Different people have different ideas and ideals. The objective of this paper is to discuss the different ideas and ideals that shaped Liu Dapeng and the person that he grew out to become during his existence as a part of Chinese History during the early twentieth century . For starters, Liu Dapeng was a provincial degree holder who never had the experience to be in a government office. He managed to become a successful man eventually and this was because of his inherent skill to adapt to various situations and overcome the various challenges that life threw at him.
Persistence was one of the key traits of Dapeng that made him successful . Most of his ideologies and principles in life can be related to Confucianism. Confucianism was very hard to maintain during that time mainly because of the different influential conflicts brought about by the Japanese occupation of China. Many people were forced either directly or indirectly to convert.
Many Confucians were forced to abolish their belief in favor of the beliefs of their conquerors. This was not the case for Liu Dapeng because he insisted of keeping his faith and belief on the things that made him the person he was and even though he was forced to show submission at times, he still managed to retain a significant part of himself.
It would have been a lot easier for him to assimilate and adapt to the new wave of culture in early 20th century China but he did not do it because he was a man of principle and again, persistence was one of his key traits. Liu Dapeng lived in Taiyuan in the Shanxi province and the book was largely a part of his life work . Most of his life was spent during the Qing dynasty and the Republic. He worked as a scholar and an expert in the field of commerce and agriculture.
He had a lot of experience in these fields and that is why he managed to observe carefully how the culture and society of China changed during the early 20th century under the rule of the Japanese Empire. For a strict Confucian, it can be argued that he had fairly liberal views. He viewed newspapers, democracy, coal mining, and other things such as familial relations differently from other extreme Confucians.
For him, these were not necessarily evil things that would deviate man away from his principles. He, in a way, managed to understand how human functions in a society and how integral some of the newfound things, at least during that time, was, for human existence. Needless to say, some of the conflicts that can be found in his belief would be his positive perceptions on things that would have been otherwise viewed negatively by traditional and strict Confucians.
Harrison did a great job in chronicling Liu Dapeng’s experiences. What would surprise most people is the fact that he was able to fit the key information from Liu Dapeng’s existence during early 20th century China in 170 pages of text. The vastness of Liu Dapeng’s experiences and life works cannot be summed up in just a small volume of text. Harrison was so restrained in chronicling those experiences.
The book was organized in such a way that the readers would be able to understand what kind of person Liu Dapeng was. The book was divided into several spheres of ideology. That way, it would be easier for the readers to go back and forth on what they missed regarding Liu Dapeng’s experiences or point of views regarding a matter related to his life.
One of the strengths of strict Confucians is their value for respect, integrity, discipline, and having an upright moral character . These are so far common among Confucians. They have a solid view of life, so solid that it would seem unbreakable even at the expense of death.
These characteristics are evident in Liu Dapeng’s persona. He was educated as a Confucian scholar and he was able to embody most, if not all of these traits. In fact, it can be deducted from the text that he was able to attain his successes by being educated, firm, and at the same time planted.
Even in the modern world, it would be easier to admire and respect a person if he has a strong sense of integrity, respect, and morality. Comparing that person side by side with a disrespectful and immoral person would be all that it would take to know the pros and cons of being a respectable man. This is one of the keys that Liu Dapeng used to succeed in life.
On top of that, he was also a responsible man. Because of his strong views on ethics and morality and the impact of these things in his personality, he was able to protect his stature. Stature is important because it generally leads to the development of a positive impression on other people. A person like Liu Dapeng with a high level of stature and self-respect is much easier to be appreciated by the people compared to one who are unreliable with his words.
This is one of the major ways how Liu Dapeng made sense of his life. It is indeed surprising to see how much of his traditional Confucian views about the importance of respect, morality, discipline, and integrity still applies in man’s conventional lifestyle and belief system today. It would still be easier to be liked by people if you are respectful, disciplined, with good moral standards, and with integrity.
This was the ideal that Liu Dapeng kept for himself and perhaps for other fellow Chinese people and Confucians to follow. He was able to pull this off at a time when China was under the occupation of the Japanese Empire, one of the most cruel and hegemonic empires in human history. Certainly, it was harder to maintain those kinds of ideals at that time than today. However, many people are still raising the questions on whether these ideals are attainable. The answer is yes.
Today, it is a lot easier to be a man of your words, a man with principle than it was one hundred years ago when the world was in a huge disconnect, when people and countries fought endless wars on ideologies and politics. Liu Dapeng was able to maintain his ideals despite the challenges of doing so and if he was able to do it, then there is no reason for a modern day man like us today to be unable to do it.
Making mistakes was not necessarily a part of Liu Dapeng’s ideals and ideologies. For him, making mistakes is an uncontrollable part of life and he was able to commit certain mistakes too in the past. The important thing is how to learn from them. Another interesting finding is that he did not let his mistakes taint his integrity and personality. Instead, he used them to learn and develop himself further.
Surely, he did not become the person that he was by being perfect. He surely committed numerous mistakes too just like other people. But then again, it all boils down to persistence. He was persistence enough to be unstoppable even by the thought and vision of defeat. He did not stop at being a scholar.
He explored other fields such as commerce and agriculture—which is in fact one of the reasons why he is so unlike other traditional Confucians who would have stopped at their study of philosophy. His sphere of activity was broader than what most traditional Confucians had during that time and this made him unique. This enabled him to apply his learning and knowledge of Confucianism and of life in general. This was his greatest edge because he was able to muster both theoretical and practical knowledge of his ideals and ideologies.
All in all, are these goals, based on the examples provided, attainable? The quick answer is a yes. It all depends on the person whether he would be strong enough to course through the entire process of battling the waves of life or be brittle enough to succumb into depression. Unfortunately, the former is a road less travelled because it is harder. It is easier to conform these days than to stand by one’s principles.
Works Cited
Harrison, Henrietta. "The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in North China Village, 1857*1942." Stanford University Press (2005): 224. Print. 18 Apr. 2016.
Hulman, R. "This changed many people's lives including Liu Dapeng ." (n.d.): Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
Mosca, M. "Self Introduction." http://www.froginawell.net/china/2005/07/self-introduction/ (2005): Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
Religion Facts. "Confucianism." religionfacts.com (2016): Web. 18 Apr 2016.
