The Positioning of Nature in Soseki’s Early “Meian” Period Chinese poetry – Influenced by Wang Wei?

Since an early age, Natsume Soseki had looked up to Chinese scholars such as Tao Yuan-ming, Li Bai, Wang Wei, and often cited their works in his novels and essays. These Chinese scholars hold a significant impact on Soseki and his kanshi (Chinese poetry). However, academics such as Daichi Takeo, Katou Jiro, and Kamigaito Kenichi mostly focused on the analysis of Tao Yuan-ming’s influence on Soseki; Wang Wei’s influenced is rarely contemplated. Speaking of “Nature” in Soseki’s kanshi, most people would relate to kanshi written in his later years and his ultimate goal of “Sokutenkyoshi”. However, this ideal was not developed in one day, it took Soseki many years of pondering to formulate. It could be said that this ideal was reflected in the seventy five kanshi written in Soseki’s late years, nevertheless, not all of these poems are manifestations of this ideology. Kanshi researcher Nakamura Hiroshi points out that kanshi number 157 written on September 5th in the fifth year of Taisho era (1917) could be seen as a “dividing point”, separating Soseki’s Meian Period kanshi into two intervals. Based on the above deductions, this paper aims to address the poet’s attitude towards nature and the relationship between humanity and nature, focusing on Soseki’s early Meian period kanshi, explicitly the twenty three kanshi from number 134 to 156. Moreover, this paper would also discuss whether these kanshi were influenced by Wang Wei, in hopes of gaining further insight into Soseki’s “Sokutenkyoshi” philosophy.