爱默生的中国书写

Emerson's writing about China

爱默生作为19世纪美国最具代表性的作家之一,其散文、讲演乃至日记中都有许多对中国的评价与典籍引用。爱默生对中国态度的前后转变,可以说是中国文化与文明在美国人民心中的一部转变写真。青年爱默生对中国的丑化和矮化,正是出于其将中国视为一个能够满足美国自我形象幻想需要的对象,并随之对中国形象进行了解构,这一时期的爱默生将中国视为一个畸形的封闭者。中年爱默生对于中国形象的扭转,更多出自美国精神以及民族认同感建立的需要:他将中国塑造为了一种精神乌托邦式的存在,表现出爱默生的多样性哲学需求和美国文明离心性的文化转向。

Emerson,one of the most representative American writers in the 19th century,has many comments on China and quotations of Chinese classical works in his essays,speeches and diaries.Emerson's changes in his attitude towards China can be regarded as a portrait of the transformation of Chinese culture and civilization in the minds of the American people.Young Emerson vilified and dwarfed China because he regarded China as an object that could meet the needs of the American self-image illusion,and then subsequently deconstructed Chinese image.During this period,he regarded China as an deformed and closed country.Middle-aged Emerson's transformation of Chinese image is more due to the need of building the American spirit and the sense of national identity.He portrays China as an Utopia in spirit,which demonstrates the diversity of Emerson's philosophical needs and the cultural turn beyond the limits of American civilization.