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A Comparative Study of Nature's Subjectivity in Walden and Tang Poems
SHANG Yun-ying
(Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China)
Abstract: Thoreau's Walden and Chinese Tang Poems both attach great importance to nature, devoting large paragraphs to the depiction
of it. The significance of this phenomenon is discussed in this paper. Based on the method of close reading and comparative study, it is
found that nature, portrayed by Thoreau and Tang poets share one important character, that is, nature assumes subjectivity as an individual
being.
Key words: nature; subjectivity; Walden; Tang Poems; close reading; comparative study
中图分类号：I106
文献标识码：A
文章编号：1009-5039(2012)07-0207-02
In recent years, with the deterioration of ecological crisis and
development of ecocriticism, Thoreau's major work Walden has
drawn more and more attention from the public and the academic
world.
While at home, due to the scholars' late awakening to the eco⁃
critical tendency, some articles and books just focus on the general
introduction of ecocriticism, among which is Professor Lu Shuyu⁃
an's The Space for Ecocriticism and Chen Maoshu's Peotic Dwelling:
An Ecological Study of Henry David Thoreau, in which when he talk⁃
ed about the origin of Thoreau's ecological ides, he identified four
major elements, among which is the"oriental culture"(Chen 68). Ac⁃
tually, this influence of oriental culture on Thoreau's idea, for exam⁃
ple, the Confucianism and Taoism has become a heated topic of
many articles in China. Other articles have been written to compare
and contrast Thoreau and Tao Yuanming's, who was a famous poet
in East Jin dynasty, their outlook on nature, and their advocacy of
returning to nature.
Since there are a large number of articles written about
the similarities and differences between Thoreau and Yao Yuan⁃
ming, Thoreau's views of nature and ancient Chinese thinking, this
paper will not dwell on these topics. Instead, this paper aims at a
comparative study of the depiction of nature in Walden and Tang po⁃
ems. The reason to choose Tang poems as a contrast is that in Tang
poems, nature is abundantly depicted and as a result assumes an un⁃
precedented role in expressing poets' emotions and that nature be⁃
gins to have its own subjectivity, which is also the focus of this pa⁃
per: the treatment of nature as a subject in Walden and Tang poems.
1 Nature as a subject in Walden and Tang poems
In Walden and Tang poems, nature is attributed with human's
characters, which means that nature's owns its subjectivity in
Walden and Tang poems.
Chen Maoshu believes that nature in Walden is"voiced and ar⁃
ticulating"(Chen 89), rather than silenced and dumb, indicating
that nature is able to express itself and communicate with man.
Wang Zhiqing argues in his book The Ecological Poetics in the
Tang Poems that the aesthetics of ecological standard in Tang po⁃
ems emphasizes that"beauty lies in nature"(Wang 142), which has
the following implication that nature is a subject with its own inher⁃
ent values.
Wang Jianjiang claims that nature's subjective existence is
best represented through the interactions between the poets and the
nature (32). That is to say, to convey nature's subjectivity, the beast
way is to treat nature just like another human being and have inter⁃
action with it.
The following is an excerpt from Li Bai's Drinking alone under
the Moon (Xu 161):
Among the flowers, from a pot of wine,
I drink without a companion of mine.
I raise up my cup to invite the moon who bends
Her light with my Shadow and we're three friends…
Sober, we three remain cheerful and gay;
Drunken, we part and each may go his own way…
Here the poet is alone drinking to the moon, treating him as a
friend and subjective person who is expected to respond to the po⁃
et's invitation. The moon is referred to as a"she”, a person. She is
having fun with the poet and may get drunken. Actually, it is not
just the moon, but also the shadow that is given a person's subjectiv⁃
ity. It is another"he/she"in Li Bai's eyes.
In Walden, the most fascinating interaction happens between
Thoreau and a loon: As I was paddling along the north shore one
very calm October afternoon … a loon, suddenly one, sailing out
from the shore toward the middle a few rods in front of me, set up
his wild laugh and betrayed himself (319). At their encounter, Tho⁃
reau refers to the loon as a"he”, a person and hears his laugh. After
their encounter, they begin a seek-and-hide game on the river, dur⁃
ing which the loon laughs at Thoreau's unquestioned defeat for five
times. In Thoreau's description of this competition, the loon is at
the upper hand and he is the protagonist. The loon is not only enter⁃
taining, but is entertained by Thoreau. He also seems to be much
wiser than Thoreau, who looks like a dumb boy in front of the loon's
dexterous skills at hiding. However, despite their competition, no
sense of animosity could be felt but a sense of harmony between
man and nature. What Thoreau seems to express is that humans are
not always superior to animals in nature or nature as a whole and
收稿日期：2012-02-05 修回日期：2012-03-15
作者简介：尚云英（1989-），女，现为厦门大学研究生。
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that humans can learn wisdom from nature.
Other interactions are also depicted in Walden, mainly
in"Brute Neighbors”."Brute"here does not mean cruelty, but na⁃
ture, creatures living in nature and being part of nature. In this part,
Thoreau portrays his interaction with some"not-the-common mice"
(314) and witnesses a battle between two races of ants. This battle
can be read as a symbol and at the same time a irony of the petti⁃
ness of human battles. However, on the other hand, it can be said
that creatures in nature are also capable of feeling hatred and doing
something heroic or stupid, just like humans.
While reading through Tang poems, readers will discover two
main forms of interaction between poets and nature: direct conversa⁃
tion with nature as an active participant, and observation with na⁃
ture being a character whose emotions are actually the projections
of the poets' feelings. Here attributing human beings' feelings to na⁃
ture and regarding it as equal which is capable of expressing its sor⁃
rows and joys is a more complicated and effective way to convey na⁃
ture's subjectivity. Two poems will be given as examples to illus⁃
trate these two forms of interaction: Li Bai's A Reply and Du Fu's
Spring View (the italic part is translated ny the author of this paper).
A Reply
You dwell among green hills, and I wonder why;
You only smile, while giving no reply.
Peach blossoms fallen on running water pass by,
This is an earthly paradise beneath the sky. (Xu 177)
The one that is asked is not definite. However, it is most likely
to be some creatures living in the mountains, among flowers and by
rivers. The poet asks them a question without getting an answer. But
at the end of the poem, the poet has already learned to appreciate
the natural surroundings just like those hermit-like creatures.
Spring View
On war-torn land streams flow and mountains stand,
In vernal town grass and weeds are o'ergrown.
Grieved o'er the years, flowers may well shed tears,
Resenting partings, birds flap with broken hearts. (Xu
245, Shang)
In this poem, flowers shed tears and birds' hearts are broken.
They are experiencing the same sadness as the poet. Maybe the po⁃
et sees raindrops on flowers and hears birds chirp in trees. But to
him, who is lamenting the destructiveness of wars, the flowers and
birds are also greatly traumatized by wars and are able to express
their objections to war, which has done and is doing and will do
208
great damage to nature.
To conclude this part, this paper borrowed one idea from Wang
Jianjiang. He argues in his book Nature's Vacancy and Intelli⁃
gence—the Becoming and Developing of Chinese Poetry Concept
that there are three ways of treating natural sceneries: the instrumen⁃
talization, the objectification and the subjectification of natural scen⁃
eries. Obviously, both Thoreau and Tang poets adopt the third meth⁃
od when they are treating nature in their works.
2 Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that nature's sub⁃
jectivity has its origin in Thoreau's and Tang poets' ecological con⁃
sciousness. Moreover, this paper concentrated on the portraying of
interaction between man and nature in Walden and Tang poems,
from which readers are able to realize that humans are part of na⁃
ture, and the relationship between man and nature should be one of
harmony and mutual respect.
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