论文总字数：32254字

摘 要

人与自然的关系问题是人类文明和文化发展的核心问题,当提到人与自然，陶渊明和梭罗是不可被忽略的。陶渊明和梭罗是中西方文人逸士的典型代表，本文以他们的隐逸诉求为切入口，从社会背景，隐逸动机，方式和追求等方面窥探出中西方两种不同文明下人与自然关系的异同，同时“天人合一”和“天人相分”的传统哲学理念也在本文中进行了研究。本文旨在推动多元文化的交流和沟通并且唤起人们对人与自然关系问题的关注。从而使我们在面对人与自然问题时能够相互学习，共同追求人与自然的和谐。

关键词：人与自然；陶渊明；梭罗；隐逸；跨文化

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

3. Different Relations of Man and Nature from the Different Demands of Reclusion 2

3.1 Different Social Background, Different Drives of Life Choices 2

3.2 Different Styles of Reclusion, Different Attitudes Towards Nature 5

4. Similarities and Differences of the Relationship Between Man and Nature 7

4.1 Similarities 7

4.2 Differences 8

4.3 Causes of the Differences 10

5. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 13

1. Introduction

The relationship between man and nature is a universal theme, and many people in the history have shown deep concern for it. Some wrote poetry or prose to speak high of nature; some returned to live in the countryside or by the lake to enjoy the life of reclusion and so on. No matter what they do, the main purpose of making all these attempts is to maintain the harmony between man and nature. When it comes to the theme of man and nature, Tao Yuanming and Henry David Thoreau have always been noticed of. According to some well-known scholars’ research results over these years, we can see that most of them take Tao yuanming or Thoreau as the sole object of study in terms of literature while few of them take a deeper intercultural study in the relation between man and nature through comparing such two hermits. This paper takes Tao Yuanming and Thoreau’s different reclusive lives as the breakthrough point to explore similarities and differences of the relation between man and nature in Chinese and Western culture and to study the traditional concepts and philosophy of nature in two different civilizations. It also deeply analyzes the backgrounds and the causes of their claim to reclusion from the point of individual and society. With the systematic study into Tao yuanming and Thoreau, this paper takes a new look at the relationships of man and nature, and it aims to promote the development of relationships between man and nature and finally to realize the harmony of man and nature.

2. Literature Review

Numerous scholars have done a lot of meaningful researches on the relation between man and nature from various standpoints over these years. Wang Jiyan’s paper, “The harmonious unity of heaven and man---the Comparative Study of the ecological thought of Thoreau’s and the ‘Harmony between man and nature’ Concept” (Wang Jiyan, 2009: 1), and Wang Xiaohua, Han Dexin’s paper (Wang Xiaohua amp; Han Dexin, 2011: 64), respectively analyze the relationship between man and nature from the perspective of ecological ethics and cultural diversity in Chinese and Western civilization. Meanwhile some other related researches such as Wang Dongyan’s “Nature and Human Relation Revealed in Chinese and Western Natural Works” (Wang Dongyan, 2006: 140) and Li Jing’s paper---“Thoreau’s View on the Relation between Man and Nature” (Li Jing, 2009: 84), are mostly centered on the literary works of nature. All in all, on the study of man and nature, many scholars have explored a lot from the aspects of religion, philosophy, ecology and aesthetics, etc.

When it comes to man and nature, the academics of “naturalism” who make a difference to the field of man and nature have been attracting much attention of the academia all the time, and Tao Yuanming or Thoreau is no other than the typical representative of those academics of “naturalism”. The studies of Tao Yuanming or Thoreau are mostly individualized or single while fewer put them together to do a systematic contrastive research, and even so, are mostly the studies of similarities of their views on nature. Li Jie studies Tao yuanming’s and Thoreau’s different thoughts and feelings during their reclusive lives from their simple life styles and the pursuit of “simplicity”, then “find out the inspired ideas through the communication between the different cultures of America and China” in her paper “From the Claim to ‘Simple’ of Henry David Thoreau and Tao Yuanming to See Their ‘Recluse’” (Li Jie, 2007: 136). In addition, Pu Lixin and Su Minghai’s paper (Pu Lixin amp; Su Minghai, 2005: 71) and Wang Yongxia’s paper---“Encountering in Contemplation on Nature: A Comparative Study on Tao Yuanming and Thoreau’s Conception of Nature” (Wang Yongxia, 2007: 1) compare Tao yuanming’s and Thoreau’s natural views from the perspective of ecological aesthetics.

3. Different Relations of Man and Nature from the Different Demands of Reclusion

3.1 Different Social Backgrounds, Different Drives of Life Choices

3.1.1 Disdain the Merit and Fame

Tao Yuanming is the first pastoral poet in Chinese literature history, known as “the master of ancient and modern reclusion poets” (Zhong Rong, 1994: 260). Tao Yuanming"s act of reclusion shows his own personality and also reflects a certain social background.

Tao Yuanming lived in late Jin Dynasty where political environment was very complex when the government was going from bad to worse. At that time, the dynasty was declining and the officialdom’s career was dark and depressing, and the officials in pursuit of fame were caught up by it. Tao Yuanming"s great-grandfather Tao Kan was one of the founding heroes of Jin Dynasty, but he was scorned as a creep and an ambitious usurper by the powerful family of Wang and Xie. Although they were among the feudal upper class, yet they couldn’t share equalities with Wang or Xie Family just because they were born in poverty, without the support of powerful family. However unlike any other impoverished family, Tao family had their own principles and dignity, which led to the embarrassment of Tao Yuanming’s official career.

At the early time, Tao Yuanming was eager to make progress in his official career through trying again and again, but the ups and downs of official life totally disappointed him. It was both the Confucian spirit and Taoist spirit that played a leading role in his official career, but the endless contradictions between the spiritual world and secular society made Tao Yuanming confused and finally in the dilemma of being an official and reclusion from being an official.

At the later stage of his official career, Tao Yuanming chose to preserve his own purity to face the change of political situation and the darkness of officialdom. The allusion “cannot make curtsies for the salary of five bushels of rice” shows that Tao Yuanming was incompatible with the foul officialdom and he thoroughly realized it had violated his holy character and the desire for natural life. So he resigned from office resolutely and lived a cloistered life. The poem below shows his true feeling.

“I must return----

My fields are filled weeds: why not return?

My heart in service to my frame was pressed,

Why am I grieving, lonely and distressed?

I know that to regret the past in vain,

And may alone with years that still remain;

Indeed I have not wandered far astray,

And now am right though erring yesterday…” (Yang Xianyi, 1993: 118-119)

Between the pursuit of merit and fame and maintaining his independent personality, he resolutely chose “cannot make curtsies for the salary of five bushels of rice”. Then he retired from public life to live in mountains and plains. “When fine nets are fashioned, the fish are startled; when wide snares are framed, the birds are frightened. Then excellent perception of the man of understanding makes him flee from emolument and turn to farming.” (Davis. A. R, Vol.1: 178) In bureaucratic era, the morals and values are corroded by fame, so Tao Yuanming chose to return to nature to seek the unity of the spirit and personality. In a word, Tao Yuanming’s choice of reclusion is mainly caused by an urge to hold the ground for his independent selfhood and to stick to his bottom line in the corrupt officialdom.

3.1.2 Oppose the “Vanity Fair”

Henry David Thoreau is the 19th century American transcendental ideologist and writer. Thoreau’s “reclusion” life in Walden Lake opened up the practice of returning to nature.

Thoreau lived in commercial age regarding money as foremost. People fully enjoyed the convenience brought by the industrial revolution. But for Thoreau, the industrial revolution not only brought benefits, but also brought negative effects. The development and utilization of natural resources were destroying the original ecological balance. In the unscrupulous capitalism society, people turned out to be the slave of the machine, being busy and getting lost. Sick of this kind of lifestyle, Thoreau could not help asking “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?” (Thoreau, 2010: 94)

Thoreau resolutely chose to live as a solitary by Walden to stay away from the unscrupulous society which is just like the so-called “vanity fair”. Compared with Tao Yuanming, Thoreau"s choice seems to be more resolute and decisive on account that he is a pioneer of American Transcendentalism who advocates a simple way of life in nature and he views the nature life as equal with human life, cherishes them as his lovers. The driving force which puts his concept into practice is his belief in nature. “I prefer to view people as the denizens of nature, or a part of nature, rather than as a part of a society” (Thoreau, 1906: 539) Thoreau"s belief is returning to nature and finding true self in nature, meanwhile the experience of reclusion coordinated his behavior with his beliefs, and it also answered the call of his own heart. Different from Tao Yuanming’s breaking free from personality imprison of feudal society, Thoreau just wanted to put his lofty ideal into practice by escaping from the utilitarianism of the capitalist society.

3.2 Different Styles of Reclusion, Different Attitudes Towards Nature

3.2.1 Tao Yuanming"s Idyll

Tao Yuanming lived in the era of agricultural civilization. In the agricultural society, people are strongly dependent on the nature and the relationship between man and nature is relatively harmonious.

A distant village gleams beneath the sun,

While smoke from nearby huts hangs in the breeze；

A dog is barking in the alley deep,

A cock crows from the clump of mulberry trees. (Yang Xianyi, 1993: 18)

In Tao Yuanming"s pastoral, man and nature achieve an ideal state of harmony. Tao Yuanming tried to keep the original beauty and simplicity of the relationship between man and nature in his pastoral life, and as far as he was concerned, the meaning of “nature” is not only the natural world but also a state of mind. He followed his heart freely to return to nature without any fetter of the merit and fame and to grasp the essence of life from nature with a natural state of mind.

While picking asters neath the Eastern fence,

My gaze upon the Southern mountain rests;

The mountain views are good by day or night,

The birds come flying homeward to their nests. (Yang Xianyi, 1993: 56)

The chrysanthemum, the southern mountain, the sunset, the birds and the poet are all together in the same picture vividly without any disharmonious feelings, and it fully embodies the “oneness of man and nature”. The charm of Tao Yuanming’s literary works is mostly the perfect fusion of man and nature in an unconscious and natural way. If Henry David Thoreau"s returning contains the meaning of experimental trial, then Tao Yuanming"s seclusion is to put himself into nature in a real sense, both his body and soul.

It is the sense of harmony we can see from his poems that embodies the dependence and fusion between man and nature in the farming civilization and reflects his peculiar emotional attitude of agricultural civilization. There is no doubt that Tao"s thought contains the Confucian concept of “nature and humanity”. And his way to integrate into nature is so natural as to achieve the highest state of unity of man and nature.

3.2.2 Thoreau’s Lake

Thoreau lived in the in the middle of the 19th century in America - during the initial stage of industrialization. Social economy developed rapidly. Mercantilism and the pursuit of material interest became the mainstream values of social development. At the same time, mechanization and large-scale mining industry caused enormous damage to natural environment. Thoreau strongly condemned the industrialization process which paid less attention to the environment or the harmony of man and ecological environment.

“Now the trunks of trees on the bottom, and the old log canoe, and the dark surrounding woods, are gone, and the villager, who scarcely know where it lies, instead of going to the pond to bathe or drink, are thinking to bring its water, which should be as sacred as the Ganges at least, to the village in a pipe, to wash their dishes with!—to earn their Walden by the turning of a cock or drawing of a plug! That devilish Iron Horse, whose ear-rending neigh is heard throughout the town, has muddied the Boiling Spring with his foot, and he it is that has browsed off all the woods on Walden shore, that Trojan horse, with a thousand men in his belly, introduced by mercenary Greeks! Where is the country’s champion, the Moore of Moore Hill, to meet him at the Deep Cut and thrust an avenging lance between the ribs of the bloated pest” (Thoreau, 2010: 195).

From the view of Thoreau, all lives of nature have their own survival rights and freedom without any human intervention or even man-made destruction, and such distinctive ecological concept of Thoreau determines his real intention of seclusion which not only to display the beauty of nature, but mostly to criticize the bad result on environment caused by the industrial civilization. The relationship of man and nature in the period of industrial revolution in his literary works was totally different from that of Tao Yuanming’s era. Thus it can be seen that Thoreau escaped from the life of industrial civilization to return to nature with the style of simplified living and with the realization to criticize the status of contemporary society and to seek the authenticity of human nature, and also to explore the relationship between man and nature in a harmonious way.

Based on the current situation, Thoreau boldly practiced in Walden lake “reclusion”, in order to show his criticism and reflection on the general mood of society. “The present was my next experiment of this kind, which I purpose to describe more at length, for convenience putting the experience of two years into one. As I have said, I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.” (Thoreau, 2010: 85). Thoreau’s integration into nature is more like a kind of reflection and exploration of man and nature relations in current industrial civilization, “with consciously connotation of the ecological criticism”. (Wang Yongxia, 2007: 25)

As Thoreau referred in the Walden “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what I had to teach, and when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear: nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life…” (Thoreau, 2010: 394). It shows that Thoreau rethought in the industrial civilization and then integrated into nature in the way of simplifying life, to seek the authenticity of human nature.

4. Similarities and Differences of the Relationship Between Man and Nature

4.1 Similarities

Although Tao Yuanming is under the influence of Confucianism, Taoism and the metaphysics of Wei-Jin, North-South Dynasties while Thoreau inherited the essence of American transcendentalism, yet they held the same view on the relationship between man and nature that both of them should coexist in great harmony. They think that respecting the nature or returning to nature is the best way to prevent people from “alienation” and the best state of the relationship between man and nature is harmonious coexistence.

Thoreau wrote in Walden, “I was as near being resolved into the essence of things as ever I was in my life. I fear my thoughts will not come back to me. If it would do any good, I would whistle for them. When they make us an offer is it wise to say, we will think of it? My thoughts have left no track, and I cannot find the path again.” (Thoreau, 2010: 226-227). The feeling called “being resolved into the essence of things” of Thoreau is undoubtedly an authentic description of what the relationship between man and nature should be in Thoreau’s view. It is not just Thoreau’s personal living experience, but also an innovation of the ways of living in the industrial age. It is the rethink of the relationship between man and nature in the western society, which is about how to realize the “harmonious coexistence” between man and nature.

Tao Yuanming is under the influence of “oneness of man and nature” from Confucianism which is the mainstream of the relationship between man and nature in ancient China. So his attitudes towards nature are all about the harmony between man and nature. “In Chinese traditional culture and philosophy, the relationship between man and nature is not confrontational and conflicting, but harmonious. Man is a part of nature and the glory and honor of nature....” (Liu Lan, 2010: 54)

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