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Ⅱ.Brief Introduction to Transcendentalism and Taoism
2.1The Emergence and Development of Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism first emerged in New England, the cultural centre, and the earliest industrial zone on the northeast coast of United States in the 1830s.It is also known as “New England transcendentalism” or “American Renaissance”. Transcendentalism is the specific outcome of American social development. In the late 19th century, along with the improvement in industry, the increase in population, as well as the popularization of education, American became prosperous. More and more Americans devoted themselves into industrialization, and reception of education. The social wealth ballooned, and people lived in peace. During that period, the United States was clearing off the influence of European culture, and people were hungry for freedom and democracy, hoping to achieve the liberation of inpiduality. The great thoughts that could represent the spirit of America were urgently needed.
Transcendentalism developed as an opposition against rationalism, John Locke’s Sensualism, and the predestination of New England Calvinism. A variety of sources, such as Hindu texts like the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, the romantic literature of Europe，neo-Platonism， Oriental mysticism, and German idealistic philosophy formed the Transcendentalism.
In the same year, Ralph Waldo Emerson published his essay Nature .This is considered the turning point where transcendentalism became a major cultural movement. Emerson delivered his speech “The American Scholar” in 1837. In this speech, he said “We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds... A nation of men will for the first time exists, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.” Emerson ended the essay with a call for a revolution in human consciousness. From 1840, the club members frequently expressed their thoughts in the journal The Dial and many other venues.
By the late 1840s, Emerson believed that the movement was dying out, especially after the death of Margaret Fuller in 1850. However, a second wave of transcendentalists emerged. These people include Moncure Conway, Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Samuel Longfellow and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.
2.2 The Basic Contents of Transcendentalism
Transcendentalists hoped to ground their religion and philosophy in transcendental principles which not based on, or tested by physical experience, but derived from the inner spiritual or mental essence of the human. One of the beliefs of transcendentalism is the inherent goodness of both people and nature. Transcendentalists believe that society and its institutions—especially organized religious and political parties—ultimately corrupt the purity of the inpidual. They think that people are at their best when really “self-reliant” and independent.
Transcendentalist view of nature is valuable in this philosophy. The universe spirit permeates the nature which is the creation of such spirit. Nature and the human spirit were interlinked. Spirit or oversoul is the master of the universe. Nature is not collections of pure substances, but the shell of omnipresent spirit. Transcendentalists hold that nature nurtures human beings, and that human is an inextricable part of nature. Being close to nature is necessary to mankind because approaching nature is approaching the inexhaustible source of life--spirit or oversoul. Nature, for transcendentalists is an inspiration, a panacea to purify the soul and dissolve evils.
Another point of Transcendentalism is that people can know the truth directly by the way of transcending sense and reason. It emphasizes the importance of intuition. Transcendentalists believe that everything in the world is a microcosm of the universe as the sentence reads “The world shrank itself into a drop of dew” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).Transcendentalism also stresses that all things are governed by the oversoul which is consistent with human souls. This affirmation of man’s sacredness enables Transcendentalists to rely on their own direct experience and to scorn authority and traditions. Emerson’s dictum “Believe in yourself” was quoted as the motto of transcendentalism. His remarks underline the human subjective initiative, breaking the dogma of fatalism and “the evil of human nature” in Calvinism and laying the ideological foundation for romantic literature.