Leadership by Example
The junzi leads primarily through moral example.
Rather than commanding or coercing, the junzi leads by embodying virtue. Others are drawn to follow someone who exemplifies the values they preach. Example is more powerful than precept.
The virtue of the junzi is like wind; the virtue of the small person is like grass. When the wind blows, the grass bends.
Moral example has transformative power.
Analects
Written about in
- What Confucianism says about leading others
Analects 12.19 makes the leader a weather system: the junzi's virtue is wind, the people's is grass, and the grass bends. The claim is not that example helps alongside other methods — it is that example is the mechanism by which anything actually changes.