Abstract
Europeans used to consider “man and God” as a meta-question that human beings had to solve, and people in a near-ecological era, however, tend to view “man and nature” as an inevitable meta-question of humanity. In traditional Chinese culture, “Nature and man” means “Heaven and man,” “the interaction between man and Heaven,” or “the oneness of man and Heaven.” Technically, Heaven in this case denotes both Nature and the Chinese version of God. “Nature and man” in the Chinese sense, therefore, seems to be more inclusive and complex than “man and God” in quintessentially Western discourse.
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Notes
- 1.
They were a group of Chinese scholars, writers, and musicians of the third century. They gathered in a bamboo grove where they enjoyed and praised in their works of various kinds, the simple, enchanting, and rustic life. They stressed the enjoyment of alcoholic beverages, personal freedom, spontaneity, and a celebration of nature. Their life is usually considered as an antithesis of that of the corrupt court.
- 2.
Xiao, Tong. Preface to the Anthology of Tao Yuanming. Rare Ancient Edition.
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© 2017 Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing Co., Ltd and Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
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Lu, S. (2017). Tao Yuanming and the Meta-question of Humanity. In: The Ecological Era and Classical Chinese Naturalism. China Academic Library. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1784-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1784-1_1
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