The Comparative Study Between Transcendentalism Of Emerson And Thoreau And The Thought Of Confucianism And Taoism

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are the representatives of the AmericanTranscendentalism movement, who leaded the Transcendentalism Movement. TheTranscendentalism Movement deeply influenced the process of American culture，history andthe spreading of individualism in America. It is worth mentioning that the Eastern classicsexerted great influence on Emerson and Thoreau as they had ever read some of them directly,they cited some of the sentences including Veda and the Four Books in their publishedmagazine Dial. The Eastern classics directly affected on the ideology of Emerson andThoreau’s Transcendentalism.Due to the different cultural backgrounds between the West and the East, Emerson andThoreau may be certain to hold some misunderstandings and distortion when they read themby translation. To discuss in what cultural context did Emerson and Thoreau accepted theConfucian culture is the main point of this thesis. On the other side, the Transcendentalismthought of Emerson and Thoreau has a lot in common with the Taoist thought. From theperspective of comparative literature, this thesis is going to make an explanation of thecultural misreading based on the theories of New Criticism and Structuralism, aiming atdemonstrating Emerson and Thoreau’s acceptance of the Confucian culture, to explore thepossibility of the communication between the Eastern culture and Western culture.In summary，we could draw such conclusion to this thesis, by comparing Emerson andThoreau’s acceptance of the Confucian culture and the thought between transcendentalism andTaoism, we should start from the aspects of the liberation of individuals in social groups,individual spiritual freedom, religious experience and ecological view of nature, to providesolid foundations for the commons and differences between the transcendentalism of Emersonand Thoreau and the thought of Confucianism and Taoism, to discuss about the possibility ofthe cultural talks between the West and the East.