There had been quite a number of thinkers and dozens of schools in the pre-Qin period, but the major influential schools were Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism. If we could grasp the core of the leadership wisdom of these three schools, we will learn by heart the essence of the leadership wisdom of the pre-Qin thinkers. Therefore, the author decides to demonstrate the leadership wisdom of eight sages: Confucius, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Guan Tzu, Mo Tzu, Han Fei-tzu, Kuei Ku-tzu and Sun Tzu. To avoid rigidity and incoherence, the author avoids to mechanically quote the passages of great length, but firstly reads through the original works, and then refers to the themes of each part to select the thoughts and viewpoints for new permutations and combinations. There are rich examples of Chinese and foreign leadership cases in the book. The author uses these vivid cases for argumentative reasoning, which enhances the thought expression of the writing and makes it interesting and inspiring. The author even combines the leadership wisdom of the eastern pre-Qin thinkers with today’s popular leadership theories in the West, based on which he makes objective analysis and judgment.

Prof. Chen Shuwen is doctoral supervisor of the School of Management, Dalian University of Technology. He is mainly engaged in studying organization management, human resource management and leadership.