508 Dr. Dave Wang's Research Cited

We have found that Dr. Dave Wang's examination of Chinese cultural influence on the United States have been cited by various publications. I have found a website cited his study of Benjamin Franklin's love of China.

According to the owners of the site, they wanted to use the website to "share and spread vibrant cultural news that are unfolding the charms of the Culture Cities of East Asia." In the follow please enjoy the quote from the article, Confucius, the light of the enlightenment

According to Dr. Dave Wang, Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the US and the face of the 100 dollar bill, wrote an essay eulogizing the moral philosophy of Confucius in the paper that he owned, The Pennsylvania Gazette. As well as this, in a letter he wrote to George Whitefield, in 1747, he made the shocking confession that “Confucius was my example. I followed Confucius.”
H. G. Creel, a late professor of Sinology at the University of Chicago, explained that Thomas Jefferson was also greatly influenced by Confucius and China. He said that the implementation of the public education system that the theorist of US democracy and drafter of the Declaration of Independence devoted his whole life to was inspired by Confucius and China.

507.Benjamin Franklin and Confucian Merit System

During the 1780s, the founders of the young American republic faced the tremendous challenge of creating a stable political system to preserve their hard-earned national independence. Soon after the conclusion of the War for Independence, the Founding Fathers realized that the election of capable public servants would be one of the major factors that determined the destiny of their new nation. Many of the founders believed that the ideal government official would not only have a strong educational background, but also display exemplary moral virtue.[1]

However, this sentiment was not shared by all citizens; in particular, some veterans of the War for Independence sought to establish certain systems that would enable them to pass their honors to their descendants. In 1783, these veterans organized the Society of Cincinnati to counter the prevailing beliefs of the founders.[2] Benjamin Franklin expressed uneasiness with the Society’s desire to mimic the European hereditary tradition by forming “an order of hereditary knights.”[3] Franklin wrote,

My Opinion of the Institution cannot be of much Importance. I only wonder that when the united Wisdom of our Nation had, in the Articles of Confederation, manifested their Dislike of establishing Ranks of Nobility, by Authority either of the Congress or of any particular State, a Number of private Persons should think proper to distinguish themselves and their Posterity from their Fellow Citizens, and form an Order of hereditary Knights, in direct Opposition to the solemnly declared Sense of their Country.[4]

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[1] U.S. Office of Personnel Management https://archive.opm.gov/about_opm/tr/history.asp

[2] http://www.societyofthecincinnati.org/

[3] Benjamin Franklin, To Sarah Bache (unpublished), Passy, January, 26^th, 1784. It is available on line at http://franklinpapers.org

[4] Ibid.