Why was Tao Lujia so willing and swift to greenlight the Red Flag Canal Project in 1960? The instance and his...

In an extraordinarily willing and swift fashion, the top leader of Shanxi Province in China, Tao Lujia [, (1917-2011)], gave permission to the Red Flag Canal project in 1960. Why was he so willing and swift to greenlight a project that would divert water from his home province to benefit the people in a neighbor province? We explored this question through a bipartite investigation. First, we dug into the empirical literature, the literature based on experience and/or observation, in search of his motivations for the action. Second, for a more systematic, deeper understanding, we examined the instance via a lens of compassion practice, an eclectic collection of theoretical constructs on compassion practice through which one can examine an individual's behavior and performance for new insights. This article reports the first part of our research. Its sequel Why was Tao Lujia so willing and swift to greenlight the Red Flag Canal Project in 1960? New insights via a lens of compassion practice reports the second part and is also published in this journal. Both articles are part of the SEPR mini-series on the Red Flag Canal, one of the best kept secrets in the world history of socio-ecological practice.