Contemplations On Man And Nature-A Comparative Study Of William Wordsworth And Wang Wei

In the reading of Chinese and English poems, there often exist many interesting similarities, though the poets may be thousands of miles apart in space and hundreds of years apart in time. These similarities could be traced to the poets'observations, experiences and literary processing in their own national and cultural surroundings. In order to have a thorough exploration into the origins of these similarities, the parallel approach of comparative literature could be introduced. Interdisciplinary studies could better reveal the contaminations, affinities, and distinctions between the poets of different nations.Such similarities are often encountered in the reading of Wang Wei and William Wordsworth, two outstanding representatives of nature poets in Chinese and English literature respectively. Both of them exerted profound influences on the history of literature. Wang Wei inherited the tradition of Chinese nature poems originated by Xie Lingyun and Tao Yuanming, and endowed this category of poetry with more Buddhist elements. William Wordsworth announced the commencement of a new poetic era—Romanticism in English literature with the publication of his Lyrical Ballads together with Samuel Coleridge in 1798. His writing brought fresh air to the English poetry of that time, and subsequently influenced other poets such as Byron, Shelley and Keats. The two poets are rooted in different cultures of the East and the West, and their times are about ten centuries away from each other. The huge gap between their social, political and cultural systems may suggest more differences rather than similarities between them, but common grounds do exist in their writings. The common grounds can be attributed to the objectivity of nature. Though trans-cultural elements are often perplexing, disputes seldom occur over the objectivity of nature. Therefore nature can serve as a convincing frame of reference in making a reasonable comparison between Wang Wei and William Wordsworth.There are abundant critical materials in the field of their respective study. Wang Wei had received considerable attentions from poetry critics early since Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty. During the long period afterwards, there are some classic publications on Wang Wei, especially those by Gu Qijing in Ming Dynasty and Zhao Diancheng in Qing Dynasty. Entering the 20th Century, the criticism of Wang Wei saw only limited results during the first half. However, in the 1950's and 1960's Chen Yixin made a major contribution in this field with his systematic exploration from various perspectives. Surveys of Wang Wei afterwards included his poetry as well as his philosophy and religion. But before the 1980's, Wang Wei was usually condemned as a reclusive poet escaping from the reality. With the revival of interest in Wang Wei since the 1980's, critics redirected their studies towards more reasonable and objective perspectives, and reexamined Wang Wei's place in the history of literature and culture.The Wordsworthian criticism has a long history too. Wordsworth had attracted widespread attention since the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, and this attention has been extended till today. Critics such as Leslie Stephen, Matthew Arnold and A.C. Bradley studied William Wordsworth from many different perspectives of society, history, philosophy, psychology, feminism, etc. They reached affluent conclusions on William Wordsworth's ideology of nature and his religious conceptions.In contrast to the abundance of their individual study, the comparative study between the two poets has a long way to go. There is a great deal of work to be done in order to have a thorough exploration in this field. Therefore this dissertation takes the comparative study of Wang Wei and William Wordsworth as the subject of research. The dissertation is in three chapters. Chapter 1 starts from their life of early period, analyzes how the misfortunes in their early period influenced their writing, and how these frustrations contributed to their transformation toward the themes of nature. Besides, both Wang Wei and William Wordsworth had experienced tremendous social turbulences. These upheavals brought far-reaching impacts as well on their ideology and poetry. In Chapter 2, the relationship between their thoughts and religions is discussed. It is pointed out that the two poets were both devoted to religion, Wang Wei spending considerable time in meditations of Chan, and William Wordsworth an orthodox Anglican. Chan Buddhism and Christianism respectively formed the ideological foundations in their writing. Chapter 3 discusses their contemplations on man and nature through the analysis of their poems. According to Wang Wei and Wordsworth, nature is the source of man's spiritual force. Man obtains from nature pleasure, revelation and spiritual freedom, and eventually his soul conciliation. In the Conclusion of this dissertation, it is pointed out that Chan provides nature with more exquisite implications in addition to its heritage to the Chinese traditional idea of"the unity of heaven and man". In Chan principles,"Buddhism reveals in every flower and every leaf". Everything in nature contains the revelation of Buddhism, hence man's enlightenment from every perspective in nature. Similarly, man and nature in the eyes of Christians are both the creation of God. Therefore man and nature maintain an equal relationship. Every creature in nature, since created by God, is bathing in the brilliance of heavenly divinity. In this sense nature is the carrier of God's benevolent spirit, and therefore the source of spiritual forces for human being. Consequently, in the intersection of"nature"lies the common foundation for the poems of Wang Wei and William Wordsworth.