What Makes A Leader
Xinqing Dai
ESL 101
Feb.26.2012
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Among hundreds of emperors in Chinese history, Qin Shi Huang (259 - 210 B.C.) must be
the most admirable one since he is the first man who unified China. Qin Shi Huang is also
known as Emperor Qin. He is the first emperor in Chinese history that established the Qin
Dynasty in 221 B.C., and he was in power for 37 years. In terms of warfare or governing
country, Qin Shi Huang has made remarkable contributions. And these contributions are
strongly related with his splendid qualities which fits Niccolo Machiavelli’s views in his article
“The Qualities of the Prince” and Lao-Tzu’s views in “Tao-te Ching”. Machiavelli was an
aristocrat during renaissance Italy. His works often contrast two forces: luck (one’s fortune)
and character (one’s virtues). About the first quality, he writes “A prince, therefore, must not
have any other object nor any other thought nor must he take anything as his profession but
war (1)”. To become a leader, one must realize his circumstance, both external threatens and
internal contradictories. As an emperor, he needs to be cautious of his neighbors as external
threatens.
Although people pursue peace all the time and they prefer to make their country strong
in a peaceful way, probably it is merely a wishful thinking because not a leader wishes their
neighbors become stronger in peace in case they probably become potential threatens to his
country. However, within a good command of skills in warfare can defend one’s own country
as well as conquer other countries, and this quality will provide him essential capital to
become a successful leader. In the Warring States Period, there were seven powerful nations:
Qin, Chu, Han, Zhao, Yan, Qi and Wei. Qin’s geographical position was in the west, while Qi’s
position was in the east. The rest five states’ positions spread along north to south, which
separated Qin and Qi. Actually, five states became natural barriers to protect Qi and
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meanwhile threatened Qin. Qin Shi Huang adopted a tactic named “transversal breach”
which is to befriend a distant enemy while attacking a nearby enemy. When Qin Shi Huang
decided to attack Han, the state most closed to Qin, he temporarily befriended with the
other five states so that they would not interface this campaign. After that Qin Shi Huang
adopted the same tactic to annexed five states. When attacking Qi, the king of Qi realized
that he had lost all the barriers and was too weak to resist Qin, Qi surrendered with few
resistances. Thereby, Qin Shi Huang made his state stronger step by step and finally unified
China within only 9 years by his remarkable tactical concept.
The elimination of external threatens is half the battle, and the other matter is to
resolve internal contradictories, or they will disrupt one’s leadership internally. Machiavelli
writes “To be loved or to be feared, {a prince} should like to be both one and the other (14)”.
It means a leader is likely to govern his country better if he is loved as well as feared by his
people, and this rule must follow two premises: he is an acknowledged leader; and he must
avoid being hated.
If one is carefully and rigorously selected as a leader, it is naturally for him to be
accepted by his people. However, if he becomes a leader by other means such as inheritance
and conquest, he must notice that he hasn’t been an acknowledged leader. Reputation,
different from title, cannot be inherited or surrendered. Although he is known as a leader,
seldom do people obey his order if he doesn’t have enough popularity. Thus, the priority is
to establish prestige so that he can be acknowledged by his people. To improve his status, he
must be loved at first, because on one is willing to follow a person who is disgusted. But it’s
also not wise for him to be feared at first, because only fear no love makes him be hated. So,
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in the early period, he needs love to improve his status, and after that, he can use fear to
strengthen his status. On this issue, Qin Shi Huang made a significant achievement. In time
of war, he never ordered his army to massacre a city; he didn’t loot people’s property with
triumph; and he offered peasants land to grow. When Qin Shi Huang conquered six states
and unified China, he abolished well-field system and practiced land privatization. Well-field
system is a kind of agricultural slavery that serfs have to farm for their landlords but earn a
little to maintain their living. Although seven states adopted their own land reform policies,
Qin was the only state which insisted land privatization thoroughly and permanently.
Therefore, this policy not removed the identity of serf from six states but greatly aroused
peasants’ participation in farming their own lands. These three actions made him loved by
his people and built him a stable prestige, which paved the way for his further policies.
However, a leader must realize that although love is still working to improve his status, a
side effect is that it will weaken his power. For example, Lao Ai was a Qin official whose job
was to serve Queen Zhao (Qin Shi Huang’s mother). He pretended to do his job well to win
Qin Shi Huang’s trust but privately formicated with Queen Zhao. Lao Ai was authorized a lot
of power and fortune, and the Queen even born two sons for him. After that, he started the
plot of usurping the throne. Luckily, this plot was divulged, and Lao Ai was sentenced to
death. In this case, depended on Queen’s shield, Lao Ai didn’t feel any fear from Qin Shi
Huang so that he could easily take advantage from him. Hence a leader needs fear to
prevent him from being considered as weak and despised. But it doesn’t mean that the
more he is feared, the more he is a successful leader. As the side effect of fear is to be hated,
it will be good for him to always be feared a bit more than be loved.
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But before a policy or decision is adopted, it is not easy to anticipate people’s feeling on
it, let alone to maintain the balance between love and fear. Thus a leader must be cautious
of being hated by his people, which is the bottom line. It is important because a leader is
based on his followers, and his status is based on followers’ love. If he begins to be hated,
the base begins to ruin. The most common factor is the abuse of power. This action makes a
leader unreliable and unjust, because most people cannot accept an unjust treatment. If
continuous, these antipathies will finally lead to hatred. For example, although the abolition
of well-field system benefited peasants, it meanwhile impaired the interest of aristocrats. In
ancient time, land means power and wealth. Since the ownership of land used to be
achieved by reward (from king) and inheritance, this policy deprived aristocrats’ monopoly
of lands and made it tradable. It was inevitable to hinder a part of people’s interest for the
reform, but the problem was that this policy came too suddenly for aristocrats to adapt, and
their antipathies aggravated as they got nothing for compensation. Qin Shi Huang ignored
their interests due to his overhasty mood of developing his country. After the unification,
aristocrats from six states couldn’t endure the loss of power and property, and some cracks
appeared in the relationship between two classes. But it was until Qin Shi Huang’s death did
they unite against Qin due to their fear to him.
On the other hand, the conception of abusing power is easily confounded with cruelty,
because many unsuccessful leaders are considered as tyrants who advocate cruel laws. But
whether the law is cruel has little relationship with whether he is a successful leader. As
Machiavelli writes “a prince must not worry about the reproach of cruelty when it is a
matter of keeping his subjects united and loyal (12)”. Thus if a leader can apply cruel laws to
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manage his country well, it is a successful application which makes him feared. Otherwise, if
he abuses cruel laws on his people, he will probably be hated. On this issue, it makes a great
contrast between Qin Shi Huang and Qin Jr. When Qin Shi Huang unified China, he adopted
Han Fei’s thought (It refers that people are inclined to act badly, society needs strict laws and
harsh punishments), and established severe law systems. According to them, people are
forced to participate in big projects such as the Great Wall to defend Qin’s territory, and the
ZhengGuo Canal to develop agriculture. Although Qin Shi Huang was reproached as a tyrant
by later generations for the huge burden on people’s life, he governed and maintained his
country at a stable state. However, when he died, Qin Jr. abused this law system on his
people (actually Zhao Gao was the power-holder). He compelled labors worked without rest
to build Qin Tomb, and when it was completed, he ordered to bury alive all the labors and
engineers who had participated in the project. Apparently Qing Jr.’s cruelty is opposed to
“keeping his subjects united and loyal”. This event enraged his people, which came to
latter’s peasant uprising, and finally led to the ruin of Qin Dynasty. Anyway, during the time
that Qin Shi Huang was in power, he adopted severe laws to govern his country in order, and
made himself feared but not hated by his people.
Nevertheless, these qualities are merely some basic ones for a leader to possess. What
makes a leader great is his humility. This quality fits Lao-Tzu’s view in “Tao-te Ching”. Lao-Tzu
is a Chinese philosopher in sixth century B.C. who advocates using moral behavior to govern
a country. As he writes “The more powerful {a country} grows, the greater the need for
humility (61)”. It means the attitude of humility can make a country more powerful. Humility
expresses in two aspects: widely adopt opinions; and admit as well as correct one’s error.
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Even a wise leader needs other people’s assist, and how to make good use of these
assists is to adopt their opinions. But it doesn’t mean that he can obey all of them regardless
any consequences. They are just references, and he has to distinguish which one is worthy to
govern his country. It is hard because a leader may take his personal bias into account when
making a decision. Therefore, he must remind himself to keep a humble attitude all the time
in case making mistakes due to his impulsion. Qin Shi Huang is such a leader. He paid great
attention to attracting talents from six states, and widely adopted their opinions. But some
aristocrats once urged Qin Shi Huang to expel these talents for they might be spies. Li Si (a
Qin official came from Chu) pointed out that foreign talents had made such magnificent
contributions to Qin’s development which could not be repudiated. If they were expelled,
Qin’s strength would be weakened and meanwhile six states would be stronger. Qin Shi
Huang deliberated this advice and agreed with him. His humble attitude prevented him from
calumny but helped him grow his country more powerful.
Although not to err is better than correct an error, people usually realize it is a mistake
until they made it. Therefore they must admit and correct it before it gets serious. For sure
admitting a mistake requires one’s humility, which will bring embarrassment so that some
leaders are reluctant to do this. But this quality is vital to a leader because every decision he
makes will impact a country’s future, even if it is about admitting a mistake. Between
personal vanity and country loss, Qin Shi Huang understood which one was important.
When he made a mistake, he would admit and correct it immediately. For example, Qin Shi
Huang once consulted Li Xin and Wang Jian (both of them are Qin’s generals) how many
soldiers were necessary to conquer Chu. Wang Jian asked for 600 thousands, which was the
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sum of Qin’s military. Li Xin only asked for 200 thousands. Qin Shi Huang laughed at Wang
Jian’s timidity and appointed Li Xin as commander to attack Chu. However, this battle was a
complete failure. Qin Shi Huang was so angry, but he realized his fault and regretted his
arrogance. He at once visited Wang Jian’s home to admit his mistake, and invited him to hold
the post of commander. This event shows Qin Shi Huang’s great humility. He was brave to
take responsibility and well dealt with his mistakes.
To sum up, the key to make Qin such a strong dynasty owes to Qin Shi Huang’s splendid
qualities: his remarkable skills in warfare; he was loved as well as feared by his people; he
avoided being hated; and his great humility. These qualities helped him play a better
leadership to govern his country well. Furthermore, they still possess practical meanings in
modern society. To a president, they can help him lead his people correctly. To a manager,
they can help him make his company dominant among his competitors. To everyone, they
can help us to shape our own morality and possess the leadership necessary to succeed
within our own situations.
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References:
Laozi, Gia-fu Feng, and Jane English. Tao Te Ching. New York: Vintage, 1972. Print.
Machiavelli, Niccolò, and David Wootton. The Prince. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1995. Print.