With the rapid development of economy and technology, as well as the endless emergence of new types of media, people’s life is being filled up and time is being wasted. The truth is that people seem to be difficult to hold on their positions in the flood of explosive information and goods, and finally get lost in consumerism and materialism. It’s getting harder for people to achieve tranquility or retain an ideal spiritual world. Thus, people are getting further involved in spiritual hollowness and belief crisis. Meanwhile, this situation might have already led individuals or even the whole society to the absence of moral bottom line.

To make things worse, most of people don't seem to have realized that they are stepping farther away from their soul , even have forgotten that there is still a spiritual land waiting for them, or simply rely themselves mentally on junk information or blind consumption. Even the only remaining spiritual oasis has being invaded by consumerism and materialism, which were advocated by profit-seeking corporations. As time goes by, people will lose their own values and sense of judgment and be trapped in the spiritual wasteland.

It’s human nature that people are motivated more spiritually than by the outside stuff. A fundamental alteration will never take place if there are only rigidity of institution and law to effect the public. Therefore, an effective remedy, namely, a spiritual oasis should be found for people. The nineteenth century American transcendentalism, which addresses intelligence, spiritual world and moral, advocates individual feelings and experiences rather than mere ration, might be able to blow fresh air to the copper stink blundering society. And among those transcendentalist figures, Henry David Thoreau, the practitioner of transcendentalism, by his two years of experimental life by Walden lake, had presented people a new possibility ——a novel life notion, a simple life style which is on the contrary to the colorful modern material life. It is all about recovering one's original simplicity and backing to the nature.

Some researches and studies about Walden have been done in various aspect. The article “Henry David Thoreau’s Anti‐Work Spirituality and a New Theological Ethic of Work” by Jonathan Malesic had studied the theological ethic and anti-work position suggested in Walden, that is, Thoreau’s outline of a transformed theology of work even as he challenges Protestant vocationalism in the early industrial era.

It is also analyzed through eco-criticism in “The Contemporary Value of Ecological Literature and Ecocriticism” by Yuechuan Wang, Beijing University, which holds the idea that modern spiritual wasteland and consumerism made people tangled in modern crisis---both eco-crisis and spiritual crisis. Moreover，it discussed the ideas in Walden which can inform people the spiritual significance that ecology can project on human being. Also, it discussed the relations between Walden and environmental conservation，mainly focuses on the man-made environmental problem, advocating people to live harmoniously with nature, by which people will be both physically and mentally benefited.

“Thoreau in the 21st Century” by William E. Cain, Wellesley College, prompts people to think more deeply about and reassess this complex person and challenging writer. Study in this aspect gives the readers access to futher understand Thoreau’s expectations on the public.

This paper referred to existing researches about Thoreau, transcendentalism, Emerson and their connections with nature, and human-nature relationships, combining some analysis about modern social problems including excessive consumerism and belief crisis. It discusses about modern people, especially the faith of Chinese people (except for Marxism) and their spiritual states. Tracing back to the nineteenth century American Romanticism, the paper is trying to find out how does the idea in Walden, Thoreau and Transcendentalism fit the modern spiritual crisis and try to come up with one of the solutions to solve it. However, different people has different opinions and ideals. The simplicity in Walden and Thoreau is not suitable to everyone, but it is still a way，which is found to sooth modern people and modern world.

The existing papers and articles about spiritual situations in China always have something to do with Marxism or Socialism, however, this paper will not involve it as for no matter where people come from or what kind of value a society holds, the spirit matter which rooted deeply in the mind of either human or human society is universal.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

This paper mainly deals with how to remit modern spiritual crisis by studying Walden—-the master work of the nineteenth century American romantic writer Henry David Thoreau. In order to study the topic more thoroughly, the paper will involve issues about the current situation of spiritual and belief crisis, the impact that consumerism poses on people, and people’s happiness and moral values, all of which are able to reflect current social problems. In addition, the paper deals with the principal part of society—- the public, about the study of psychology of the masses, including how the mass influence others or being influenced and driven. The references and data will be gathered and sorted from literature works, treaties, surveys and current news.

The study about the work Walden itself will combine with the life of Thoreau, his thoughts and other major works, for instance, The Civil Disobedience. It will also discuss American transcendentalism, including its features and its great representative Ralph Waldo Emerson. Because the concept of transcendentalism will help to illustrate the ideas of Walden and Thoreau better. The differences and similarities of social background between that time and present is also worth studying. The main way to get resources and references will be reading articles and treaties, literature works, and some reference books.