Good afternoon,distinguished teachers, I 'm XXX.The title of my paper is A Comparison of Seclusion between Thoreau and Tao Yuanming. I choose this as my topic due to the following reasons.
First, Seclusion cultureis a special cultural phenomenon.It is pure inner peace. It is different from being hidden. Seclusion is for freedom. The core of secular cultures is the pursuit of fame and wealth. There is nothing wrong with both of them.The conflict and fusion between secular culture and hermit culture existed in ancient and modern society. The Internet star Li Ziqi who chose to return and stay close to nature and spread the traditional Chinese culture has prompted me to think about seclusion and to choose seclusion culture as my focus.
Second, Tao Yuanming was a famous reclusive in Chinese history and Thoreau was best known in the west for his experimental reclusive life deep into nature. So it hold some significance to compare these two poets in terms of their reclusive life.
Thirdly, when I was in university, I once listened to professor Ye Yang's lectures from the Peach Blossom Garden to Utopia, from Su Dongpo to Yeats, and found the similarities and differences between Chinese and western cultures. In the American literature class, the teacher talked about the comparison between Thoreau and Tao Yuanming. I was very interested in this topic, so I choseit as the topic of my thesis.
There are some similarities as well as some differencesof their seclusion, and both of them play a positive role in later generations. This paper consists of four parts. The main part deals with the interpretation of difference.
From the historical background and life experience of Tao Yuanming and Thoreau, I expounded and demonstrated their reclusivelife by comparing their representative work.
Tao Yuanming’s retirement was due to his boredom with official corruption, and he kept his true nature.Although he lived in seclusion and hardship, he still adhered to his true nature and exerted profound influence on later generations.
This paper consists of four parts. The main part deals with the interpretation of difference.
From the historical background and life experience of Tao Yuanming and Thoreau, I expounded and demonstrated their reclusivelife by comparing their representative work.
Tao Yuanming’s retirement was due to his boredom with official corruption, and he kept his true nature.Although he lived in seclusion and hardship, he still adhered to his true nature and exerted profound influence on later generations in terms of moral cultivation. Thoreau chose to retire to the countryside because he abhorred the worship of money that was popular at his time and he worried the havoc that industrial revolution had wreaked on society and environment. He retired to the woods, and lived an extremely simple and self-supporting life so as to wake the masses up to the importance of protecting the nature and of returning to the most original way of life.
Through the comparison of the Peach Blossom Land and Walden, wecan see thatthe Peach Blossom Land is a description of virtual environment and a philosophical yearning. The description of Walden is straightforward and closes to reality. Thoreau experimentedthe simple life to get benifitsfrom it, then he call on people who are under the influence of the prevalence of money worshipto return to nature and to live a simple life. .
According to the comparison betweenReturning to the Gardenand Walden, Tao Yuanming and Thoreau both advocated nature in their hearts and pursued authenticity. Influenced by their own living backgrounds and personal experiences, they chose to return to nature to live.
In conclusion,Tao and Thoreau differed mainly in that they came from different backgrounds and had different personal experiences and different feelings of loneliness.But there were still some similarities between them. They both advocated being close to nature, loved living in the countryside and pursued ultimate simplicity in life. Although I tried my best, there are still some deficiencies with my thesis. For example, I cited more of these two authors’ works and discuss less. And my exploration into their reclusive life is still superficial and in need of theoretical support.
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