ENGL 2200: The Tang Dynasty Poets

Nature is a key element in all the Tang Dynasty Poet's works. They all relate nature to how they feel, Wang Wei in To Subprefect Chang Wei discusses how he loves the stillness of the woods and nature, he relates it to peace stilling his troubles along with comfort of doing the things he enjoys and relaxing. Regarding Li Bai's Going to Visit Tai-T'tien Mountain's Master of the Way Without Finding Him we see he shows nature as conflicting, it can be calm yet chaotic. Dogs are barking, and the peach blossoms are stained both are an aspect of the chaos and disturbing point of nature. Whereas almost all of the rest of his poem is light hearted and everything is positive attributes, sounds of water, deer, the creek, a use of imagery with the waterfall, pine trees, and bamboo. One thing to point out is how he discusses that he can't hear midday temple bells, this is significant in that he has become so secluded in nature that there is no one to keep track of him, to hold him accountable, to dictate his actions. He is beyond society now. In Li Bai's Chang-Kah Village Song Nature is almost portrayed as a negative, because the "green moss buried your tracks one by one" because they had been gone for along time, but nature is keeping track and almost torturing and taunting her while she waits for him to return. Let's take a look at Du Fu's work P'eng-Ya Song, nature is again portrayed with a taunting twist. A family is forced to leave their home, and "Of ten days, half were all thunder and rain- mud and more mud to drag ourselves through." Nature isn't taking care of them, nature isn't comforting, nature is making this journey as painful and slow as possible, drawing out their days with each rain drop soaking them. Finally Bo Juyi's An Old Charcoal Seller. When "then one night an inch of snow falls in the city's foothills" knowing that the charcoal seller wants this snow, we see nature almost rewarding him for his hard work and diligence for his producing charcoal and wants him to prosper, granting him his desire of the cold. With all this, we see the different viewpoint that can be seen through nature. The Tang Dynasty Poets all decidedly involve nature because it was and is a key element in people's lives.