Tao Yuanming and Henry David Thoreau were both poets, but one lived in Ancient China and the other in 19th century America. Superficially, these two men, whose lives were separated in time by nearly 1,500 years, were polar opposites. And yet they shared an intense respect for nature, which made them each an influential figure of their time.
Both men made dramatic transformations to their lives in order to reconnect with nature. As an official in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Tao felt conflicted over life at court. In 405, he quit the service of the court for good, expressing his unhappiness in the now famous line that he would not “bow like a servant in return for five dou of grain”. He spent the next 22 years until his death, working the land in a poor, rural area. From his poetry, we can learn that although his life was arduous, he succeeded in finding contentment in its simplicity and in drawing pleasure from nature.
While Tao’s return to nature was a reaction to a lifestyle he was opposed to, Thoreau’s was a personal decision to transform the way he lived. He had a decent quality of life, but he wanted to live in a simpler way. For two years, two months and two days, he lived in a cottage in the forest on the edge of Walden Pond, focusing on himself and his writing. He explained his reason for doing so in Walden: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.” Both men were happy to withdraw from contemporary life, seeking a harmonious relationship with nature in the quietness of their lives.
Although Tao and Thoreau do not treat nature in quite the same way, their works show its beauty and value. Tao’s nature is a place of fields and villages, in other words, rural, and his animals are domestic ones, such as chickens and dogs. The calm and peaceful life he wrote about is in contrast to and critical of the depressive court life.
Thoreau’s descriptions of nature emphasized the beauty and purity of the wild areas around him. Devoting himself to observations of the natural phenomena, he recorded his detailed findings in his journals. Thoreau’s writing aimed to convince people that animals and plants had a right to live and prosper, as we do. We should live with them in harmony and enjoy nature’s gifts.
It takes considerable courage to reject the easy and familiar and instead try to live closer to nature, as both Tao and Thoreau did. Their choices led them to quiet and reflective lives with fewer material desires. In today’s modern world, their ideas about living simply and being at ease with nature may take us a step closer to attaining personal well-being and fulfillment.
【小题1】Why did Tao Yuanming leave the court?| A．Because he was too old. |
| B．Because he felt conflicted over life at court. |
| C．Because he liked nature so much. |
| D．Because he liked living in a rural area. |
| A．They treated nature in the same way. |
| B．They lived in the same century. |
| C．They were both unsatisfied with their leaders. |
| D．Their works showed the beauty of nature. |
| A．Fields and villages. | B．Chickens and dogs. |
| C．Animals and plants. | D．Mountains and rivers. |
| A．Nature’s wilderness is beautiful. | B．We should raise more animals. |
| C．Man should live in harmony with nature. | D．we should live in the rural area. |
| A．Live closer to nature. | B．Increase material desires. |
| C．Walk a lot in the forest. | D．Share a respect for nature. |
