1 50 6 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/50dfbf56ebb9b51bcc42e663c9dd8357.tif 589dd755595f78d1cc8064825edc3e89 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "Thirty Years of My Life," an autobiography by Bingham Dai and Selected Items from the Bingham Dai Papers Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Scan date 12/1/2014 File size 27.6 MB Dimensions - Original 10in x 8in Checksum alphanumeric code aaa8098a6eebcaef13540191c4188ea7 Scanned by Tony Grady Equipment Epson Expression 11000XL Resolution 300 Format, original photograph Format, digital jpg Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 8007_TheBinghamDaiPapers_2-17_PUMC_1936_M Title A name given to the resource PUMC Staff, 1936 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1936 Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource image Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the Bingham Dai Papers site is held by Appalachian State University. The documents are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. [Identification of item]. Bingham Dai Papers. W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection. Special Collections. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/174" target="_blank">Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)</a> Description An account of the resource <p>First Row:<br />Second from left: Yi-Chuang Lu (Yi-Zhuang Lu)<br />Third from left: Chun Chun Kao (Chun Chun Gao)<br /><br />Second Row:<br />First from left: Tsan Ting (Zan Ding)<br />Second from left: Wei Qing Shu<br />Seventh from left: Bingham Dai</p> https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/ee85da71f7d8fcdd941baf116868c25a.pdf 1919201b29776916368acd2e1a99106b PDF Text Text A ' 2JO W dflo wer Road il Spruce Pine, N. C. April 11, 1986 ~r. ~ avid Bolton Harriet Elliot University Center University of North Caroline Greensboro, NC 27412-5001 Dear David: I want to thanlc you and the International Students Asssoc iation of the UNC-G for a very LOod time M rs. Dai and I had last Sunday evening. In my talk to the group, I was so happily excited that I becane a poor keeper of time and did not qu ite get over to the audience the principal message you and I had agreed upon: that a su\:taent from whatever culture can~~reserve his or her cultural heritage and integrate it~~at is learned here at the same time and that ~ should use my experience as an example. I would l ike to re-state this theme briefly, . so that you may knovi wha t I intended to say. You may share this letter with those who may be interested. W hile other cultures emphasize either t~e spiritual or the material values, the classical Chinese culture has always stresse d the importance of personal character and interpersonal relations •. In my talk, I might have mentioned briefly the Confucian Classic on Higher Education (Usually known as the Book of Great Learning ), which teaches that one must begin with true knowledge of self, if one wishes to make one's will sinsere, to develop one's character, to regulate one's family, to help set one's own state d.n ·order, and finally to help bring peace . in the world. As a child, I was required to learn this classic by rote. B the time I went to th e YMCA hi gh school in the J capital of my provonce, Foochow, I began to understand what this classic says and to9k it rather cerisouly. It was this curiosity about lcnovJ. ~ne's self and about becoming a useful person that prompted me at the age of 15 to organize what we now would call a "peer therapy group" among my fellow students , which met weekly to discuss personal problems. It was the same curiosity that led me to decide to be a mental healer at the age of 17 and 11 �.. 2 to study Christian theology at St. John's University in Shanghai. Soon I found it had its limitations and began to study Hinduism and Buddhism and the Neo-Confucianism that had become popular at that time. After my graduation from the university, I became a high school teacher, , and again I had my group of studsnts who met weekly to discuss their problems of living. This was followed by a year-long educational expef.iment, in which two wellknown Confucian philosophers and I made an attempt to educate the whole person of the student instead of his intellect alone . . All these activities took place before I was 26 and before I had ever heard anything about W estern psychotherapy. By the time I came to this country on a government in 19~9 'iv~I had practically forgotten my ec:i-rlier interest. butA'f had completed my graduate studies and a personal analysis in 1935, my eariler interest in self-knowledge and personality development came back and led me to find a job at the Peking Union M edical College as a psychotheranist. This was the beginning of a career that ,I had drea~ed about in my teens. Since ther~~no other . psychotherapists in Peking at that time, my only teachers were my patients. What they taught me laid the foundation for my independent sytem of psychotherapy. f~llo~ship At the Peking Union M edical College, I selected a number of the staff and started to give each of them a 10-month period of training in self-knowledge - similar to the personal analysis in a psychoanalytic institute, but not quite the same. Later I carried this idea to the ~ uke University School of Medicine and initiated the system of giving 36 hours training in self-knowledge to each of our psychiatric residents. I did this for over 20 years until I retired in 1969. Even after my retiremet, I continued to give the same kind of training to a number of mental health workers in the Appalacian area. I hope someday this short-term training therapy will become an integral part of all mental health workers. In my case, it may be said that the integration of my cultural heritage and the Westerm scientific methods I learned in this country has been mutually beneficial. With best wishes to you and your foreign friends, Sincerely, Bingham Dai, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Dul\:e University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "Thirty Years of My Life," an autobiography by Bingham Dai and Selected Items from the Bingham Dai Papers Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Number of pages 2 Scan date 11/25/2014 File size 1.63 MB Checksum alphanumeric code cb656116737140ae4c950aa25f1467af Scanned by Tony Grady Equipment Epson Expression 11000XL Resolution 300 Format, original Letter Format, digital pdf Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 8007_box_02_folder_15_LetterToDavidBolton_M Title A name given to the resource Letter to David Bolton from Bingham Dai [April 11, 1986] Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986-04-11 Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource document Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the Bingham Dai Papers site is held by Appalachian State University. The documents are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. [Identification of item]. Bingham Dai Papers. W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection. Special Collections. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/174" target="_blank">Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)</a> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dai, Bingham https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/e191a482a9324ea63d3d1b61ca319b87.pdf b2854bcc1b99bdeece19bbfa9f1ad01a PDF Text Text DREAM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY Bingham Dai Bonime, Walter, The Clinical Use of Dreams. Da Capo Press, 1962. New York: Dai, Bingham, "Divided Loyalty in War: A Study of Cooperation with the Enemy," Psychiatry: Journal of the Biolog~ and Pathology of Interpersonal Relations, 7:J27-J40, 19 4. , "A Sociopsychiatric Approach to Personality Organization," American Sociological Review, 17: 44-47, 1952. , "Intensive Personality Study as a Method of Training in Psychotherapy," Psychological Newsletter (Now the Journal of Psychological Issues), Vol. 2, No.4, 1956. -'"=""-,--.,.----.- Chinese --,.------ , "obsessive-Compulsive Disorders in by Narvin Culture," Culture and Mental Disorders, edited K. Opler, New York: Macmillan, 1959. -------'"An Oriental Philosophy," VOICES: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1966. ---,------ , "My for my Relative Experience of Psycotherapy: Some Reasons Freedom from Fatigue," VOICES: Vol. 15, No. 2, 1979. ----.--..,.-..--' "Approaches to the Nuclear Conflict," Highland Highlights, Fall, 1981, a publication of Highland Hospital, a division of Duke University Medical Center. · - - - - - - - ' "Zen and Psychotherapy Revisited: What They can Learn from Each Other," VOICES, Vol. 19, No. 4, 198J. Farady, Ann, Dream Power, New York: Coward, MaCann & Geoghegen,1972. Fosshage, Jsmes L. and Clemens A. Loew, Dream Interpretation A Comparative Study. New York: SP M edical and Scientific Books, 1978. Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation . of Dreams, Trans. James Strachey. New York: Basic Books, 1955. ------- , On w W Norton. . . Dre a ms. Trans. James Strachey. New York: Fromm, Erich, The Heart of !Vian: It s Genius for Good and Evil. New York: Harper & Row, 1 964. Ch apter 5: Incestuous Ties. �2 Jung, Carl G., Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Trans. Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Pantheon Books, 1963. , Dreams. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. Princeton ·university Press, · 1974. Princeton: Kriegman, George, "Bingham Dai and Wu Wei," Academy Forum, the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 23, No. 3, Autumn, 1979. Murphy, Gardner, Personality: A Biosocial Approach to Origins and Structun~. New York: Basic Books, 19 7. Part IV, The Self. Natterson, Josi~ph M. (Ed), The Dream in Clinical Practice. New York: Jason Aronson, 1980. Piotrowski, Zymunt A. & A~bert M. Briel, Dreams: A Ke¥ to Self-Knowledge. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986. Saul, Leon, The Childhood Emotional Pattern and Ps~chody­ dynamic Therapy. New York: Van Nostrand Rein"f'..ol , Co. =,i 980. Ullman, Montague and Nan Zimmerman, Working with Dreams. New York: Delacorte Press/Eleanor Friede, 1979. --~N~e~t-w_o_r~k-,~v~o~l.--. , "The Experiential Dream Group," The Dream 3, No. 3, May/June, 1984. Weiss, Littie, Dream Analysis in Psychotherapy. Pergamon Press, 1986. New York: Wolman, Benjamin B. (Ed), Handbook of Dreams: Research, Theories, Theories and Applications. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1979. Periodicals: Dream Network Bulletin. 670 East Rio Road, Charlottesville, VA 22901. One year subscription (six issues) is $18.00. ASD Newsl@tter, the official publication of the Association for the Study of Dreams. The regular membership fee is $50.00, and the special fee for students and the elderly, $25.00. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "Thirty Years of My Life," an autobiography by Bingham Dai and Selected Items from the Bingham Dai Papers Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Number of pages 2 Scan date 12/1/2014 File size 1.47 MB Checksum alphanumeric code 4962298a3f5eca5d743a053a8df83891 Scanned by Tony Grady Equipment Epson Expression 11000XL Resolution 300 Format, original document Format, digital pdf Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 8007_box_02_folder_01_CurriculumVitae_M Title A name given to the resource Dream Bibliography, by Bingham Dai Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource document Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the Bingham Dai Papers site is held by Appalachian State University. The documents are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. [Identification of item]. Bingham Dai Papers. W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection. Special Collections. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/174" target="_blank">Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)</a> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dai, Bingham https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/e6825e243f0fb9b3d21f7910fad93b85.pdf adc4046207ed247165192c641ffb4577 PDF Text Text Curriculum Vitae Bingham Dai, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Psychotherapy, Duke University School of Medicine Births August 26, 1899; Gutien, Fujien, China Training and degreess 1923 B.A., St. John's University, Shanghai. 1932 M.A., University of Chicago 1932-33 Fellow in cultural anthropology, Yale University. 1933-35 Training in self-knowledge under Harry Stack Sullivan and Leon J. Saul. 1935-36 Fellow in medical psychology, Peking Union Medical College, Peking, China. 1937 Ph.D., University of Chicago. Positions helds 1936-39 Assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry, Peking Union Medical College, Peking, China. 1936-37 Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Tsin Hua University, Peking. 1939-42 Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. 1942-43 Editor, China at War, New York. 1943-69 Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University School of Medicine. 1950-69 Professor, Department of Psychology, Duke Uni19691975- versity. Consultant, Highland Hospital, Asheville, N. C. Consultant, New River Mental Health Center, Boone, N. c. Professional associationss American Sociological Association. American Psychologival Association. World Federation for Mental Health; consultant, 1950-55. American Academy of Psychotherapists1 member of the Editorial Board of VOICES1 the Art and Science of Psychotherapy, 1965-70. American Academy of Psychoanalysis. Society for Asian & Comparative Philosophy �/ / ' I 2 Publicationss Opium: A World -Problem, an English quarterly published by the National Anti-Opium Association, Shanghai, Editor, 1928-29. The Influence of Modern Science on Social Changes in China, Selected Papers,Vol. V, the Institute of Oriental Students for the Study of Human Relations, 1931. 27-40. China's Contribution_ to the World Culture, The Internationalist, June, 1931. Opium Addiction in Chicago. Press, 1937. Shanghais the Commercial Review of Personality and the Cultural Pattern by James S. Plant (New Yorks the Commonwealth Fund, 1937), Yenching Journal of Social Studies, Peking, 1938. The Patient as a Person, Social and Psychological Studies in Neuropsychiatry in China, edited by Richard S. Lyman. Pekings Henry Vetch, 1939. Review of Man against Himself by Karl A. Menninger (New Yorks Harcourt Brace & Co., 1938), American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 47, No. 1, July, 1941. Personality Problems in Chinese Culture, American Sociological Review, 61688-696, 1941. Divided Loyalty in Wars A Study of Cooperation with the Enemy, Psychiatrys Journal of the Biolo~y and Pathology of Interpersonal Relations, 71327- 40, 1944. Some Problems of Inter-Cultural Collaboration for 1'1orld Peace, - Approaches to World Peace, edited by B. L. Finkelstein and R. H. Maciver. New Yorks Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion, 1944. An Analysis of Nancy's Problems with Some Therapeutic Suggestions, Journal of Social Issues, May, 1945. · Negro Personality and the Learning Process, Harvard Educational Review, Summer, 1946. Some Problems of Personality Development among Negro �3 ( children, Personality in Nature, Society and Culture, edited by C. Kluckhohn and H. A. Murray. New York: Alfred A. Knopf", 1948. Personal Counseling, Report of the Second Summer Laboratory Session of the National Training Laboratory in Group Development. Research Center for Group Dynamics, 1948. Freedom, Discipline and Personal Security, Progressive Education, January, 1949. The Effect of Segregation and the Consequences of Desegregations A Social Science Statement, Appendix to Appellants' Briefs in the Supreme Court of the United States, October Term, 1952 (One of 25 social scientists). A Sociopsychiatric Approach to Personality Organization, American Sociological Review, 17:44-49, 1952. Also in Mental Health and Mental Disorders, edited by Arnold Rose. New York: W.W. Norton, 1955. Intensive Personality Study as a Method of Training in Psychotherapy, Psychological Newsletter ( Now The Journal of Psychological Issues ), Vol. 2, No. 4, 1956. Desegregations The Implication for Research, American Journal . of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 26, No. 3, 1956. Science and Wisdoms A Psychologist Finds in the Wis~om of Religions Answers Similar to Those of Modern Psychiatry, Duke University Alumni Register, April, 1957. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders in Chinese Culture, 6ocl~l Problems, Vol. IV, No. 4, April, 1957. Also in Culture and Mental Health, edited by Marvin K. Opler. New Yorks Macnillan, 1959. Culture as a Factor in Obsessive-Compulsive Neurosis, North Carolina Medical Journal, with Theodore Braganza, Vol. 20, No. 4, 1959. Science and Wisdoms A Clinician Looks at Psychiatry and Religison, The Sixth Decade of Our Century: The Developing Fabric of American Society, edited by W. hernodle. College of William and Mary, 1959. Minority Group Membership and Personality Development, Race Relationss Problems and Theory, edited by J. Masuoka �_ / 4 and P. Valien. University of ~orth Carolina Press, 1961. ( Psychotherapy as a Process of Self-Transformation (a part of my contribution to a panel on Failure in Psychotherapy: Process and Person), Annals of Psychotherapy: Monographs of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1963. Cpiurn Addiction: A Sociopsychiatric Approach, Contributions to Urban Sociology, edited by E.W. Burgess and D. J. Bogue. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964. Culture and Delusional Systems of Some Chinese Mental Patients, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1965. Comment on "Showing the Patient He is Not a Worthless Individual," by Elbert Ellis, VOICES,. Vol. 1, No. 2, 1965. An Griental Philosophy, VOICES, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1966. The Sexual Future of Man (a panel discussion by phone), VOICES, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1967. Experimenting, Consolidating and Forgetting, VOICES, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1969. Etymology of the Chinese Word for "Crisis," VOICES, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1970. Opium Addiction in Chicago, a new edition with an introduction by Professor Lois DeFleurs Chicago Addiction in Contemporary Perspective. Montclair, N. J.s Patterson Smith, 1970. Zen and Psychotherapy, VOICES, Vol 5, No. 3, 1970. Also in Mental Health Digest, Vol. 2, No. 6, 1970; and in Relicious Systems and Psvchotherapy, eidted by Richard H. Cox. Springfield, 111.s Charels C. Thomas, 1973. Comment on "the Power of Physical Illness during the Course of Psychotherapy," by Richard E. Felder, VCJICES, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1976-77. My Experience of Psychotherapy: Some Reasons for my Relative Freedom from Fatigue, VOICES, Vol 15, No. 2, 1979. Approaches to the Nuclear Conflict, Highland Highlights, a publication of Hir)lland Hospital, Asheville, N. C., �5 ' ! a Division of the Duke University Medical Center, Spring, 1980. A Doctor Who Is Deadly Serious about Healing Himself, VOICES; Perspectives on John Warkentin, .Vol. 17, No. 2, 1981. Being Fully Human: A Chinese Ideal of t-1ental Health, Highland Highlights, a publication of Highland Hospita~. Asheville, N. C., a Division of Duke University Medical Center, 1981. Response to "Clinical Situation," by Allyn F. Roberts in INTERVISICN, edited by Grover E. Criswell, VOICES, Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer, 1983. 86-87. Zen and Psychotherapy Revisiteds What They Can Learn from Each Other, VOICES, Vol. 19, No. 4, ..Winter, 1984. On Sullivan - His Life and His Work (A Symposium), WAW NEWSLETTER, VOL. XVII, No. 1, Winter 1982-83,12-13.~Psychoanalysis in China Before the Revolution, Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review, Vol. XXI, 4, 1984, 280-282. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "Thirty Years of My Life," an autobiography by Bingham Dai and Selected Items from the Bingham Dai Papers Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Number of pages 5 Scan date 11/25/2014 File size 3.18 MB Checksum alphanumeric code 8b96a92ed1dc765e4ff61b26c0108f8b Scanned by Tony Grady Equipment Epson Expression 11000XL Resolution 300 Format, original document Format, digital pdf Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 8007_box_02_folder_01_CurriculumVitae_A Title A name given to the resource Curriculum Vitae of Bingham Dai Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource document Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the Bingham Dai Papers site is held by Appalachian State University. The documents are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. [Identification of item]. Bingham Dai Papers. W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection. Special Collections. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/174" target="_blank">Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)</a> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dai, Bingham https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/d831a93505dd8287958747963598770b.pdf d7625b4096c042a68f57807c10075372 PDF Text Text Drexel Avenue Chic s.go, Ill .• ct• 5; l, 931 O 5e33 • F.dward S.a.pir Departmen t o f AntJ.iropology- Ya.ie University New Ha:ven , Connecticut 'iy dear D1~. Sapir: I am writing bh.is to repeat my application f or a f9llowsh!p for the semin a r on Impact of Culture on Per .... so11ality to be given at Yale dtir-in · tho y ea:r 1932-35 . As I have stated in parson before, my interest i n t h e . tudy of p ersonality rms quite a tong history . Taught s to reel te t l"1.e R:.Ylcient classics .s ino e early childhood and b:r-a ught up in a p ri m ary-graoup environment , I started nry student-oa~r w1 th the mnbi tion of being a "holy man" . W t h adoles~ence 1 however, cu:rn0 the inev1 tabla conflicts• l Being serious•minded, I was t h en for the first 'time in rcy11fe brought fa.Ce to face with ·bhe proble.. .s of perso:nal1 ty . Thi nking that Olw1st1anity might h old the key to t he solution of' personality p roblems, I toolt up t;heology 111 St. ~Tobn's University,, Shanehai fi'"Om 1920 to 192:3 cut o f sh0 e r om•iosi ty . W ider contact with oth er a3ate111S of" thought and the new eoh ools of' p sych ology l a ter turned rJry a.ttent:ton from religion to a mol"-~ l"'etlistic app:ri~c h . _nstead o f be .... in a 1•eacher ~ I becaw..e a high school -teac her a nd starte d to expe!'i :ment on m;r O\m t heory o f edu ~at ion . I organized pupils ·vhom I mac.le s _ eci al c :f:'f'ort to g et well uc u a inted wi t h into f'r iends hip gi~oups, each having a natural l eader. Thro· ~h tb.is organization I was able to gain an i nti mate knowle dge of t he li fe of onch of these pupil s outside the class. r ot fm c me to .ne to tell their own at1ro;tes and thus enabled me to g ive t hem tho appropriate help , W hen t h.is e eri lent o f .mine was known t o a y oung philosopb.e by the name of Liang Shou- ming, the aut h or of" tho noted work , The. Philoso . by of Ea.ste~n e.nd N est,e rn Cul tu.res~ I w&s a sk e d to join him in a new educati ona l exp e ri rr~nt in Shant'U!J • '11h ere I re p eated my work o~ the studnnts mid gain d l ittle _o re insi o-ht i nto the d if't'i c ulties i nvolved . After a fo w y ea'.Ps teaehir..g and exp er imG.i;~ting on the behuvior p robl w ..s sch ool ..~up i ls ,, I jcine d t h e !fa t .ional Ant!·w p i ?tl Asnoc itl.t ion :Ln 1 .. 27 . ! was o.sk e · to take char·g e �of research :i::n~o;i ects , and was then b3:"0t w·tr,. ~m.l t o f acg -..tl:th p.CPsvnali ty :i; <:.>'blo:ms oi' e. dl f'fe r "Gnt ~af:~e_.- .cresi de s c ndtw·t ing inv ~ s-ti ga. t.ions of pop y cul i v e:t_ on• I ,as foreeri bv the n&'i:i1J..!!"0 of · .e J!robla.m to . ./i;; ~;; chc lives o f opitl."11 smokers, vd. t l a '71..~w of' lscolat ing t he pars .1:•.l and social faa to::rrn thn.t b.r ing a ou t t h ei:t'" .ol>uoxious haoi t . Be-· I proceeded verv f·u~ al ong t 1'1l 2 li . .e or stud 1 howe11e r , I bad to leavG t h e Association and aame to this c om1't:t"y ! · . £. n.Ose att.empt s tha:I;; hav0 macio to tacltle th pro- blEnn:; of p e P. s onulit t are o.t bEJ..ut grop:Lnp· "~ in the dark , as t · n ad no intiuiatG o on-c ~t<:3t v.ri-C;h current soc.iolegy Gr soo:t&l s yehology • mention the&e p01~son l .. -p i"i.enc es , b0c au - e 1. I b oli~ve , they sel'!ve best t o indi cate t he na tUl'e of nry i ntev:e at a till t he line of' at, tack I .have b een pursui ng befor..; ! taJrn s c'.i.olog-y s~v-iou sl J • c•m e aec!ua. nt.-~ce wi t h modern sociol, ogy- and · oeia l p sy chology & nd wo rks b.earh 1-'f' on tJ:xe J:leli: t:ton be t ween society and the i ndivi u. l OJ? ~u:t.tur'e W"l p ct>J:lo:ne,l ity s ince I c a me t o t..Je Ul:11veN;iity of' Chi-ca g o il. 1 92 onl y e nhance.~ YJ.Ty inte:. os-t in t 11e gtu.dy of !f~Qnal l t~ .~ F1or my M· A.-.i t hesis ,, I h ave. be ~n wi• ti:ng abou t : e Si)e inl~ with ·o ·u.e:J , treat i ng 1 t 'a a -00.se of t 'rt ioss .of pe1"·sona15.:t_y .,· : am. no . e cu1..d more i 110lin0d t o tlll.ii..11; tt.1i1t t -<3 Ci.."U:Ci al prohl.0111 before· us is to s tud::r the natu;r.-e of ' <n... s onali t y nnd hQvr it is £ornm0. t hrough the p:t>oce,s e of' socia:L int e.Paction.,. ' 1 0 u e t he t erms of the pro.L osed se:i:nin.n:f!!#' w0 nr,J;st stud;, · · ·:,_ infiuences ottl t.u:re has upon the i'o1~!'1l11 ,ion o:f a pePsonaJ..i ._ -H~ n the es aential nature of pe!l'sonality and the :roee ss o f its .:for:mati. n .is ; o known., :r elieve 1 it is pos si.bl.~ to sol;ve l!l.any of the perp l ·e :xinp p "Oblo.ms of pe.l"'-BOnalft'.I{ :a.,,~d soe ia.l control 41 W ~ t.u-0 t; goiri:f~ m-cy- f't.1rthe r; I shall . JJ.cut . s mo of . ..i, ..,mbi t io ~s _. :.. rli'.HJ briefl y in- l • Foll wL ,g the tradi tlona intet..e st i n character e-d 1 a.tivn., the Cr.J.nese· edu e-0.ti nul ;y-st(:}m nrescn.~i b es f or e very prl:m:a.ry d. s-e-e ond.ai..,y school o. lophrt..'t!lunt or moral e ucation.. Hi vhel" ·o thl s _pm:•ticr J.ar line of e&ui:!a.t1 onal. ac , i vi ty · s beoe:n pret t~ • uch a.lour" t oo tracri tion:J.1 line, eonsisti ..i.g- .:OP2-ef'l;Y of ravmrtL'3 an.,._ p1.ID.j..s'.h ments . I have long vd.s ied t1~· t I c ould e;i ve a nc1e-nt1 ic cl~r c t er t o t his kind o -· ~:. or. _ . 1 ·he achoo-l s t.b.rou.ehoUi.. the -0ount1~·"' ~S;ide fr m tht. --~oo tl IJ tr..e i:..1cli vi du.al Bt.u..:i_e::it. m y d r~. ve · rom r sciantii'.j,c a l'oac.' to thei r _ e-1•sonal problG ._s,• we may f i nd i n. the l ivp s of Lode i~ . .. ,inese- yo' th~ val u 0 bl0 e~ h i bit o f tfi.~ v-w:•.:..ous Vh . bo t l t..b. 1 d un "" the ney; Tie.s tern aul tur e s do ao ullly influenc.e perso l lity ., The po "son.alit, problems o f hine se y uths if gatl ,red · n tho r i~h.~G way' I"Jk\y· .furnish u �s with scient.J..f:i.o da.ha of ·he f:l.rst :magnitude . 2 ., T:"l p1• lem o.f c 1 is _ "'oug:1t ll0:t.i10 ·o me in conn -.ctio __ wi th rey study of> the o i u t.csticn . I hav0 a burn1 t;· -se.,ir>e to ma}:e a VG: r l.l1.t~11s'> Ve ?..nd axtensive study o~ thB 1:v of opium. and morphlne use ns, to ind out un er wr t cond1 tions t :.e form t ie ot ioxlo ~10, it. anu w1zy it is so d.i.f1ic.ult fo thom ,o iv up tha ha.bit . J. hu fro studonts o f tho prol 1.em :w.ve b een biased e :t thor by l!l.O "Dl sent i ments .... Gc,onon - c considerati ns . Jin y ·t I h."1v not ht·nr d of any · f!§M•h a ttempt tm r P- e.c th problem fri~Jtl the social psych lo ~ .LC .. l point of view • a the use of 6p:iUL'l •i d ot:ie~ otic dl";,,tgs ic a ver•y widesp read evil mid bas puz zled all J'bl0 l aJJures o f s-uppro co i • ~?!y ""cientlfle r·.ndlng in I to th~ c p1? oblo,. \·Jill be a. p osi · i ve contr ib1•t:lon to wal · aro of hunia~ 1 ty • 0 3. , ,,,1t is !ll st :n.eoded in hi1 a a .:, al l us in the 01•i nt t; lru:-,-,·o is ucionce. , and p a1•ti ;t:.larly t right ldn.U o~ ociontif'ic ::: iri t or o.t t1 tu o " I .. · ~1 not na.tiofie ..,.,,it h the v:hOl s ale i mp r ation of the : cst.ern educational system, ·_d doubt v-01 im.lc~1 whether it can v 1.. produce r:;enuine scientists and · enerate th~ n eedGd ecient_ fi c a.tti t' de. I fllil -1 e sed to t .. i.ink that to intir cuc n sc ... 0:nce t tho Or ient in fl a e11i ous 1'!10.llner p esuppos s a kt.1owlo.dge 0 how science C ~- Q a.bout 1 11 Y'7 SOientis t.s c ome; 'co be what thoy 'r•e , and some r:;f the ::.iocial psycholo...;:tcal ~eac tor t 1at mak. . s cie.L ce possibl , if n t ine ito.b1o .. For t~:ds reo.s n , I ha a stro J.g esiro t o .study . t7 a sci('mtific onr.e·or is aotunlly fo a-, a:ndh w s cie:nt_f'ic ... scov11: .y 1s p ssible , I want to h av a oh.."l.nce to stud, t h o l i 7EHJ o ·· emine . t sc::Hmtlsto aid f'ollou tl """ r t .:. ir :minds act al ly work. This :ts es~ent:tn- 1. study of t l10 i _.fluonc of. a t ~e upon parsonali ty ._ ·ul 4,. I am l o v ~ "S r.Hc ir tero s ted in the i ncreas ingly strainL. intei~n tional ol 0 ti ns . The ore' ically i t is not i upos~i 10 to at.ud,y the pro e• ..,QO h "Ol v:e .- .:.n internat.:tonul m i:ntc:r--... l."acial N~lntions, t fi d 0 1:"' 1 ow t 1 e inr " vi -usJ. is i.af1.1J.enced by his ovm G•JJ. tu:"e , und to tra. o h ow y!'G ·udic'€1s ap_ ear anC. disappear . To me t hi - L t'1e _nly vmy t 1~<;.nreu t war e.nd to :r•Or!lot gcH will a ~ na t · ons • I ho. 1 s h~J_l be f some u se also t o 3he f' internationc.l relations . A -: mi. 1 t .,o on and e~pa t~...e l ist o f icy a1¥'.biti ons . But th G ;ju,.yt, lTl:O~ ti( ned a :~~4n:':'-?' ·xrr y h eart. and nave g rovm r lg__t out of rrw crwn p er-sonal ~r:i.enc os ,. I n ord.er to r ulize surno '-'f t ..::: 0 e_.rbi tiOi ' n1d. _ h1<l' t'm t ,.,,i '!:;;h 2op �4 further training I m:ti:.·· t in t· e tuturo ad' sm.net hiw:r t o the exist :...nr kr~oul c.e;e of h 1x -i nature , · he ., eby _:.; ply f oi... 1 a fe ll. vrnhi or the vury i 1t e:r•e sti u seminar to e g iven •t Yul xt y ear . ey sehola. i~lc stsnoine; ll p 2-0 r_ ::;e r(: feJ.. ·to the I :re-0om't!onda t1 on f.rorn Dr . He.), ert lumer . re for :rou tc a nrev~ ou le ':';t. l .. ~· reco...llllenda- ; .r • •. obert E . Park "tvrote you ls.st ye fl2' • H ping to rece ive an earl ._ repl y , ! o.m, Ve~ s i c er l y yours , I ii � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "Thirty Years of My Life," an autobiography by Bingham Dai and Selected Items from the Bingham Dai Papers Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Number of pages 4 Scan date 11/25/2014 File size 3.38 MB Checksum alphanumeric code 9adc50ae75851048fbd2ea7d0b4f1e22 Scanned by Tony Grady Equipment Epson Expression 11000XL Resolution 300 Format, original Letter Format, digital pdf Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 8007_box_01_folder_03_LetterToEdwardSapir_A Title A name given to the resource Letter to Dr. Edward Sapir from Bingham Dai [October 5, 1931] Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1931-10-05 Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource document Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the Bingham Dai Papers site is held by Appalachian State University. The documents are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. [Identification of item]. Bingham Dai Papers. W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection. Special Collections. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/174" target="_blank">Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)</a> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dai, Bingham https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/0cd0eb9059eaaa04b18311f5518444ea.pdf d839faefdaf5e2e579a911f909bbab51 PDF Text Text rHIRTY YEARS OF MY LIFE 1 Bingham Dai This paper was pr,e pared for the Seminar on th,e mpact of Cu ture upon Personality . It was conducted by Edward Sapir , Chairman of the Department of J\nthropology, Yale University and financed by the Rockefeller Foundation 1932-1933 �CONTENTS 1 Chapte r 1. My P rentage and Home Env ironment Chapter 2. The Neighborhood of My Early Years Chapter 3. Between Confucianism and Christianity Chapter 4. My High School Days 24 Chapter 5. My Life in College 32 Chapter 6. My Experiments with Personality Education 44 Chapter 7. My initiation into the Social Sc iences 50 13 8 �.. . THIRTY YEJ\RS OF MY LIFE Chapter I My Parentage and Home Environment I grew up in a kinship farming village in South China. M grandparents had separated themselves from the larger y family, · inh.eriting a negligible acreage of land. My grand- father, I was told, was not a man of affairs and never worked on the farm himself. Furthermore , he had an ill temper and insisted on having plenty of food and wine. The whole responsibility of supporting the family, therefore, rested on the shoulders of my father, who was then only a child of 12. J\ccording to the local custom, no wo- men are allowed to work outside the home . , But my grandmother was so able that she knew how to direct her child in his many· undertakings and somehow managed to make both ends meet. J\t first my father was taught to till the land with the ne1 of older people. lp not pressing , he When work on the f arm wa s earned to plant sugar canes and to ped- dle them i n a neighboring town. J\ s he grew older, he followed ma.ny other v ill.agers in carrying loads of goods for s tore s in the town to distant ports on the M River. in No vehic es: of any sort are used in this mountainous part of the country; al l loads are carried by men on bamboo poles over their shoulders. In such ways, my mother used to �2 repeat to me. my father succeeded in providing my grandparents with food and drink and making them happy. She said that she had never seen my father idle for a single day, not even for a single hour . There were times when all the other farmers of the village were home by the end of the day, my father would be sti ll out working. In addi- tion, he was extremely thrifty and self- denying, and refrained from touching the food that was reserved for his parents. In ap earance, he was well-proportioned , medium in stature , but exceptionally dark in complexion, probably because of his constant exposure to sunlight. My mother knows so much of the early life of my . father , because she was brought to my .father ' s home when she was four years old and reared by my grandmother to be her future daughter-in-law. This has been and still is the poor people ' s way of securing a wife for their son. lot was as hard as that of my father. Her Whi le her future husband labored for the food and the drink for my grandparents, she did all the serving. J\s soon as she was old enough, she was required to do all the house chores , including housecleaning, cooking, laundry and even husking grains . Every morning, as soon as my grandparents were up , she used to tell me, it was her duty to bring them hot tea and hand wa.rmers, espe cially. when the weather was cold. J\nd my grandfarher was a very difficult person to serve , for �3 he would often lose his temper and turn the dining table over when he felt neglec ed by her or her future husband. Under such c.ircurnstances my mother learned to be meek and enduring, reticent but keenly sensitive to social situations. I n appearance she is short, a little broad-faced and '. ha s a light ' complexion. So it was from such parents t hat the write r was born on Rugust 26. 1899, the eve of the Boxer uprising that was to climax a series of diplomatic and military defeats Ch ' na had suffered in her encounters with W este n Powers and Japan. These national events later exerte d a tremen- dous influence on the development of my nationalistic thinking throughout my school years. My e l der brother was born two years earlier and my younge r sister fifteen years after me. W hen I was born. my grandparents, my parents and my brother and my paternal uncle were all living together in the neighboring town where porcelain wares manufactured. ~.,.. My father had- been so succe ssful in his various undertakings that he now owned a small china factory and a general store, in both of which pla ce s my brother and I s:pent most of our childhood days as errand boys. I can still recall how busily my father was engaged in s e lling and buying goods in the store, hiring and di recting labor in the! factory, and storing porcelain wares and di s pa.tchin the1 to di s tant cities. m My mother helpe d in the �4 store whenever housework was not pressing . She also help- ed decorate porcelain wares at home , often late in the night when all other people had retired. By means of such concerted efforts , my father ' s business prospered, and in time he rose to be one of the most successful merchants in the town and one of the most highly respected men in his home villag1 . e This change of family fortune had a deci- sive effect upon the future of my brother and myself, for, instead of' being required to learn farming or some handicraft , we were sent to school and expected to become schol ars . The personal relationship between my parents , however, seemed far from being ideal. just what the trouble was. I have not been told But whenever my mother was alone with me, she always had some stories to tell about my father ' s selfishness or neglect of her. As a matter of fact , my father did have something of my grandfather ' s temperament,, al though the only violent behavior I witnessed was his throwing the Bible toward my mother ' s direction. M mother has also complained about my father ' s partiality y to her younger sister-in-law, that is, the wife of my paternal uncle, all of whom were then living under the same roof. She has made the same complaint about my grandmother. I realized years later that such sibling-like rivalry among sisters-in-law or daughters-in-law is a very �5 frequent sc1urce of discord in a large Chinese family. Anothe1r source of friction between my parents is my brother. J\,s a child, he was fond of playing late in the street when he should be home and gradually came under the bad influences of the town. He formed rather early such bad haLbits as gambling and sexual irregularity. In cases of such misdemeanor, my father usually stood for iron discipline , while my mother invariably tended to shield the delinquent. Igno"rant of the principles of heredity, my fRther strongly believed in the doctrine of ' like mothe1r like son, ' and blamed my mother for all my brother ' s shortcomings. Hence the endless disagreements between the1m whenever my brother misbehaved. My own rel at ionship with my parents has been more fortunate. although I remember I was punished twice by my father, once for saying a vulgar word after the fashion of the street boys and the other for getting sleepy at night when I was supposed to do my home work . dinarily m~r Or- father tolerated most of my childi sh folli es and, as my studies i mproved , treated me with increasing respect. My mother never punished us; nor has she ever used harsh words, always telling us to do things in a s oft and te1nder voice. #hen we were very·· young , my mo- ther seemed to f avor my brother and often told me how reticent and backward I was as a child and how articulate �6 and resourceful my brother was . But as my s cho l astic career a.dV'anced , she came to 1 ike me more and more. She had wondered how I could ever win in an oration contest as I did more than once and was always pleased to listen to me whenever I had an occasion to talk to the village r s about national events. In m~l childhood r days , the most important people in my family were not my p~rents but my grandpa r ents . grandfather died before I was four years ol d. recollect:i.on of him is vague. But my My Hence my ~randmother did not pass away until I was 12 years old , and I was her favorite grandchild. I was her constant companion and nur s e at times , for my youthful hands were often used to give re lief to her arthritic pain. of my f ther ' s business. She was the directing sp · rit To assist him , she ran a pawn- shop in heir home, and , as soon as I learned to wri t e , I was employed as her secretary and was taught t o check the articles that were brought in by her customers . My grandmother was very proud of me and so were her friends, I was told. Since my grandmother loved me so dearly , it still surprises me to recall that when she died and when a rE!at deal of customary wailing was being done by our relatives, I did not cry. It is now difficult to re - call whether this was due to my hesitation to express grief or some unwillin ness to follow what is conven- �7 tional . The latter later did be come so ething of a trait of mine. Bes ides my grandmother , my p~ternal uncle and his wife also played a very important role ' n the develo pment of my personality. than my father. My unc le was 18 years younger He was probably spoiled by m grandmo - ther and was for a while such a problem to her that he was, as a last resort, sent to the local nnglican Church to be reformed. M iraculously, he turned into a Christian, and in a short while succeeded in converting the whole family, including my grandmother, to the new religion. Jill this happened .-.'llh.en lI .was "three 'Y&ars '·.old. J\.s ··a · re-- su lt of this religious conversion , all the previous superstitious practices of the family were dropped and we children began to attend the church regularly and were introduced to the Bible stories . And my mother and my aunt not only stop ed binding their feet but a l so went to a short-term missionary school for some form of reli ious education. My uncle, however , remained more a consumer than a producer to the end of his life in spite of his newly acquired religion. He wanted only the best food and the best c othing, which he freely purc hased whenever he was s ent to the capital of the province to dispose of our ·porcelain wares. He did not study for the civil service exa- �8 mination but mingled freely with the e ducated and r eforrnminded civic leaders. in the national In this way he came to be involved camp~ign against opium and almost lost his life during the lawless period following the 1911 revolution. For fear that my uncle might squander away all his ·earnings , my f ather decided to retire from his busine ss when he was only a little over fifty . He kept for himself only a certain amount of farm land , leaving to my uncle a the fam · ly property in the town. He returned to his home village and lived there contentedly till he passed away three years ago. My uncle . however , was no business man. He soon lost practically everything that had been given to him and, in the end , ev en got addicted to the drug he once helped to suppress. great a dmirer . W hile my uncle was living , he was my lifter the older generation had gone , he once said to me that there were now only one and a half persons in the family besides himself and his wife: the one is I and the other , my sister- in-law . He apparently did not have much regard for my mother and my brother. My aunt , the wife of my paternal uncle , came to our family when she was only 15 years old and when I was five. Being a shy young bride , she depended on me a great deal for runn ing her errands. In return , she would supply me wi th candiE:!S and secretly fed me special food and told me a ll the st<:>ries she knew. e became inseparable companions, �9 especially when my uncle was away from home. J\s a result, I became more attached to my aunt than to my mother. loved me so much that one of the last ~emarks She she made be - fore she passed away was that she was completely satisfied with her nephew , referring to me as I was away in school at that time. To her , too, my memory often goes for com- fort in my moments of loneliness , even long after she has passed away. M brother and I got along wel l and were always toy gether , until I was sent to a missionary high school in the capital of the province. J\s a child I was reticent just as my mother said , and what I wanted I asked of him. ~hen we were very young , he was my superior in every re~~ spectt e.xce·pt ~ fighting. In case of a quarrel • he never fought; he either made concessions to me or appealed to a higher authority. I recall one day when I was three and he was five , I wan ed badly something that was in his hand and I started to grab it. My grandfather quickly took him under his protection and sent me away. seemed he ·n ever got tired of me. 1 B t 't O nce I would have fallen from a high building , had not his hand grasped · me in ·. tillte, 1 so that the older people could come to my re s cue . The only time he did not desire my co pany was when we were attending the newly established pub l ic school in t he dis tri ct city and when he began to associ te with his own· - �10 classmates. W hen we were children, my brother and I were given various chores both at home and in the store or the factory. Thus , it was my job to bring hot tea and hand warm- ers to our elders . e rly ·in the morning, especially durin the cold s easons. the counteirs . Together we swept the floors and dusted fl s dusk approA ched, we rounded in the pigs and chicken and cleaned a.nd filled the kerosene lamps and saw that the doors were properly locked. In the china fac- tory, when time came to fire the porcelain wares in the kilns up on the hill , it was our job to check the loads of woo.d brought in as fuel and to carry refreshments to our workers. Whi le doing these chores, we had the opportunity to see our potters at work and observe the processes through which porcelain wares are manufactured . .J\s we grew a little older, we were given more responsible jobs . Thus , in time of harvest, we were oft en dispatched to distant farms to collect our rent in crops , and at the end of ~ach year we would go to our customers to collect the money they owed us In some such ways , we were encouraged to partic· p te as fully as we could in the family business en~erpri s e. So e incidents of my childhood that occurred· before : I started attending any schoo this chapter. to set 6ff may serve as a conclus ion f W hen.I was about five years old , I wanted s6me ~ firecrack e r s . My mother would not et me �11 do it . But our stor e sold fire crackers. So I mana ed to pull out one of the medium size while the older pe ople were having their dinner. Having ignited its fuse , I he l d it f i rmly in my l eft hand and hid myse l f inside a c l oset , thinking that in this way nobody woul d hear the noise . The explosion followed and my whole l eft palm was b l ack ! But I kept quiet in spite of the pain and cried out loud only when my mother came and examined my hands. The scar r esul ting from this misadventure stil l re ains 1 with me to this day . One day when I w s about seven , the s tore opposite ours was ly wen 01 n f re , and my father , uncl e and others hurr · ed- to its re s cu • y mother and my aunt ot so ex- cited that they rushed around , not knowi ng what t o do . I suddenly g1ot an idea and led my a.unt to my father • s room and begged her to he l p me pull out a large wooden box , in wh ch I knew my father stored a l l his land de e ds and usiness contracts. W carried the box to the top of the e hill b ck c)f our house and I sat 6tl i sided. This tendency to e cal unti l t he · fir e ·s ub- and collecte d in the midst of great excitement seems to be another trait of mine that ha.s a e r4!!d-. mo e·- t han · onoe -: · ter·' in--my life. · " It was also in my eventh year that I had t he most s erious i lness of my childhood . One o .. my egs w s s o weak that I could not walk , and I overheard w th r �12 fear what must have been a teasing remark that my father was going to throw me into the river nearby . M mother y nursed me for many months before I could walk again. La- ter I was told tha t my illness was due, to my grandmother ' s catering too much to my desire for green bean soup. This remark prc>bably was meant to be more a comment on my grandmother ' s overindulgence of me than a statement of truth . Before I was seven years ol d . I was told one dav that I should go to school with my br other. I went for a few days and learned by rote the ·)-character Classic . · a rhymed history of China written for children - and earned the reward of a duck ' s egg for one of my meals. But on the following day , I resolutely put my book back in the store for sale and told my parents that I did not want to go to school until I was seven , and nobody could pe r suade me to do otherwise. The next year right after the New Ye!ar festival, while my parents were wondering how t o tame ·my wild nature, I announced that I was going back to schoo l with my brother . This bit of childish in- dependence! and determination won laughter as wel l as res pect from my parents , and they have never failed to mention it whenever they ·talk about my childhood days. f �13 Chapter 2 The Neighborhood of My Early Years ns I have indicated, the neighborhood of my early years is of two kinds: one is a booming porcelain tow and the other a kinship farming village. hour •s walk from the village. The town is about one It is situated at the foot of a hill a nd at a visible distance from a small winding river, separated by clusters of old trees and patches of rice fields. Back of the town and up on the hill are the potters ' workshops and the porcelain kilns. It is a bustl- ing booming town, with most of its stores engaged in the manufa cturing and selling of porcelain wares. ns children , I and my playmates found en le ss en tainment in the surroundings of th i s· town . r- Up in the hills , we would roam to gather strawberries or to drop in at the porcelain workshops to see the potters at work . Down on the pla,in, we wou ld climb the trees to enjoy the breeze or explore the rice fields for small fish In the summer , wading or swimming and fishin was almost a daily sport. nd shrimps. in the river Other pq:tdo or activit · es consist- ed of shooting arrows at sundry targets , includin animals , throwing pebbles across the surface of the water , gathering flowers and planting tree s . Some indoor pastimes were throwing coins, playing car ds and other kinds of childish �14 folly , includin some erotic games. Perhaps our most popular sport was fighting. The boys living in the town were divided into two camps , one waging war against the other. I often took part in these fights , which usually took place under the moonlight and at a place away from our homes, so our folks would not interfere. I was also fond of making wooden pistols, using the gunpow er I stole from m uncle, but was a fraid to play with his big rifles. I enjoyed these games and adventures in spite of my parents ' prohibition; in fact, they seldom interfered unless I go·t hurt or neglecte d my duties. Fortunately for me, I was so much absorbed in these childish games that I had no contact whatsoever with the vices of the town , such as gambling. One institution in the town exerted a lasting inf uence on my life , and that · is the J\n lican Church. How my uncle and with him the whole family were converted to the Chris tian religion has alread been mentioned. J s a result, I began to attend the church school since the a e of seven , and the curriculu consisted of Bible stories, simple· ari th- matic and Confucian cl ssics. was in this three years and the lessons I learned her chool for mi ht h ve laid the foundation for my later interest in ethical and reli gious probl1ems . One incident of this peri od sti ll remains distinct in �15 my memory. but strict. The teacher of this church school was likable One day when he was away for a while , we had a fight and were caught in it. Waving the bamboo stick in his hand, he angri l y ordered all those involved to come forward to receive their punishment. Hearing the sound of the terrible blows on the palms of their fellow delinquents and their pitiful crying, some of us hesitated to go forward, and because of this hesitation they were hit harder. last my turn came. At But as soon as my name was called , I ran to the teacher at full speed with my right palm stretched wide, being all prepared to receive my share of the punishment. To my great astonishment, he put aside his bamboo stick and ordered me to go back to my seat. This was about the only time in all my school years when I came very close to receiving the old-fashioned type of punishment , but I \.. . .- was ~ he / spared the numiliation. My conjecture is that my ready compliance with his call was probably considered as sufficient proof of my repentance. Aside from the town life just described , a considerable number of my childhood days were spent in our village home. The village is composed of over t hree hundred households and all are des:cendants of the same ancestors. The following are some of the1 occasions that br ought us back to our village home. First , some of our farm tenants paid their rent in crops and i.t was our job to help see that the grains they �16 brought are properly dried and s tored. Then there is the 1\ncestral Hall with its annual communal feast in remembrance of t he villagers • common ancestry . J\s children, my brother and I always enjoyed partaking of the delicious food and watching the ri tual involved . W also vi sited the tombs e of our imme diate ancestors a t least once a year , and along with the ceremonial offering of rice and wine to the spirits we were given cakes and candies. Fi na lly , there are ·the an- nual religi ous festivals that have grown out of folk beliefs , such as the parade of local gods in the form of woo den images in the spring and the harvest festival in the aut umn . , O ne belief associated with the latter occasion is that the hungry ghos ts must be satisfied in some ceremoni 1 way so the y would not disrupt the coming harvest. J\ lthough as Christians we were not suppos ed to be intereste d in the religious s i de of these event$, we al l enjoyed the feasts and · the 'fun ·· that with the processions . ~goes On a ll these occas ions we re turend to our village home wi th either our gr andmother or mother and had the opportunity of frequently renewing our acquaintance with our village folk s and the ir customs and traditi ons. One of the village traditions concerns me directly , and that is the communal provi s ion for a scho l a rship fund . From time immemorial, farms had been set asi de for the use of young villagers who have the de si: r e ·-" and ·~ the 0 eapa ci ty ·:t study for the ci vLl · service examination . ,,...\ J\ 11 those who o �17 have passed the elementary grade of the examination may have a share of the proceeds from these farms , so they may be able to study for the higher degrees . The success of a scholar has always been considered as a honor not only to his family but also to the village as a whole. To attain such an honor , my father 1 ter s ent my brother and me to the first modern school in the district city that was established by the Government , for by that time the old civil service examination had been ab6lished and graduation from the new elementary school was taken to be equiva lent to the fi r st degree of the old system . l\ lthough we children pr obab l y cared more for the thrill of studying away from home than the literary honor and the material reward anticipated , my father and my uncle were unusually keen about the matter: they actua started law suits when the old scho l ars refuse d to · take us as their equals . l\s long as I can r ecall , I have always been warm y receive d by my village folks. In fact , my relationshi p wi th them had been so satisfying that the very first attempt ever made at bringing about so e practical reform was i n connection with our vil age government . be said later on. Of this more wi r~ y �18 Chapter 3 Between Confucianism and Christianity By the time when I was 10. the influence of my home . environment. had become less and less important . while that of the school and the city became more and more significant. For in that year (1909) my brother and I were sent to the newly established government school in the city and ever since then I have gone home only during my vacations. For the ~ rst year in the city. we were accompanied by our mother, who could not part with us all of a sudden. Every morning she would feed us well and dressed us neatly and sent us to school with the reminder that she expected us to behave and to grow up to be virtuous and useful men. On Sundays we all attended t he s ervice at the Anglican Church nearby. In these ways she took care of us till we became a ccus tomed to the life of the city. Thi s city is the county seat with a popu lation of over 2.000 families. It is also a commercial center . where the country folks dispose of their produce they need. nd buy the things It is situated a ong the bank of a picturesque river and is walled in on four sides. Inside the city, the stores and residences are arranged in straight lines , and divided into six wards. In each ward there is at least one �19 temple which houses the images of the local gods who are supposed to look after the welfare of that particular ward. Our school is situated in the fifth ward and is right next to the yamei[! of the district mag istrate and only a few steps from the Confucian Temple . M first day in the new government school is still vi y vid in my mi3mory. The teacher wanted to test my knowledge of the Confucian Classics in order to place me in the right class. He gave me a saying of Confucius from a certain chap- ter of the essay on ~~onfucian it~ J\nalects , expecting me to write a short Not knowing what it was all about , I reproduced the whole chapter which I had committed to memory , for in those days all school children were required to learn the Confucian Classics by rote without understanding what they learned. During the transit i onal period I was in , the so- called modern school was really not very different from the traditional one. l\ lthough such subjects as national history and geography , art , music and even English were being duced , the (~hief ntro- emphasis was sti ll on the Confucian Class ic s. In fact , on each school day we were even required to bow to the picture of Confucius as we came to school and as we left it. I do not recal jects taught. how interested I was in any of the sub- But I do remember both my brother and I pass - ed all the examinations , and after four years we obtained the diplomas my father and my unc le had been anxiously wait- �20 ing for. I recall quite a few inc idents that ocurred during this period. The fir st had to do with my dealing with a naughty boy in school. One day he ran afte r me stealthily as I was walking home with my brother and gave me a severe b low on my back . W chased him i n va i n . e To revenge mysel f . I solicited the aid of some of my schoolmates. One day we cornered him under a bed and I hit him with an umbr e l l • Some years later. however, we became friend s . The next incident had to do with our graduation exe r cise. n lthough I was usually shy and reserved , I was cho- sen by my teachers to deliver a message in 'Manda rin before the magistrate and a fairly l a r ge audience. This re wardin experience may be considered as the forerunner of my later interest and succes s in public speaking . Life in the ci y has many attractions. Festiva l The Dragon Boat n ' the sum mer and the Lantern Festiv 1 in the au- tumn are particular ly exciting . . On the former occasion , all the women in the city together with their chi ldren usua ly appear in the ir best clothes and a great variety of candies and eatables are attractively displayed a long the s tree ts and the rivier bank. Especially captivating is the dragon boat race , in wh'ch light boats fitted with dragon heads and tails and paddl ed by strong men from the neighoring villages, with colors flying , drums beating and chants sung in uni son , �21 struggle at a tremendous speed to capture the first place for the year. The excitement on such oc casions is by no means limited to the youri.g. . In the Lantern Festival , on the other hand , one can leisurely feast on an endless variety of lanterns made of fine bamboo strips and lotus fibers and di splayed all over the city. One of my memorable associations of this period was with the students of the police school and members of the J\nti - Opium J I) ssociation, to both of which my uncle often brought me and introduced me to his friends. incidents in this connection. I recall two One day while I was running ahead of my uncle and his friend on a country road, I overheard his fr iend say to my uncle that I was like a little pony that someday would become "a horse of a thousand li , " meaning a promising lad. The Anti - Opium Association was then a very popular or anization and many volunteers coo era ed Wirth the pol ice in tracking down .the opium dealers . them. My uncle was one of That was why when the revolution of 1911 came and when a temporary state of lawlessness prevailed , these opium dealers sought revenge and attacked my uncle. As the police as - sembled and were starting their search for the offenders , I foo i shl y a peared on the street with a little cousin of mine , ostensibly taking him for a walk but secretly trying to locate the ringleaders of the opium gang. Suddenly one �22 of them caught sight of me and started to chase me with a big -sword in his hand.. I was so frightened that when I got home, I could only lead my father to the top of the house and point to the direction of the opium gang without being able to say a single word. In the headquarters of t he Ilnti - Opium J\ssociation , I had seen how some of its members made mini bombs for se fprotection . a t home . M uncle had some of the component chemica s y One night after all the stores had closed an d the street was free of pedestrians , I let off a little omb of mine own , loudly scattering small pieces of porcelain in all direction , without anybody knowing who was behind the mis chief. W hen order was restored, my parents felt that the educ ib ~ I had received at the government school was insuffi- cient and sent me ~long School in the same city. with my brother to the M ethodi s t Life here was a little more whole - some , as there was a large playground and we were t aught to play the basket ball and to take part in other sports . This school placed the greatest emphasis on the teachings of the Christian Bible , although the study of the Confucian Class ics was not completely ignored. On Sundays we were ·maPched_Jm masse to t he Nethodist Church in town and kept there till the service was over and then marched back to the s chool. I do not recall my interest in the Christian religion was �23 particularly intensified by such compulsory measures. I did become interested in the English language. But M peny manship and spelling were highly praised by my American teacher . Two years quietly passed by. came. One of our relatives was at that time the proctor of the Y. M. vince. Then my great opportuni ty c. n. School in Foochow, the capital of our pro- He came to visit and suggested to my father that he should send us to the new high school where English was emphasized. Unable to send both of us there , my father ask- ed our relative to talk to us and decide on which one to send. The luck was for me , for he thought I would be more adaptable to the learning of a new language. At once I was turned over to an English tutor, and after three months I was on the way to the new school and eventually to a new career. semin ry. M eanwhile my brother wa s sent to a theological Thus we parted our ways and ever since then we h ve been living in two quite different worlds. �24 Chapter 4 My High School Days c. n. High School was established by the Y. JI. of Foochow. J\l though the Confucian Classics were The Y. M . M . c. also taught , the main emphasis of its curriculum was on the En lish langua e and the Christian religion. Subjects such as mathematics, science, economics and even Chinese ge·ography were all taught in the English language , and the J\meri can secretaries and their wives were our teachers. I had the good fortune of entering the school just before the courses began to be divided into the arts and the business departments, and so I took all of them, including typewriting and bookkeeping. ed. Physical education was also emphasiz- /Is the school was an integral part of the Y. M. C. A. building , the students were given access to a large playground , an indoor gymnasium, including a swimming poo l, and even the biliard tables. /I s a result , many of us took to athletics. M first year in the school passed unnoticed . y Since I was then only 14 years old , I must have some difficulty in finding :my way. To speed my adjustment to the schoo l, my relative, the proctor, took me under his wing and closely supervised my daily schedule. In the following year I surged ahead in all my studies, and for the succeeding four years remained the head of the class , the only exception being �25 the last semester of my senior year due to sudden i l ness . ns I became more proficient in my stud i es , my ext racurricular activit es increased . I began to be active in the English Literary and Debating Society and remained its chairman for qu te a while. I took part in an English ora - tion contest and won the first prize . I participated in the student Y. M.c . n. and for a year I was its president. also became closely associ~ted I with the new y introduced boy scout movement and soon rose to be a scout master. Af- ter a summer ' s training at its national headquarters in Shan hai , I became the boy scout commissioner for the city . was essenti~lly a pioneering job. This I gave l ee ures on the si nificance of the boy scout movement and trained new patrols in various schools, from which troops later were form ed . In ad ition , my interest in sports also grew. I learn- ed to swim, to p ay tennis, basket ball and billiard and even took part in track meets . Perhaps the most important development in my life during this period was my increasing interest in r e l igi on , · whi ch h d a decisive effect on my plans for the future. Probably the common adolescent confl icts over sexual matters which I shared at this time might have played a very important ro e in this sudden sur e of religious concern. But the more fun amental desire to be a perfect man like Confuciu or Jesu must have been stimulated long ago by my repeated �26 exposure to the Confucian Classics and the Christian Bible; now it blossomed as I was mature enough to ref lect serious ly about my own life goal and the desti ny of the nation . Of all he Christian teachings I had received . I was most puzzled by the doctrine of original sin and the redemption work of Christ . Somehow the idea that all men are sinfu l by nature and that they can be saved only by t he death and re s rection of their revengful and yet loving God incarnated in a man did not set well with me. Yet my ado l escent burden of guilt coni ng from diverse courses remained to be lightened , and Jesus as a man with his e emplary life continued to have an imm~3nse appeal for me. It was at this time that I attended a revival meeting conducted by an can Y.M.c.n. secretary. nm eri itin~ rary I ea erly confessed what I thought to be my sins and was told that they al l were forgiven and that I would grow up to be a great and useful man . as happy as a youth of 18 could be . tagious . I was My enthusiasm was con- I and my boy scout friends even formed a sort of fraternity with the purpose of encouraging each other to lead a Jesus - ike life. My religious interest remained strong as I appraoched my gr duatie>n. Al hou h some of the Christian doctrines did not make much sense to me , I sti 1 kept thinking that if I could have a chance to study the religion further , I might become a better man and more able to help my country. �27 So I began to toy with the idea of studying theology :tn ,a missionary university , although I had no intention of be coming a Christian minister ~ nnd at this time I had no idea how I could ever rea ize my ambition , as my father had retired from his business an I hAd to borrow money to com- plete my high school education. J\ few incidents from this period may be worth mention- ing. M ost prominent in my memory is my mountain climbing with a patrol of boy scouts. Naively we started to sea e the heights of the highest mountain in the area with all our parafern ia: staffs , axes , flags and rop s . Even more fool - hardily I let the group olimb up the steep side of he moun- tain instead of fol owing a safer win ' n g p t b. As we ascended , our steps became more and more unsteady and none dared to look back , until we had to crawl on all fours , drag ing our belongings with u • of our nll of a sudden , roup , only 11 years o d , vanishe whistle calls brought back no ans er . perienced is indescribab e . n the young e s t out of sight and The anxiety I ex- But soon he emerged unruffled proved to be the most courageous and the most r e ao rce - ful of he entire patrol. ns·s o6n as we got to the top of the cliff , 1everybody became religious and w s q i.ck(",:on ..·fr s knees to ~f f r a prayer of thanks to the Spirit that . ha guided us ti0 safety. never forgets. The is · he kind of ex erience one �28 As I mentioned bove , one of my pet summer projects during my h:igh school period was to introduce some form of sel - gove rnment to my home village. So one summer vacation I was all s1et to modernize the village organization by the use of the W estern parliamentary rul es I had learned in school . I called a meeting of the village elders to be held at the l\ncestra l Hall, where I used to talk to the folks about national events. They came with enthusiasm. But when I tried to explain what I considered the right procedure, they began to ta lk all at once , and I was completely at a loss as to how to bring the meeting to order , as we call ed it in school. meeting a fE3W t, the meetlng ended with· nothing Far from bein ac complished. As I saw discouraged , I called another days ~ ater, but this time nobody turned out ! ns I knew this was not be cause the e ders h d less regard for me as a person, the realization dawned on me that no real ref could be imposed from outside but . : that. when"tthe ·vil·l a - gers themse lves were faced with a · really urgent situation , they wou d cio something themselves and in their own way . This hypothE~sis was confirmed some years later , when on my return from college one summer I w s surprised to find that the villagers had organized themselves effectively not only to defend the village from bandits but to cope with other problems as well. Since ~rapan forced the Treaty of Twenty- Once Demands �29 on China in 1915, boycotting Japanese goods has become a national passion. The students of our school were the most aggressive in this patriotic movement and were most hated by the Japanese merchants. There had been rumors that they would try to stop the movement by violence. One evening the word got around that one of our schoolmates had been assau l ted by them in a nearby street. I quietly slipped out of the students ' dormitory and shut the door behind me , s o that no one could get out without the proctor ' s permission. I proceeded to the street alone to check the ru- mor and found that nothing serious really had happened . I So that night passed peacefully. But a few days later. the Japanese did attack some of our schoolmates with an assortment of weapons . I had the sad experience of attending the wounded and bring]ng them to the hospital for treatment. However, the Japanes e merchants paid heavi ly for their actrocity, for their shops had to close for a long period of time. Another incident that I can still recall vividly is related to the unusual rescue work done by the boy scouts of our school. Our school is situated on the bank of the Min River and not far from the s t one bridge· that e'Xtends from one side of the river to the other . ing J\lmost every year dur- he rainy season , unexpected floods wou d hurl a siz - able number of boats against the massive supports of the �30 bridge. On one of such summer days , a boat was seen rush- ing toward our direction on its way to i s the bridge. . tr~gic end at In no time our boy scouts, already on the lookout fo r ·such just an eme r gency , threw a long and stron line to the boat and successfully pulled it out of danger. Several live!S were saved This event has been kept in the memory of the school by a lar e wooden plaque awarded us by the governmor of our province in reco nition of our heroic deed. M uch le s s exciting was my love n t that time free assoc ation n ot an accepted custom. ife of this period. etween the exes was stil However, I did form a rather in- ima te relationship with a cousin from our kinship vi lage. who was attending a gi r l schoo in the same city . Since we bear ·the same family name, marriage was out of the que s tion. So our relationship ended when she got married. Other incidents of this period I can recall are asso - ciated with my rather serious attempt to be honest with my self and to do some good deed everyda , as the boy sco t code requires. in Shanghai. Once I ordered two books from a book s tore W hen the books came, I found one of them so · led. M immediate impulse was to keep the clean one y or ys e f and leave thei soiled one o my t'ri.end. I did just the o posite. Another time, I found a toilet in the school ba throom unusually dirty. But on second _thought , I started to c ean i t �31 without hesitation In fact, this habit was so firmly es- tablished in me that whenever I saw a cooolie struggling with a heavy load, I would stop and help - something very few e ducated Chinese would do in those days. On the whole , my high school days were most satisfying , except that when my father retired from his business I was for a while left without support. But it was then that I learned to stand on my own feet and to take charge of my own destiny. �32 Chapter 5 My Li fe in Co llege Before I Y.M.c.n. r duated from the High School, I had obtained the promise of a $12 .00 (Chinese curre ncy) scho l arship from the Fukien Christian University. my After radu tion, I had to work for half a year to pay off my debt and was therefore unab e to join the Freshman class until its second semester. So I entered my first colle e in the spring of 1920 with no and only a few do s~vings ars from my father enou h to let me pursue my own spare after his re · rement. a job in the of my own to speak of colle~e who was broad - minded lan but who had little to Fortunate y , I was able to get ibrary and another to te ch in a ni ht sbhool • . Thes e jobs took me JO hours a week and earned me J.OO (Chinese currency) a month. And out of this meagre sum I had to pay for my tuition , my books and room and board. In spite of all this, I remained elated , for I knew I was on my way to the realization of my dream , and that is to learn all about the Christian religion • .A 1 though I had very little time to prepare my l e ssons , my record for the first half year in this college was above average except in French. The reason for the latter failure - the only failure in my entire academic career - is that since I had audited the elementary French course before �JJ I entered the college, when I came I was encouraged to join the advanced course and even promised a ful l year ' s credit, if I could pass the final examination. But this turned out to be an impossibility because of my unexpectedly heavy work s chedule. In all othe r course I did very well , and , I may add , I did mo s t of my study right in the class while the recitation was going on . ctivities. Nor did I shy from extracurricu ar I was an officer of the student Y. M . n , a mem.c ber of the college band and an undistinguished member of the college b sket ball team. But I was not rea l ly happy , because there was no divinity school in this young university and I coul d not get starte d i n my study of Christianity. To alleviat e my impatienc and to the surprise of my schoolmates , I read most of the books on reli ion that were reserved for the seniors and found in them a great deal of satisfac ion . M eanwhile I learned from the bishc of the l\ngl i can Church in the city ip that there was a school of theology in St . John ' s University in Shanghai. I at once wrote to the dean of that school and found that I might be given a t ui tion scholarship . if I cou l d qualify as a junior in tha f 11 s eme.ster by passin a spec · al examination on two subjects: European history and French. was so inspired by the news that I I ave up all my plans for the summer v ca ti on and spent all my time on , t hose 1 wo $ub j.eats . t 1s a result , when I matriculated at the Univ ersity , I passed �34 the special examination without difficulty and was allowed to join the juniors and to start my theological study along with other courses leading to the B.A. degree . M first year at St. John ' s passed unnoticed. y In fact , in the beginning I felt rather shy when I sat with the other members of my class , most of whom were dressed in estern clothes and spoRe English as if it were their mother tongue. But soon I was encouraged by the high grades I received in most of the courses. I seemed to be especially at home wi th philosophy , religion, psychology, sociology and English . Some of my class essays were published in the missionary journal entitled , The Chinese Recorder . I fared equally we l l in most of the theological courses except church history and the Episcopalian Prayer Book 1 they did not stir my imagina tion at all . W hile I enjoyed most of these courses , I got the feeling that we were not giv en t he cient information on any subject~ ate s t or even suff · - This is understandable , for a missionary institution generally cannot afford to have first-rate scholars on their facul y. Besides , its primary purpose was not to introduce vestern science to China but v to bring students under the influence of Christianity and to make converts out of them. The principal method used for this purpose was compulsory attendance at ' the chapel service every morning and at morning service every Sun ay in addi tion to required courses on the Bible . Perhaps the most �35 important occasion on the campus from the ' point of view of the authorities WRS the annu~l baptism of new Chri stians , for the number of new converts each year constituted an item of major importance in their report board at home. o their mission How this missiomiry interest overshadowed the educati onal policy of this university may be seen also in the fact that its president was an ordained priest and · its highest administrative authority was vested in the bi shop , who , according to my own experience , had no interest in the stude nts at all. This missi onary environment , however , was quite congenial to my mind at that time, for my v ery purpose of go ing there was to study this great its secrets . reli~ion and to discover For a while I was greatly interested in some of the courses offered, especially those on the life of Jesus and on that part of the Old Testament called The Prophets. But he classes on the Thirty- Nine Jl rticles and the History of the Prayer Book together w th the church dogmas that go with them bored me . I egan to ge t interested in other schools of religiou s and philosoph ical thought . I got in contact with Hinduism through an Ind ia n scho l ar and re d Bhagavad Gita and Rabindranath Tagore •s wo rk s with eage rness. I became a cquainted also wi h the learned Confu- cian- Christian-Buddhist Chinese s cho ar , Chang Chung- ju , whos e ho by was to attack institu ion~ Christianity as �J6 "foreign religion." He introduced me to Buddhism . J\t the same time appeared the inf uential work of Liang Shu- min , , entitled Easte rn and W estern sophies. Civiliz~ ions and Their Phi o- It is essentially a call to return to Confucianism. The result of my fo lowing these various trends of thought was that I began to develop a broad eclectic attitude towards religious philosophy that was quite beyond the comprehension of my theology professors. Gradually I turned from Christianity as taught at St. John ' s to Bud hism and finally back to Confu ianism. the followin This change was reflected in incidents. J\s I became increasingly inte rested . in Buddhism, I bean to meditate under a tree along the bank of the campus at in he same hour when I used cree k near o attend the even- service at the church as required of every theological s tudent. I was enjoying myse f expe rim nt. tremendously in this new Sudden y one day I waa stopped by my ean and asked why I had failed to attend the evening pr yer regu arly. 'Ii th perfect sincerity I answered that I had not found the prayers written by Englishmen centuries ago very sti ula ing and that I had been trying out a new method of meditation I assumed naively that how one spends the evenin hour dedicated to religious contemplation shou d not make any great difference. But to my great surprise, the dean burst forth in harsh comments, saying that the pr yers used �37 in the church were written by saints much wiser than I was . He ruled that I either attend the evening se rvice as required or leave the scho ol. larship I Because of my de endence on the scho - ave in and went back to the evening prayer as re- quired , but did so with much misgiving. This does not mean that I was not interested in prayer at all. On the contrary, I often went to t he same church voluntarily and prayed a lone. I even organized an intimate prayer group who met early every morning. \faat I really rebelled against was the dry and mo - notonous reading of prayers from the Prayer Book without the least .exercise of intelligence ot feeling. The more disgusted I rew with this form of authoritar- ianism , the more I moved towards Buddhis , for Buddhism gives one a much broader point of view and thought. uch more freedom of In one winter vacation , I lived on rice and pea- nuts - mainly because of lack of funds - and read nothing but Buddhi st texts, living the life of a Euddhist as I understood it. I felt so elated I said in one of my letters that I now realized that I had never been born ·not ·would I ever ' die and that I had found happiness in myself; nothing external could add anythin to it. But this state of nirvana , if you please, asted only for a short whi le, for as soon as the v ca ion ended , I was again harnessed to the yoke of theolo ical regimentation. nnother incident showed the influence of Buddhism on my �38 thinking ev en more clearly,. 1 Once I led the college English debating team to a distant city situated by the famous W est Lake. Our expedition was not a success, but I enjoyed the beautiful scenes all the same. On my way back I bought a canary which lived on a special kind of bird-seed~ But when I got back to school, I was so busily occupied with my examinations that I was unable to get her the food she needed; I fed her with any food that was available. J\ few days later, as I was getting her special food ready , she surprised me with a piercing sound and died before my eyes. I felt very sad a nd it occurred to me that animals must suffer much more than my bird when they are deliberately killed for human consumption. Since that day I did not feel like eating meat and began the life of a veg'e tarian until very recently. But by the time of my graduation in 1923 , the influence of Confucianism on my thinking became much more evident. This can be seen in the speech I made in the College M andarin oration contest, entitled "The Salient Aspec s of Chinese Culture." I was really drawing a contrast between the dogmas of Christianity and the common sense teachings of Confucianianism when I highl ighted the following p~intsi (1) the Chinese concept of Heaven or Nature, which emphasizes the natural and the observable instead of the supernatural that is revealed only to the chosen or the believers ; (2) the Chinese theory of human nature, which teaches that all �39 men are born good and only l earning and experience make them differ and that since all men have the inherent power for se lf - renew 1, they do not need a redeemer of either human or superhuman orgin; and (3) the purpose of higher e ucation , wh ich is to develop a man •s inherent potentia ities not ony for his own well - being but also for that of his country. B contrast , Christianity pays almost exclusive attention to personal sa vation and makes no mention of love of one ' s country. In fact , I was so convinced of hese views that y s ole purpose of ent ring the oration contes t was . o ·convey this messag1e to my fellow students. J\ ccordingly , immediate - ly after I 1delivered my speech I returned to my dormitory , not caring -who was going to e the winner because of the strength of my conviction Perhaps it was hat eventua ly the first • pr "ze was aw rded to me in my absence . 1\no her incident i l ustrates the same point . Ne w Testament class I wrote a paper on In my he mind of Jesus an stated that Jesus never t u ht patriotism but that it w s sore y needed in Ch i na in order to make it a stronF an ed nation. I fu n +her asserted hat J e sus • gr ea t ness unities :i n his being o:f service to othe r s and not in lording it over them as the missionaries taught , cl iming that he was super ior to all the · ages in other lands - in fact , t he one and only savior of all mankind. I concluded by saying that after a 1 Christianity is only one of gr eat reli ions and th a we �40 should learn from all of them. for writing~ 'fu ile pra "sin my abili y my professor branded me a heretic and warned me that unless I chan e my views 1 the Episcopal Church would not ordain rne as a mini ster. I was not the least bit alarm- ed , for to be a Christian minister was not the major reason for my studying the ology. and continuE~ In fact , I wished I could stay on to study t he other great religions , when I w s told that I had to leave and to pay back the 3- year tuition schol rship I had received, something , I am ashamed to say , I have not done yet. J\ long with my studies I took part in a fair amount of extracurricular activities. My participation in the intra- mural oration contest and the inter-collegiate English de bating computition has been mentioned. In my senior year I w s elected president of the class and was the editor of its year book~ ns president of the student body as a whole , I or anized the first student council with a written const tuion. I also represented the university more than once in i nter-collegiate and international student conferences. One special task I performed was to help administer famine re lief in northern~ China. In some such ways I managed to visit some of the most well-known historic s ites and scenic spots in the count ry and gain some knowled e of the world outs ide the university campus. Some incidents occurring dur ng this period may be worth �41 a mention. The first has to do with my initial contact with an important personage connected with the theological school which I was going to attend. I had arrived at the university campus a few days before the fall semester of 1920 began. One day I was sitting alone on a bench in front of a residence inside this beautiful campus, when an nmerican man walked towards me and asked if I was a university. "scholar~ · of this I answered in the affirmative, fully anticipat- ing a friendly chat. Instead, he brusquely asked me to leave without giving a.ny reason. I did but was quite puzzled by what had transpired. Only later did I find that a Chinese student was not supposed to sit in front of the bishop ' s residence and that the man who ordered me to leave was the bishop himself. I must say that this experience did not give me a very high opinion of the highest authority of the school I was going to attend. J\ s a matter of fact , a 1 throughout my three years in the theological school I had hardly any contact with this · man who had beenc· charged .with the mission. of spreading the gospe l of love among the hea w then Chinese. The next incident pertains to my well-intended but fu tile attempt to introduce some needed reforms to the univer sity community. Having personally experienced the ill effects of compulsozychurch attendanc~ and the flagrant ack of com- munication between the America n faculty and the Chinese Stu- �42 > dents , I handed to the president a l ong letter one day , suggesting that compulsory church attendance be abolished and that a special effort should be made right away to improve the communication between the faculty and he students , es- pecially to understand the students ' problems and help solve them. My suggestions were summarily ignored. But what hap- pened two years following my graduation proved the accuracy of my preschmce. In 1925 on an important patriotic day the Chinese students pulled up the Chinese national . flag on the university flag post. The same bishop who forbad me to s i t in front of his residence authoritatively had it taken down on the ground that university ground was J\merican pro perty and could display only the J\me rican national flag ! Mainly in reaction to this Christian- imperialistic act , I was told , th1e students left en masse and founded a new university and called it Kuan Hua Ta ·Hsueh ' or the University for the Glorification of China. Since then the prestige of St . John ' s University has suffered a setback beyond repair. I have wondered if all this might have been avoided , if the university authorities heeded my suggestions. The final incident I want to relate consists of an unusual mystical experience. I had been trying to understand the concept of God as taught by my missionary professors but always with s ome reservation in my mind. was meditati n ) One day wh · le I intently on this subject , all of a sudden I �43 felt very vividly that I was tra vel ing from one planet to the other to the very end of the universe and that there was no God to b'e found. This experience or vision was so extraordinary and so convincing that it made me feel very certain that if any one really wishes to find God , he will have to find Him here and now; all theories about the ultimate reality apart from the phenomena and the pre sent are not worth serious consideration. On the whole my college life was also very satisfying. Although I had some run-ins with my theology professors . I think I came out of the scuffle a definite winner. For the intimate knowledge I acquired of the Christian religion and of the life of Jesus was for me the best introduction to W estern culture. This coupled with my life-long acquaintance with the Confucian tradition gave me a rare foundation for the kind of persona ity education I was going to experiment in the ensuin years. �44 Chapter 6 My Experiments with Per sonality Education Before my grad uation •ftom· St~ John.,' s U-niv-ersi ty, ~ I had an offer from a very modern high school in Tientisn. So in the autumn of 192J, I began my career as a teacher . My predomin:ant interest at this time , however , was not so much to improve my pupils ' intellect as to help them deve lop their personality as a whole. The motivating force be- h ind this interest is the same that pr ompted me to study Christianity, for I was indoctrinated with the idea that it was a panaciea for all persomili ty prob l ems. I is also the same motivation that led me away from the Christian inistry , for I found that there was no necess ry connection between the do~as an the rituals of the church an ing and cure of personality conf icts. ing and started out with the zea self friend and he l per the understand - So I turned to teac - of a missionary to make my- o my pupils During my first half ye r in the s choo , however I was not able to do much about my plan for personal ty education , for I was asked to teach sor'le rather heavy su j.ects , such as modern European history, logic a nd elementary psychology be sides English glish anguage. and all these subjects were taught in the EnI read more books on these subjects than I did in college , including books on beha v iorism , a new de - �45 velopment in psychology unkown to me before . But as soon as I became better acquainted with my students , I started to form a fellowship which I cAlled Chin Hsing__ Hu ~ or the Society for the Ful lest Person~l Development. The words chin hsing were taken from a saying of Mencius ( 371 - 289 B c. ) , in which he taught that only those who have deve lo pe~~h~ir own po entialities to the fullest can understand He aven or what their life mission is goin to b e . This is quite a departure from the Christian teaching about a personal God whose will is revealed through a mediator and can be un- de r stood only by means of all sorts of r eligious observances. I began by making friends sith the be st students of my classes 1 fter we had come to understand each other , I ask - ed each of them to suggest to his friends that they form groups to help each other to become bette r persons and to br ing about a more wholesome atmosphere in the school as a who e . In this way I gathered around me about f i fty students , divided into severa l natur al friendship groups. Each group had its own program of help i ng each other deve l op a l ong ph sical, intellectual and moral lines . Together they took phys cal exercises , read worthwhile books and discussed per sona l problems. Once every two weeks we had a general meet- ing and discussed problems relevant to their personal development~ No one religion was emphasized ; works on all the great religions were introduced to them. In addition , I arrange �46 to have private interviews with those who desired to talk to me about their personal problems . that I di all It is sad to recall his work alone without any support ' from any colleague or the school . But I enjoyed this extracurricular activity and especially the friendship of my students , until I left for a more ambitious educational experiment . This n~=w educational experiment was launched in a high schoo l in Shantung Province by the philosopher , Liang Shuming mentioned before. J\fter years of comparative study of Eastern and W estern phhilosophies , he came to the conclusion that the Confucian way of life was the most appropriate for China and perhaps even for the world at large . In order to apply his philosophy to education , he and a small group of his fellow phiosophers embarked on this rather ambitious program of helping students not only to l earn intellecltual subjects but to develop their total personalities accordin to the ·Confucian principles as they understood them . I had read not only his major work mentioned in an earl ier chapter of this paper but also his stimulatin Jttitude toward Life." article, " The Rational Since what he proposed to dO was very s imilar to what I had been doing , I got in touch with him and found that we indeed had very much in common. ns a re - sult , I left the hi h school in Tientsin together with its better pay a nd joined M Liang and his group in the ne w r. school in Shantung in the fall of 1924. �47 The methods used y r. Laing to handle the students • personality problems were rather unique. He asked them to keep diaries and to express freely their views on any subject" He r1:?ad these diaries with great care and wrote com- ments on th1:?m. students . J He also held persona 1 interviews with the t the same time he gave a well-planned series of lectures on the Confucian philosophy of life , with a great deal of emphasis on being true to oneself , on jen or love for one ' s fellow humans and on other Confucian attributes that make for harmonious human relations. In addition , he mingled with the students , ate with them, played with them as much as he cu dand"showed in many little ways that he cared for his "society of friends ' as he ca led his students and co leagues. On account of the work I had done along si ilar lines , I was held in high esteem by Mr . Liang and his colleagues . In fact , we seemed to a ree in so mary things th t my casual remarks For werE~ sometimes received with unusua l consi eration . examp le~ on one important occasion , instead of speaking himself as he had been invited to do , he asked place. e to take his But immediate y after I finished my talk , he got up and devoted a whole hour to wo remarks I made . In one I in- dicated that the reality discussed in philosophy ahd the gods taught in the religions are things we do not have definite knowledge o , while human feelings are the most real; hence , human relations need to be greatly emphasized. In the other �48 I asserted that while it might be perfectly le g itimate to emphasize in our work the Confucian teachings of filial piety and brotherly respect, the best policy in personality education is not to limit ourselves to one school of thought but to acquaint the students with different systems of phi los ophy , so the y have a .chance to · form their own · judgmeDt. The first r1amark express ed my reaction t o the tendency on the pa rt of some of M Liang ' s followers to indulge i n mer. taphysica l spe culations and the second , to the unthinking ways in which t he authorities of this schoo l tended to extoll Confucius and his teachings To practi ce what I preach- ed , I introduced to my stu ents some of the best Chr i stian l iterature , namely, the Prophets from the Old Testament the records of the life and teachings of Jesus i n the Tes tament. and ew This was probably the first and the last time when Christian literature was taught in a Ch ine s e goverment school. ile this program of pers onality education had its shortcomings, such as the l a ck of facilitie s for the teaching of science and for the care of the students ' health , I thoroughly enjoyed my part in it. I not only had the oppor - tunity to further experiment with my own methods of helpin student s but also gained some new a.ppreciation of the philos ophical significance of our nove Unfortunately , y ~ ay educationa of 1925 I had to a ventur e. eave my new �49 group of friends and students because of a tropical disease I contracted in Shantung, known as Kala-Azar . Its main symptoms are irregular fever and prolonged anemia. In a short time it turned my ro ust physique into a mere skeleton . It baffled the best-trained physicians, because neither its d · a gnosis nor its remedy was generally known in China at that time. an En As luck would have it, I unexpectedly ran into i s h doctor who had treated this disease among Chinese la orers in France during W orld W I. ar His skill and ex- perience together with the patient care given cie by my folks and friends made t possible for me to recover my strength by the beginning of 1927, when a new and intereting field was open to e. �50 'J Chapter 7 My Initiation into the Social Sciences M initiation into the social sciences began with my y work in the National Anti-Opium Association in Shanghai as a research secretary, which lasted from the spring of 1927 to the autwnn of 1929 when circumstances to be related brought me to this country. I was char ge d wi h the g i gantic task of investigating the extent of opium smoking in the country at this time and the editing of an English bu let "n• entit ed Q£_ium: an International Pr oblem. The atter was a medium of communication with foreign governments which were involved in the influx of narcotic drugs into China. Since I was supposed to have the needed information about the opium problem , I was also asked to recommend measures for the suppression of opium to the National Government at Nanking and s ome provin1cial governments. These responsible tasks qu ickly forced me to think about the methods of investigation to be used and their validity. The method bein used was to send out questiona ires to mem- ers and friends of the Association and to compile our reports out of their replies. As these replies were never s - tisfactory, the reports had only a very limited value first I tried to im ~ rove the questionaire and to tap source s of information not hitherto unti ized.. tria nt But after c onsiderable and error, I came to the conclusion that in orde r to �51 eradicate the opium problem , government pr ohibition a l one was not sufficient; we got to have a more adequate understanding of the causes or socio-psychological conditions under which the habit of opium smoking ' is formed. upon Thereupon I hit he idea· of collecting life histories of opium smokers. Not having had adequate training in the matte r, what I did was to devise an elaborate sche dule or questionaire on the life of an opiu addict, asking questions about the con i- tions under which he first began the habit an for hi s failure to give it up, etc. the reasons I had thousands of copies of thi s questionaire printed and distr ' buted to mem ers of the J\ ssocia1ti on and even to wardens of the opium offenders, thinking that they might share our enthusiasm and be wi ling to intervie1w the opium smokers and send us their re por s. Unfortunate1ly , I could not wait to see the resu ts of this study , for soon after this . project was launched , I had to leave for this country. I should add that some of the insights I ained into the compexi.ty of the opium problem came from some interesting field studies. One was a suriiey of opium cultivation in 1 n- hui Province. Here I was amazed to discover that a l though the Nationalist Government was apparently sincere in its desire to suppress opium , it also depended on taxes from s ome opium farms. r~~~ This was· quite an eye - opener to a young �52 naive reformer. J\nother was a study of morphine addiction in Manchuria or the Three Northeastern Provinces. This was the first time I had a close look at the narcotic drug users there and realized the alarming extent to which the Japanese drug dealers had pushed their trade in that part of the country. The report of this study was written in Chicago and has been published by the National Anti - Opium J\ss ociation, entitled . The Opium Condition in M8nchuria. Still ano ther field experience was my brief association with the Opium Suppression Committee of the Nationalist Government at Nankin as the head of its research department. The Committee was established m inly at the urgin~ of our ssociation and organized on the basis of the recommendations my colleagues and I had ~ e. Bu t when I appeared on the scene, I found that things were not run in the w y we had nticipated. For three lon~ months I had the sad ex- perience of employing people I did not want and did not even see - J number of them were hired by the chairman of the Committee and assigned duties in his home. - and trying to put across research projects which my superior did not understand or care! Nepotism and ignorance were simply rampant , and the whole atmosphere was such a strain on my health that I was constraine d to resign and return to my former job at the National J\nti-Opium J\ ssocia ti on. Luck w;:is good to me again, when I was recuperating �53 from one of these field trips in the spring of 1929. I was leisurely reading an old newspapaer . when I came across a notice put out by the Fukien Provincial Government , announcing the date for the competitive examination for college graduates who have had three years ' s work experience. Those who pass it would receive a fellowship for gradu te study abroad. I immediately started to prepare for the exa- mination, and I was one of the lucky two who passed i • This was why I was able to come to this country in the fall of 1929. M initiation into the social science fraternity came y to its final stage at the University of Chica o , although my government fellowship required me to study educati on. How I shifted from education to sociology is a story too long to go :into here , except to say that the courses I was advised to take in the School of Education did not satisfy my strong interest in personality . So I dropped them and selected , instead , one course that seemed to have something to do with :personality. I found only later that this course was offered by the Department of Sociology for its Ph.D . candidates. fts I lacked the prerequisites, I would not have been able to stay in that class long , had I not had the fol lowing fortunate encounter. I can still recall vividly that when the class met for the first time , the white-haired professor gave each of us �54 a list of questions on the concepts he had be en teaching for some years and asked us to give him our written answers the next t~me we meet . As I had not heard or r ead anything about these concepts , I turn ed in a b l ank paper. Just as I was about to withdraw from the c ass , the profe ssor one day gave each of us a .mimeo raphe d c opy of the l i fe history of a delinquent gi rl and asked us to analyze the case by means of he concepts he had taught. Although I was still not fa - miliar with those concepts , I was intri ued by the girl ' s life history. pret i I spent many hours on it and tried to inter- by me ns of whatever concepts that came to me n aturally. I hande in the paper with trepidationw But a few days later , when the professor returned our papers , he said that of a 1 the students in the c ass only one an yzed the case correctly , and that one was me ! Ever since then , - it seemed everytime I met the profes so·r on the eampus , he would ask me if I was M Dai , and r. when I said yes , he would say , "Your mind is anal ticaL" In fact , he said this so many times that I was led to believe that I did have an analytical mind and that sociology was my fie ld . The professor ' s name is Robert E. Park. Even in the field of sociology , my interest in personality continued , and my M.J\ . thesis is on glassolalia or speak ing with tongue sw The study was an attempt to apply the socio - pe;ycholo ical approach to a relig ious phenomenon , �55 taking into full account all the personal , cultural and situational fact'Ors inv olved in its genesis Now I am considerating seriously the possibility of having a second look at the problem of opium addiction when I become sufficiently familiar with the sociological and the psychological methods needed for its investi gation. I am also intensely interested in the history of science, especially the socio-psycho o ical conditions under which science developed in the W est. This may also be called a study of the social ps ychology of scientific discovery. W ith a work ing know edge of this sort , I believe I shall be able to introduce science to China in a more natural and more effective way than has be~n attempted so far . The kinds of research just mentioned are my main interests at the resent time and probably wi l l remain so · when I return to China. If I should fail to find an op- portunity to satisfy my research interests, I would look for a position , which will permit me to continue to study the personality prob ems of young people and to help them to grow to be healthy nd useful citizens not only of their own country but of the world as well. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "Thirty Years of My Life," an autobiography by Bingham Dai and Selected Items from the Bingham Dai Papers Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Number of pages 57 Format, digital PDF Format, original Document Scanned by Bailey Williams Resolution 300 Scan date 2014-02-02 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "Thirty Years of My Life," an autobiography by Dr. Bingham Dai Description An account of the resource <p>"Thirty Years of My Life," an autobiography, was written by Bingham Dai as a requirement for attending the Seminar on the Impact of Culture Upon Personality held at Yale University in 1932-1933. Bingham Dai was born August 26, 1899 in a farming community located in Gutian, Fukian Province, China. When he was three years old, his family converted to the Christian faith, resulting in his attending Christian schools that offered courses in Christian concepts, English, Confucian Classics and basic education. He then enrolled in college and transferred to St. John's University in Shanghai with the intention of pursuing theological studies leading to a B.A. degree. During this time, he independently studied Hinduism and Buddhism, along with his lifelong association with Confucianism.</p> <p>After his graduation from St. John's University in 1923, he accepted a teaching position at a high school in Tientsin where he organized student self-study groups. He then worked with renowned Confucian philosopher, Liang Shuming, at a high school in Shantung Province to help students develop their personalities according to Confucian principles. His initiation into the social sciences began with his work at the National Anti-Opium Association in Shanghai as a research secretary from 1927-1929. His job was to investigate the extent of opium smoking in China and to edit an English Bulletin entitled: Opium: An International Problem. He devised a questionnaire on socio-psychological factors related to opium addiction. He also conducted field studies of opium cultivation in Anhui Province and morphine addiction in Manchuria. In 1929, Dai took a competitive examination sponsored by the Fukian Provincial Government for college graduates with 3 years of work experience and won a fellowship for graduate study at the University of Chicago where he studied sociology in order to pursue his strong interest in personality. He hoped to introduce science to China, particularly the socio-psychological conditions under which science developed in the West, in a more natural and effective way than previously attempted.</p> <p>For information about the Bingham Dai collection, please see the <a href="http://www.collections.library.appstate.edu/findingaids/rb8007">Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers</a></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/0cd0eb9059eaaa04b18311f5518444ea.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>View Dr. Dai's autobiography</strong></a></p> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/174" target="_blank">Guide to the Bingham Dai Papers, 1899 - 2006, undated (bulk 1950 - 1996)</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1932 Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 8007_bx40_fd01_ThirtyYearsOfMyLife_M Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Gutian, Fujian Province, China Spruce Pine, North Carolina Durham, North Carolina