Acknowledgments  Hereby, I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the process of writing my thesis.
First and foremost, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Wang Ying, a respectable, responsible and resourceful scholar who has provided me with valuable guidance in every stage of the writing of this thesis. Without her enlightening instruction, impressive kindness and patience, I could not have completed my thesis. Her keen and vigorous academic observation enlightens me not only in this thesis but also in my future study. 20338
Secondly, I shall extend my thanks to all my teachers who have helped me to develop the fundamental and essential academic competence. My sincere appreciation also goes to the teachers and students from the school of foreign languages, Shanghai Institute of Technology.
Last but not least, my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. I also own my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and supports in listening to me and aiding me figure out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis.
Abstract
Family’s culture remains one of the most popular and unchangeable research themes in both Chinese and Western literatures. Moment in Peking and The Forsyte Saga are two of the most classical and outstanding works. In Moment in Peking, Lin Yutang covers the turbulent events in China from 1900 to 1938 aiming to introduce Chinese culture to Western, which is influenced by Zhuangzi and its message is “Life is but a dream.” The Forsyte Saga is a series of three novels and two interludes created by John Galsworthy. They chronicle the vicissitudes of the leading members of an upper class British family. The two works are both the representation of the Chinese and Western family cultures, which is worthy and practical to study on the contrastive analysis on these two magnificent works.
Firstly, the spiritual themes of the two novels, “Taoism” and “Forsytism”, will be fully elaborated in which is related with the two novels. Then, the contrastive analyses will concentrate on three main aspects: view of sensibility, sense of property and value of life. Finally, a conclusive comparison to the two doctrines, moreover, a brief summary to the distinctions and resemblances of the culture of Chinese and Western family as well as its vicissitudes will be mentioned.
After the analyses and discussion on Moment in Peking and The Forsyte Saga from Chinese and Western philosophical views, it can be seen that due to the different culture, the masterpieces which represent their age and society are also different in some aspects but similar in the common sense of family. Whether in a Chinese family or a Western family, people do value their families indeed. It comes to a conclusion that the west takes inpidual value, but China favors family’s overall benefit. A family should allow both one’s duty and responsibility to family and his existing value and rights. The ethics of a family cannot be partly treated which should be built by integrate freedom and duty into families to achieve peace and harmony of the society.
Key Words: transcendence, obsession, Taoism, Forsytism, Saga novels
 摘要
家族文化一直是中西方文学历史中经久不息的研究主题。一部世家小说不仅反映了一个家族，乃至一个民族的灵魂和精神，更表现了当时的历史背景和现实意义。长河般的小说足以引发读者的无限深思。《京华烟云》和《福尔赛世家》无疑是中西文学历史上最具代表性、最杰出的家族小说之一。

林语堂著作的《京华烟云》，又名《瞬息京华》，旨在将中国传统文化传播给西方文明，涵盖了中国整整38年的动荡历史。而《福尔赛世家》是诺贝尔文学奖得主---约翰高尔斯华绥的经典作品，由三部小说和两部插曲组成，可谓是真正西方意义的长河小说。它讲述了一个英国上流社会家族几代人，从崛起到没落，见证了其辛酸历史。两部小说都承载了沉重的历史主题，同时描写了在动荡不安的社会历史中，家族的沉浮和盛衰。 超然与执念《京华烟云》与《福尔赛世家》的对比研究:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_12080.html