205. How Many Founding Fathers Knew of China?

January 2011 is very unique. It has five Mondays, five Saturdays and five Sundays. It is impossible for current people to meet a January like this one again because it will take 9841 years to have the same January.

It is the perfect time for my giving the answer to this question. Since the first day I read Dr. Dave Wang's blog, The U.S. Founding Fathers and China I have asked myself the question: How many founding fathers heard of China during the founding era of the United States? I read all his publications and found that only about handful of them.

To be honest, I almost fell out of chair when I heard Dr. Dave Wang's answer to the question. “Over a dozen.” “Wait a minute. Say it again. Over a dozen of United States founding fathers made their efforts to borrow positive elements from China. Could you tell me who they are?” I was totally blown off in this particular January.

According to Dr. Dave Wang's research we have found that the founding fathers demonstrated their efforts to use Chinese civilization as a resource to build the colonies into a new nation in North America. They are John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Rufs King, Richard Henry Lee, James Madison, James Monroe, Gouverneur Morris,  Robert Morris, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Rush and George Washington. I hope that Dr. Dave Wang can further enlighten us about what positive elements they used from Chinese culture to develop the United States.