When ancient Chinese literatus suffered political frustration, they generally experienced tremendous emotional and psychological traumas. These traumas are entangled with disappointment, anger, fear, grief, desolation...When ancient Chinese literatus suffered political frustration, they generally experienced tremendous emotional and psychological traumas. These traumas are entangled with disappointment, anger, fear, grief, desolation, and other emotions. In most cases, the literatus would turn to nature for relaxation and freedom, composing a lot of literatures in an attempt to reflect on the meaning of life. In this paper, I will analyze the written works of Qu Yuan, the Seven Sages in the Bamboo Grove (~tJ~$qS~), Liu Zongyuan, and Su Shi after they suffered political frustration to: (1) describe how their emotions changed; (2) illustrate how they built relationships between nature and self to relieve their frustrations; (3) clarify during these reflecting processes how they actually experienced the transformation and pursued the meaning of life; and (4) illuminate the significance of these pursuits, not only in spurring the boom of literal naturalism, but also in passing on the message for the current era with the joint crises of humans and the environment, to heal the earth and free themselves.展开更多
文摘When ancient Chinese literatus suffered political frustration, they generally experienced tremendous emotional and psychological traumas. These traumas are entangled with disappointment, anger, fear, grief, desolation, and other emotions. In most cases, the literatus would turn to nature for relaxation and freedom, composing a lot of literatures in an attempt to reflect on the meaning of life. In this paper, I will analyze the written works of Qu Yuan, the Seven Sages in the Bamboo Grove (~tJ~$qS~), Liu Zongyuan, and Su Shi after they suffered political frustration to: (1) describe how their emotions changed; (2) illustrate how they built relationships between nature and self to relieve their frustrations; (3) clarify during these reflecting processes how they actually experienced the transformation and pursued the meaning of life; and (4) illuminate the significance of these pursuits, not only in spurring the boom of literal naturalism, but also in passing on the message for the current era with the joint crises of humans and the environment, to heal the earth and free themselves.