ABSTRACT

D URING the centuries that China was a monarchy,almost all official orders were issued in the form of 'Imperial Mandates', that is, either as a direct order from the emperor himsel~ or an order from some subsidiary official who spoke with delegated authority from the Son of Heaven. The mandates issued in a single busy day might range from such important matters as a command to a viceroy to contribute a few million dollars and raise an army for the defence of the country against a threatened invasion, to such comparatively trivial matters as an order to the headman ofa village to repair a dyke or a canal. The edicts were very often verbose compositions which might lead anyone to wonder how the august Son ofHeaven could take time to exercise such circumspection. Often the edicts contained detailed instructions as to

just how the work was to be done, details shrouded in language as beautiful as it was vague, but there was never any doubt as to the final results tIle official who received the mandate was supposed to accomplish. No matter what the mandate was about, the text almost invariably concluded with the exhortation: 'Tremble and obey.' Then, if the matter was one of some urgency or importance, there was a second admonition: 'Do not try to avoid responsibility!>

To the Occidental this conjunction of the two phrases may seem illogical. It would appear that any official who received and read the edict and then trembled and obeyed was not trying to avoid responsibility. But that did not necessarily follow. The ancient Chinese statesman who put this formula into imperial edicts many centuries ago had a very thorough understanding of the weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of his fellow-countrymen. The only time that obedience is pleasant to him is when it carries with it the concomitant and mitigating circumstance of freedom from responsibility. What he would like to do would be to tremble, and obey specific orders, so that if the job he is supposed to do is hopelessly bungled he will be able to say that he did what he was told and is in no way to blame for the failure which resulted. It is to circumvent this desire on his part that the mandate was complicated by the inclusion of two commands. In plain, blunt language, the purport of the injunction from the Son of Heaven was:

'Get busy! Do your job! No alibis!' As a part of my everyday work, I attend a lot of

sales and advertising conferences. flaving taken a prominent and sometimes very vocal part in them in New York, London, Paris, Berlin, to say nothing of Osaka, I think I may be allowed to say that although

they are necessary institutions, one can seldom leave one without the mental reflection that there has been as much talk and cigarette smoke as results accomplished. Advertising conferences, like committee meetings, have a tendency to reduce each individual to the lowest common denominator of intelligence. The more people there are at the conference, the more difficult it is to accomplish anything and, when more than one nationality is involved, the smoke and the talk are prodigiously increased without in any way speeding up the work or adding to the volume of accomplishment.