Taoism In Shan Sa's Works

At the end of the 20th century,with the constant exchange and integration of cultures of various countries in the world,Chinese writers gradually gained a place in the French literary world.Chinese writers who possesse a double cultural identity such as Francois Cheng,Dai Sijie and Shan Sa have written Chinese stories in French.Their exotic narratives and themes are welcomed by French readers.Among them,the female writer Shan Sa has received great success at a young age,which attracts our attention.She adoptes French as the writing language with the background of Chinese history and culture,showing a magnific world to the western readers,and her novels have gained extensive popularity.Her works have great merits in spreading the essence of Chinese culture and showing the profoundness of Chinese thoughts.Her two novels,The Four Lives of the Willow and Naked Zither,which are based on the ancient Chinese history,with the themes of Taoism,such as everything will return to nature and one should recover his original simplicity.They have added some colors of traditional Chinese culture to the French literary world which meets a bottleneck and their cultural connotation is worth studying.Therefore,this thesis intends to choose the two novels The Four Lives of the Willow and Naked Zither to explore the Taoist ideas in the works of Shan Sa,in order to better analyze their Chinese cultural connotations and find out how her ideas inspire us in modern society.The main part of this thesis will be divided into three chapters:The first chapter will analyze the growth and creation of Shan Sa,as well as the relationship between The Four Lives of the Willow,Naked Zither and the Taoist thoughts.We will try to find out how her family,her education since childhood and her experience abroad have guided her to the road of French and have helped to form her double cultural identity.We will also attempt to find out link between Shan Sa’s literary creation and Taoist culture.Then we will select her two similar works,The Four Lives of the Willow and Naked Zither,which deserve an enlightened analysis,to dissect Taoist ideas.The second chapter will select some characteristic cultural images which often appear in the two works,and analyze the Taoist cultural meanings that they represent.The willow and the zither,which constitute the titles,serve as the spiritual core of the novel.The image of willow represents the Taoist concept of "weakness and flexibility occupy the higher rank",highlighting the heroes’ having an iron hand in a velvet glove,while the zither embodies the Taoist ideas of returning to the truth and adopting an attitude of non-acting,carrying the author’s understanding for Taoist music and other artistic cultures.Apart from this,as a totem of Taoist culture,the white crane has also appeared repeatedly in the text,symbolizing Shan Sa’s aspiration for the spiritual freedom advocated by Taoism.The third chapter is the most important part of the thesis.This part begins by studying the main characters of the novel from the angle of Taoist culture.The characters are the mouthpiece of the author,which allows us to see clearly her opinions and values.To present them in successive degrees,we will choose the Taoist characters in formation,a character defined by the opposition of Confucianism and Taoism,the characters with both Taoist and Buddhist thoughts,as well as the ideal Taoist characters to dissect their Taoist characteristics.After making a comparison,we can evidence Shan Sa’s preference for Taoist culture and clarify the Taoist thoughts of the novel,so as to explore its value and inspiration for modern life.