TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– This article aims at showing that the relationship between Chinese classical wisdoms and managerial practices should not be reduced to the establishment of an “art of war” applicable to management practices, but should rather be understood as an ever‐evolving work of critical reinterpretation, so as to liberate the creative and strategic potential that this tradition embodies.Design/methodology/approach– It does so by critically deconstructing the question of the “relevance” of Chinese wisdom for managerial practices, by assessing the way contemporary Sinology understands and interprets the concept of “Chinese wisdom”, and by designing a strategy for applying these insights to managerial education.Findings– It thus shows that only historical contextualization and textual studies can ground an understanding of Chinese tradition applicable to managerial education.Practical implications– By doing so, it helps educators to re‐anchor managerial education into the field and methodologies of humanities studies.Originality/value– It thus goes against the utilitarian and over‐simplified syntheses of Chinese thought that are currently dominant in the managerial literature about China, and proposes new ways for making the study of China a channel through which to develop in our students a sense of relativity, complexity and empathy applicable to an array of cultural contexts. VL - 30 IS - 7/8 SN - 0262-1711 DO - 10.1108/02621711111150218 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711111150218 AU - Vermander Benoit ED - H.‐C. de Bettignies ED - K. Ip ED - B. Xuezhu ED - A. Habisch ED - G. Lenssen PY - 2011 Y1 - 2011/01/01 TI - Chinese wisdom, management practices and the humanities T2 - Journal of Management Development PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 697 EP - 708 Y2 - 2024/04/23 ER -