Execution Without Reform

不教而殺謂之虐 (bù jiāo ér shā wèi zhī nüè)
To execute somebody without first attempting to reform them; this is called brutality.

This injunction against wanton executions seems inherently reasonable. It’s incumbent on a leader to attempt to educate a wayward person in the right way before resorting to the death penalty. The ‘reform’ or ‘education’ in view could also be interpreted in a general sense: the person serving in government must educate the people in general in the way of righteousness before meting out draconian punishments to individuals. Though obviously referring to literal state murder, this sage advice could equally be applied in a modern business context to the less extreme measure of firing somebody without first attempting to correct them. The Chinese character I have translated ‘brutality’ here (虐) contains, appropriately enough, the graph for ‘tiger’.

Demands without Warning

不戒視成謂之暴 (bù jiè shì chéng wèi zhī bào)
To suddenly demand to see things finished without any warning; that’s called oppression.

Here we find ourselves very clearly in bad boss territory. Pouncing upon unsuspecting underlings and demanding, in Legge’s phrase, “the full tale of work” is oppressive behaviour, to be avoided by the Confucian official. The word ‘oppression’ (暴) has the sense of violence, hence the translation of ‘tyranny’ favoured by AnnPing Chin in the Penguin World Classics edition.

Slow Orders; Harsh Deadlines

慢令致期謂之賊 (màn lìng zhì qí wèi zhī zéi)

To give orders with no sense of urgency, then stick rigidly to a deadline — this is tyranny.

At first glance, this third piece of toxic behaviour seems very similar to the previous one. It concens being slow to give orders and then being unbending when it comes to a deadline. Because this warranted a separate item in Confucius’ discourse, I think the ‘slowness’ referred to is not so much being tardy with orders (which would be barely different from not giving a warning) but more the manner in which they are delivered. Hence Waley’s chosen phrase of ‘being dilatory about giving orders’ or Legge’s ‘to issue orders as if without urgency at first’. In boss terms it’s worse, really: the oppressive boss from the second evil is a monster, but this one pivots from a frustratingly laissez-faire attitude to harsh micro-management, leaving everybody reeling.

Giving Grudgingly

猶之與人也，出納之吝，謂之有司 (yóu zhī yú rén yě, chū nà zhī lín, wèi zhī yǒu sī)

And, in a similar way, intending to give something but handing it over grudgingly – this is the behaviour of a petty functionary.

The final evil is a little different from the first three, because it concerns attitude above actions. In this scenario, the intention is to give something (unspecified, but quite possibly pay or rewards as Legge has it) but to do so in a way that is parsimonious or stingy. Why does this make this list of four evils, from the vast panoply of potential wrongs that could be chosen? Perhaps in part because it undermines the honour and dignity of the position and thus reduces the stingy give to a mere functionary. Perhaps, too, because it transgresses both the ritual aspect of the job (Confucius felt that the rituals should be performed wholeheartedly if they were to be worth anything) and the integrity of the giver, revealing them to be that most un-Confucian of things: a hypocrite.

Sources and Further Reading

Confucius, The Analects, Annping Chin, Penguin Books, 2014

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