Abstract

Emerson, the leading figure in American Transcendentalism, revolted against traditional Christianity and institutional religion. The standard for his revaluation of all things was the active soul of the individual. In his search for new ideas, he studied several Oriental geniuses, among them Confucius of China. Emerson appreciated and quoted much of Confucian wisdom, particularly that concerning moral principles and self-cultivation. But towards China, a society based on Confucian thought, he was severely critical. In his view, China's problem was its conspicuous lack of individuality and individualism. ;In the West, the private man has gradually gained importance ever since the Renaissance and the Reformation. But all the novel ideas which enabled the West to emerge from the feudal Middle Ages were alien to China. Confucianism had functioned as China's dominant official philosophy for nearly twenty centuries. As China entered the modern age, its ancient values and institutions proved an anachronism. The last dynasty clung to power with little awareness of the changing situation and little regard for its own people. This thesis illustrates how Emersonian individualism may serve as a balance to China's traditional hierarchical thinking