摘 要

加里·斯奈德是美国当代著名的生态诗人、禅宗信徒、散文家、环保主义者、荒野自然的代言人， 被誉为“深层生态学桂冠诗人”。他也是“垮掉的一代”的代表人物之一。近60年以来，斯奈德已出版诗集、散文等20余部，并获得普利策奖、露丝·莉莉诗歌奖等多个奖项。在文学界享有较高的声誉。

斯奈德是作为西方人探究东方文化与西方文化相结合的先驱，并在自己的文学作品中对禅宗思想进行尝试与实践，最终取得较高成就。自斯奈德步开始大学生活，他便广泛接触拉美文化与亚洲文化。之后在日本深入学习禅宗并在丰富的工作中实践后，确立了以禅宗思想为核心的文学创作。此外，斯奈德将禅宗思想同自身自然观结合，探究解决世界环境问题的解决方法。比较著名的有斯奈德的“向山而居”的思想。

本文试图结合史料与文献，分析东方文化是如何全方位地影响斯奈德，以及斯奈德选择禅宗的原因。

关键词：加里·斯奈德；东方文化；文化交融；思想转变

Abstract

Gary Snyder is a famous contemporary American ecological poet, essayist, and environmentalist, and known as Deep Ecology Laurel Poet. He is also one of the representatives of “The Beat Generation” and still alive. In recent 60 years, he has published more than 20 books, such as Riprap and Cold Mountain in Poems, Turtle Island, and Mountains and Ravers without End. Thanks to them, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Turtle Island in 1975, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award and other poetry prizes in literature.

As an American, Snyder is a pioneer in cross-culture communication between the west world and China. His works and actions reflect oriental culture thought, and gain a great achievement. Not only his works have the style of oriental poems, but also the writing skills of oriental such as image, describing scene and so on. Snyder uses them well. From his college time, he began to study the various cultures around the world, especially American culture and Asian culture. Then he had a chance to go to Japan to study Zen. Finally, he believed oriental culture and Zen poems became his core of his works because of his abundant working experiences. Besides, he combines Zen thought and his view of nature to research new solution of the problem. His idea living toward mountain is well known.

This paper attempts to analyze several possible aspects in which Snyder’s idea influenced by oriental culture and why Snyder chose Zen. To find out the answer, this paper will review his growth and analyze four of his poems, as well as information about his living environment and actions.

Key Words: Gary Snyder; Oriental Culture; Cross-culture Communication; Change of mind

The Influence of Oriental Culture on Gary Snyder’s Poems

1. Introduction 1

1.1 An Introduction of Gary Snyder and His works 1

1.2 Oriental Culture 2

1.3Literature Review 3

1.4 Structure and Significance of Research 4

2. Oriental Culture and Snyder’s life 4

2.1 Family Influence and Personal Interest 4

2.2 Movement and Old Age 6

3. The Changes of Snyder’s Style under Influence of Oriental Culture 7

3.1 Oriental Beauty in Snyder’s Poems 8

3.2 Oriental Images in Snyder’s Poems 9

4. Conclusion 13

References 14

The Influence of Oriental Culture on Gary Snyder’s Poems

1. Introduction

1.1 An Introduction of Gary Snyder and His works

American poet, Gary Snyder, (born in 1930) is a representative poet of the modern ecological literature in the world and an environment protector. From 1969 to now, he has devoted himself in ecological literature and environmental protection business. He is also a representative of “The Beat Generation” with high achievement in poetry. Snyder was an academic at the University of California, Davis and a member of the California Arts Council. He has been described as the "poet laureate of Deep Ecology"(Qiuamp; Tan, 2016).

In 1930, Gary Snyder was born in San Francisco. When he was two years old, his family moved to King Country, Washington, impoverished by the Great Depression. In 1942, after his parents divorced, Snyder moved to Portland with his mother and his younger sister. Snyder graduated with a dual degree in anthropology and literature from Reed College in 1951. In Reed Collage, Snyder met an education author Philip Whalen. Back in San Francisco, he lived with Whalen, who shared their growing interest in Zen. In 1953 he went to the University of California, Berkeley to study Asian culture and languages. He studied ink and wash painting. Besides,he also studied Tang Dynasty poetry under Chen Shih-hsiang. Through Kenneth Rexroth, Snyder met Allen Ginsberg. Soon, Snyder, Kerouac and Ginsberg came to know each other. On October 7, 1995, San Francisco, Snyder read his poem A Berry Feast at the poetry reading at the Six Gallery, which heralded that would be known as the San Francisco Renaissance. Although he wasn’t in the original New York circle, this affair marked Snyder’s first time took part in the Beats, through his association with Kenneth Rexroth. Snyder and Beats have many similarities, such as the faction of describing the natural scene and worldly affairs, dependence on drug and intuition. But differently, when other “beats” insanely howled, blaming the modern western civilization, Snyder returned back to the original nature in order to find the antidote to the society by the ancient eastern culture. With the independent spirit of peace, he showed a positive attitude. It made him different from other “Beats” avoiding the total depravity. Snyder claim that western civilization should been criticized radically and he would rebuild the society by his movement (Liu, 2001). After 1969, he became a professor teaching students literature of Zen poems and how to calm down by meditation.

As one of the most significant contemporary American poets, Snyder has published more than twenty books of poetry and prose, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards and honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for Turtle Island in 1975(Xu, 2015). Mountains and Ravers without End, published in 1996, is greatly anticipated and highly praised by readers and scholars. In addition, he also received many other honors including an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Prize from Poetry and the Shelley Memorial. Other works includes Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, Left Out in the Rain:New Poems 1947-1985, Earth House Hold:Technical Notes amp; Queries for Fellow Dharma Revolutionaries and so on. It is obvious that most of Snyder's poems with oriental culture, especially Zen thought claim the importance of ecology and the integration of culture. His poems have exerted profound influence on the world ecological literature, which had absorbed the spirit of Zen from Asia countries.

1.2 Oriental Culture

The oriental culture is diverse. The different kinds of cultural heritage of many nationalities, societies, and ethnic groups in the continent of Asia. The continent is more commonly divided into more natural geographic and cultural sub-regions, including Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and West Asia. Culturally, there has been little unity or common history for many of the cultures and peoples of Asia. Asian art, music, and cuisine, as well as literature, are important parts of oriental culture. Eastern philosophy and religion also plays a major role, with Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam all playing major roles. One of the most complex parts of Asian culture is the relationship between traditional cultures and the Western world.

Among different kind of cultures, Zen thought influences Snyder’s deeper. Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty as Chan Buddhism. Zen school was strongly influenced by Taoism and developed as a distinguished school of Chinese Buddhism. From China, Chan Buddhism spread south to Vietnam, northeast to Korea and east to Japan, where it became known as Japanese Zen (Harvey, 1995).

Zen points out that everybody has nature of Buddha which never loses itself in confusion. No matter who he is, he has the ability to clearly perceive the essence, which is the natural heart of the origin. As long as people see this heart, they could met the truth of themselves.

Zen of China is influenced by Taoism. One of main thoughts of Chinese Zen is the whole nature runs in self-sufficient and self-discipline, without human management, without human explanation. Human is just a little part of the world, not the master of all things, not the conqueror of the universe. Everything should be natural spontaneous. All things do not depend on human, they use their inherent survival of the law to confirm their existence and beauty. Western ecological philosophy says it “non-anthropocentrism principle”.

1.3Literature Review

In western, Ecological literature researcher, Patrick Murphy thinks 1968 is the year when ecological researchers began to criticize Snyder about poems. (Patrick, 1990) If the criticism before 1968 is considered, it is more than forty years that researchers have criticized his poems. The criticism of Snyder’s poems shows three features.

Firstly, at the beginning, there is nobody cares about his work, but later research on his works becomes more and more. Snyder thought that from 25 years old, he started to create some poems about nature, Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems. While it is not until eight years that the critics pay a attention to it. Since 1968, more and more people have acclaimed his works. Secondly, comments on his poems and personal life are mixed together. This is because that his life and poems are closely connected. Besides, his personal life sets a model for contemporary American young people, every researcher can’t avoid discussing his life, such as the experience of study Zen in Japan and inspiration of oriental travel. Finally, the most important feature is comments on Snyder’s life and poems with divergence and a little exaggeration. In 1960s, Thomas Parkinson thought Snyder “build a new culture”. While Theodore Roszak just adopted Snyder and his readers without any comments, because Roszak claimed they were a group of people who were living on the edge of society saying the prayer. These arguments had existed until 1990s. In this century, as more and more people worry about the environment, the researchers who oppose Snyder’s works change their minds step by step, even support his opinion (Zhu amp;Zha, 2015).