The Ecological Era and Classical Chinese Naturalism (eBook)

Foreword 7
Preface 11
Acknowledgements 13
Contents 15
Abbreviations 17
Translator’s Note 18
1 Tao Yuanming and the Meta-question of Humanity 22
1.1 Tao as an Oriental Prophet of the Meta-question of Humanity 23
1.2 Tao: The Avatar of Nature 27
1.2.1 Following the True and the Natural 28
1.2.2 Abandon and Aloofness 31
1.2.3 Unintendedness and Resignation to Nature’s Transformation 35
1.3 Dwelling Poetically in Nature 38
1.4 The Nature and Naturalness of Tao’s Poetry 40
1.5 Tao’s Greatness Out of Nature-Centrism 43
1.6 Nature: The Intersection of Two Philosophies 47
2 Tao Yuanming’s Natural Philosophy 53
Anchor 2 53
2.1 Tao’s Philosophizing 55
2.2 The Significance of Nature in the Sinosphere 58
2.3 The Modern Evolution of Daoist Natural Philosophy 61
2.4 “Knowing the Bright but Cleaving to the Dark” and “Tao’s Names” 66
2.5 “Knowing the Bright but Cleaving to the Dark” and Tao’s Wisdom of Life 69
2.6 Tao’s “Knowing the Bright but Cleaving to the Dark” and Heidegger’s Philosophy 74
3 Tao Yuanming and Naturalistic Romanticism 80
3.1 The European Romantic Literary Tradition and Nature 81
3.2 Tao as an Ancient Oriental Natural Romantic Poet 85
3.3 Tao’s Foreign “Naturalistic Soulmates” 87
3.4 Tao and Rousseau: From Civil Men to Natural Men 94
3.5 Tao and Thoreau: The Creation of Dreamy Nature and Freedom in a Poetic Ambience 101
4 The Evolving Perception of Nature and the Death of Tao Yuanming 109
4.1 The Evolving Perception of “Nature” in the History of Chinese Literature 110
4.2 The Origin and Development of Tao’s Poetic Conception 115
4.3 A Turning Point in Tao’s Reception 122
4.4 The Modern Literary Revolution and Tao 125
4.5 The Death of Tao 131
5 The Specter of Tao and the Plights of Contemporary Human Existence 136
Anchor 2 136
5.1 The “Specter” and Derrida’s “Specter” Theory 138
5.2 Tao as a Specter in the Kingdom of Poetry 140
5.3 Can Man Resort to the Specter? 144
5.4 The Specter of Tao and the Plights of Contemporary Human Existence 149
5.4.1 The Perception of the Enlightened: The Cage and the Disciplined Society 150
5.4.2 Return: Regressivism and Progressivism 154
5.4.3 A Pure Heart and Cheerful Chanting: Honorable Poverty and the Consumer Society 159
5.4.4 The Tranquil Southern Mount: Leisure and Work Ethic 165
5.4.5 Chanting in the Field: Tianyuan Poetry and Agricultural Society 168
5.4.6 The Complexity of the “Peach-blossom Springs”: An Oriental Utopia and Post-modern Romanticism 172
Conclusion: The Last Sacrifice and the Evocation 178
References 180