LORENEL S.

INTERINO
Spirituality, Personality and Social Responsibility

Confucianism was the predominant structure of belief and spiritual position in ancient China,
one that emerged from the teachings of Chinese scholar Confucius. He regarded himself as the line for
the theological themes emerging from the royal dynasties that came before him. With the emphasis on
family and cultural harmony, Confucianism was a distinctly humanistic and still secularist spiritual
orientation. One of his teachings focuses on the moral character of a man, he believed that morality is
the strongest foundation of our being. And this is one of the most important values that a leader must
possess, a person with a high moral sense. With that being said, I must say that it is true in all walks of
life. There is no compromise with the thought that all leaders shall possess the highest form of moral
character in order to lead a certain organization, a group of people, or any form of the like. A good
leader is someone who knows the meaning of responsibility to his movement, his force, and his
comrades in arms. He put the wants and well-being of his team ahead of himself, without giving
established standards, training, or moral behavior. He served not just as a leader of his forces, but as a
follower of his position. Confucius emphasized that a leader must be trustworthy – that is, dependable
and honorable. This statement of him struck my heart and made me realize things. A leader can never
gain the trust of his people without showing his truthfulness in everything he does.

The idealisms of Confucius appears to apply to all sorts of generation, even at this present time,
I can see that his teaching about political leadership must be adhered to by our government leaders. He
mentioned that if a ruler is upright, even without giving orders, the subject will obey. And I couldn’t help
but agree with that, as we people tend to follow someone who does things in the right way, someone
who is righteous and has the courage to fight for the common good of his people. He also taught about
“ren” which simply teaches about love. This is what we need right now, we need to learn to love the
people around us, regardless of race, life status, and physical appearance. Next is the human
relationship, which is characterized by five fundamental human relationships. First, is “wu-lun”, which
focuses on self-cultivation, then on family, then on the country, and finally on the largest scale which is
the whole world. Next is “ren qing”, which translates to human feelings or human sensibilities. It’s more
like being sensitive to the feelings of others and being considerate of the well-being of his organization.
Confucius mentioned an important guideline in selecting a good leader or promoting an employee to a
higher position. And that is selecting a person with good interpersonal skills than a person with a high
IQ, yet grossly lacks human skill or EQ. This goes to show that is important for a leader to be someone
who is good at connecting with other people because being a good leader means winning the trust and
hearts of his people. Confucius also mentioned that a Confucian leader must be a lifelong learner, a
person who never stops learning and continuously gains knowledge that he is willing to share with his
people.

And lastly, “Zhong Yong” or the Doctrine of Mean, this principle teaches us that we must
balance our words with our actions, and we must do it first before we start preaching it, and this forms
the underlying principle of life.