查尔斯·约翰逊对道家思想的运用构成其重要作品《牧牛传说》的一大亮点,也是整个美国非裔文学中的新鲜事物。为了打破传统奴隶叙事对自由的狭隘界定,他在《牧牛传说》中有意借鉴道家、尤其是庄子有关绝对精神自由的思想来深化人们对自由的认识。虽然他在表现睿伯的道家自由精神时带有明显的矛盾性,但他的创作意图本来就不是历史现实主义,而是充满宗教与伦理内涵的黑人哲理小说。他尝试把道家思想运用到美国黑人文学中的意义值得肯定。 Charles Johnson’s use of Taoism constitutes a major highlight of his cowboy tale and is a novelty in African American literature as a whole. In order to break the narrow definition of freedom in the traditional slave narration, he deliberately borrowed from the Taoists in the “Cattle Legends,” and especially Zhuangzi’s idea of ​​absolute spiritual freedom to deepen people’s understanding of freedom. Although he is clearly contradictory in his performance of the Taoist spirit of freedom, his intention of creation was not historical realism at all, but a black philosophical novel full of religious and ethical connotations. The significance of his attempt to apply Taoism to Afro-American literature is worthy of recognition.