Here’s a story from yesterday’s China Daily:

A high-priced class for high-flying businessmen, teaching Confucianism for
moneymakers, will enroll its first students in Beijing next month. It has been
dubbed "the boss class."

The two- to three-day course by the China Studies Club teaches traditional
Chinese philosophies to entrepreneurs. This is the first time the course has
been offered to business people.

     Why am I not convinced?  Why do I think that this will not become a means of moral education, which is what Confucius is all about, but, rather, will simply be a commodity, a symbol of economic status, in a most un-Confucian manner? 

     If they asked me – I’m not waiting for the call – I could think of all sorts of things to include in the "Boss Class" curriculum.   How about this quote from Confucius:

   If there were
an honorable way to get rich, I’d do it, even if it meant being a
stooge standing around with a whip.  But there is not an honorable way,
so I just do what I like."

     I can see it now: a classroom of 20-30 Chinese Trump-wannabes, all sitting around reciting: "there is no honorable way to get rich… there is no honorable way to get rich….."

     Or how about this from the very first passage of Mencius:

  Don’t talk about profit," Mencius
said.  "It’s Humanity and Duty that matter.  Emperors say: How can I
profit my nation? Lords say: How can I profit my house? And everyone
else says: How can I profit myself?  Then everyone high and low is
scrambling for profit, pitching the nation into grave danger.

    Those bosses aren’t interested in scrambling for profit, are they?

    At least one person quoted in the story gets it:

Scholar Xu Youyu said he felt uneasy about the current fervor for China
studies. The expensive "boss class" violates the doctrines of the ancient
Chinese saints, he said.

     Can I get an "Amen" for that brother?