Ever since the Frenchman Montaigne founded Essai in the 16th century, this exquisite style of knowledge and life experience has continued to exert great influence around the world, just as Francis Bacon's all-encompassing argumentative essays on British culture, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche's speculative and in-depth philosophical and aesthetic essays on German culture, Lu Xun's essays on social criticism and reflection on reality on Chinese culture... More importantly, the classic works of all these essay masters have transcended the scope of a single country and nation and become an important ideological and spiritual resource to promote the progress of human civilization. If you're looking for a master essayist who had a major impact on American culture, Ralph Waldo Emerson is almost the only answer. The spiritual leader of the famous American President Abraham Lincoln called "Confucius of america", with his heart to follow the master Montaigne founded the essay style, played a vital role in the formation of American native culture and the shaping of the American spirit, and declared the birth of American individualism from philosophy and culture.
Portrait of Emerson
On Self-Help: The Narrative of American Individualism
In 1836, just the year after the French young Tocqueville published the first part of "Democracy in the United States", in Concord, Boston, on the other side of the Atlantic, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and others organized the "Transcendentalism Club", which began in New England for about a decade, triggered the New England Renaissance movement, and made Transcendentalism the first important cultural movement in the United States. In this movement, Emerson's "Nature" was the most influential, which established his reputation in American literature. The following year, Emerson delivered his famous speech,"The American Scholar," which Was called america's "Declaration of Independence of Thought" by the famous American writer and Harvard Professor Holmes. In 1841, Emerson wrote and published the most important essay of his life, Self-reliance, which became the tone of the opening of American individualism.
Emerson's Essays
The concept of individualism, which came from Europe and has long been used as a derogatory term, was brought to the North American continent by early colonists, and in the practice of long-term territorial expansion, in the vision of an ideal state of "city on the top of the mountain", it was gradually given new and positive connotations, and became a widely recognized and deeply rooted value in American society. That is to say, no country in history has ever been born with the individual embedded in the center of all values, and the composition of a country's political system has been based on individual rights — a unique concept of American-style democracy. It was Emerson, for the first time, who, in the form of a cultural manifesto, raised American individualism to the level of thought and the guide of the national spirit. He saw the individual as sacred and unique, and to recognize, respect, and preserve the uniqueness of the individual, not to go against his own nature. He wrote:
A real person does not belong to other time and space, but to the center of all things. ...... Man must be so independent that everything around him appears irrelevant. Every true person is a cause, a country, an era.
This idea of a man in capital letters is very similar to that of a man of the European Renaissance. As we all know, the Renaissance movement opened the prelude to modern European society by the awakening of people, and the New England Renaissance advocated by Emerson opened the precedent of American native culture. This reverence for the sanctity and power of the individual clearly bears the characteristics of Renaissance giants and coincides with the enterprising spirit of the American ascent period. In contrast to the philosophy of Eastern culture that emphasizes conformity to nature and the smoothness of time, Emerson's emphasis on insisting on individual characteristics is the essence of individualism, which will be fully interpreted in the subsequent development of American individualism.
As the so-called "heaven helper self-helper", Emerson's discovery of self is based on a core concept - self-help. It includes self-trust, self-reliance, self-responsibility, self-help, etc., which is an important feature of American individualism, which is very different from the traditional concept of "relying on parents at home and relying on friends when going out" that Chinese are accustomed to. Emerson saw self-reliance as the highest manifestation of individual ability: "Those who are always welcomed by God and man are those who help themselves. All the doors were open for him, all the words were paying tribute to him, all the laurels of honor were awarded to him, and all eyes followed him eagerly. Thus, self-help becomes the basis for self-actualization and success, a way for individuals to get along with the world, and self-help is both self-responsible and responsible for others. It can be said that the individual's responsibility for the self and the autonomy and self-reliance in action are the most American characteristics and the most valuable points of American individualism.
Obviously, this self-help spirit has brought two major positives to American culture: self-confidence and aggressiveness. Because it is less constrained by theocracy and feudal suppression, American individualism does not need to invest much energy in the confrontation between human nature and theocracy and authority, but directly enters the practical link of individual pursuit and personal value. Emerson lived in an era when the United States was expanding its territory and pursuing national independence, which made Americans pay special attention to those individual heroes who single-handedly broke through the rivers and lakes or realized the "American Dream" through self-struggle. Thus, American individualism has always been an enterprising, action-oriented, self-fulfilling, expansive individualism, as Emerson's heroic declaration: "I must be myself." I can no longer ruin myself for you or anyone else. Emerson's individualistic ideas reflected the general sentiment of Americans of that era.
This explains why, in our view, the United States has always been an indifferent society, because the sacred individual is not allowed to be violated by anyone, even his family members: "I will not sell my freedom and strength to take care of their feelings." "It's a pretty strong, and typically American, personal statement. This emphasis on the individual, which transcends any concept of individual-group relationship, has become a value unique to American society. Understanding this, we can understand why American literature and film and television works will go out of their way to create so many individual heroes, who are not only beyond the ability of others, but even beyond the ability of the government, to become lone heroes who save society and mankind. At the time, the real-life version of this lone hero was Emerson's great friend, Henry David Thoreau, a Walden hermit who voluntarily went to jail to protest against the U.S. invasion of Mexico that most people had passed and refused to pay the poll tax. He made a proposition that still seems very forward-looking today: the individual is more important than the group. Emerson once said: There is no more authentic American than Thoreau.
Missing Certain Strings: A Landscape of American Culture
American culture has been criticized for its shallow cultural heritage and short history of nationhood, but this has completed American history and culture on the other hand: less traditions to follow, means less rules and regulations, less government intervention, and no established model, which is providing a godsend for the development of many things. Thus, the spirit and ideas advocated by Emerson in "On Self-Help" were able to take root and spread in this new continent, and this individualistic spirit made Americans prefer to be independent of others, rely on themselves, and decide things autonomously.
Yet behind the seemingly vibrant, self-motivated American culture, there has always been a potential and dangerous sense of blurred boundaries that has fundamentally shaped the landscape of American culture. A very simple truth is that individualism and egoism are only one step away, and self-confidence and conceit are not far away. In fact, this was profoundly evident in the American intellectual elite after the mid-19th century. In this regard, the famous American novelist Henry James through a series of outstanding psychoanalytic novels (especially represented by his peak trilogy "Pigeon Wings", "Envoys" and "Golden Bowl") showed the style of the American elite of that era: they had a blind eye on European culture, and many cultured Americans were like laymen who could not truly understand and appreciate European culture, and even held a ridiculous rejection and rejection psychology to varying degrees, reflecting the typical ignorance and conservatism of Americans. Unfortunately, this ignorance and conservatism was no exception even in Emerson. Once, when Henry James accompanied Emerson on a tour of the famous Louvre in Paris, he wrote with emotion afterwards:
I was amazed at how such an elegant, intelligent man behaved so unusually ignorantly next to a work of art. More precisely, he was completely missing some strings, and the tunes of life and literature were played only on the remaining strings.
The Envoy
In fact, this reality of "missing certain strings" is pervasive among American intellectuals and elites, and it constitutes the basic landscape of American culture. Imagine if Americans reject their own maternal culture, European culture, then the rejection of other regional cultures is even more conceivable, and Indian culture and black African culture as conquered cultures cannot be respected in this country that demands individual freedom and rights.
Therefore, although Emerson was very fond of European culture and even Chinese culture, he always maintained a certain attitude of examination and reflection on these cultures. Emerson's sense of mission to urgently establish a nationally independent culture overwhelmed his attempts to assimilate European culture without hesitation, as he shouted in his essay "American Scholars": "The days when we cling to others, our long apprenticeship with other countries has come to an end." All around us, millions of people are rushing to the torrent of life, and they cannot forever rely on the scraps of food harvested from abroad to feed their souls. "However, an apprentice who lacks a long period of in-depth study, inquiry, transformation and absorption of European and other cultures is doomed to go far with a spirit of self-help and enterprising. Like a seven-stringed piano with only five strings, many pieces of music cannot be played.
Today, Henry James's masterpieces of fiction have gained a worldwide reputation, and he uses his calm and objective brushstrokes to reflect the differences in American culture, including its strengths and weaknesses. In this regard, the famous British writer and literary critic Graham Green spoke highly of the founder of American modernist literature: "Henry James's position in the history of the novel is as solid as Shakespeare's position in the history of poetry. However, in that special era of pioneering land, Henry James was misunderstood for being superstitious about European culture, and Emerson naturally stood out in line with the historical trend. In On Self-Help, Emerson, with his eagerness and enthusiasm for establishing american independent culture, criticizes Americans who are superstitious about foreign cultures (and also includes self-criticism of self-reflection): "It is precisely because of the rush to make up for the lack of self-cultivation that people blindly superstitiously believe in tourism, and worship Italy, England, and Egypt as gods, and all educated Americans have always remained fanatical about it. ”
Qian Mansu, Emerson and China: Reflections on Individualism
It is this rejection of European maternal culture that makes American culture have obvious simplistic and quick-fix tendencies both at the beginning and today, and the problems exposed by this innate lack of nutrition are gradually being amplified. It seems inevitable that American individualism in the process of cultural construction has slid into the expansion of individual consciousness, blind self-confidence and arrogance, which in turn has led to the narrowness of self-consciousness, making it often unable to see the uniqueness, rationality and excellence of other cultures, and unwilling to contact and learn from other cultures. This was particularly evident in the formative years of American culture, and in the history that followed it did not improve further, but continued to evolve in the direction of being exalted for me.
Absurdity: Another Trend toward Individualism
It must be acknowledged that individualism, when combined with the national independence and development of the United States, played a positive role at the beginning of the founding of the country. Emerson's principle of individual self-help advocated by Emerson's individualist ideas greatly stimulated the will and strength of the individual, shaping the american culture's high emphasis on individual strength, the promotion of individual heroism, the pursuit of individual progress, struggle, and success, and the individual's ability to confront groups, governments, power, and unjust rules. This set of values combined with the adventurous spirit and practical spirit of the early North American colonists to open up the territory and form an individualistic value centered on the self-help and enterprising of individual life, which is undoubtedly a shot in the arm for a nascent nation.
Harold Bloom, The Writer and the Prophet
However, when this gradually expanding individualistic value is presented through the face of the state subject, it is inevitable that a sense of power will arise, and it is almost inevitable that an instrument that "lacks certain strings" will eventually play absurd music. In fact, this blind and optimistic expansion of individual consciousness in the face of the state can be seen in Emerson's essays--this is really the general mentality of American society from the elite to the masses at that time. For better or worse, Emerson's influence on American culture and society was profound, as Harold Bloom brilliantly commented: "Emerson is the embodiment of America, more like a perpetual weather—foggy rather than fleeting fog." In "The Young American," Emerson wrote:
In this world, there is a leading nation in every age—a nation more magnanimous than any other people, and among them the good citizens are willing to express support for universal justice and humanity, even willing to be called arrogant by the people of the time. What nation other than ours can take on the role of leader? Who else but New England can lead the movement? Who can guide the leader's steps except young Americans?
When we travel through the dust of history and look back and examine this saintly "Confucius of America" again, we see the amazing knowledge, talent and passion in him, and at the same time see his blindness, conceit and even arrogance as the general public. Ironically, Emerson's words—especially the arrogant triplet—are a striking portrayal of the image of America today, and the lines are extremely accurate depictions of the American sense of hegemony and innate superiority that existed in the bones of the Americans from the beginning. With the continuous strengthening of the United States, this deeply buried sense of global leadership gradually took root, sprouted and produced results, and the United States, with its self-discovery and overly optimistic affirmation, believed that it could become a model for the world, and shaped a set of American liberal democratic values into universal laws to promote to the world. Whether Emerson could have foreseen it or not, this individualist idea he advocated had already jumped from the personal and social categories to the national level, thus forming a kind of "national individualism", which appeared as an American-style solipsism and hegemonism.