The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village, 1857-1942 (review)

In "The True Story of Ah Q," Lu Xun's protagonist shouted "Rebellion! Rebellion!" in a South China village, and experienced the Revolution in his own particular way. In a North China village Liu Dapeng recorded in his diary another true story of modern Chinese history. Through an examination of Liu's life and thought, Henrietta Harrison shows "how social structures and ideologies interacted in practice" and how such interactions were reflected in the details of everyday life in a Shanxi village. Born in 1857, Liu Dapeng was brought up in a farmer-merchant family and, following the Confucian tradition, trained for the civil service examination. Starting his diary in 1891, Liu recorded the changes and continuities in his life, family, village, and country in an era replete with momentous events and ideas. In The Man Awakened from Dreams, Harrison analyzes Liu's writings, and in particular his diary, while exploring the intersections where old and new norms encountered each other in the intellectual, moral, political, and economic spheres during the transitional period from the late Qing to the early Republic of China. This book will be a welcome tool for courses on modern China and a thought-provoking source for researchers interested in the last generation of nonelite Confucian scholars, or in the local history of areas outside the major urban centers during the transition from the Qing to the Republic.

The book covers several large topics in modern China studies, such as Confucianism in modern China, family structure, village organization, commerce, and industrialization in the rural areas. Studying these large topics through an investigation of one man and his village, Harrison integrates her analysis of changes in elite structures and their consequences for rural life. This approach has allowed the creation of an impressive picture of how an individual and a community interacted with each other in the specific setting of Shanxi.

Harrison starts the book with a brief "fieldwork" narrative that depicts the setting, where she visited Liu's children and where Liu Dapeng once lived. Harrison positions herself as a historian in the field who lets her voice be heard throughout the book and who challenges the conventional assumption that historians should maintain "neutrality" and "objectivity" regarding their research subject. Whether or not the author brings sufficient ethnographic perspective to this study, the beginning "fieldwork" narrative coordinates well with the author's emphasis on experiential history in her explanation of her methodology.

Following the preface is a brief discussion of the connection between Liu Dapeng's writing and his perception and practice of Confucian ideas, as well as the connection between Liu's life and Harrison's study of modern China. Here Harrison poses several thought-provoking questions concerning the psychological and historical function of diary writing. For example, though publication was Liu's initial motivation for his keeping a diary, writing became a comfort for him and a way to reflect on "times of trouble or anxiety" (p. 12). Perhaps because this book was intended for a limited audience, Harrison does not explore these questions further. On the one hand, the lack of a more in-depth examination of the questions that arise gives the reader more space for critical thinking and stimulates an interest in further research on the topics presented. On the other hand, it invites criticism of the limitations of using a personal diary in historical research.

Nevertheless, Harrison offers a well-balanced use and analysis of Liu's personal writings in this book. She uses other writings by him, such as the local gazette for Jinci, for the purposes of cross-reference. For the sake of her targeted audience, she also provides a clear, though not sophisticated, explanation of the various limitations in using a diary for historical research, such as personal bias and performance identity. The...