The creation of the United States in the late eighteenth century was a bold experiment with new ideas that would change the course of history forever. Such ideas as power residing in the hands of the people, representative government, freedom of religion, and the peaceful transition of power were a direct challenge to a European world largely dominated by autocratic governments that withheld many of these rights from their own citizenry.
The American Founding Fathers, however, did not develop their novel ideas of government out of thin air. Quite the contrary. They had been educated and profoundly influenced by certain Western schools of thought as expounded by the European Enlightenment. For example, the Founders were very open to the concepts of popular rule and responsibility of the government to the service of the people. One of the most important of these political philosophers was the Englishman John Locke (1632–1704). Locke developed his important Social Contract Theory in his Two Treatises on Government (1689 and 1690). Locke’s ideas strongly opposed the divine right of kings in favor of a form of government based on the consent of the governed as long as the latter agreed to forfeit certain liberties in exchange for basic rights to life, liberty, and property.
Several leaders of the Enlightenment such as Locke and Voltaire studied Chinese philosophy broadly and became greatly fascinated with the ideas of Confucius. They held various Confucian governing principles in high regard. Locke, for instance, recognized the Confucian notion of the right of rebellion if a government failed to protect its subjects’ natural rights. The people had the right to revolt and establish a new ruling class.
Several of America’s Founding Fathers learned about Chinese culture and philosophy through their studies of the European Enlightenment. It is through such studies that Chinese cultural and even technological influence played a key role in the creation of the United States. Chinese culture began to play an important role when some of the US founders began looking for resources and ideas that could be implemented when building a new nation. Chinese ideas and techniques were varied. Several Founding Fathers sought guidance from Chinese philosophy in their efforts to cultivate personal virtue and to educate younger generations as to how to be virtuous. The Founders also adopted some Chinese inventions and technologies to facilitate the social and economic development of the new nation.
Dr. Dave Xueliang Wang analyzes the scope of Chinese cultural and technological influence on what would become the United States even before this country was born. Dr. Wang clearly demonstrates how such American leaders as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were deeply influenced by Chinese philosophical ideals and technology. Traditional histories of the United States give the impression that our Founders were uniformly influenced by European Enlightenment thinkers while not shedding any light on Chinese contributions. Dr. Wang’s book offers up a whole new avenue to understand the complex thinking process that led to the creation of the United States. Chinese ideas filtered through the Enlightenment had a key role in developing our American heritage.
I am especially impressed with Dr. Wang’s in-depth examination of how the Founders introduced Confucian ideas of government in their creation of a new political institution in the United States.
Dr. Daniel A. Metraux
Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies
Mary Baldwin University
Staunton, Virginia
October 2020
Acknowledgments
Over twenty years ago, as a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona, I fortuitously came across a volume of The Papers of George Washington as I was preparing reading materials for one of my undergraduate courses. When I flipped through the anthology, I was struck by one of Washington’s journal entries from July 1785, in which he described sowing Chinese flowers in his estate at Mount Vernon. This seemingly innocuous reference piqued my curiosity: how and why were these Chinese flowers in the American colonies on the other side of the world and was it possible that other aspects of Chinese culture had found their way overseas as well?
These questions sparked a decades-long academic journey on how the U.S. Founding Fathers were influenced by Chinese culture. After more research, I discovered that Washington had supported opening trading channels with China and was fond of Chinese porcelain; that Benjamin Franklin had promoted Confucian moral philosophies on numerous occasions; and that the Founding Fathers had drawn from Chinese civilization in many other ways as they crafted their new nation. I drafted an initial textbook based on the Founders’ papers for my undergraduate students with the support of my academic advisors, Professors Michael Schaller, Jing-shen Tao, and Brian McKnight.
I want to begin by thanking Professors Schaller, Tao, and McKnight for their interest, support, and encouragement as I began my academic journey. I would also like to thank the late Dr. Wilton Dillon, Senior Scholar Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institute, for his wonderful mentorship over the years. I wish to convey my heartfelt appreciation for Dr. Mark Skousen, a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin and the Benjamin Franklin Chair of Management of Grantham University, for his support and feedback.
Many others deserve special recognition and gratitude for their thoughtful and critical feedback over the years. They include Dr. Walter Isaacson, the former Chairman and CEO of CNN News Group, the president of the ASPEN institute, and the author of bestsellers including Benjamin Franklin, an American Life; Dr. Phanindra Chakrabarti; Dr. Claude-Anne Lopez; Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee; Dr. David L. Sills; Dr. Richard Stichler; Dr. Eleanor Munro; Dr. Don Munro; Dr. Seymour S. Block, and Dr. Bernadette Li.
I also wish to express my appreciation for Dr. Daniel Metraux, Dr. Lucien Ellington, Dr. Page Talbott, Dr. Bayasakh Jamsran, Dr. Penelope Corfield, Dr. Ka Sing Chua, and Mr. Jeffrey Bingham Mead for helping bring my papers to readers. I would also like to express my appreciation to the following individuals for the support over the years: Dr. Daniele Fiorentino; Dr. Guisy De Sio; Professor Ralph Robert Bauer; Professor John Ruff; Professor Tokubumi Shibata; Professor Shu-Ping lee; Professor Xiping Zhang; Professor Jiaquan Liu; Professor Jizhi Wang, Professor Yan Liang; Dr. Wenzhao Tao; Dr. Yongqian Guan; and Dr. Guiqi Ji.
Furthermore, I wish to thank Roy Goodman, Former Librarian & Curator of Manuscripts Library & Museum of the American Philosophical Society, Joe Dillulo, Reference Librarian, Library & Museum, American Philosophical Society, Bruce Kirby, Reference Librarian, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, and Charles Greifenstein, Associate Librarian & Curator of Manuscripts Library & Museum of the American Philosophical Society, Susannah Carroll, Assistant Director of Collections & Curatorial, the Franklin Institute, and Karie Diethorn, Chief Curator, Independence National Historical Park, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, for their help in providing original manuscripts and documents. I would also like to extend my gratitude to The Virginia Review of Asian Studies, Education about Asia and Journal of Asian Studies for publishing several of my articles in their journals over the years.
I finally wish to thank several editors from the Lexington Books, including Ms. Kasey Beduhn, Alexandra Rallo, and especially Acquisitions Editor Eric Kuntzman and Mikayla Mislak. Their help was vital for the publication of this book.
ILLUSTRATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for use of the images that appear in this book: Manuscripts Library & Museum of the American Philosophical Society (Figures 1.1), Wikimedia Commons (Figure 2.1), William Chambers’ Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines and Utensils (Figure 2.3), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia (Figure 2.4), New York Public Library Collection (2.5), Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. (Figures 3.1), The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia (4.1), Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division (Figure 5.1), The Library of Congress (Figure 6.2), and, Peking Palace Museum Wikimedia Commons (Figure 6.3).