The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man’s Life in a North China Village, 1857-1942

What can be said of Liu Dapeng? A man of scrupulous honor who aspired to serve his country. An rigid conservative who represented everything that held China back. A humble man attempting to provide for himself and his family in a period of unrelenting violence. An ideal Confucian gentleman. This book will give you a unique perspective on the China's violent entrance into the 20th century and how that entrance shaped and was shaped by individual Chinese people and their thousands of years of tradition.

A biography of a late Qing rural scholar who, like 90+% of the candidates who passed the first level of the imperial civil service exams, did not pass the higher levels required for a government position, and who therefore found himself too educated to remain a peasant, and not educated enough for any profession except that of a teacher. What makes this biography different from that of the hundreds of thousands of examination candidates in this situation in the 19th century was the abolition of the civil service exams, the overthrow of the Dynasty, and the revolution in ideas which made his eduction obsolete. Most studies of intellectuals in the Republic of China focus on those who struggled against and overthrew Neo-Confucianism -- this biography describes how the world fell apart for educated conservatives in the China of 100 years ago.

good quality

I like books

I'm pretty sure it has its historical merits, but I found it extremely boring.

A gentle read about an ordinary man's ordinary, mundane existence in the context of his provincial world and his lifestyle.

Based on nearly 400 volumes of Liu da peng's diary and other writings recorded over 50 years , this slim book illustrates what life was like under the Manchus and under the Japanese occupation. I find this book fascinating. Harrison writes well and neatly conveyed details of every day's life in a China village in the context of momentous changes in China. Her research is thorough. I highly recommend this book.