WSR 2.0 (1): History and present

This is the first of a series of papers that present an update of the over‐four‐decades practice, theorising and universalisation of a systems approach to management from China: Wuli‐Shili‐Rneli (WSR). The paper begins with a brief review of the evolution, features and problematics of WSR 1.0, then envisages continuities, changes and tasks in developing WSR 2.0 and finally traces the evolution trajectory of the meaning of li, a core category in Confucian teaching and the WSR approach. This is to lay a historical‐conceptual stage for the proceeding of the forthcoming papers in the series that will address, respectively, wuli‐shili‐renli notions, WSR and systems thinking, pragmatic ontology, pragmatic rationality, application modes and rooted universalisation.