Emily Dickinson は1846年15歳の時、Chinese Museum を見学した際、展示物よりも元阿片患者の中国人ガイドが語った、阿片中毒克服のため彼等が行った“self denial ” に興味を抱いた。既に中国についての知識があった故に派手な展示物に目を奪われることなく、そのような精神的なものに興味を引かれたに違いない。当時の米国における中国についての情報源を調べたところ、彼女はキリスト教宣教師、ボストンの貿易業者、米国の政治家から成る、東洋進出を狙う共同体という環境に育ち、宣教師の情報誌the Missionary Herald やthe Chinese Repository 等を通して中国についての情報が身近にあり、仏教や阿片貿易による悲劇等についての知識も得ていた可能性が高い。アマストでの宗教復興運動の最中、宗教告白できず鬱状態になっていた時に“self denial ” に出会ったため、その体験は彼女の心の奥に根付いたと思われる。その影響はすぐには現れなくとも、中国の歴史や思想についての知識と相まって、後の隠遁という生き方や、「沈黙」や「無」等、詩の中に見られる否定的概念を高く評価する考え方に現れたものと思われる（否定的概念については拙著Emily Dickinson’s Marble Disc で論じている。）。

When Emily Dickinson visited the Chinese Museum in Boston at the age of fifteen in 1846, she must have already known a great deal about Chinese culture and history, so she was perhaps less interested in the magnificent Chinese exhibits than in the explanation given by two Chinese guides and ex-opium smokers of the “self denial ” way of conquering opium addiction.An investigation of the sources of information about China, especially about Buddhism, available in the United States in the early nineteenth century, reveals that Christian missionaries sent back information on Eastern thought such as Buddhism and Confucianism through their bulletins: the Missionary Herald from the 1820s and the Chinese Repository from the 1830s. The poet grew up among Boston traders, Christian missionaries, and American politicians, who cooperated in order to further the expansion into China: Boston traders wanted free trade with China, missionaries wanted to save Chinese souls, and American politicians wanted to establish diplomatic relations with China. So Dickinson would have been familiar with Chinese culture and history, including the tragedy caused by opium.Dickinson came across “self denial ” while she was staying with her aunt in Boston to throw off the depression that was caused in part by being unable to make a confession in the religious revivals in Amherst. The idea of “self denial ” must have taken deep root in her mind. Its influence did not appear immediately, but became apparent later with her knowledge of Eastern thought and the history of China, in her choice of seclusion in her later life and in her evaluation of negatives such as “silence” and “nothingness” found in her poetry (I discuss this in my book Emily Dickinson’s Marble Disc: A Poetics of Renunciation and Science.).