will give up, I will
give up the business … This is precisely a problem for
zhisifenzi (the intellectuals) engaging in business. We
have an old saying that ‘‘rather stand to die than kneel
Righteousness and Profitableness 257

14. to live’’. This kind of image still lingers on in our
minds.23
When asked to describe the boundary for this
limit, he said it was difficult to put into words and
felt that it had to be judged according to actual sit-
uations.24
Mr. L, owner of the company in Kuala Lumpur
that sells automobile spare parts, admitted frankly
that he did engage in some improper behavior soon
after he started his own business in the early 1980s.
Upon the interviewer’s further inquiry, he revealed
what that behavior was but asked the interviewer to
keep it confidential. When asked under what cir-
cumstance he would allow himself to act improperly
and under what circumstance he would never con-
template doing so, he said that it should be judged
on a case by case basis. When asked what came to his
mind while engaging in improper behavior, he
mentioned that he was at that time struggling hard
for survival. Besides, his conscience was not partic-
ularly strong at first.25
As noted above, it was only
after he came across the work and ideas of Mr.
Matsushita that he found a moral model for his
business activities.
Several points can be highlighted from these
examples: First, though committed to moral values,
the Confucian entrepreneurs we studied acknowl-
edged that under certain circumstance they inevitably
compromised their values in the course of doing
business by doing something that they felt was not
quite right. Second, in view of the absence of a deep
and lasting bond between the interviewer and these
entrepreneurs, the fact that they admitted their
wrongdoings frankly can be interpreted as a reflec-
tion of the authenticity of their responses and their
candidness. Third, all of them did not spell out the
circumstance under which they would be likely to
engage in deviant business behavior. They would
only say that it varied from case to case. This type of
response is indicative of what is sometimes called
‘‘situational ethics’’ that guide individual behavior in
daily life (Krahe, 1992, pp. 194–232). Fourth, though
they could not specify a clear benchmark for what
constitutes deviant business behavior, they do have a
moral bottom line which they would not violate. It is
‘‘basic conscience’’ in Mr. U’ words, and ‘‘not to
harm and trap others’’ as Mr. C maintained. These
remarks indicate that conscience is not homogeneous
in its make-up but consists of different layers. The
fact they would occasionally engage under market
pressure in acts that violated their conscience should
be understood as a retreat from the outer layer to the
inner or basic part of their conscience.
Conclusion
This study of contemporary Confucian entrepre-
neurs shows hat there are individuals who do not
necessarily seek to maximize material gains even in
the business world but act in ways that contradict the
image of man portrayed by the neo-classical para-
digm in economics. Contrary to the latter’s emphasis
on the instrumental value of moral virtues, it dem-
onstrates that abiding by one’s moral principles can
be costly. For the Confucian entrepreneurs under
investigation, moral virtues are pursued not for the
sake of generating more profits but as an end in itself.
It is a way of life organized around the search for
meanings and a sense of commitment. All business-
men aim at making money. But Confucian entre-
preneurs do not do so in indiscriminant fashion.
Even within legal boundaries, they distinguish be-
tween moral and immoral or meaningful and non-
meaningful practices and try to encapsulate their
profit-making activities within the boundaries of
their moral beliefs.
An implication of this study is that, however
powerful instrumental rationality may be in the
business world, there is always room for resistance.
But the pressure it puts on the Confucian entre-
preneurs cannot be underestimated, especially when
opportunities arise for material gain but taking
advantage of these opportunities would violate their
sense of morality. These entrepreneurs are neither
saints nor sages. Some admitted frankly that they had
acted in some instances in ways that violated their
moral principles. But they generally tried their best
to resist the domination of instrumental rationality,
preferring instead to purse a life course that they felt
was meaningful and righteous.
The experience of our respondents shows that
to resist the powerful forces of instrumental ratio-
nality in a world where the pace of globalization
gathers momentum is akin to fighting an uphill bat-
tle. Should we therefore ‘‘go with the flow’’, sur-
render autonomy and submit ourselves to the whims
258 Tak Sing Cheung and Ambrose Yeo-chi King

15. of these forces? Or should we adhere to our beliefs
whatever the obstacles we encounter? This is a key
challenge facing every individual in modern society.
Acknowledgement
The study reported in this article initially received a
small grant from the Department of Sociology at
The Chinese University of Hong Kong as the seed
money to generate the idea involved. It later became
part of a larger project supported by the Research
Grants Council, Hong Kong (CUHK322/95H). We
would also like to express our gratitude to the
entrepreneurs who sacrificed their precious time to
come for the interview and our friends and col-
leagues who introduced them to us. Their names are
too many to be listed down here, but the enthusi-
astic support from Professor Zhou Xiaohong and
Professor Hsu Cho-yun is always a major source of
inspiration. We are also very grateful to Professor
David A. Levin, who helped us to meticulously
polish the English of our manuscript.
Notes
1
Interview on May 24, 1997 in Nanjing.
2
Interview on July 24, 1998 in Kuala Lumpur.
3
Interview on May 24, 1997 in Nanjing.
4
Interview on May 10, 1997 in Taipei.
5
Interview on July 24, 1998 in Kuala Lumpur.
6
Interview on May 9, 1997 in Taipei.
7
Interview on May 9, 1997 in Taipei.
8
Interview on August 21, 1998 in Qufu.
9
Interview on July 27, 1998 in Kuala Lumpur.
10
Interview on July 24, 1997 in Kuala Lumpur.
11
Interview on January 25, 1998 in Kuala Lumpur.
12
Interview on January 7, 2000 in Kuala Lumpur.
13
Interview on August 21, 1998 in Qufu.
14
Interview on May 10, 1997 in Taipei.
15
Interview on May 10, 1997 in Taipei.
16
Interview on May 10, 1997 in Taipei.
17
Interview on May 26, 1998 in Wuxi.
18
Interview on May 26, 1998 in Wuxi.
19
Interview on May 30, 1998 in Nanjing.
20
Interview on August 21, 1998 in Qufu.
21
Interview on May 24, 1997 in Nanjing.
22
Interview on May 24, 1997 in Nanjing.
23
May 29, 1998 in Nanjing.
24
May 29, 1998 in Nanjing.
25
Interview on January 5, 2000 in Kuala Lumpur.
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Tak Sing Cheung
Department of Sociology,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Shatin, N.T.,
Hong Kong
P.R. China
E-mail: takscheung@cuhk.edu.hk
260 Tak Sing Cheung and Ambrose Yeo-chi King