关键词: 梭罗, 超验主义, 个人主义, “四书”英译, 儒家思想

Abstract: As one of the representatives of the Transcendentalist movement, Henry David Thoreau had a special affinity for Confucianism. His work Walden contains more than ten references to the Four Books, but the quotes were not taken from any English translation available at the time. Rather, Thoreau translated them from G. Pauthier's French version Confucius et Mencius: les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique de la Chine. The reason was that all the three English translations at the time were from Christian missionaries and were colored with varying degrees of religious bias and Calvinistic theology. This arrogant religious stance did not fit in with Thoreau, who was in the midst of the New England Renaissance. Thoreau's Confucian references were not mere decoration, but had profound philosophical significance. Thoreau was mainly concerned with the brilliance of human nature in Confucian thought, personal introspection and inner renewal that leads to social betterment, the virtue of caring for the world, and the idea of cultivating one's mind. He carefully integrated these ideas into his notion of individualism. The fact that the Four Books found their way into Thoreau's field of vision and texts proves that the Confucian central idea, viz., “The way of the superior man is vast yet subtle,” provided a lively spiritual resource for the concept of individualism of Thoreau and even the whole Transcendentalist movement.

Key words: Henry David Thoreau, Transcendentalism, individualism, English translation of the Four Books, Confucianism