| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 外國語文學系碩博士班 === 93 === Nature poetry developed late in both the Chinese and Western traditions. From its subordinate role to its independent status, “nature” in Chinese and Western poetry has undergone the intermediate stages of serving as a tool for God and man. In the Book of Poetry in ancient China, the natural phenomena were endowed with heavenly will, or served poets for their ability to inspire their aspirations or feelings through poetic devices such as “description, metaphor, or association,” and thus explore subject matters such as the heavenly will or worldly life. As to the representative literature in Southern ancient China, The Elegies of the State of Chu, whether representing the real natural scenery, or the projection of the poet’s imaginative landscape, focused on reflecting or emphasizing the poet’s subjective, intense and smoldering emotions. “Han Fu” inherited the tradition of imaginative landscapes seen in The Elegies of the State of Chu, while its subject matter had shifted, and was restricted to the imperial affairs. Landscape in “Han Fu” had only become the scenery depicted by the pen, or landscape portrayed at the desk, flashy and without substance. The inheritance of the fanciful landscape remained in Wei-Jin “Poetry about Immortals” and “Metaphysical Poetry.” But the chaotic political conditions and the tumultuous human affairs of the age had shifted poetic subject matter from secular fame and success to the more elevated realm of celestial immortals and the ultimate Truth. Until Xie Ling-yun’s pure and exquisite landscape poetry, “nature” had not achieved its independent role in the long history of Chinese literature.
Let’s next consider Western culture. Whether in the Greek-Roman tradition or under the Christian theological system, the subordinate status of “nature” was fixed systematically and theoretically. Under the classical Greek-Roman philosophical system, nature was only the copy of the ultimate Platonic ideal behind the phenomenal universe, and artistic works were sometimes despised as only the copy of copy. An ideal natural scene should have the attributes of a Platonic ideal; that is: harmony, balance, moderation, and the golden mean. Under Christian theology, nature was viewed as a symbol of the sinful world and of human original sin. Parallel with the classical Greek-Roman inheritance, “nature” in medieval literature was endowed with didactic and allegorical connotations. With the revival of Longinus’ aesthetics of the “sublime,” and the rise of the European Grand Tour, Romantic landscape poetry finally came into being.
Chinese traditional humanism provides one standpoint to compare Chinese landscape poetry with Wordsworth’s humanistic landscape poetry. Wordsworth’s humane ideal, and his “wisely passive” outlook on nature and human life further echo Chinese Taoist and (Zen) Buddhist philosophies. Likewise, Wordsworth’s harmonious outlook on nature and man, he has many echoes of the Chinese poet Tao Yuan-ming’s pastoral writings one thousand years ago.
As a matter of fact, the Western metaphysical inheritance was not completely overturned until subversive and revolutionary Modernism. Wordsworth’s humanistic landscape poetry in the preceding Romantic period failed to release nature from God and humanism into an independent status, and while his aspiration to write humanistic landscape poetry was unprecedented in his own culture, it had close links with ancient Chinese culture in a peculiarly intimate way.
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