The Destruction Of Confucianism In Chinese Society By Henrietta Harrison

Confucianism in Chinese Society

Henrietta Harrison’s book narrates the life of Liu Dapeng, who was a Confucian intellectual and educator in the village of Chiqiao, Shianxi Province in China. Liu, who lived a life of paucity, was an unknown prolific writer who never wrote a word. In the story, a man falls asleep and has a dream that he is a butterfly. Upon waking up, he is not sure whether the dream was reality or just a dream. Liu’s life is so similar to this dream. In Harrison’s book, we see how Liu failed to achieve some personal goals in life for the reason of failing to uphold moral and ethics. Liu’s decision to uphold Confucianism is a result of his failures to achieve his goals.

A strength of this paper is: Bringing out the weakness

In the piece, the author talks about the world of Chiqiao Village went from opulence to paucity within the period that Liu lived there. This incident was a disappointing course that was shaped by external event. They included the independence of the Mongolians, the Russian revolution, as well as a shift of nationalized economic and security worries that ranged from the north of China to its coast in the southeast. Just as the status of the province of Shianxiu declines, so does the life of Liu. A reason why Liu could not get the official position according to Harrison is that he was not a holder of the highest Jinshi degree. However, we see many people who had provincial level degrees serving as prefects, magistrates, and sporadic ad hoc appointments. While Liu is portrayed to be a scholar, he failed to pass his final examination which would have helped him to attain his provincial-level

For that reason, he should come out as a sad person. However, he emerges as a pathetic person who Harrison refers to as “a relic of an earlier age” (Harrison, 2005). His favorite subject was his job as a Confucian, possibly the single Confucian. As the world begins to change and embrace modernity, he stuck to “principles and old ways” (Harrison, 2005). His loyalty here is to Confucianism.

How this influence withstood the drastic social and political changes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Morals and ethics did not withstand the drastic social and political changes in the late 19th century and early 20th century. This is because many faced the challenge of family relationships and the changing way of thinking. During this time, there was not much relevance in the idea of maintaining family ties as we see the incident of daughters never returning to their homes after marriage since women were viewed as peripheral. For this reason, this influence could not withstand the change in social and political environment at that time.