Reconsidering the Concepts of Nature in the Chinese Humanistic Tradition-- Nature in Chinese Medieval Poetics
Date Issued
2004-10-31T05:53:40Z
Date
2004-10-31T05:53:40Z
Author(s)
DOI
922411H002053AD
Abstract
This project essay starts with the idea of “bodily space” in Tao Yuan-ming’s poetry and explore the journey of mutual immersion between "bodily space" and the world,
in order to reveal what Tao means by “returning to nature”.
The project is divided into four parts. The first part, “ways of returning”, focuses on
the relationship between bodily space and returning to nature. Bodily space is a
situational space, where the body is the ground of all perception and consciousness,
the origin of the meaningful world. “Nature” signifies “the way it is”; “following its
nature” means the state in which “being-in-the-world” should be. Thus, returning to
nature means returning to this primordial state.
The second part, “dwelling on the earth by returning to the farm”, ponders on the
rhythm of farming cycle and the interaction of local community, in order to delineate
Tao’s dwelling-in-the-world as a reversion to the land and to “down-to-earth-ness”. It
also explicates the mutual penetration of the mind-body and the world in terms of the
“empty-room” in the farmland.
The third part, “the co-existence of pure-peace-serene-remote-ness”, explores the
phenomenon of associative perception or communication, to show how various
perceptual transgression and mutual immersion should be the fundamental experience
of human beings in the world. The perceptual subject is co-originated and co-existent
with its habitat. What the body memorizes is the over-all atmosphere in which persons,
things, objects and various environments are immersed.
The fourth part, “the flows of Chi and bodily space”, explains how the mind-body
states are led by Chi, and how human being and nature interact in the flows of Chi so
that the structure of bodily space can be in a mobile and changeable state. The section
ends with the integration of internal and external flows which embodies the harmony
of the body and nature.
The conclusion highlights the idea of “a life is a body”; the ultimate reversal is the
reaching to death. Life and death is part of the movement of universal change.
Returning to nature is therefore a gesture of going along with universal change.
Subjects
Chinese Medieval
Six Dynasties
Poetics
Nature
Landscape Poetry
Pastoral Poetry
Body and Space
Tao Yuan-Ming
Publisher
臺北市：國立臺灣大學中國文學系暨研究所
Type
report
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
922411H002053AD.pdf
Size
352.17 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):a4059d68ff3fb82072c9cc3db47fa0f6