“The Orient in American transcendentalism : a study of Emerson, Thoreau, and Alcott” (Publication, 1932)
Year
1932
Text
Christy, Arthur. The Orient in American transcendentalism : a study of Emerson, Thoreau, and Alcott. (New York, N.Y. : Columbia University Press, 1932). (THD16)
Type
Publication
Mentioned People (3)
Alcott, Amos Bronson
(Wolcott, Conn. 1799-1888 Concord, Mass.) : Schriftsteller, Philosoph, Pädagoge
[Es gibt keine chinesischen Übersetzungen].
[Es gibt keine chinesischen Übersetzungen].
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
(Boston 1803-1882 Concord, Mass.) : Philosoph, Unitarier, Schriftsteller
Thoreau, Henry David
(Concord, Mass. 1817-1862 Concord, Mass.) : Schriftsteller, Philosoph, Dichter
Subjects
Literature : Occident : United States of America
/
References / Sources
Chronology Entries (5)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1822-1882 |
Ralph Waldo Emerson und China : Allgemein Quellen Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre. L'invariable milieu, ouvrage morale Tséu-ssê [ID D1943]. The Chinese classical work commonly called the Four books. Transl. by David Collie. [ID D22647]. Iu-kiao-li, ou, Les deux cousines : roman chinois. Trad by Abel-Rémusat. [ID D5232]. Davis, John Francis. The Chinese [ID D2017]. Gérando, Joseph-Marie de. Histoire comparée des systèmes de philosophie, considérés relativement aux principes des connaissances humaines. (Paris : A. Eymery, 1822-1823). [Confucius]. [ID D29658]. Huc, Evariste Régis. Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet et la Chine pendant les années 1844, 1845 et 1846 [ID D2107]. The She king or the book of poetry. Transl. by James Legge. Marshman, Joshua. The works of Confucius [ID D1909]. Marshman, Joshua. Dissertation on the characters and sounds of the Chinese language [ID D1908]. Oliphant, Laurence. Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's mission to China and Japan in the years 1857 [ID D2188]. Perry, M[atthew] C[albraith]. Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan, performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854 [ID D4578]. The Phenix : a collection of old and rare fragments [ID D29682]. Ansom Burlingame Senator Charles Sumner sent Emerson Senate documents on Chinese correspondence. Sekundärliteratur 1930 Frederic Ives Carpenter : Chinese literature and Buddhism were the only two Oriental systems which Emerson did not wholly welcome. Buddhism epitomized for him the quietism of the East, and its passiveness. Chinese literature epitomized its formalism, and its lack of the progressive element. 1932 Arthur Christy : The tie that bound Emerson to Confucius was their common belief in the goodness of man. When the responsibilities of manhood were on his shoulders and when he faced economic necessities, he found, after browsing among his books, that Confucius could speak to his condition. The simplest exposition of further influence from the reading of the Confucian books is the most significant instances in the essays in which Confucian thought is apparent. Confucius gave Emerson moral corroboration of his observations on men – not the universe. 1944 Chang Chi-yun : Emerson took the personality of Confucius as an example of human greatness. The great man was he who embodied in himself to the highest degree the virtue, the vital force of the universe. Emerson was one of the first American to take the trouble to acquaint himself with the thought and civilization of the East. His interest in Chinese literature remained constant ; and so, to a high degree, he qualified himself to be the announcer and the interpreter of this 'New era'. 1956 Donald M. Murray : One of the more exotic facts about 19th-century American culture is that transcendental New England imported intellectual cargoes from the Orient. Scholars have several times weighed and gauged this philosophical freight, and Emerson received and assimilated certain Confucian ideas. This interest continued over many years. There is a remarkable analogy between the structure of written Chinese and Emerson's theory of language and poetry. The ideographs, as explained in the books of his own time, offer an illuminating parallel with the theories expresses in Nature and The poet. Emerson's belief in the special efficacy of words conveying hard, sharp images of things ; his preference for words denoting the simple and even 'mean' objects of ordinary life ; and his interest in compressed, succinct language, like that of proverbs. (Eme9) Wong Kin-yuen : Emerson's first impression that Confucianism was absolute, that it was inimical to the system of Western thinking, was gradually substituted by a better understanding of its real nature and spirit. As to Emerson himself, the transition had been made. Having learned to probe from within himself for solution, he was apt to grant substance to what was happening in this world. Thus it was Confucius' practical ethics which places a value of goodness done in this world that attracted Emerson. His interest in the Confucian classics incessantly grew. He came to recognize that Confucianism also had its progressiveness, it was Confucianism that inherited and fully developed the humanistic tendency. He sees in Mencius a way to break down the barrier between human nature and the divine decree. 1985 Chang Yao-hsin : Confucianism proved to be part of the inexhaustible source of human wisdom from which Emerson never tired of drawing. Another reason for Emerson's interest in Confucius is to be sought in the nature of his philosophy. He did not recognize the Chinese sage at once. He knew at first little or nothing about China and Confucius. The three points which Confucius made accord well with what Emerson was to say all his life, namely, the divine nature of man, the possibility of achieving perfection by being true to one's nature, and the important role of the great man in the culture of men in general. These are the areas where Confucius exerted some influence on Emerson. 1992 Qian Mansu : Although Confucianism, with its practical orientation, was not Emerson's favorite, He read the Confucian Four Books in several editions and quoted from them for almost a hundred times in various speeches and writings. The part of Confucianism that he most willingly accepted was the attitude towards moral principles and self-cultivation. Emerson appreciated Confucius as an outstanding individual and rejected China as a nation. His criticism was quite representative of the prevalent Western image of China of the time : an ancient society caught in stagnation and self-complacency, unable to walk out of her own past. Emerson was most critical of China for her despotic system and her lack of individualism. Emerson's understanding of religion far outreached Christianity. Although he did not deny God, religion to him has nothing to do with a personified God – God of tradition or God of rhetoric, nor anything to do with church, or doctrines and rituals. His interest in Asia covers many fields, including the Indian Vedas, Hinduism, Menu, Zoroaster, Persian poetry, and Confucianism. For a long time, Emerson had no direct knowledge of Oriental philosophy. His idea of the Orient came mainly from impression and intuition. But with the maturity of his own philosophy, his prejudice relaxed and his vision broadened. Interest in the East was part of his search for new sources of ideas in order to draw inspiration and arguments to reinforce his newly-built system. A long time Confucius was the only Chinese philosopher Emerson was familiar with. Later Mencius became known to him. But Laozi and Zhuangzi were never mentioned by him. Self-reliance is Emerson's most important teaching. He found in Mencius a fellow exponent of the principle. 2003 Chen, Li-jen : For Emerson, Confucius was the greatest thinker in Chinese history. Emerson clearly showed his respect and admiration for Confucius. He quoted the Sayings of Confucius and Mencius as illustrations of his ideas. He copied a passage from the Chinese Classics explaining well the action of Confucius into his Journals. |
|
| 2 | 1831-1851 |
Alcott, Amos Bronson. Journal. 1831-1851 1831 Alcott read the first time about Orientalism in the libraries of Philadelphia. Jan. 25, 1849 After Alcott had met Emerson and Thoreau, he had become a lover of the Orientals. 1849 Alcott was reading and collecting material for the course. He consulted Ten great religions by James Freeman Clarke. March 1849 Alcott planned a series of public conversations on the teachings of the Oriental sages. March 17, 1849 Sunday readings and conversations. Mr. A. Bronson Alcott will give the first of several Readings from the Sacred books of mankind, with interpretations and original teachings. March 24, 1849 Oriental readings : list of authors to be sought at the Athenaeum. Collier's four books of Confucius, History of China (by the Jesuit), The kings of Confucius, The Vedas, The Saama Vedas, Vishnu Parana, Saadi, Firdusi, The Zendavesta, The Koran. Aug. 1849 Mankind library : the Sacred Scriptures, with mythological and biographical elucidation, first collected and edited : being the lives, works and times of Moses, Confucius, Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Christ, Mahomet, Behmen, Swedenborg. Mythology : Hebrew and Egyptian, Oriental and Indian, Greek and Roman, Christian and Cosmic. 11 Febr. 1851 I brought from the Athenaeum, this afternoon, for my Readings, Marshman's Confucius, containing the life of Confucius and translation of the Lun Gnee or Dialogues, being the third of the Four classical books of the Chinese. Also from Burnham's The phoenix a collection of ancient fragments, The morals of Confucius, The oracles of Zoroaster etc. 24 Febr. 1851 Admission cards Athenaeum : Admit to Mr. Alcott's conversations on the poets and philosophers. I. Hermes Trismegistus ; II. Zoroaster ; III. Confucius ; IV. Saadi ; V. Aeschylus ; VI. Pythagoras ; VII. Socrates ; VIII. Plato ; IX. Jesus Christ ; X. Dante ; XI. Behmen ; XII. Shakespeare ; XIII. Milton ; XIV. Swedenborg ; XV. Goethe. The readings will be held on Monday evenings, No 7, Montgomery Place, and will commence Feb. 24, at 71/2 o'clock. Boston, February, 1851. |
|
| 3 | 1838.1-2012 |
Henry David Thoreau und China : allgemein Quellen : Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre. L'invariable milieu, ouvrage morale Tséu-ssê, en chinois et en manchou [ID D1943]. Huc, Evariste Régis. Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet et la Chine pendant les années 1844, 1845 et 1846 [ID D2107]. Iu-kiao-li, ou, Les deux cousines : roman chinois. Trad by Abel-Rémusat. [ID D5232]. The Chinese classical work commonly called the Four books. Transl. by David Collie. [ID D22647]. Marshman, Joshua. The works of Confucius [ID D1909]. Pauthier, [Jean-Pierre] Guillaume. Les livres sacrés de l'Orient [ID D2040]. Les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique de la Chine. Trad. du Chinois par G. Pauthier. [ID D2116]. Pfeiffer, Ida. A lday's voyage round the world [ID D2109]. Lao-tseu. Le Tao-te-king. Trad. par G. Pauthier. [Eventuelle Quelle]. Sekundärliteratur 1932 Arthur Christy : Thoreau read the Confucian books, probably just as much as Ralph Waldo Emerson, but he used them in his own way. His individuality and the eccentricity which baffled the practical Concord villagers was probably never illustrated to better advantage than in the selections from the Chinese books which he chose to quote. Thoreau seems never to have divorced his interest in nature from his reading of any scripture. His Confucian reading, considered alone, emphatically suggests this. He never tried to read mystical divinity into the Chinese ; he quoted them in connection with flora and fauna. 1972 Ch'en David T.Y. : To the student of Thoreau who is familiar with Chinese culture, Walden is similar to a traditional Chinese government, Confucian in form and Taoist in spirit, for the book is full of quotations from the Confucian books, while its ideas are essentially Taoist. 1984 Yao-hsin Chang : It was intensified by Thoreau's reading of Greek and European authors and the Hindoo philosophy, which exerted a good deal of influence on his thinking. What Confucius and Confucian classics had to capture his interest relates also chiefly to the perfection of men through self-development. Thoreau was of the opinion that the culture of the mind conduces to the happiness of the individual. He believed that all reform must come from within, and that when each individual referms himself, then the reformation of society will automatically follow. This essentially transcendental stance touched the quintessential Confucianism tangentially. 1988 Chen Chang-fang : For Thoreau, the Confucian canon, though gilded by the patina of antiquity, still preserves immutable wisdom, a wisdom that captivated him all his life. In addition, Thoreau seems to imply that he is attracted by the practical way of morality as subtly inculcated in the Confucian teachings. 2004 Cheng Aimin : Thoreau's contact with nature fascinates present-day urban reader in China as it does in the West. Many Chinese critics expressed their ideas about Thoreau's contact with nature and life at Walden. Since the 1990s Chinese scholars and critics begun to study Thoreau's ecological ideas. The Chinese concept of nature in Walden lead the Chinese to reevaluate his contribution to an American philosophy of nature. 2009 Ma Junhong : Henry David Thoreau, who was ignored and dismissed by his contemporaries, now has become a global figure as the saint and pioneer of environmental protection. Thoreau inquired into the rationality of science and technology, recognized the exploitation of life under the guidance of rationality and objected to the material culture in which people's lives were eroded and degraded. He tried to find an ideal solution to the crises of natural ecology and spiritual ecology of human beings. China could derive some enlightenment from Thoreau's life philosophy. First, it stimulates us to rediscover and reinterpret the Chinese classics, which have been ignored I the past 100 years, and to find our own eco-wisdom. Second, it forces us to reflect on the development of China's modernization. In Thoreau's opinion, a true life should be full of vivacity, growth and vitality. It involves perception of life, natural growth of the organism and active creation of living things and everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. Nature's exuberancy aroused Thoreau's life consciousness. Therefore, he sought to gain it through life experience in nature. He not only showed his love and concern for nature, but also showed his great solicitude for the human being. China has also encountered the problem in the process of its modernization. Thoreau's ideas could give China some insight from the perspective of culture and reflection on modernization. Thoreau's critiques on industrial civilization can still provide warning to China's modernization. It seems that the conflict he predicted between man and nature brought about by industrial civilization is impossible to avoid. China has focused its development strategy on economic construction and taken the conflict between growing material and cultural needs and backward social production as the principal contradiction since 1978. Therefore, it is the aim for China to develop the productive forces vigorously and promote the Chinese modernization as rapidly as possible. Development is no doubt the central theme of China. China has begun to recognize the ecological problems and is trying to develop in an all-round, coordinated and sustainable manner. Thoreau's cosmological beliefs of life embodied in his work remind us of the eco-wisdom in ancient Chinese philosophy. He took nature as man and liked to have dialogues with nature without any prejudice. While Thoreau who was enlightened by the ancient Chinese philosophy had a great influence on American nature writing, his ideas about nature have rich ecological meaning and have become the symbol of non-anthropocentric environment ethics now. His representative book Walden has become a classic, which continues to influence more and more people to devote themselves to environmental protection. Many scholars begin to make systematic studies on the ancient Chinese ecological thought, rediscovering and reinterpreting the ecological ideas of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. 2009 Yang Jincai : There are three different stages as regards the Chinese projections of Thoreau. The first stage from the 1920s to 1949 marks China's burgeoning interest in the American writer featured by a passion for Western literature as both cultural and intellectual nourishment. The second is mainly a period of ideological appraisals from 1949 to 1977 in which Thoreau is regarded as a champion of democracy and a critic of American capitalist civilization. The third one is known as the multiple approach period from 1978 onwards in which Thoreau studies has flourished and continues to grow in China. Focused discussions have revealed the following: (1) comparative approaches have been made into the Chinese elements in the formation of Thoreau's notion of civilization and views of Nature; (2) critical attention has been drawn on Thoreau's political thought and ecological awareness, rendering a multitude of interpretations both textually and theoretically; and (3) further discussions focus primarily on Thoreau's personal conduct raising a question of how to appraise Thoreau's withdrawal from society and giving rise to an ambiguous identity of Thoreau. |
|
| 4 | 1838.2 |
Thoreau, Henry David. Journal ; Aug. 22 (1838). How thrilling a noble sentiment in the oldest books, - in Homer, the Zendavesta, or Confucius ! It is a strain of music waited down to us on the breeze of time, though the aisles of innumerable ages. By its very nobleness it is made near and audible to us. |
|
| 5 | 1838-1882 |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and China : general Quellen, Bücher seiner Bibliothek. Alger, William Rounseville. The poetry of the East [ID D30086]. Breton, Jean Baptiste Joseph. La Chine en miniature [ID D9692]. Corner, Julia. China pictorial, descriptive, and historical [ID D30087]. Julien, Stanislas. Hoei-lan-ki [ID D4646] Nieuhoff, John. An embassy from the East-India Company of the United provinces to the Grand Tartar Cham emperor of China [ID D1738]. Taylor, Bayard. A visit to India, China, and Japan, in the year 1853 [ID D5664]. Tiffany, Osmond. The Canton Chinese, or, The Americans sojourn in the celestial empire [ID D30088]. |
|
Cited by (2)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Universitäts-Bibliothek Basel | Publication / UBB |
|
|
| 2 | Zentralbibliothek Zürich | Organisation / ZB |
|