Thoreau, Henry David

Henry David Thoreau und China : allgemein
Quellen :
Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre. L'invariable milieu, ouvrage morale Tséu-ssê, en chinois et en manchou [ID D1943].
Huc, Evariste Régis. Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet et la Chine pendant les années 1844, 1845 et 1846 [ID D2107]. Iu-kiao-li, ou, Les deux cousines : roman chinois. Trad by Abel-Rémusat. [ID D5232].
The Chinese classical work commonly called the Four books. Transl. by David Collie. [ID D22647].
Marshman, Joshua. The works of Confucius [ID D1909].
Pauthier, [Jean-Pierre] Guillaume. Les livres sacrés de l'Orient [ID D2040].
Les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique de la Chine. Trad. du Chinois par G. Pauthier. [ID D2116].
Pfeiffer, Ida. A lday's voyage round the world [ID D2109].
Lao-tseu. Le Tao-te-king. Trad. par G. Pauthier. [Eventuelle Quelle].

Sekundärliteratur
1932
Arthur Christy : Thoreau read the Confucian books, probably just as much as Ralph Waldo Emerson, but he used them in his own way. His individuality and the eccentricity which baffled the practical Concord villagers was probably never illustrated to better advantage than in the selections from the Chinese books which he chose to quote. Thoreau seems never to have divorced his interest in nature from his reading of any scripture. His Confucian reading, considered alone, emphatically suggests this. He never tried to read mystical divinity into the Chinese ; he quoted them in connection with flora and fauna. 1972
Ch'en David T.Y. : To the student of Thoreau who is familiar with Chinese culture, Walden is similar to a traditional Chinese government, Confucian in form and Taoist in spirit, for the book is full of quotations from the Confucian books, while its ideas are essentially Taoist.
1984
Yao-hsin Chang : It was intensified by Thoreau's reading of Greek and European authors and the Hindoo philosophy, which exerted a good deal of influence on his thinking. What Confucius and Confucian classics had to capture his interest relates also chiefly to the perfection of men through self-development. Thoreau was of the opinion that the culture of the mind conduces to the happiness of the individual. He believed that all reform must come from within, and that when each individual referms himself, then the reformation of society will automatically follow. This essentially transcendental stance touched the quintessential Confucianism tangentially.
1988
Chen Chang-fang : For Thoreau, the Confucian canon, though gilded by the patina of antiquity, still preserves immutable wisdom, a wisdom that captivated him all his life. In addition, Thoreau seems to imply that he is attracted by the practical way of morality as subtly inculcated in the Confucian teachings.
2004
Cheng Aimin : Thoreau's contact with nature fascinates present-day urban reader in China as it does in the West. Many Chinese critics expressed their ideas about Thoreau's contact with nature and life at Walden. Since the 1990s Chinese scholars and critics begun to study Thoreau's ecological ideas. The Chinese concept of nature in Walden lead the Chinese to reevaluate his contribution to an American philosophy of nature.
2009
Ma Junhong : Henry David Thoreau, who was ignored and dismissed by his contemporaries, now has become a global figure as the saint and pioneer of environmental protection. Thoreau inquired into the rationality of science and technology, recognized the exploitation of life under the guidance of rationality and objected to the material culture in which people's lives were eroded and degraded. He tried to find an ideal solution to the crises of natural ecology and spiritual ecology of human beings. China could derive some enlightenment from Thoreau's life philosophy. First, it stimulates us to rediscover and reinterpret the Chinese classics, which have been ignored I the past 100 years, and to find our own eco-wisdom. Second, it forces us to reflect on the development of China's modernization. In Thoreau's opinion, a true life should be full of vivacity, growth and vitality. It involves perception of life, natural growth of the organism and active creation of living things and everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. Nature's exuberancy aroused Thoreau's life consciousness. Therefore, he sought to gain it through life experience in nature. He not only showed his love and concern for nature, but also showed his great solicitude for the human being.
China has also encountered the problem in the process of its modernization. Thoreau's ideas could give China some insight from the perspective of culture and reflection on modernization. Thoreau's critiques on industrial civilization can still provide warning to China's modernization. It seems that the conflict he predicted between man and nature brought about by industrial civilization is impossible to avoid. China has focused its development strategy on economic construction and taken the conflict between growing material and cultural needs and backward social production as the principal contradiction since 1978. Therefore, it is the aim for China to develop the productive forces vigorously and promote the Chinese modernization as rapidly as possible. Development is no doubt the central theme of China. China has begun to recognize the ecological problems and is trying to develop in an all-round, coordinated and sustainable manner. Thoreau's cosmological beliefs of life embodied in his work remind us of the eco-wisdom in ancient Chinese philosophy. He took nature as man and liked to have dialogues with nature without any prejudice.
While Thoreau who was enlightened by the ancient Chinese philosophy had a great influence on American nature writing, his ideas about nature have rich ecological meaning and have become the symbol of non-anthropocentric environment ethics now. His representative book Walden has become a classic, which continues to influence more and more people to devote themselves to environmental protection. Many scholars begin to make systematic studies on the ancient Chinese ecological thought, rediscovering and reinterpreting the ecological ideas of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
2009
Yang Jincai : There are three different stages as regards the Chinese projections of Thoreau. The first stage from the 1920s to 1949 marks China's burgeoning interest in the American writer featured by a passion for Western literature as both cultural and intellectual nourishment. The second is mainly a period of ideological appraisals from 1949 to 1977 in which Thoreau is regarded as a champion of democracy and a critic of American capitalist civilization. The third one is known as the multiple approach period from 1978 onwards in which Thoreau studies has flourished and continues to grow in China. Focused discussions have revealed the following: (1) comparative approaches have been made into the Chinese elements in the formation of Thoreau's notion of civilization and views of Nature; (2) critical attention has been drawn on Thoreau's political thought and ecological awareness, rendering a multitude of interpretations both textually and theoretically; and (3) further discussions focus primarily on Thoreau's personal conduct raising a question of how to appraise Thoreau's withdrawal from society and giving rise to an ambiguous identity of Thoreau.

Thoreau, Henry David. Journal ; Aug. 22 (1838).
How thrilling a noble sentiment in the oldest books, - in Homer, the Zendavesta, or Confucius ! It is a strain of music waited down to us on the breeze of time, though the aisles of innumerable ages. By its very nobleness it is made near and audible to us.

Thoreau, Henry David. Journal ; June 26 (1840).
Ch'en David T.Y. : Thoreau had probably read Laozi. He put down seven paradoxes in his journal, all of which bear close resemblance to Laozi.
(1) The highest condition of art is artlessness.
(2) Truth is always paradoxical.
(3) He will get to the goal first who stands stillest.
(4) There is one let better than any help, and that is, - Let-alone.
(5) By sufferance you may escape suffering.
(6) He who resists not at all will never surrender.
(7) Stand outside the wall, and no harm can reach you. The danger is that you be walled in with it [J, I, 153].
The following paradoxes are from Laotse's book:
(1) The greatest skill appears like clumsiness (Chapter XLV, Line 6).
(2) Truth sounds like its opposite (LXXVII, 13).
(3) The sage puts himself last / And finds himself in the foremost place (VII, 5-6).
(4) By action without deeds / May all live in peace (III, 14-1 5).
(5) To yield is to be preserved whole (XXII, 1).
(6) Is it not because he does not live for Self / That his Self is realized (VII, 9-l0)?
(7) The sage regards his body as accidental, / And his body is therefore preserved [VII, 7-8]

Thoreau, Henry David. Journal ; Jan. 29 (1841).
If I make a huge effort to expose my innermost and richest wares to light, my counter seems cluttered with the meanest homemade stuffs, but after months or years, I may discover the wealth of India, and whatever rarity is brought overland from Cathay, in that confused heap, and what perhaps seemed a festoon of dried apple or pumpkin, will prove a string of Brazilian diamonds, or pearls from Corromandel.

Letter from Henry David Thoreau to Mrs. E, Castleton, Staten Island, May 22 (1843).
Only think of some sadness away in Pekin, - unseen and unknown there. What a mine it is ! Would it not weigh down the Celestial Empire, with all its gay Chinese ? Our sadness is not sad, but your cheap joys.

Letter from Henry David Thoreau to Margaret Fuller ; June (1843).
I have the best of Chinese Confucian books lately, an octavo published at Malacca, in English. Much of it is the old Confucius more fully rendered ; but the book of Mencius is wholly new to me.

The Dial [ID D29685].
Ethnical scriptures : sayings of Confucius.
Chee says, if in the morning I hear about the right way, and in the evening die, I can be happy. A man's life is properly connected with virtue. The life of the evil man is preserved by mere good fortune.
Coarse rice for food, water to drink, and the bended arm for a pillow – happiness may be enjoyed even in these. Without virtue, riches and honor seem to me like a passing cloud.
A wise and good man was Hooi. A piece of bamboo was his dish, a cocoa-nut his cup, his dwelling a miserable shed. Men could not sustain the sight of his wretchedness ; but Hooi did not change the serenity of his mind. A wise and good man was Hooi.
Chee-koong said, Were they discontented ? The sage replies, They sought and attained complete virtue ; - how then yould they be discontented ?
Chee says, Yaou is the man who, in torn clothes or common apparel, sits with those dressed in furred robes without feeling shame.
To worship at a temple not your own is mere flattery.
Chee says, grieve not that men know not you ; grieve that you are ignorant of men.
How can a man remain concealed ! How can a man remain concealed !
Have no friend unlike yourself.
Chee-Yaou enquired respecting filial piety. Chee says, the filial piety of the present day is esteemed merely ability to nourish a parent. This care is extended to a dog or a horse. Every dometic animal can obtain food. Beside veneration, what is the difference ?
Chee entered the great temple, frequently enquiring about things. One said, who says that the son of the Chou man understands propriety ? In the great temple he is constantly asking questions. Chee heard and replied - 'This is propriety'.
Choy-ee slept in the afternoon. Chee says, rotten wood is unfit for carving : a dirty wall cannot receive a beautiful color. To Ee what advice can I give ?
A man's transgression partakes of the nature of his company.
Having knowledge, to apply it ; not having knowledge, to confess your ignorance ; this is real knowledge.
Chee says, to sit in silence and recal past ideas, to study and feel no anxiety, to instruct men without weariness ; - have I this ability within me ?
In forming a mountain, were I to stop when one basket of earth is lacking, I actually stop ; and in the same manner were I to add to the level ground though but one basket of earth daily, I really go forward.
A soldier of the kingdom of Ci lost his buckler ; and having sought after it a long time in vain ; he comforted himself with this reflection : 'A soldier has lost his buckler, but a soldier of our camp will find it ; he will use it. '
The wise man never hastens, neither in his studies nor his words ; he is sometimes, as it were, mute ; but when it concerns him to act and practice virtue, he, as I may say, precipiates all.
The truly wise man speaks little ; he is little eloquent. I see not that eloquence can be of very great use to him.
Silence is absolutely necessary to the wise man. Great speeches, elaborate discourses, pieces of eloquence, ought to be a language unknown to him ; his actions ought to be his language. As for me, I would never speak more. Heaven speaks ; but what language does it use to preach to men, that there is a sovereign principle from which all things depend ; a sovereign principle which makes them to act and move ? Its motion is its language ; it reduces the seasons to their time ; it agitates nature ; it makes it produce. This silence is eloquent.

Ethical scriptures : Chinese four books.
[Preliminary Note. Since we printed a few selections from Dr. Marhsman's translation of the sentences of Confucius, we have received a copy of 'the Chinese Classical Work, commonly called the Four Books, translated and illustrated with notes by the late Rev. David Collie, Principal of the Anglo-Chinese College, Malacca. Printed at the Mission Press'. This translation, which seems to have been undertaken and performed as an exercise in learning the language, is the most valuable contribution we have yet seen from the Chinese literature. That part of the work, which is new, is the Memoirs of Mencius in two books, the Shang Mung and Hea Mung, which is the production of Mung Tsze (or Mencius), who flourished about a hundres years after Confucis. The subjoined extracts are chiefly taken from these books.]
All things are contained complete in ourselves. There is no greater joy than to turn round on ourselves and become perfect.
The human figure and color possess a divine nature, but it is only the sage who can fulfill what his figure promises.
The superior man's nature consists in this, that benevolence, justice, propriety, and wisdom, have their root in his heart, and are exhibited in his countenance. They shine forth in his face and go through to his back. They are manifested in his four members.
Wherever the superior man passes, renovation takes place. The divine spirit which he cherishes above and below, flows on equal in extent and influence with heaven and earth.
Tsze Kung says, The errors of the superior man are like the eclipses of the sun and moon. His errors all men see, and his reformation all men look for.
Mencius says, There is not anything but is decreed ; accord with and keep to what is right. Hence he, who understands the decrees, will not stand under a falling wall. He, who dies in performing his duty to the utmost of his power, accords with the decrees of heaven. But he who dies for his crimes, accords not with the divine decree.
There is a proper rule by which we should seek, and whether we obtain what we seek or not, depends on the divine decree.
Put men to death by the principles which have for their object the preservation of life, and they will not grumble.
The Scholar.
Teen, son of the king of Tse, asked what the business of the scholar consists in ? Mencius replied, In elevating his mind and inclination. What do you mean by elevating the mind ? It consists merely in being benevolent and just. Where is the scholar's abode ? In benevolence. Where is his road ? Justice. To dwell in benevolence, and walk in justice, is the whole business of a great man.
Benevolence is man's heart, and justice is man's path. If a man lose his fowls or his dogs, he knows how to seek them. The duty of the student is no other than to seek his lost heart.
He who employs his whole mind, will know his nature. He who knows his nature, knows heaven.
It were better to be without books than to believe all that they record.
The Taou.
Sincerity is the Taou or way of heaven. To aim at it is the way of man.
From inherent sincerity to have perfect intelligence, is to be a sage by nature ; to attain sincerity by means of intelligence, is to be such by study. Where there is sincerity, there must be intelligence. Where intelligence is, it must lead to sincerity.
He who offends heaven, has none to whom he can pray.
Mencius said, To be benevolent is man. Then man and benevolence are united, they are called Taou.
To be full of sincerity, is called beauty. To be so full of sincerity that it shines forth in the external conduct, is called greatness. Holiness or sageness which is above comprehension, is called divine.
Perfection (or sincerity) is the way of heaven, and to wish for perfection is the duty of a man. It has never been the case that he who possessed genuine virtue in the highest degree, could not influence others, nor has it ever been the case that he who was not in the highest degree sincere could influence others.
There is a divine nobility and a human nobility. Benevolence, justice, fidelity, and truth, and to delight in virtue without weariness, constitute divine nobility. To be a prince, a prime minister, or a great officer of state constitute human nobility. The ancients adorned divine nobility, and human nobility followed it.
The men of the present day cultivate divine nobility in order that they may obtain human nobility ; and when they once get human nobility, they throw away divine nobility. This is the height of delusion, and must end in the loss of both.
Of reform.
Taou is not far removed from man. If men suppose that it lies in something remote, then what they think of is not Taou. The ode says, 'Cut hatchet handles'. This means of doing it, is not remote ; you have only to take hold of one handle, and use it to cut another. Yet if you look aslant at it, it will appear distant. Hence the superior man.
When Tsze Loo heard anything that he had not yet fully practiced, he was afraid of hearing anything else.
The governor of Yih asked respecting government. Confucius replied, Make glad those who are near, and those who are at a distance will com.
The failing of men is that they neglect their own field, and dress that of others. They require much of others, but little of themselves.
War.
Mencius said, From this time and ever after I know the heavy consequences of killing a man's parents. If you kill a man's elder brother, he will kill your elder brother. Hence although you do not yourself kill them, you do nearly the same thing.
When man says, I know well how to draw up an army, I am skilled in fighting, he is a great criminal.
Politics.
Ke Kang asked Confucius respecting government. Confucius replied, Government is rectitude.
Ke Kang was harassed by robbers, and consulted Confucius on the subject. Confucius said, if you, sir, were not covetous, the people would not rob, even though you should hire them to do it.
Mencius said, Pih E's would not look on a bad color, nor would his ear listen to a bad sound. Unless a prince were of his own stamp, he would not serve him, and unless people were of his own stamp, he would not employ them. In times of good government, he went into office, and in times of confusion and bad government, he retired. Where disorderly government prevailed, or where disorderly people lived, he could not bear to dwell. He thought that to live with low men was as bad as to sit in the mud with his court robes and cap. In the time of Chou, he dwelt on the banks of the North Ka, watching till the Empire should be brought to peace and order. Hence, when the fame of Pih E is heard of, the stupid become intelligent, and the weak determined.
E Yin said, What of serving a prince not of one's own stamp ! What of ruling a people which are not to your mind ! In times of good government he went into office, and so did he in times of disorder. He said, heaven has given life to this people, and sent those who are first enlightened to enlighten those who are last, and has sent those who are first aroused to arouse those who are last. I am one of heaven's people who am first aroused. I will take if there was a single man or woman in the Empire, who was not benefited by the doctrines of Yaou and Shun, that he was guilty of pushing them into a ditch. He took the heavy responsibility of the Empire on himself.
Lew Hea Hooi was not ashamed of serving a dirty Prince, nor did he refuse an inferior Office. He did not conceal the virtuous, and acted according to his principles. Although he lost his place, he grumbled not. In poverty he repined not. He lived in harmony with mean of little worth, and could not bear to abandon them. He said, 'You are you, and I am I ; although you sit by my side with your body naked, how can you defile me ?' Hence when the fame of Lew Hea Hooi is heard of, the mean man becomes liberal, and the miserly becomes generous.
Virtue.
Chung Kung asked, What is perfect virtue ? Confucius said, What you do not wish others to do to you, do not to them.
Sze Ma Neu asked, What constitutes perfect virtue ? Confucius replied ; It is to find it difficult to speak. 'To find it difficult to speak ! Is that perfect virtue ?' Confucius rejoined, What is difficult to practice, must it not be difficult to speak ?
Confucius says, Virtue runs swifter than the royal postillions carry despatches.
The She King says, 'Heaven created all men having their duties and the means of rules of performing them. It is the natural and constant disposition of men to love beautiful virtue.' Confucius says, that he who wrote this ode knew right principles.
Confucius exclaimed, Is virtue far off ? I only wish for virtue, and virtue comes.
Confucius said, I have not seen any one who loves virtue as we love beauty.
Confucius says, The superior man is not a machine which is fit for one thing only.
Tze Kung asked, Who is a superior man ? Confucius replied, He who first practices his words, and then speaks accordingly.
The principles of great man illuminate the whole universe above and below. The principles of the superior man commence with the duties of common men and women, but in their highest extent they illuminate the universe.
Confucius said, Yew, permit me to tell you what is knowledge. What you are acquainted with, consider that you know it ; what you do not understand, consider that you do not know ist ; this is knowledge.
Confucius exclaimed, How vast the influence of the Kwei Shin (spirits or gods). If you look for them, you cannot see them ; if you listen, you cannot hear them ; they embody all things, and are what things cannot be separated from. When they cause mankind to fast, purity, and dress themselves, everything appears full of them. They seem to be at once above, and on the right, and on the left. The ode says, The descent of the gods cannot be comprehended ; with what reverence should we conduct ourselves ! Indeed that which is least, is clearly displayed. The cannot be concealed.

Thoreau, Henry David. Civil disobedience [ID D29703].
Confucius said, "If a state is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a state is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are the subjects of shame." [Confucius, Analects].
Even the Chinese philosopher was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire.

Thoreau, Henry David. A week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers [ID D29691].
The Chinese are bribed to carry their ova from province to province in jars or in hollow reeds, or the water-birds to transport them to the mountain tarns and interior lakes.
The reading which I love best is the scriptures of the several nations, though it happens that I am better acquainted with those of the Hindoos, the Chinese, and the Persians, than of the Hebrews, which I have come to last.
But is it necessary to know what the speculator prints, or the thoughtless study, or the idle read, the literature of the Russians and the Chinese, or even French philosophy and much of German criticism.
"Assuredly", says a French translator, speaking of the antiquity and durability of the Chinese and Indian nations, and of the wisdom of their legislators, "there are there some vestiges of the eternal laws which govern the world."
It would be worthy of the age to print together the collected Scriptures or Sacred Writings of the several nations, the Chinese, the Hindoos, the Persians, the Hebrews, and others, as the Scripture of mankind.
They appeared to be green hands from far among the hills, who had taken this means to get to the seabord, and see the world ; and would possibly visit the Falkland Isles, and the China seas, before they again saw the waters of the Merrimack, or perchance, not return this way forever.

[Gedicht]
Though all the fates should prove unkind,
Leave not your native land behind.
The ship, becalmed, at length stands still;
The steed must rest beneath the hill;
But swiftly still our fortunes pace
To find us out in every place.
The vessel, though her masts be firm,
Beneath her copper bears a worm;
Around the cape, across the line,
Till fields of ice her course confine;
It matters not how smooth the breeze,
How shallow or how deep the seas,
Whether she bears Manilla twine,
Or in her hold Madeira wine,
Or China teas, or Spanish hides,
In port or quarantine she rides;
Far from New England's blustering shore,
New England's worm her hulk shall bore,
And sink her in the Indian seas,
Twine, wine, and hides, and China teas.

The periods of Hindoo and Chinese history, though they reach back of the time when the race of mortals is confounded with the race of gods, are as nothing compared with the periods which these stones have inscribed.
Nevertheless, we will go on, like those Chinese cliffs swallows, feathering our nests with the froth which may one day be bread of life to such as dwell by the seashore.
Pneumatologists, Atheists, Theists, - Plato, Aristotle, Leucippus, Democritus, Pythagorus, Zoroaster, and Confucius.
Confucius said, "Never contract Friendship with a man that is not better than thyself. "
Confucius said, "To contract ties of Friendship, with any one, is to contract Friendship with his virtue."
"They Say That Lieou-Hia-Hoei and Chao-Lien did not sustain to the end their resolutions, and that they dishonored their character. Their language was in harmony with reason and justice; while their acts were on harmony with the sentiments of men." [Confucius, Analects].
Mencius says : "If one loses a fowl or a dog, he knows well how to seek them again ; if one loses the sentiments of his heart, he does not know how to seek them again… The duties of practical philosophy consist only in seeking after those sentiments of the heart which we have lost ; that is all."

Thoreau, Henry David. Journal (1851).
I am astonished to find how much travelers both in the east and west permit themselves to be imposed on by a name ; that the traveler in the east, for instance, presumes so great a difference between one Asiatic and another, because one bears the title of Christian and the other not.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden ; or, Life in the woods [ID D29692].
1. Economy
1-A
I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not.
The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich in inward. We know not much about them.
Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge." [Confucius, Analects].
1-B
I have always endeavored to acquire strict business habits; they are indispensable to every man. If your trade is with the Celestial Empire, then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem harbor, will be fixture enough. (Massachusetts began trading with China in the 1780's).
When Madam Pfeiffer, in her adventurous travels round the world, from east to west, had got so near home as Asiatic Russia, she says that she felt the necessity of wearing other than a travelling dress, when she went to meet the authorities, for she "was now in a civilized country, where ... people are judged of by their clothes." [Ida Pfeiffer, A lady's voyage around the world].
1-D
As for your high towers and monuments, there was a crazy fellow once in this town who undertook to dig through to China, and he got so far that, as he said, he heard the Chinese pots and kettles rattle; but I think that I shall not go out of my way to admire the hole which he made. Many are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East — to know who built them. For my part, I should like to know who in those days did not build them — who were above such trifling. But to proceed with my statistics.
1-E
Being a microcosm himself, he discovers — and it is a true discovery, and he is the man to make it — that the world has been eating green apples; to his eyes, in fact, the globe itself is a great green apple, which there is danger awful to think of that the children of men will nibble before it is ripe; and straightway his drastic philanthropy seeks out the Esquimaux and the Patagonian, and embraces the populous Indian and Chinese villages; and thus, by a few years of philanthropic activity, the powers in the meanwhile using him for their own ends, no doubt, he cures himself of his dyspepsia, the globe acquires a faint blush on one or both of its cheeks, as if it were beginning to be ripe, and life loses its crudity and is once more sweet and wholesome to live.
2. Where I lived, and what I lived for
They say that characters were engraved on the bathing tub of King Tching Thang to this effect: "Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again." I can understand that. [Kommentar von Zengzi zu Da xue].
"Kieou-he-yu (great dignitary of the state of Wei) sent a man to Khoung-tseu to know his news. Khoung-tseu caused the messenger to be seated near him, and questioned him in these terms: What is your master doing? The messenger answered with respect: My master desires to diminish the number of his faults, but he cannot come to the end of them. The messenger being gone, the philosopher remarked: What a worthy messenger! What a worthy messenger!" [Confucius, Analects].
5. Solitude
We are the subjects of an experiment which is not a little interesting to me. Can we not do without the society of our gossips a little while under these circumstances — have our own thoughts to cheer us? Confucius says truly, "Virtue does not remain as an abandoned orphan; it must of necessity have neighbors." [Confucius, Analects].
"How vast and profound is the influence of the subtile powers of Heaven and of Earth!"
"We seek to perceive them, and we do not see them; we seek to hear them, and we do not hear them; identified with the substance of things, they cannot be separated from them."
"They cause that in all the universe men purify and sanctify their hearts, and clothe themselves in their holiday garments to offer sacrifices and oblations to their ancestors. It is an ocean of subtile intelligences. They are everywhere, above us, on our left, on our right; they environ us on all sides." [Confucius, The doctrine of the mean].
8. The village
"You who govern public affairs, what need have you to employ punishments? Love virtue, and the people will be virtuous. The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass, when the wind passes over it, bends." [Confucius, Analects].
11. Higher laws
"The soul not being mistress of herself," says Thseng-tseu, "one looks, and one does not see; one listens, and one does not hear; one eats, and one does not know the savor of food." He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise. [Confucius, The great learning].
"That in which men differ from brute beasts," says Mencius, "is a thing very inconsiderable; the common herd lose it very soon; superior men preserve it carefully."
12. Brute neighbors
I will just try these three sentences of Confutsee; they may fetch that state about again. I know not whether it was the dumps or a budding ecstasy. Mem. There never is but one opportunity of a kind.
17. Spring
"A return to goodness produced each day in the tranquil and beneficent breath of the morning, causes that in respect to the love of virtue and the hatred of vice, one approaches a little the primitive nature of man, as the sprouts of the forest which has been felled. In like manner the evil which one does in the interval of a day prevents the germs of virtues which began to spring up again from developing themselves and destroys them.
After the germs of virtue have thus been prevented many times from developing themselves, then the beneficent breath of evening does not suffice to preserve them. As soon as the breath of evening does not suffice longer to preserve them, then the nature of man does not differ much from that of the brute. Men seeing the nature of this man like that of the brute, think that he has never possessed the innate faculty of reason. Are those the true and natural sentiments of man?" [Mencius].
18. Conclusion
Only the defeated and deserters go to the wars, cowards that run away and enlist. Start now on that farthest western way, which does not pause at the Mississippi or the Pacific, nor conduct toward a wornout China or Japan, but leads on direct, a tangent to this sphere, summer and winter, day and night, sun down, moon down, and at last earth down too.
Consider the China pride and stagnant self-complacency of mankind.
The philosopher said: "From an army of three divisions one can take away its general, and put it in disorder; from the man the most abject and vulgar one cannot take away his thought." [Confucius, Analects].

Sekundärliteratur
1988
Chen Chang-fang : Thoreau undertook at Walden Pond the program of self-development that was remarkably similar to the one advocated in the Confucian Four books.

Thoreau, Henry David. Journal (1854).
It is a slender, black (and white) animal, with its back remarkably arched, standing high behind, and carrying its head low ; it runs, even when undisturbed, with a singular teter or undulation, like the walking of a Chinese lady.

Letter from Henry David Thoreau to Mr. W., Concord, December 12 (1856).
I do not remember anything which Confucius has said directly respecting man's "origin, purpose and destiny ". He was more practical than that. He is full of wisdom applied to human relations, - to the private life, - the family, - government, &c. It is remarkable that, according to his own account, the sum and substance of his teaching is, as you know, to do as you would be done by. He also said (I translate from the French), "Conduct yourself suitably toward the persons of your family, then you will be able to instruct and to direct a nation of men ".

Thoreau, Henry David. Correspondence (1856).
But every nation has a motion of its own. Among the boatmen on the Bosphorus I saw many faces and figures very like the same class at Hong Kong and on the Canton River in China. Both have a Tartar look. Mongolians, I imagine.

The Dial : a magazine for literature, philosophy, and religion. Ed. by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley. Vol. 3, no 3 (April), no 4 (Oct.). (Boston, Mass. : E.P. Peabody, 1843). [Henry David Thoreau edited in the absence of Ralph Waldo Emerson the issue Ethical scriptures].
Enthält :
Ethical scriptures : sayings of Confucius.
Ethical scriptures : Chinese four books.
books.google.ch.

Thoreau, Henry David. A plea for Captain John Brown : lecture read to the citizens of Concord, Mass., Oct. 30 (1859). Fifth lecture of the Fraternity Course, Boston, Nov. 1 (1859). [Enthält eine Eintragung über China].
thoreau.eserver.org.

[Thoreau, Henry David]. Hua'erteng. Suoluo zhu ; Xu Chi yi. (Shanghai : Chen guang chu ban gons si, 1949). (Chen guang shi jie wen xue cong shu). Übersetzung von Thoreau, Henry David. Übersetzung von Thoreau, Henry David. Walden ; or, Life in the woods. (Boston : Ticknor and Fields, 1854).
華爾騰

[Thoreau, Henry David]. Hu bin san ji. Suoluo zhu ; Wu Mingshi yi. (Xianggang : Jin ri shi jie she, 1964). (Meiguo wen ku). Übersetzung von Thoreau, Henry David. Walden ; or, Life in the woods. (Boston : Ticknor and Fields, 1854).
湖濱散記

[Thoreau, Henry David]. Hu bin san ji : Hua'erteng. Suoluo zhuang ; Huang Jianping yi. (Taibei : Zheng wen chu ban she, 1965). Übersetzung von Thoreau, Henry David. Walden ; or, Life in the woods. (Boston : Ticknor and Fields, 1854).
湖濱散記 : 華爾騰

[Thoreau, Henry David]. Hua'erteng. Suoluo zhu ; Liang Guoqian bian zhu. (Taibei : Yuan dong, 1968). (Shi jie wen xue quan ji ; 97). Übersetzung von Thoreau, Henry David. Walden ; or, Life in the woods. (Boston : Ticknor and Fields, 1854).
華爾騰

[Thoreau, Henry David]. Hu bin san ji : hua er teng. Suoluo zhu ; Li Lanzhi yi. (Taibei : Zheng wen, 1971). Übersetzung von Thoreau, Henry David. Walden ; or, Life in the woods. (Boston : Ticknor and Fields, 1854).
湖濱散記 : 華爾騰

[Thoreau, Henry David]. Hu bin san ji. Suoluo zhu ; Yang Renkang yi. (Tainan : Zhong he, 1973). (Shi jie wen xue ming zhu). Übersetzung von Thoreau, Henry David. Walden ; or, Life in the woods. (Boston : Ticknor and Fields, 1854).
湖濱散記

[Thoreau, Henry David]. Bu fu cong lun. Suoluo zhuan ; Tu Qinqing yi. (Taibei : Wu zhou, 1976). (Du zhe wen ku ; 8). Übersetzung von Thoreau, Henry David. Civil disobedience. (Waiheke Island : Floating Press, 1849).
不服從論

[Thoreau, Henry David]. Ren sheng yu zi ran. Suoluo zhu ; Chu Qing yi. (Taizhong : Lan deng wen hua, 1976). (Lan deng yi cong ; 1). [Übersetzung ausgewählter Texte von Thoreau].
[Enthält] :
Übersetzung von Thoreau, Henry David. Walden ; or, Life in the woods. (Boston : Ticknor and Fields, 1854).
Übersetzung von Thoreau, Henry David. Life without principle. In : Atlantic monthly ; vol. 12, no 72 (1863).
人生與自然

Zeng, Xubai. Meiguo wen xue ABC. (Shanghai : ABC cong chu she, 1929). (ABC cong shu). [Geschichte der amerikanischen Literatur]. [Enthält Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper].
美國文學

[Dreiser, Theodore]. Suoluo. Delaisai ; Bai Shi. (Yongan : Gai jin chu ban she, 1941). (Shi jie ta si xiang jia cong shu ; 3). Übersetzung von Dreiser, Theodore. The living thoughts of Thoreau. Presented by Theodore Dreiser. (London : Cassell, 1939). (The living thoughts library ; 6).
梭羅

Shi jie ming ren xie gei mu qin di xin. Suoluo deng zhuan ; Wang Hongren yi. (Taibei : Zhong hua ri bao, 1976). (Zhong hua ri bao jia zhong cong shu ; 25). [ Briefe an die Mutter, Sammlung berühmter westlicher Autoren. Enthält : Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain].
世界名人寫給母親的信

Dong, Hengxun. Meiguo wen xue jian shi. Dong Hengxun [et al.] bian zhu. Vol. 1-2. (Beijing : Ren min wen xue chu ban she, 1978 / 1986). [A concise history of American literature ; enthält ein Kapitel über Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck ; Erwähnung von Henry David Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville].
美国文学简史

[Derleth, August William]. Suoluo. Delisi zuo zhe ; Liang Shiqiu zhu bian ; Zeng Yongli yi zhe. (Taibei : Ming ren chu ban shi ye gu fen you xian gong si, 1982). (Ming ren wei ren zhuan ji quan ji ; 52). Übersetzung von Derleth, August William. Concord rebel : a life of Henry D. Thoreau. (New York, N.Y. : Avon Books, 1962).
梭羅

Liang, Shiqiu. Sugeladi Suoluo. (Taibei : Ming ren, 1982). (Ming ren wei ren zhuan ji quan ji ; 32). [Abhandlung über Huiteman = Walt Whitman, Tuo'ersitai = Leo Tolstoy, Suoluo = Henry David Thoreau].
蘇格拉底.盧梭.羅素

[Myerson, Joel]. Hengli Dawei Suoluo. Myerson bian. (Shanghai : Shanghai wai yu jiao yu chu ban she, 2000). (Jian qiao wen xue zhi nan). Übersetzung von Myerson, Joel. The Cambridge companion to Henry David Thoreau. (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995).
亨利戴维梭罗

Su, Xiangui. Suoluo de zi ran si xiang ji qi sheng tai lun li yi yun. In : Beijing da xue xue bao ; vol. 2 (2002). [Thoreau's thought of nature and its implications for ecological ethics].
梭罗的自然思想及其生态伦理意蕴