The Confucian And Taoist Elements In Emerson's Transcendentalism

Ralph Waldo Emerson is a famous writer,a foremost thinker and a transcendentalist leader in American history.His transcendentalism has made a difference to American culture and literature and been widely studied both in America and some European countries,but the research on Chinese elements in his thought still remains unproductive.Out of personal interest in traditional Chinese philosophy and transcendentalism,the author read extensively Chinese classics and Emerson' s essays.During the reading,the author stumbled across the Confucian and the Taoist elements in Emerson' s essays and then decided to adopt it as a scholarly topic.From the perspective of comparative literature,under the theoretical direction of reception,with the method of influence study,analogy study and variation study,this thesis intends to amplify the reception of Confucianism and Taoism by Emerson' s transcendentalism,arguing that there are some universal values in two different cultural molds,and expects to explore alternatives in cross-cultural studies about Emerson.Under the theme of “The Confucian and Taoist elements in Emerson' s transcendentalism,” this thesis spreads it out in two levels.Firstly,it probes Emerson and his transcendentalism,Emerson' s encounter with Confucianism,and his explicit reception of Confucian thinking in these three aspects: the unity of man and nature,knowledge and practice,as well as scenery and feeling,pointing out that Emerson accept Confucianism for function.Secondly,this thesis explores the harmony in diversity of Chinese traditional philosophy and the implicit coincidence of Emerson' s transcendentalism with Taoism by comparing several concepts as “Over-soul and Tao” “intuition and meditation” “nature and all things” “spontaneity and wu-wei” as well as the paradox and negation in their works,indicating that Emerson accepted Taoism for the essence.