Nature plays a pivotal role in Chinese arts more so in poetry. From the earliest times, Chinese poetry has had a bit of nature and/or landscape as used to serve different functions. Right from the earliest eras, one cannot fail to see animals, whether real or fictions could be seen in poetry. Some of those animals are snakes, dragons and cicadas. Other forms of nature that are far too common in Chinese poetry are the sun, moon, mountains and they were meant to serve various functions. The Tang poems are a good example of the several ways in which nature was incorporated in poetry as seen through various poems such as On Mawei Slopes, After Missing the Recluse on the Western Mountain as well as A Cicada. Among several other functions that nature plays in Chinese poetry are to highlight or express the atmosphere or aura, express the poets mood or thoughts, praise a specific scenery and also to serve as foil to the society status.
Nature as used in Chinese poetry was meant to highlight or to express the atmosphere or aura. In the imaginations of the poets, incorporating nature or the landscape in their poems was meant to draw the attention of the people to the rich natural environment that they lived. For instance, the use of mountains was a sign of recognizing the manifestations of the energy and ambience that came with nature. Mountains were supposed to aid in the making of rainfall, that was supposed to rain and water the farms that were a source of food to their communities. In an effort to appreciate this fact and hold mountains as sacred, people were meant to hold them in awe and as a result, poets chose to tell their stories in the poems. In the poem After Missing the Recluse on the Western Mountain, mountains and the natural worlds also served as the source of medicinal herbs and by using such natural phenomena in poetry, nature was supposed to show the richness and beauty of the environment (Shi 1).
The use of nature also supposed to serve as a way of expressing the mood or thoughts of the poet. Poems in a way help in expressing the mood of the poet through the different forms of nature that they employ in their poems. In Chinese poetry, poets have over the centuries used nature and landscape in expressing their moods through employing the vast physical features and nature in their poems. The experience of physical nature has a way of determining what poets write in their poems. There are different ways of describing mood and some of them are sympathetic, triumphant, comfort, impatience, acceptance and even admiration. Color for instance can be used by a poet to tell the mood of the poem, and can further be translated to represent the mood and thoughts of the poet. In the poem In Which I Write My Feelings to be Sent to My Cousin Li Zhao of Binzhou, Li Bo uses spring colors and it helps bring out the mood of the poem, and perhaps the moods and thoughts of the poem. Bo writes “It flutters as I finger its spring colors” (Cai 5). In China, the Spring Festival takes place in the turn of the Chinese calendar and these are times that are marked with bright colors, pomp and color. Such is a good example that shows happiness and, by using colors then the poet succeeds in bringing out his feelings, thoughts, moods and attitudes. When a poet is in high spirits and happy, they will use physical attributes of nature that will depict this and therefore, write poems that elicit happiness. Some of these physical features that poets use to show happiness or their high spirits are rivers and mountains. It should be remembered that in their traditions, the Chinese used to go to the mountains to retreat and find a sanctuary where they could meditate and have a moment with their gods.
Another reason Chinese poets use nature and landscape is to praise a given scene or landscape. Many of the Chinese poems use nature in a way that paints the beauty of a place and also to tell the story of the place that is referred to in a poem. Words in poetry are used to create an image whether the image is good or bad. A poem is supposed to elicit some feelings that shape the attitude of the reader or listener to a place talked about in the poem. In the poem The Spring Scene written by Du Fu, paints a picture of a country in ruins but in its place is a scene of a typical spring season. The image that is painted brings out the city and how it looked like after the invasion (Cai 162). the context and semantic rhythm brought out in the poem praises the place, that looks more of beautiful country rich in trees, overgrown grass, flowers all over the place, painting a rather beautiful picture in the background of the ruins. In as much as the country is left in ruins, one cannot fail to notice the beauty of the country through the symbols of nature that the poet has used.
Chinese poets did not fail to point out the foil in society back in the day, and they used nature to do that. Poetry like any other work of art is used by artists to point out the ills of the society. Nature was incorporated in Chinese poetry to serve a number of reasons and one of them was to point out the ills that happened there. A case in point is the poem Dream journey on Mount Tian Mu which was written by Li Bai. In the poem, Bai uses traditional myths and tales, as well as the lake and moon to air grievances of a citizen who feels appalled and disturbed by the happenings in a corrupt nation. The persona in the poem talks of feeling trapped by ten thousand rocks while he leans behind a stone while bears and dragon screams and rumbling waterfalls are all he hears. He insinuates the discomforts that he has to endure as a citizen in a land where he is supposed to be comfortable (Verasano 7).
Poetry in the Chinese era of Tang is rich with nature and landscape that serves several purposes. The images of nature that are used in Chinese poetry show how people interacted with nature and how they treated it as an integral part of their lives. Man is depicted as an integral part of nature and everything, from mountains, to flowers and animals coexist. Through studies that have been conclusively done, one thing that stands out is the fact that nature is an integral part in Chinese belief systems and it is or that reason that much of Chinese poetry from earlier centuries have it as a major component.
Works Cited
Cai, Zong- Qi. How to Read Chinese Poetry. PDF File
Shi, Tang. 300 Tang Poems. Web. Retrieved on 24th November 2014. http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php?l=Tangshi
Versano, Paula, M. Immediacy and Allusion in the Poetry of Li Bo. PDF File
