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内容摘要

庄子是中国古代的哲学家，思想家及文学家。他与老子，通常并称为老庄，一起创立了的思想流派—道家，成为中国有影响力的两大思想之一。爱默生是现代美国哲学家。与志同道合的友人一起创立了超验主义。要了解美国及美国人民，了解爱默生和他的哲学思想是非常重要的。

新的时代呼唤新思想的出现。十九世纪的美国发展日新月异。其人口、地域的增长、延伸反映出美国社会及经济的变化。对于美国而言，这是一个迅速扩张的时代。自由企业、市场经济和民主成为这个时代的标志。人们在社会经济生活中享有更多自由的同时，也要求宗教信仰上有更多的自由。因此，适应时代的需要，加尔文将基督教改革为加尔文教。之后，钱宁创立神教。进入十九世纪，人们对僵化空洞的加尔文教和冰冷的神教越来越不满。在这种形势下，拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生，一位虔诚的波士顿传教士，成为这个时代的旗手。

在爱默生寻求新思想启迪的过程中，他对几位东方哲人也进行了研究，包括中国的孔子。可他对庄子及道家思想却好象一无所知。然而，尽管两位哲人之间存在着巨大的时间、空间上的距离，可是，正如一些专家所指出的那样，爱默生的超验主义思想与庄子的道家思想却有神似之处。基于对两种哲学思想六个方面的具体比较，本论文试图说明这两个看似如此迥异的思想是如何表现出神似的。这六个具体方面可以分为三个部分：庄子与爱默生的人物及人物塑造；两者对物品的不同态度；以及他们对“作为”的不同主张。概言之，这两种哲学思想表面上的差异实际上蕴涵着相似的精神追求。

关键词：庄子；爱默生；哲学思想；对比

Abstract

Zhuang Zi together with Lao Zi established a unique school of thought – Taoism, which has been one of the two most influential ideological forces in China. Emerson together with his friends started Transcendentalism, which is a key to understand the American culture. The thesis aims to illustrate how the two seemingly so different philosophies actually resemble each other in spirit.
The paper is divided into eight parts. The first part briefly introduces the two philosophers, points out the links between their thoughts and states my argument of this thesis.
The second part focuses on their respective ideal character – Zhuang Zi’s “perfect man” and Emerson’s “genuine man”: both emphasizing the importance of the spiritual life and keeping to man’s inborn nature.

The third part is devoted to the images of baby and child – the innate epitomes of the right state of mind. To Zhuang Zi, they represent purity, simplicity, ignorance, and freedom; to Emerson, they, as the lover of nature, mean nonconformity, innocence, independence.

Zhuang Zi’s “non-action” and Emerson’s “action” is the focus of the sixth part. Emerson believes that action is essential if the real life is to be changed. To Zhuang Zi, to preserve life, non-action is necessary, and therefore the real life will be left alone.

The seventh part concentrates on Zhuang Zi’s “asking from yourself” and Emerson’s “self-reliance”. To both of them, spiritual freedom is the first concern, and to achieve it, the only one who can help is he himself.

The eighth and last part functions as the conclusion of the thesis, stating the four similarities and two differences. Briefly, such differences in appearance actually contain the alikeness in spirit.

Key Words: Zhuang Zi; Emerson; philosophical ideas; comparison

A Comparative Study of the Thoughts of Zhuang Zi and Emerson

I. General Background

A. Introduction of Zhuang Zi and Emerson

1. The Background Information on Zhuang Zi

To be peaceful is to be a sage; to be active is to be a king. To take no action is to be respected; to be simple and pure is to be the perfection of excellence in the world (汪 240) .
Confucianism and Taoism are the two most influential ideological forces in the formation and development of the Chinese culture. They have been exerting an imperceptible influence on Chinese people’s way of behaving, way of thinking, and way of living. They are the sculptors who have carved China and her people into what they are. To understand the Chinese national spirit and national character, Confucianism and Taoism are undoubtedly the central part.

Taoism not only greatly influenced the then social life, but also influenced the then scholars’ daily life and social values. Taoist theory influenced numerous later writers, inspired several types of writing, and accelerated the formation and gradual perfection of literary theory despite the fact that Taoism mainly serves the political and ethical purposes (张松辉 27-41). In the developmental perspective, the philosophy of Zhuang Zi has its historical origins. One is the enlightenment of the culture from Central Plains. Zhuang Zi’s relative thinking rich in dialectics dates back to Shi Mo and his emphasis on individuals finds resonance in the theories of the schools of Confucius and Mo Zi. Zhuang Zi also benefits from the culture of state Chu, especially the people’s spirits of keeping forging ahead and creating, and their belief in individuality and freedom (李 41-49). Meanwhile, Confucianism serves as the ideological background of Zhuang Zi’s Taoism and the two philosophies are closely related (崔 350).

A remarkable philosopher, Zhuang Zi is also a marvelous writer, and his work – the book Zhuang Zi has won him universal praise. His literary achievements are mainly embodied in four aspects: romantic artistic expressions; realistic descriptions; numerous fables (over 100 fables of all kinds) and original language – according to statistics, 118 monosyllabic words, 169 bisyllabic words and 197 idioms were endowed with specific meanings of his own and used in his writing. Zhuang Zi’s prose has been the classic for scholars down from the Han Dynasty to learn and imitate. Zhuang Zi with his thinking and writing has been an indispensable and significant part of the Chinese culture (汪 39-45).
The book Zhuang Zi consists of 33 chapters. They are usually divided into three sections: “Inner Chapters” (7), “Outer Chapters” (15), and “Miscellaneous Chapters” (11). Containing the profound, grand and broad thought, and using original language with lively and unique fables, the book Zhuang Zi developed the thought of Lao Zi, accelerated the wider spread of Lao Zi’s philosophy, and exerted great influence on Lu’s History of China, Huai-nan-zi, especially the philosophical sects in the Wei and Jin Dynasties (胡 153).

2. The Background Information on Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on 25 May 1803 and died on 30 April 1882. Emerson spent most of his early years in school and in the company of his four brothers. However, generally speaking, his school years were not successful. When it came into the 1830s, Emerson’s personal and professional life were taking off despite of several successive blows – Ellen’s death, his brother Edward’s illness, and the probably most decisive one that he resigned his pastorate on 22 December, 1832 when he found himself at odds with his congregation over the meaning of the Lord’s Supper.
Just prior to the publication of Nature, Emerson joint a number of like-minded thinkers and writers to form the Transcendental Club, which only lasted from 1836 to 1840. Its most lasting effects on Transcendentalism in America were that it lent cohesiveness to the movement’s main principle that God was immanent in all creatures. The Dialwas the movement’s unofficial journal, with Fuller as its editor from 1840 to 1842, and Emerson from 1842 to 1844 (Bosco 9-56).

B. Links between Zhuang Zi and Emerson

The Platonic and Neo-platonic traditions were formative to Emerson’s thinking. Emerson, the leading figure in American Transcendentalism, also drew on the philosophy of Kant and German Idealism, English and German Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth and Thomas Carlyle, and Swedenborgian skepticism as well (Robinson 18-19). At the same time, he paid close attention to the Oriental philosophical sphere. He studied several oriental thinkers, among them Confucius of China. Emerson appreciated much of Confucian wisdom, especially that concerning moral principles and self-cultivation. Therefore, he quoted fifty three aphorisms from Confucian classics and published most of them in The Dial (钱 241-248).

C. The Argument of the Thesis

So far, many works have been written on the philosophies of Zhuang Zi and Emerson. However, they nearly can be divided into two parts: some works are focused on Zhuang Zi and his philosophy whereas some are concentrating on Emerson and his Transcendentalism, like two paralleling lines. The situation was alleviated in the 1980s and 1990s, which saw the emergence of two Chinese scholars’ dissertations, which explore the relationship between Emerson and Confucius. Professor Zhu Yuan started the comparative study between Emerson and Zhuang Zi, and published “Studies on Zhuang Zi and Emerson’s Views on Man and Nature”. This thesis is to illustrate how the two philosophies are spiritually linked and in what specific ways they are alike.

II. Zhuang Zi’s “Perfect Man” and Emerson’s “Genuine Man”

A. The Perfect Man – Ideal Character to Zhuang Zi

In their works, both Zhuang Zi and Emerson created their ideal characters. Zhuang Zi’s positive advocacy is to “set your mind at flight by going along with things as they are,” that is to say, follow the natural laws and to keep the spiritual freedom. The highest embodiment of such spirituality is “no self,” “no merit,” and “no name.” Among the three “no-es,” “no self” is the most important, and therefore Zhuang Zi also called “no self” as “I lose myself” (刘 4). His ideal character is “the perfect man” while “the genuine man” is ideal to Emerson.

1. The Image of the Sage

Out of the thirty-three chapters of the book Zhuang Zi, more than twenty chapters contain descriptions about the sages. When the sages sacrifice themselves for the sake of the kingdom (Webbed Toes), when sages came into the world, they established rites and music to rectify the world and promoted humaneness and righteousness to comfort the hearts of the people, who began to strive endlessly for knowledge and profit, and when they destroy Tao and virtue for the sake of humaneness and righteousness (The Hooves of Horses), the sages can be identified as Confucian.

2. The Perfect Man

The image of the perfect man appears in around ten chapters throughout the book Zhuang Zi. One paragraph in “The Natural Course of Events” portrays Tao, the perfect man and their relationship. It comes from the master’s words:

Tao exists in things big and small, and so it exists in everything in the world. Tao is too vast that nothing escapes from it; Tao is so profound that it is unfathomable. Penalty and reward, humaneness and righteousness are the lowest forms in the spiritual world. Who on earth except the perfect man can fix them? Isn’t the perfect man great when he rules over the world? However, nothing will become a burden to him. The people in the world are struggling for power but he will not get himself involved in it. He keeps to his inborn nature, never under the sway of profiteering. He sees clearly the inborn nature of everything in the world and sticks to the root of everything. As a result, he is able to forget about the heaven and the earth and to neglect everything in the world, and his mind is never disturbed. He is well versed in Tao; he is comparable to virtue; he is aloof from humaneness and righteousness; he is averse to rituals and music. By so doing, he settles his mind at ease (汪 259) .

Therefore, the perfect man embodies and epitomizes Tao. “Ignorant and aimless, he roams beyond the dust and dirt of the human world; free and easy, he wanders in the realm of non-action” (汪 375).

The core of the philosophy of Zhuang Zi is man’s spiritual freedom. To Zhuang Zi, man had a natural inclination for freedom. As a result, to be a perfect man, to wander in absolute freedom, man had to free himself from the exterior bondages on one hand and on the other hand he had to obliterate his interior desires. When coming at this stage he “rides on the true course of heaven and earth and harnesses the changes of the six vital elements of yin, yang, wind, rain, darkness and brightness to travel in the infinite”(汪 9). Only at this stage could he behave like the holy
man—“He does not eat the grains, but sucks the wind, drinks the dew, rides on the cloud, harnesses the flying dragon and roams beyond the four seas.

B. The Genuine Man – Emerson’s Ideal Character

Just before resigning his pastorate in 1832 Emerson preached “Genuine Man”. As Lloyd Rohler observed, “the sermon moves through three levels of increasingly higher spirituality as Emerson first describes the individual man, then the true self, and lastly the genuine man who speaks with the voice of God”(19).

Though naturally everyone has “the Spirit of God” resided at the bottom of the heart, and has the potential to “follow the leading of his own mind like a little child,” it does not come so naturally or so easily that a man should become the genuine man. To be the genuine man, a man should cultivate “sufficient power of reason within the mind that practices it to counterbalance the temptation of acting from external motives.” What’s more, it entails that:

This man has the generosity of spirit to give himself up to the guidance of God and lean upon the laws of nature; he parts with his individuality, leaves all thought of private stake, personal feeling, and in compensation he has in some sort of strength of the whole, as each limb of the human system is able to draw to its aid the whole weight of the body. His heart beats pulse for pulse with the heart of the Universe (Rohler 93) .

C. Conclusion

The similarities and differences between Zhuang Zi’s perfect man and Emerson’s genuine man can be concluded as the following table:

According to the above table, we can see that the perfect man and the genuine man share many similarities. However, there are also differences and divisions …

Works Cited

Bosco, Ronald A. “Ralph Waldo Emerson 1812-1892: A Brief Biography.” A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Joel Myerson. New York & Oxford: OUP, 2000. 9-56.
Conkin, Paul K. Puritans and Pragmatists: Eight Eminent American Thinkers. Bloomington & London: Indiana UP, 1976.

Mott, Wesley T. “The Age of the First Person Singular.” A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Joel Myerson. New York & Oxford: OUP, 2000. 61-93.

Robinson, David M. “Transcendentalism and Its Times.” The Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Joel Porte and Saundra Morris. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2004. 13-24.

Rohler, Lloyd. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Preacher and Lecturer. Westport, ConnectICUt & London: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Rossi, William. “Emerson, Nature, and Natural science.” A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Joel Myerson. New York & Oxford: OUP, 2000. 101-150.

陈鼓应. 尼采哲学与庄子哲学的比较研究[A]. 胡道静. 十家论庄[C]. 上海: 上海人出版社, 2004. 398-438.

陈望衡. 玄妙的太和之道: 中国古代哲人的境界观(上)[M]. 天津: 天津教育出版社，2002.

崔大华. 庄学研究[M].  人民出版社, 1992.

胡孚琛 吕锡琛. 道学通论[M]. 北京: 社会科学文献出版社, 2004.

李锦全 曹智频. 庄子与中国文化[M]. 贵阳: 贵州人民出版社, 2000.

刘梦溪. 庄子与现代和后现代[M]. 石家庄：河北教育出版社, 2004.

钱满素. 爱默生和中国: 对个人主义的反思[M]. 北京: 生活·读书·新知三联书店, 1996.

汪榕培 任秀桦. 英译 庄子[M]. 秦旭卿 孙雍长 今译 湖南人民出版社, 1997.

张松辉. 先秦两汉道家与文学[M]. 北京: 东方出版社, 2004.

张恒寿. 庄子的哲学思想[A]. 胡道静. 十家论庄[C]. 上海: 上海人民出版社, 2004. 439-482.

Acknowledgements

Upon the completion of the paper, no words can express my heartfelt thanks to Professor Zhu Yuan, my mentor and supervisor, whose patience and encouragement will accompany me all through my life and learning during the journey of BA study. Not only has he inspired and influenced me upon how to write the thesis, but also enlightened me as to the approach of teaching. Furthermore, I owe a debt of gratitude to many teachers in Dalian University of Foreign Languages. What I have acquired from their courses and lectures has widened my horizon in English learning and teaching. Finally, I wish to extend my gratitude to my family whose support and encouragement is an indispensable part along my journey of academic pursuit.

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