A Lifeless Binary Opposition-Big Life Vs Little Life

Wolf Totem is an excellent ecological literary works by Jiang Rong. It mainly portrays the grassland wolf and how it plays an active role in keeping the ecological balance of grassland. The novel is based on the wolf and arranges plots according to what Chen Zhen, an educated youth, sees and hears on the Olonbulag prairie. Through a series of wolf stories, the author portrays the characteristics of the wolf in detail to show vividly what primary grassland is. Through the Old Bilgee's mouth, the author tells us a stirring story about human and the wolf on the grassland—the big life and uncovers the process when the primary Olonbulag prairie disappears gradually to cause the people's reflection.The present study focuses on the textual analysis to interpret Wolf Totem from the perspective of ecociticism and Laozi and ZhuangZi's philosophy—the harmony between man and heaven. It discloses that the grassland is the big life while human and other species are only the little lives. Human should put the big life above everything else on the grassland. That the little life is secondary to the big life is the ecological holism running through the novel.Then the thesis introduces the balanced relationship between human and wolf, wolf and herbivorous animals, animals and grassland and examines the three destructive relationships on the grassland—the native herdspeople, the educated youth and the wolf-killing people and uncover the tragic humanity from the ecological perspective. And meanwhile it points out the reasons for the grassland desertification.Finally, the author synthesizes the ecological wisdom, namely, the big life, the circle, the sky burial and the concept of home to express the harmony between man and heaven. The displays of interconnectedness with the human and non-human world occur mostly in interchapters. The author wants to arouse the people's sense to protect our environment and to realize the harmonious relationship between human and nature, removing the human-centered idea form the people's mind. Under the increasingly worsened ecological conditions, Wolf Totem, Jiang Rong's novel, will undoubtedly bears realistic and far-reaching significance.