Literary Representation of the Relationship between Man and Nature in Guo Muoruo’s Poetry Anthology The Goddess

Chunyan Zhang

doi:10.5539/ach.v8n1p126

Abstract

One of the distinct characteristics of Chinese culture has always been its emphasis on the harmony of man with nature (tianren heyi天人合一). This is still widely accepted in Chinese intellectual discourse. However, few scholars have noticed that a new attitude towards the relationship between human beings and nature, which emphasizes the “greatness” of man and the battle against nature, began to germinate in the 1920s. In Chinese culture, the earliest and most impressive manifestation of this attitude was in Chinese literature. The literary revolution foreshadowed the overall intellectual movement of the “New Culture”. Guo Moruo’s (郭沫若1892-1978) poetry anthology The Goddess (Nüshen女神) (1921) was a representative example. It constructed the “greatness” of man and the myth of “man battling against nature” effectively by elevating the status of man in nature. This paper discusses how Guo Muoruo’s ideas related to the social ideologies of the time (e.g. nationalism, Westernization, Romanticism, Expressionism, Marxism and leftist politics). Guo is a case study, demonstrating how social and political change influenced Chinese artistic expression in the 1920s and the 1930s.

Highlights

Guo Moruo was a prominent figure in 20th-century Chinese aesthetics
This paper analyzes the new ideas on the relationship between man and nature, which represents the “spirit of the time” and the change of social ideology, in several selected poems from The Goddess
In this paper, when I select the “representative” poems for analysis from the Poetry Anthology The Goddess, my primary criterion is that the natural world or natural force should be the main theme, (as in the poem“Drunken Song Under the Plum Blossom Tree”(Meihua Shuxia Zuige梅花樹下醉歌), or at least that it should play an important role in the work (as in“The Heavenly Dog”(Tiangou天狗))

Summary

Introduction

Guo Moruo was a prominent figure in 20th-century Chinese aesthetics. He was one of the founders of modern Chinese poetry, and was one of the most important littérateurs, estheticians and critics of his generation. His poetry marked the beginning of the new ideas and new aesthetics. His anthology The Goddess is considered by Chinese scholars to be a milestone in the history of China’s “new poetry”, laying the foundation for its subsequent development This paper analyzes the new ideas on the relationship between man and nature, which represents the “spirit of the time” and the change of social ideology, in several selected poems from The Goddess

Methodology and Framework

Representation of the “Greatness of Man” in The Goddess

Representation of the Fighting Spirit of Man in The Goddess

Reasons for the Ideological and Aesthetic Change

Conclusion