Li Chunsheng (李春生, born January 12, 1838, died September 7, 1924) was a businessman in Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty. He was called Mr. Lujiang (鷺江先生). He is from Xiamen, Fujian Province. He was good at managing and had excellent business skills. He had great influence in Taiwan in his time. [1]
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Li Chunsheng was born in Xiamen, Fujian Province in January 12, 1838. His father was a boatman. Because of his poor family, he only studied at a private school for a short time, and then dropped out to be a vendor for subsiding household purpose. In 1852, he became a Christian followed by his father, and started to study English and business. In 1857, he was employed as a manager in the Yiji Foreign Company (怡記洋行), which is engaged in trading foreign goods and Chinese tea owned by English businessmen in Xiamen. In 1867, Li transferred to the Baoshun Foreign Company (寶順洋行) also owned by English, helping John Dodd who was the owner of Baoshun Foreign Company to develop the tea industry in north part of Taiwan. Because of his excellent managing skills, tea became the most important export item in that area. After that, Li transferred to Heji Foreign Company (和記洋行) as a manager，meanwhile, he produced tea for export and also managed kerosene that belongs to Sanda Petroleum Company （三達石油公司）. He earned amount of money, thus he became a very wealthy person.
Li Chunsheng was not only a great businessman, but also a man of public spirit. The government relied on him heavily.[2] In 1878, he donated money enthusiastically, and also took part in supervising to build Taipei City. In 1880, he was nominated as a fifth class official-Tongzhi (同知), which was recommended by Taiwan governor-Ding Richang(丁日昌). He was rewarded to wear peacock plume as well. In the early period time of Japanese Rule, he built Protecting the Good Department (保良局) ，Business Labor Union (士商工會) with other local businessmen. Recognizing his service, government nominated him as sixth class Xuxun (六等敘勳), also rewarded him a Silver Rays Order of the Rising Sun (單光旭日章). In 1902, he became Taipei County counselor. In 1922, he was counselor of Taiwan Editorial committee of historical materials. In 1923, he accompanied the Japanese prince traveling Taiwan. In October 5, 1924, Li died at the age of 88.
From 1874 to 1894, Li Chunsheng wrote more than one million words, he had published A New Compilation of God's (主津新集) ，After Evolution and Ethics (天演論書後) ， The Philosophy of East and West and the sequel (東西哲衡及續集) ， Research on Five Virtues in Religion View (宗教五德備考), The explanation of Bible (聖經闡要講義) and so on. These books contained current affairs, feudal ethical code and folkways, Christian dogmata, and the reviews of the east and the west scholars’ ideas, etc. During the Japanese colonial period, he criticized the evil of the western aggressor and the corruption of Chinese government based on some powerful ideas of Christian belief. And he also participated in religion things actively. In 1901, he was nominated as the Presbyter of Dadaocheng presbyterian Church (大稻埕長老教會) and Daqiao Church （大橋教會）.In his time, he was appraised as well-versed in the learning of both ancient and modern times, knowledgeable in China and foreign countries.[3]
Besides of the books about religion and thought he wrote, Li also contributed to the literature area. His most important literature work is Essays about sixty-four days’ journey to the east (東遊六十四日隨筆). In February, 1896, Li accompanied with the first Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan, Kabayama Sukenori (樺山資紀) to come back to Japan, and also sent his six grandsons to Japan for study during this journey. After he came back to Taiwan in April 26, 1896, he wrote down what he saw and heard in Japan. And it was published on the newspaper, also published by Fuzhou Meihua Bookstore (福州美華書局). In this book, Li used simple classical Chinese to describe Japanese natural and human landscape, and he also expressed his admiration of Japanese idea of modernization, education, religion and lifestyles. In the forward part of main body, he used AD and Guangxu year to record time, but he used Meiji to record time in the preface of this book. This can illustrate the regime changes in Taiwan in that period. Even though he appraised Japanese modernization, he still thought Japan was an aggressor. His mental state of cultural conflicts, struggling and changes reflected in his book specifically and delicately. From his drawing materials and discussion, we can learn how Li feel about Japan, and then analyze his thinking changes before and after this Japanese journey. Also, knowing that his strong faith in Christianism and his perspectives of Taiwan in new regime.
Huang, Meie. Encyclopedia of Taiwan. [Online] Available at: <http://taiwanpedia.culture.tw/web/content?ID=6171&Keyword=%E6%9D%8E%E6%98%A5%E7%94%9F> [Accessed 25 September 2011]