Thoreau And Shen Ecological Resonance, From The Text

In 21st century, ecological problems get more and more concentration. As a new science, ecology not only is used wildly in academic areas, human social practices and political acitives, but also shines in literary fields.As a pioneer of ecological literature in the world, Thoreau produced a series of writing on natural ecology and challenged the theory of Human Centralism favored by people of the day. The most famous writing is his masterpiece, Walden. During the life by the Walden lake, with spiritual experience of the whole spirit and natural lives, Thoreau described the existence of beauty, freedom and poetry of various lives, and expressed that as a life with intrinsic value and life dignity, everything in nature has the right to exist without being hurt. He brought fresh and healthy air for people of the day that wallowed in the spiritual and ecological crisis, and created a precedent for ecological literal writings. The ecologism he advocated didn't consist with mainstream concept of the day, Human Centralism, so it wasn't understood by people, and was even criticized seriously by critics. Now time has given a formal name for him. He is recorded in the history as prospector. Shen Congwen, a controversial and unique writer, had a checkered career in modern literary history for the unique and strong field, natural colors and the heterogeneity brought forward in his writings. Although he didn't propose any systematic ecological concept definitely in his life, all his writings show that he was a thinker on ecological problems and early Chinese ecological litterateur.Thoreau and Shen Congwen lived in two ages and two countries. The era backgrounds and cultural backgrounds in which they lived differs, but as prospectors with forsight consciousness in their era respectively, in the social era of great change, they both realized the incorrectness of Human Centralism and perceived that under the attack of modern machine civilization, the relations of between humans, between human and nature and between human and society in cities and countries distorted, thus they proposed the ecological thought that sings the truth, good and beauty of nature, the beauty of humanity and the perfect blend of human and nature. It can be seen from this that although the eras and countries they lived differ completely, they concerned the same on ecological problems human is facing, and demonstrated them in their writings.In the introduction, this paper has defined ecology and ecological literature, elucidated the cause, significance and the method tostudy, moreover, it has briefly formulated the history and present condition of the research. This paper consists of three parts. In Part 1, there is a brief introduction of Thoreau and Shen Congwen, they both have unique adventures, which makes them sympathizing. In Part 2, it tells us how the ecology shows in Thoreau and Shen Congwen's works, compares the different and same points of ecology in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Xiangxingsanji, besides, it discusses the images of water in The Walden and Biancheng. In Part 3, it has expounded what sympathize them: they both emphasize the harmoniousness between the person and the nature, and sing the praises of truth and beauty of them. It has disabused why they are both solitude in their ages.Comparing Thoreau and Shen Congwen, the writer has noticed that there is a same quality in different writers from different countries, through the course of civilization to modernization. This consciousness to produce happen to have the same view, it not only shows the cultural direction of people, which is concerned, thought over and researched by most writers at present, but also the mental direction to produce. It is a wonder that Thoreau and Shen Congwen identified, after all, they are in the different countries and different ages.