Commandment 10

Conduct roots upon cautiousness

Dealing with people is to interact with others or the environment. The most precious way that one gets along with others in the world should be the two words “being conscientious”. It means that one should understand the true essence of life and recognize the genuine hearts of others always in a meticulous attitude. One should try best to do what is entrusted to them by others. No matter how much and how important the thing entrusted might be, it is necessary to begin from trifles with a careful and serious attitude. Try best to strive for the goal in order to avoid any careless omissions at any details.

The basic principle for one to follow in the course of getting along with others: don’t look at what is contrary to propriety; don’t listen to what is contrary to propriety; don’t speak what is contrary to propriety; don’t make a movement which is contrary to propriety. Be sincere in speaking and be careful in behaving. One should understand the severity of the things in mind, clearly understand what should say and shouldn't say, and what should do and shouldn’t do. Otherwise, it will be impossible to keep a clear and calm mind in the course of dealing with matters. That is to be as clear as daylight, and as explicit as noonday. The basic premise is to be careful, which is just the embodiment of serious and responsible dedication. Otherwise, acting blindly will lose accuracy of the work, and finally, as the saying goes: more haste and less speed, and one will thus be unable to bear their own responsibility. Being careful, therefore, is the key to achieving good results; otherwise one will be unable to form an enterprise atmosphere of “respecting to work on professions and happiness to be with collectives”.

Commandment 9

Preparation keeps the fooster away

Living in the world is nothing more than to conduct oneself and handle affairs in society. In fact, ones have been conducting themselves since they were born, but the key is that how they will conduct themselves. Will they become healthy cells or virus in society? Everyone wants to be the former, of course, namely a person good for society and others, in order to reflect their own values. However, this will depend on how ones have conducted themselves in society, which should be reflected in the course of their works. One’s act should be disciplined and measured, and one should know the cause and effect of any things: it is necessary to know the target to be achieved and the desired effect very well.

For every employee, a plan should be established for service, operation or management, and be carried out step by step. Therefore, as the saying of “preparedness ensures success, unpreparedness spells failure” goes, advance preparation is a key link, and careful plans and detailed deployment are very important. It is necessary to conduct forecasting work in a proper manner and estimate the unknown results according to the known circumstances and conditions. It is also necessary to actively understand and grasp the relevant information in all aspects, and prepare a pre-arranged plan, so that it is possible to accomplish with confidence, to go easy and to get twice the result with half the effort in the course of dealing with problems. All important items to be prepared should be listed clearly to form a plan showing the number of manpower to be input, the amount of funds to be invested, the length of time to be spent, the situations to be unexpected and the measures for emergencies. It is more crucial to get well prepared mentally before working, and pay attention to the flexibility so as to proceed smoothly like floating clouds and flowing water and easily respond to various situations. In a word, the key is to have a pretty good idea of how things stand on the overall direction and the specific details and prepare the corresponding solution in advance so as to avoid failing to grasp the main points in practice due to acting with confusion.

As a manager, it is more necessary to view a problem in an overall and prospective vision, understanding the severity, paying attention to the interests of the whole and have foresight to make decisions in order to set a direction of efforts for the subordinate and the team. As a proverb goes: the whole year’s work depends on a good start in spring, only when a proper plan for the year has been made, it is possible to conduct seeding and cultivation, avoid missing farming seasons and harvest rich fruits in autumn.

Commandment 8

Modesty is always the best policy to walk in the world

The Book of Changes (also named I Ching) says: being modest can make everything go smoothly. Not all the people can insist on that but only a small number of self-disciplined gentlemen. A modest gentleman, even in a humble position, can also remain self-disciplined by a modest attitude, and would not relax in moral cultivation because of his humble position. People always acknowledge allegiance to an industrious and modest gentleman. “Being modest” is the best way to conduct daily moral cultivations and enrich one’s knowledge. Only by acting with an attitude of being modest and prudent and guarding against arrogance and rashness can one treat everybody around as a teacher and constantly enrich themselves in the course of getting along with others. For example, a cup, full of water, is not possible to take in and hold water any more even if the water continues to be poured into it, and the water poured into it will overflow; while an empty cup is possible to take in and hold water. This is what we know as “the modest receive benefit, while the conceited reap failure”. Being modest can help one understand that “nobody is perfect and knowledge is infinite” and make oneself learn and make progress unceasingly. Being proud can make one feel complacent, missing opportunities to learn from others.

Modest can be regarded as magnanimous and respect can show politeness. Therefore, it is important to be modest and gentle when one gets along with others, and it is also necessary to respect others at the same time. Just as the well-known rules saying “being respectful will help one avoid getting insulted”, and “those who respect others will be respected”, if one does not know how to respect others, it will be hard to get the same respect and courtesy from others. So, it is necessary to learn with a humble attitude, to conduct oneself in society with a calm and devout attitude, and to actively cultivate a work style of being modest in conducting oneself with a sincere heart and friendly attitude. It is more necessary for a gentleman to make his inner feelings express on his face, make his look solemn and serious and pay attention to wording and tone in his speaking, as well as to understand that “you can always learn from everyone”. A teacher can be positive or negative-learning knowledge from positive teachers and taking warnings from negative ones. That is, learning good things from others while regarding wrong things done by others as a negative example so as not to repeat. This is the most basic principle for ones to conduct themselves in society.

As a manager, it is not only necessary to treat people with a humble and tolerant attitude, but also to “deal with affairs with a munificent and magnanimous attitude”. That is to implement an effective power-decentralized and hierarchical management to encourage employees to go about their respective responsibilities and develop their personalities. The ancients said: “the Mount Tai does not discriminate the soil and then becomes massive; the sea does not discriminate trickles and then becomes deep”.

If the manager is self-centered, he will only outshine others and lead to confusion and inefficiency in the management.

Commandment 7

Sincerity is the fundamental in daily life

“Sincere” and “true” are close in meaning and closely related with each other, but “sincere” is much richer in connotations and depths. “Sincere” is a true emotion from the bottom of our own heart. If we lose “sincere” and “true”, “kind” and “beautiful” are out of the question.(sincere: conforms to regularity, true: conforms to objective, beautiful: natural harmony between “sincere” and “true”). “Sincere” is the most fundamental among the people and it is the soil to foster beneficence. If every one treats others with sincerity, they will pull their efforts together and rely on each other, then they will have a successful career. Otherwise, every one is on guard against others and makes enemies of others’, then it will be more and more difficult to be successful, even if they succeed, the successful period is not a long time. 

Especially credit crises in Chinese society, the sincere people become the scorn of profiteers, which is a pathological state. That state is a mighty phenomenon and it is also the root of chaotic market rules. According to modern economics, sincerity and trust are “scarce resources”. The features of modern civilization are normative, honest and law-abiding, which is the foundation of democratic and legal society, that is to say, just because “sincereity and “trust” are “scarce resources”, according to economics, when something is scarce, it is precious. Maybe the one who leads up to those “scarce resources” in the disordered society—the norms of society urgently need to be reestablished, is sincere with people and he deserves good reputation. Once the market is normalized and on the right track, that intangible power has an advantage over numerous tangible assets. Why does HNAer regard “highest sincerity, highest good, highest fineness and highest beauty” as enterprise tenet and regard “highest sincerity” as the prerequisite and foundation? HNAer is fully aware of that and runs “ to be sincere person and to do things sincerely” through every task and course. The reason that HNAer makes present achievements is that it possesses the cornerstone of “highest sincerity”.

Commandment 6

Diligence leads research to accession of knowledge

Confucius said: “it is always a pleasure that one learns and constantly reviews what he has learned”. There is a saying from the book of rites & the book of study: “the emperor must keep learning if he wants to civilize the people by teaching and change existing habits and customs.” “The finest diamond must be cut”. One can understand nothing if he does not learn, so when the ancient emperor established a new country and governed the people, he always put education first. In ancient times, the noblemen entered into elementary school at 8 and advanced school at 15. The time of elementary school education is 7 years, and the time of advanced education is 9 years or even longer. The students mainly learn characters and some manners and rites in elementary school, while the students learn more profound knowledge and the abilities to enter politics in advanced school. As for the education in advanced school, there is an introduction in the book of study: “the student should have the ability of reading unpunctuated ancient writings with pauses in a year, respecting work and enjoying company in three years, and then they can be erudite and close to their teachers in five years and give lectures and make friends in seven years, which is a small success. They can comprehend by analogy, be faced with problems without doubts and not adhere to principles in nine years, which is a great achievement. When they reach a level of great achievement, they can civilize the people and change customs, and then the near people will be completely convinced and the distant people will yearn, which is the purpose of being knowledgeable.” Being knowledgeable not only requires reading books, but also understanding the truth of being a person. You always learn new things from the same book and have fun acquiring knowledge. For knowledge, Confucius said: “he who knows the truth is not equal to him who loves it, and he who loves it is not equal to him who delights in it.” “There is no shortcut to the delights of reading, which only relies on diligence rather than intelligence.” The above sentence emphasizes “diligence”, and being knowledgeable relies on diligence, being hard-working and inspiration for a long term rather than fits and starts—one learns and constantly reviews what he has learned, and he needs to develop a good habit of “diligence”, so that he will constantly make progress, which is on the right track from entry. Hereafter, “practice relies on individuals.” One should never stop learning, and not to advance is to go back. Diligence is an embodiment of enhancement and persistence. The son of Wang Xizhi’s (Wang Xizhi is a well-known calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty ), in order to reach his father’s level of calligraphic realm, devoted himself to calligraphy, practiced hard with innumerable jars of black water, and finally became a great calligrapher like his father.

At present, HNA develops into a diversified enterprise from a single airline transportation enterprise, involved in wider industry and field. The fast-growing HNA demands that all the staffs have ample and professional knowledge and make progress with a strong consciousness of innovation during exploration, which enforces the entirety to have to constantly learn new knowledge and learn widely from others’ strengths with diligence in order to lay a foundation for continuous, sound and rapid development. “One discovers his ignorance only through learning, and one understands his puzzles only through teaching,” especially in the era of knowledge-driven economy, the specialization of work is more and more detailed, and all the executives of a team are not proficient “all-rounders”, which is called “one is not good at all the aspects, and every field has its mater.” As a leader, he does not need to be more excellent than his subordinates in every aspect, but he must set a good example of the attitude towards knowledge, and he needs to give directive instructions to his subordinates. The executives maybe not be good at all the businesses, but they do not need to feel ashamed to learn from their subordinates. They must draw on the wisdom of the masses and use the masses’ talents and wisdoms in order to let every specialist show their maximum talents. Liu Bang, the Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty, effectively took Xiaohe’s, Hanxin’s, Chen Ping’s and Zhang Liang’s advantages to get the world and make great achievements.

Commandment 5

Kindness to youth endows the superior with virtue

“Metta”, which is a word from Buddhist, means “giving happiness”. Facing all living things with “Metta” and love is the primary goal to improve moral cultivation and perfect moral character. It will not be trustful to prattle about loving one’s motherland if he does not respect the old and cherish the young. The old possess loving heart, giving care and happiness to the young; the young respect the old and take pride in learning knowledge and experience from them. Thus whether the old or the young will improve self cultivation. 

“Respecting the old and cherishing the young”, which is a most familiar and acceptable item, is a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation. “Expend the respect of the aged in one’s family to that of other families; expend the love of the young ones in one’s family to that of other families”, which is a very popular motto and a most heartwarming and humane expression. It is a fundamental point that China is known as a state of ceremonies. It expresses the respect to the old and the care and love to the young. The reason is that Chinese humanistic spirit conveys an idea that life comes from parents, which is an inheritor of parents. How do we grow up if without our parents’ hardships? All parents love their children whole-heartedly unselfishly, so “filial piety is the foundation of all virtues’. We Chinese get that truth in our own heart. Chinese society advocates “filial piety” that we need to return when parents are in poor health. One can be a real man if he can do that. Once he goes against piety, he is a beast-even worse than a beast.

It is filial piety that is most advocated by Chinese. If one respect and love kinsfolk, he will have a broad mind, love the people and things in the world and cherish his job and the relationship with colleagues. As an employee from HNAer, one should not only respect his parents but also has an idea of filial piety to the world, society and his group. One should let his parents spend the remaining years in comfort and his child grow up with care, which is called “joys of life”. If one is kind to others, then the world will be like heaven; if one is evil to get on with others, then the world will be like hell.

Commandment 4

Forgiveness is most needed in dispute

“Expostulation” means giving frank advice, “lenience” means broad-mindedness and kindheartedness and “forgiveness” means that it is after my own heart. “Lenience and forgiveness” not only represent life virtues, but also show life standards. One should give others more tolerance, care and kindness. Confucius said: “if one is broad-minded, he will make more friends.” If the executives are tolerant, they will get staffs’ advocacy and support to build an emotional relationship within the enterprise, motivate all the staffs’ sense of identity and responsibility and make every employee righteous, sensible and consider overall situations in order to enhance corporate cohesion. 

In our life, there are often conflicts among complicated interpersonal relationship. We need to know that our tongue and teeth sometimes fight, not to mention the people in daily life, so it is inevitable to have a war of words with others. If we are truly acting for the sake of every one, one will value company and society instead of selfish interests. Basically speaking, we should have an attitude of “requiring much from oneself and little from others.” We should be strict with ourselves, be broad-minded toward others and often reflect on ourselves. Furthermore, we should be good at listening to different voices and learning the benefits from others’ speeches. We should be tolerant of “not recommending a man because of what he says and not ignoring what a man says because of his personality.” We need to try our best to be considerate to think of others, less of preconceived prejudices. Confucius said, “There are three kinds of beneficial friends: straightforward friends, sincere friends and knowledgeable friends.” Owing to those three kinds of beneficial friends in life, “the friends who will be straightforward and give forthright admonition” are the most difficult ones to get. If you make a fault, they can persuade you bluntly and point out your own defects. Although sometimes “good advice is harsh to the ear.” This kind of speech is too expensive to buy but of course, you will benefit from it. You should rejoice rather than get angry.  

In order to achieve a great success, it is especially important for the executives to have a broad mind and magnanimity. If you can accommodate all the staffs, then the whole staff can accept and support you. As a “bright mirror” of the Emperor Taizong of Tang’s -----Wei Zheng were responsible for the people and country, and he made more than 600 suggestions for Taizong outspokenly and fearlessly, so that Taizong threatened him to death for many times, but because the strategies harsh to the ear were beneficial, finally Taizong was tolerant to the disputes and decided to accept those strategies. It formed a good atmosphere that the virtuous officials widely accepted those sound strategies and the emperor listened to both sides. They continuously amended and perfected the national policies and decrees, so that the people lived and worked in peace and contentment and the nation was in a long-term stability, leading to a time of peace and prosperity of under the “Governance of Zhen Guan.” Although it is a kind of feudal monarch-subject relationship, it sets a good example for the executives in the modern enterprise.

Commandment 3

Careful recipe is the best medicine to health

It is fundamental to be healthy physically and psychologically. If one loses healthy body and soul, he will often be in pain. If you want to be successful, it will be very difficult and what is worse, your relatives will take more responsibilities and spend more energy for your illness, so your health is not only your own business. Every one takes a responsibility to keep healthy for themselves and their relatives.

As the saying goes: “illness finds its way in by the mouth”, “prevention is the best treatment”, so if you want to “take preventative measures”, you should choose healthy food and eat regularly. If your body absorbs sufficient nutrition, you will naturally make your own immune system normal, and then the disease will automatically stay away from you.

Broadly, “being cautious of food” is not only limited to material food, but also appropriate for the spirit food of cultural products. Especially the spiritual cultural products are increasingly abundant in modern society, which put forward higher requirements of our ability in analysis, judgment, choice and grasp, so that we must have an ability to distinguish right from wrong and a clear mind to choose the benevolence to follow and the bad habits to remove. However, euphoria and mental health require moral cultivation as a prerequisite. We should know what to do and what not to do, have a good personality and a noble virtue. Especially for executives, the abundance and improvement of one’s spiritual world, such as on a theoretical level, ideological level, management strategy level, etc., needs the help from their mentors in order to sublimate healthily.

Commandment 2

Perseverance is the rule to sturdy progress

Enhancement, a word from Buddhism, is one of “six perfections” for Bodhisattva to practice, which includes an initial approach to become a Buddhist believer, and it is to solve a bad habit of “sluggishness and laziness” which forms over a long time. That is to say, it is normal that one is lazy to some degree, but he must consciously overcome laziness until he bravely conquers it. Laziness is the easiest habit to develop, if it is settled on impulse, once you let loose, “violent fires soon burn out”. If you want to employ a radical cure for laziness, you must have patience and perseverance. It is not difficult to do a good deed for one time, but it is difficult to do good deeds throughout one’s whole life. That is exactly what it tells.

It is precious to persist and be aggressive. Actually it only takes a minute between success and failure, but there is a large difference. People may be different between intelligent and foolish congenitally, but most people have a lack of perseverance. The large difference between "Scholar Jiang’s talent is being exhausted" and Newton’s late success is that Newton is successful due to his perseverance. Buddhism advocates the sprit of enhancement in the practice. “Do a good deed every day” and do a small good deed that is beneficial to society, others and yourself every day. Although it may be small, if you persevere, you will easily take a path filled with hopes. “Little things make a big difference”, so only until we attach importance to the accumulations of small things can we improve quality and continuously make enhancements.

The executive staff should make a difference. In order to be a qualified managerial staff, one should not only have pioneering spirit and courage, but also continuously search and make enhancements to continuously improve their learning ability, innovation ability, communication ability and organizing ability. Only through perseverance can we constantly strive for perfection and practice HNA’s enterprise tenet of “highest sincerity, highest good, highest fineness and highest beauty.”

Commandment 1

Harmony is the reason for groups to flourish

Living on his own and not associated with evil persons, being an honest person and doing practical work are only the basis for one to live in this world, but it can not form more energy among the crowds, so one must integrate into the team and then he can transcend his limitations. It is like a hand. The power of each finger is very small, but if it is made a fist with other fingers, the jointed power will be several times larger than before. It is the power of unity and harmony. Harmony brings wealth for a family, not to mention an organization, an enterprise and a team. The success of a career depends on favorable climatic, geographical and human conditions, but it is often said: The time isn't as important as the terrain; but the terrain isn't as important as unity with the people.” Harmony is a vital prerequisite for a family, a country and even the whole world. Only harmony can the family be happy, the country be thrive and the world be peaceful, and then the progress can make.

Traced to its source, estrangement and fight is nothing but for achieving fame, wealth and personal development, while a person with abundant strengths, strong confidence and broad minds should set up the principle of “the person who treats others with heart of benevolence, he will get benevolence from others; if the person who treats others with generosity, he will get generosity from others” in order to reach a win-win goal. It is closely associated with “treat people with sincerity”. “The gentleman worships without loss, purge and is polite with people, is within the four seas all men are brothers”. “You respect me and I will respect you”, “Get along well with others,” “Harmony brings wealth,” “as mild as a drizzle and as gentle as a breeze”, “be all smiles and sweetness”– all these are the dynamic source of nourishing vigor. The story of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru disregarding previous enmity, joining hands to resist the enemy and cooperating to establish good careers in ancient State of Zhao is enough to remind us.

The sustainable, sound and rapid development for an HNAer does not only need each employee’s outstanding talents, but also the spirit of unity advances from all staff. The modern enterprise systems emphasize the spirit of teamwork and sets up a consciousness of “treating internal staffs as customers”, while the basics are that HNAers respect each other regardless of how different their positions, genders, appearances, ethics and religions. It is destiny that ties HNAers together and they must cherish the fate and show respect to others, but the harmony is not unprincipled, unconditional and apparently amicable. Each staff has his own advantages and disadvantages. “When people work with one mind, they can even remove Mount Taishan”, so as executives, it is more important to be mentors of their subordinates’. The executives should work hard to achieve a situation of “staffs work with one mind”. Only in harmonious atmosphere can the staffs help each other, unite and fight together, learn from others' strong points to offset one's weakness and unite in a concerted effort and then HNAers will always flourish and grow.