Confucianism in Walden—A Comparative Study of Walden and the Four Books

摘要

As is known to everyone, Henry David Thoreau was an outstanding American writer in the 19th century. However, he did not attract much attention at that time. In fact, Thoreau did not have a profound influence on American culture until the 20th century. It is generally acknowledged that his masterpiece Walden is one of the most outstanding literary works, in which the richness of thoughts contributes greatly to the spread of Thoreau's philosophy. Thanks to it, Thoreau's philosophy has attracted more and more attention. It is pleasantly surprised for a Chinese reader to find Confucianism in an American classical work of the 19th century. Many scholars have studied Confucianism in Walden in order to analyze how Confucianism influences Thoreau. However, these studies more or less overstate or understate the influence of Confucianism. Therefore, such a research does have great practical significance, that is, to objectively analyze how Confucianism influences an American writer and how it is repre?sented in his representative work.