A Study Of Gary Snyder's Buddhist Thoughts In His Poetic Journey

Gary Snyder crisscrossed Asia and America, physically, spiritually as well as culturally throughout his career. In the development of his intercultural poetic journey, Snyder has composed more than 20 books of poetry and prose. The author of this dissertation thinks that among these 20-odd books, there are three landmark works, Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems (1965), Turtle Island (1974) and Mountains and Rivers Without End (1996). After interpreting the major poems in these three books, and combing their interactive developmental relationships, the author of this dissertation holds that these three crucial works can be regarded respectively as the cornerstone, milestone and capstone in Snyder's intercultural poetic journey.This dissertation analyzes the development of Snyder's Buddhist thoughts over three phases, from his initial Buddhist enlightenment in the first-phase cornerstone work, Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, to his Buddhist ecological vision in the second-phase milestone work, Turtle Island, till his Buddhist epistemological vision in the third-phase capstone work, Mountains and Rivers Without End. From his interplay with Han Shan in the 1950s, through his Buddhist ecological outlook in the 1970s, to his Buddhist epistemological vision in the 1990s, Snyder framed his visions of the American West, Turtle Island, transpacific mountains and rivers respectively with Han Shan's poems in Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, Native American mythologies in Turtle Island and Chinese landscape paintings in Mountains and Rivers Without End, which all break down the East-West dichotomy.The first chapter,"Introduction,"presents an overview on Snyder's life and works, reviews the literary criticism from both American and Chinese researchers relevant to Snyder's poetry, and briefs the thesis as well as the chapter preview of the present dissertation.The second chapter,"Cornerstone: Buddhist Enlightenment in Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems,"through analyzing why and how Snyder mapped out and carried out his Buddhist pilgrimage to Asia, and through expounding Snyder's interplay with Han Shan, identifies Snyder's translation of Han Shan's poems as the spiritual outset of his Asian pilgrimage, and accordingly sets Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems as the cornerstone of Snyder's intercultural poetic journey. Along with a detailed interpretation of the Buddhist concepts of"dependent origination"and"interpenetration"in Snyder's Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, it is concluded that Snyder's initial Buddhist enlightenment is critical to understand the full-span development of Snyder's Buddhist thoughts in his intercultural poetic journey.The third chapter,"Milestone: Buddhist Ecology in Turtle Island,"by illustrating Snyder's perception of the ecological crisis on Turtle Island as the cultural crisis in the West, traces how Snyder cross-fertilizes the Western ecological theories with the Buddhist concepts of"Buddha nature"and"Indra's net of interrelatedness"to shape his Buddhist ecological vision for addressing the ecological issue on Turtle Island. The east-meet-west wisdom that Snyder gained from his Buddhist pilgrimage to Asia not only flowers in this Pulitzer winner, Turtle Island, but also fruits in his reinhabitation on Turtle Island. As such, Turtle Island, relays Snyder's intercultural poetic journey as a solid milestone, and marks a significant breakthrough in the intercultural cross-fertilization which Snyder has been intensely pursuing throughout his lifelong career.The fourth chapter,"Capstone: Buddhist Epistemology in Mountains and Rivers Without End,"through unfolding Snyder's dharma gate of non-duality in perceiving mountain and water, visual painting and verbal poem, pinpoints Snyder's Buddhist epistemological vision in terms of"impermanence"and"emptiness"in Mountains and Rivers Without End. In view of the trans-temporal and trans-spacial symbiosis between an ancient Chinese landscape hand scroll painting and Mountains and Rivers Without End, Snyder renders the Chinese visual painting through verbalizing it with a wide-ranging series of journeys crisscrossing East Asia and West America. Therefore, Mountains and Rivers Without End can be undisputedly referred to as the capstone of Snyder's intercultural poetic journey. In summarizing his Buddhist pilgrimage to Asia and his repatriation to America, Snyder creatively represents the"Mountains and Rivers"along his intercultural poetic journey in the Buddhist epistemological mode, surpassing the rigid dualistic restraints of poem or painting, landscape or mindscape, the East or the West. The fifth chapter,"Conclusion,"sums up the development of Snyder's Buddhist thoughts from his initial Buddhist enlightenment in the cornerstone work, Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, to his Buddhist ecological vision in the milestone work, Turtle Island, till his Buddhist epistemological vision in the capstone work, Mountains and Rivers Without End. It is concluded that Snyder's Buddhist thoughts impenetrate all the way through his intercultural journey from the 1950s to the 1990s. In his intercultural poetic journey, Snyder intends to give full play to the Buddhist thoughts to alleviate the social pains incurred by the senseless growth of industrial civilization in America, or on this planet at large. From Japan Island to Turtle Island, from Asia to America, Snyder extends the Buddhist denotation to the ecological and cultural connotations as he expands his physical life scope as well as his spiritual homeland from the 1950s to the 1990s. Noticeably, the positive elements in Snyder's Buddhist thoughts function as a therapy of cultural healing to modern societies, both in the East and in the West. Moreover, with his intense and uncompromising pursuit of an intercultural cross-fertilization of more than half a century, Snyder's lifelong poetic journey exemplifies a paradigm of intercultural communication and complementation between the East and the West.