Naturalist And Humanitarian Unified

The works of Zhang Wei, an important figure in the contemporaryworld of letters, contain deep concerns for nature and an ecologic spiritand show strong connotations of an ecologic culture. Since this aspect ofhis works has not received much critical attention, this thesis attempts touncover the natural consciousness that permeates all his works and drawattention to the unity of naturalism and humanism implied in the writer'snatural consciousness and its great significance to a more highercivilization form and more ideal mode of living.Divided into three parts, this thesis conducts its analysis of theabove-mentioned hypotheses with a diachronic-synchronic method.Beginning from a diachronic point of view, the paper points out a concernfor nature has permeated all of Zhang's works, as illustrated by hiscultural critique in The Ancient Boat and by his cultural steadfastness inThe September Parable, which sticks not to the whole agricultural culturebut to its basis, the natural "wild fields." Switching to a synchronic pointof view, the thesis points out that the writer's concern for nature ismanifested in all his of spiritual dimensions and serves as the underlyingdeterminant of the seemingly paradoxical spiritual dimensions, i.e. moralrationality and life ideal. To Zhang, nature is both the place of poeticliving and home of the pure spirit. The thesis ends with the syntheticconclusion that Zhang's natural consciousness contains a deep reflectionof the modern industrial civilization that has done disastrous harm tonature. Zhang's creation is an attempt to find the "primal road" for puresouls to return spiritual home and also a serious appeal for respect of therights of all creatures to their healthy and everlasting existence in nature.Being neither a narrow-minded humanist nor an extreme ecologist ornaturalist, Zhang sticks to an eco-cultural position based on the unity ofnaturalism and humanism. Different from the agriculture-based culturalstance, its purpose is not to return to the pre-modern agricultural society;instead, it aims to promote and create a mode of living that is both"natural" and "humanitarian", or in other words, an ecologically aestheticmode of existence, which is both "natural" and "free."In Zhang, nature refers first to man's natural environment, but it alsorefers to the humanity cultivated in the environment. Natural environmentis both the material basis of man's existence and his spiritual home. Thebeautiful environment has given birth to the beauty in man's nature, andman's vice and the civilization's alienation originates in man'sestrangement from nature. The relationship between man and nature is adynamic one, which is interactive and interdependent and therefore hasthe tendency to go either virtuously or viciously. Man's destruction ofnature would eventually lead to his loss of not only his spiritual home butalso the material basis for his existence. It is this deep concern for naturethat accounts for his indignant warning that man's existence should beginfrom true concern for himself, which means not only concern for otherhuman beings but also concern for all other creatures that constitute theinseparable nature. In conclusion, man's "poetic dwelling" together withall other creatures in nature depends heavily on the realization of theunity of naturalism and humanism.