381 Dr. Dave Wang and His Research on Our Founding Fathers and China

I think that I should put this picture from Dr. Wilton Dillon's new book, The Smithsonian Stories, Chronicle of a Golden Age, published by Transaction Publishers in January 2015. It is well known that the Smithsonian Institution has been regarded as the "Nation's Attic." Any opinions from a widely respected expert in cultural exchanges deserves our respect. In the meantime, readers of this blog and Dr. Dave Wang's works will find out quickly that Dr. Wilton Dillon's open attitudes towards other cultural influence on the formation of American culture is reflection of the founders' great vision--learn from others. Indeed, it is not the nuclear weapons but the ability that draw positive elements from other nations make the United States the leader of other nations in the world.  

Wilton S. Dillon is former president of the Institute for Intercultural Studies (founded by Margaret Mead) at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and senior scholar emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution. His four Smithsonian decades drew upon earlier experience as a soldier, journalist, college teacher, foundation executive, and science diplomat. He is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley, and holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University. Additionally, he was honored by the French government with the Chevalier des arts et des lettres, in part, for his book Gifts and Nations.

380. Thomas Jefferson and A Chinese Peom in Shijing

In the section, “Poems of Nation,” of his Scrap book,  Thomas Jefferson included certain commentary on his presidency. The “Poems of Nation” shows that Jefferson viewed his legacy as intertwined with the success of the republican experiment.

 

Believing that he should help the United States to maintain its political, moral, and personal values in the history of the America Revolution, Jefferson collected documents, books, newspapers, and other materials so that later historians could construct an a right and comprehensive American revolutionary history.

 

Jefferson was very serious about preserving his personal legacy. His inclusion of the ancient Chinese poem in his scrapbook shows that Jefferson valued Confucian moral principles highly and used some of the principles to build new nation in the new land with rich natural resources. With the help of Confucian moral philosophy, Jefferson was confident that he could achieve his goal of bringing up a new virtue for the United States in its forming time.